[Tim McManus]

Not worried about this storm at all, but then again I'm not on the coast.

The concern for NYC et al is the wind and subsequent storm surge.  Since the center of the storm is very low pressure, the ocean tends to swell and rise at that point.  Couple that with the new moon we are currently in, and you have significant tides to worry about.  The eye is predicted to go over NYC, so there should be significant flooding and wave motion over established sea walls.

For those of you who are tracking the storm, here are some links.  I am an NOAA weather spotter, so I track this stuff all the time as well as reporting weather data back to the folks who need to know.

Storm relative to my home town:
http://www.wunderground.com/wundermap/?lat=41.02960205&lon=-74.29774475&zoom=8&pin=Haskell%2c%20NJ&type=hyb&rad=1&wxