Hurricane Irene

[Robodl95]

So I was curious about how everyone else on the east coast is doing. I'm not close to the coast (about an hour west of philly) so I'm not really worried, we'll probably lose some trees and the power'll go out but I can't imagine anything too horrible seeing that I don't live near water. Anyone in the line of action? Did you evacuate, riding it out? Did the storm already pass you, what happened? I think that this storm could be a real disaster. From what I've been reading online it seems like a lot of people are really underestimating it. People in the northeast aren't used to dealing with hurricanes (or earthquakes, or tornadoes for that matter. I've had all three this year!!) I hope that you'll all be safe!

[imarock79]

Gonna Ride it out Here, already stocked up on water and everything. Mom's Freaked out, I kinda am, We're hoping for the Best and Preparing for the Worst.


And thank You for Hoping that Everyone is safe, It's nice to know that someone cares.

[RoseCity]

I'm in Connecticut about 10 miles inland from Fisher's Island Sound.
I looked on Weather Underground and it said that it was coming ashore in the Carolinas as Category 1 and that rain and flooding would be the worst effects.
But weather.com has the headline Hurricane Irene: 2 million ordered to leave along east coast. Didn't specify where 2 million people are going to go. Fortunately, I'm not among those ordered to evacuate.
I'm trying not to think about it too much.
Got a new flashlight and filled some containers with water.

[Rawra]

Glad I live in Europe. I hope everyone's gonna be OK in the end of this chaos, anyway.

[RoseCity]

Weather Channel has a page - New England: Rush to Evacuate Communities - and my state isn't even mentioned, but Vermont is. It sounds like tropical storm force winds here that will last for longer than usual. Maybe flooding and/or storm surges.

[fraroc]

I'm from LI. Long Island is no stranger to hurricanes. Belle hit long island in 1976 as a Category 3 and we got hit by Gloria in 1985 as a Category 4. My grandma is from Florida and has lived through Bob, Andrew, Georges, Charlie, Frances,and Jeannie.

[simgrl1934]

I am on the eastern shore of Maryland, which is between the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. I live closer to the Bay. They expect it to be pretty bad here, with the storm surge and wind. But I am not in an area that is ordered to evacuate. I'm staying here and my Mother in Law is coming to stay with me because she lives closer to the water than I do. I have a generator in case we lose electric and I have lots of water containers filled. We have been getting rain for about a couple of hours now, but not much wind yet. I'm sure that will change soon enough. Keep safe every one!

[tongues]

I'm 1.2 hour east of Philly and we're expecting the storm to come right over us overnight. Looking at the news from Virginia Beach and Northj Carolina it looks like no fun... but we should be OK. Just a lot of flooding and maybe loss of power for a few hours to a couple of days. We stocked up on water, candles, etc. Atlantic City is 45 minutes east by car and the whole city has been evacuated... hunker down and wait it out!

[123blissb]

I live in the middle of Tornado Alley, so no stranger to high winds and water here! I hope everyone comes out OK. Good luck everyone at MTS. They're saying that NYC Subways have been shut down for the first time due to a natural disaster, and hospitals have discharged all patients. *Gulp*

~123blissb

[cupcake12winx]

I'm on the opposite side of the country in sunny California, but I hope everyone comes out of this okay!

[sci_fi40]

I live in the middle of Southern New Jersey, about halfway between Philly and the Shore. There are mandatory evacuations of everything east of Route 9 down here, thats about 15 miles from the coast. They've even closed the casino's in Atlantic City for only the 3rd time ever. Personally we've got a whole bunch of family and friends over and my sister brought all the perishables from her bakery. We're having a board games and junk food hurricane party! I'm probably going to be playing the Sims until my power goes out. :-)

[katy perry]

Try living in Scotland. Sorry not meaning to be insensitive but why is it Americans build wooden houses that disintegrate during a storm?

[RoseCity]

^ Wooden houses don't usually 'disintegrate' in a hurricane - if the winds are above 90 mph, I think any house can sustain damage - roofs can get ripped off, windows broken, trees fall on them etc.

At the moment it's heading right for Connecticut and Long Island. Shit.

[katy perry]

We regularly get 90 mph+ winds here in Scotland particularly in the mountainous regions and there is little or no damage.

[M.M.A.A.]

is it me or is it that some members here didnt show up (online) as usually?

[imarock79]

OMG. Tornado warnings posted for DELAWARE, I'm Kinda freaked out now. Hope everyone else is Okay.


EDT: This is History right now, the Bay bridge in Maryland is closed, the Casinos in Jersey are Closed, We are now part of History.

[Robodl95]

Try living in Scotland. Sorry not meaning to be insensitive but why is it Americans build wooden houses that disintegrate during a storm?
Umm I'm not sure why you think that wooden houses disintegrate during a storm. Besides, the wind isn't a huge deal in this storm, it's mostly about flooding and storm surge. I don't think it matter what kind of house you have, if it floods then there's not much you can do. (on another note: like there aren't other people that build wooden houses? 90 mph winds aren't normal here)

[katy perry]

There was a flood here this week in fact. Peoples houses were trashed. Was it international news? No. It wasn't even national news here. Why is everything that happens in America considered to be so much more important than the same thing happening elsewhere?

Here's an article from this weeks' local newspaper actually:

http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/2411280/

[Robodl95]

There was a flood here this week in fact. Peoples houses were trashed. Was it international news? No. It wasn't even national news here. Why is everything that happens in America considered to be so much more important than the same thing happening elsewhere?
Well Scotland doesn't get hurricanes and it's not a particularly large area so it's not really the same thing... Is this hurricane actually on your news? I'm sorry to hear about your flooding, hopefully everyone was okay. This isn't a thread to rant about America so if you want to debate about that go somewhere else please. Point is that there's been lot damage and people killed, not just in America. The Bahamas got hit pretty badly too.

[katy perry]

We call them gales. Not quite as dramatic sounding granted but they're basically the same thing.

Edit: If you thought I was ranting I apologise

[RoseCity]

There was a flood here this week in fact. Peoples houses were trashed. Was it international news? No. It wasn't even national news here. Why is everything that happens in America considered to be so much more important than the same thing happening elsewhere?

I didn't know that everything that happens in America is considered more important - a lot happens here everyday that I'm sure isn't picked up in the national media, much less international.
Also the sturdy stone houses in Scotland never get damaged in high winds.

Irene looks impressive from space.
http://i1132.photobucket.com/albums/m561/Melinda1327/HurricaneIrene2.jpg

[katy perry]

Yes and thats what I cant uderstand. Year after year theres hurricanes in florida and yet they still build the same crappy structures that get roofs torn off them like they were stuck together with glue. Why don't they build structures that last it might be more expensive but it would save them re-building disaster after disaster.

[Honeywell]

katy, it's a real dick head move to tell people it's their own fault for any hardship, property damage and loss of life that might occur from a storm while they're in the midst of it. Why don't you wait until the storm is over before you tell the victims about how it's all their own fault.

As for me, my living room wall looks like a water fountain--I'm trying not to think about how much damage is being done. But we still have power and no trees have come down yet so there's that. Take care all. :)

[lavav5]

I live in Maryland and right now we're getting hit pretty hard. My area likes to flood and is surrounded by trees - eek! The yard is flooded, I'm hoping our dip in the back yard to catch run off water doesn't fill up and our trees remain standing. The lights keep flickering, it's only a matter of time. *sigh*

[maxon]

It sounds really nasty on our news - I hope you guys are ok.

[Robodl95]

We were on the direct edge of the storm so like I said nothing really happened. It's been raining and windy all night but not anything powerful. I don't think we even lost power (it was night...) but according to facebook some people did. I don't see any tree damage which is great. It's strange how we only got 1-2" of rain but if you drive just 30 minutes away they got like 5-6".

[missroxor]

Katy Perry, thanks for representing our nation with your warm and heartfelt condolences :wtf: but please stop now, you're making us all look like dicks. Yes, Scotland has strong gales which are normal in some areas (and therefore don't make headline news except maybe in local papers) but they are linear winds, not cyclonic like you get with hurricanes. Cyclonic winds create vortices which almost replicate vacuums imposing incredible strains on any construction it passes, weakening it no matter what it's made from! Cast your mind back to the tornado that struck Birmingham in the UK (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Birmingham_tornado) 6 years ago....(note: a tornado with cyclonic winds, not a gale with linear winds). As well as 19 people being injured a lot of damage was caused including roofs being ripped off and brick buildings being partially destroyed (http://www.google.com/imgres?q=birmingham,+england+tornado&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&rlz=1I7GGLL_en&biw=1024&bih=343&tbm=isch&tbnid=msAwZhZ8BgO72M:&imgrefurl=http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/east/series11/week10_climate_change.shtml&docid=kQOQIqRCsqgWyM&w=203&h=152&ei=RFZaTrn-C8OrsQK7oJS8DA&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=343&page=2&tbnh=106&tbnw=141&start=10&ndsp=10&ved=1t:429,r:5,s:10&tx=75&ty=72).

In Britain your lucky to not have to deal with such extreme weather on a regular basis! Best wishes to all those on the East coast

[ThomasRiordan]

Nothing much happened here. My mother said the wind was howling around 1:30am but it didn't even wake me and I was sleeping lightly figuring the power would go out and wake me up anyways since it tends to go out for the stupidest reasons here. A few floats blew out of the pool but were anchored so they didn't go any further than from the pool to the ground. We've got a few sticks down in the neighbor's yard and the biggest damage was a tree fell across the road but caused no real damage other than causing a slight detour. It's done been cleared. The power went out for about 20 seconds around 9am, about 2 minutes after my mother left for work. Of course, I was in the bathroom and the only room in the house with no windows so everything went black. I'd just about got out "You've got to be f'ing kidding me" when it came back on. That would be my luck though. No power outages when the hurricane is here, but 5 minutes after I'm left completely alone in the house it goes out after the hurricane has done moved on.

[simgrl1934]

No damage here, just some minor flooding and small branches all over the yard. My front yard looked like a river most of the night and morning but is almost gone now. I lost electric from about 5 am till around 9:30. I know there has been alot of trees down in the area, my husband works for the state and has been out all night clearing them from the roads.

[xzkiskazx]

Irene just passed NYC, i was up playing sims 3 and wow XD i thought it would be stronger than it was, it was so quiet barely any rain. My boyfriend who lives by the ocean also said it was peaceful, a lot of chaos for nothing i say. But then again it's not bad preparing for the worst.

[M.M.A.A.]

the problem here is that the hurricane may change it's route.

[harmonee_el]

After experiencing Hurricane Katrina I know first hand what a hurricane can do mentally and physically!I Read that 15 People lost their lives,and it's really sad...But Thank God more people didn't die!

[RoseCity]

The high winds started around 2 am EST - woke up at 5, it was a little bit scary, then lost power. The power is back now and not too much damage - trees down all over town and my yard covered in tree branches. No big branches hit the house - I'm glad I got the tree near the house pruned; it probably just paid for itself. Still very windy, I think because we're east of the eye. It wasn't too bad here - I hope everyone else is okay.

[McChoclatey]

Hurricane Irene wasn't too bad in my area, but that might be because I'm in a certain part of New York. HI became a tropical storm with lots of wind and hard rain. My family's power didn't go out, and no hazards such as flooding, power outages, or trees falling (thank goodness) didn't happen. But before the hurricane hit, me and my mother went shopping just in case, since the news was putting so much emphasis on it. The stores and food markets were jam packed, with anxious, rude, and sometimes even scary people bum rushing to get a pack of batteries. The stores were almost out of stock of some stuff, it was too crowded, and one lady even pushed past my mom to get spinach. SPINACH! :faceslap:

[Tom Duhamel]

By the time it reached Montréal, Québec, it was called a "sub tropical storm". Lot of wind and lot of rain, with some heavy damage in some areas elsewhere in the province, but very little actual damage here.

I spent the entire morning on the road, and the visibility was limited because of the rain, but I arrived home just in time before the wind started blowing real hard, with gusts at 80 km/h.

Just a memory, nothing I will have to share with my grandchildren.

[DrFreeman]

Hope you guys by the Atlantic are doing okay! Best of luck from the West Coast of Canada!

[RoseCity]

I'm very lucky because the power here came back on late Sunday afternoon. But there's no power in many, many places. My stepdaughter lives in a town on Long Island Sound and she doesn't know when they'll get power back. It could be 2 weeks. Many people have well water, so don't even have water in their houses; they can't even take a cold shower.

[RoadRageBarbie]

I have family in Vermont, and right now it's like a war zone. There are going to be people without power for up to a month, and lacking landlines for up to two months. Roads have washed out, bridges have been lost. If someone in is in Vermont, they're going to be there for a while because good freaking luck getting in or out. My family was extremely lucky, they got out safe, with no property damage. Attached are examples.

[CmarNYC]

I'm in New York City and the eye passed either over me or very close - the wind was blowing from the east, died down, and started again from the west. Then later in the afternoon it started blowing from the north, rather harder than before. No damage or power outage that affected me. I haven't even seen a downed tree although I know there were many.

Turns out the inland areas got the worst of it with very severe flooding that's still going on, and many, many people in the whole area are still without power. So the hurricane did less coastal damage than feared but caused more inland flooding etc. than anticipated.

[RoadRageBarbie]

Sometimes, I wonder whether these natural disasters are giving humanity a sign that (1) the apocalypse is coming or (2) humanity can potentially destroy itself if it doesn't take care of mother nature by emitting excessive quantities of CO2 into the atmosphere via electrical appliances and various industries. Sometimes, I wonder whether modern life is worth living. Let's just hope for the best and find a way to make renewable energy sources to prevent further CO2 emissions into the air. Let's just hope for the best and grow some trees to prevent deforestation of the rainforests. Let's just hope for the best and clean the water supply. The Book of Genesis, I recall, says, "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." For a long time, humanity really hasn't controlled that much of nature... until now. However, it seems that this "power" can easily be used unwisely and can potentially harm the planet and therefore ourselves.

I'll be sure to tell all my Vermont friends that.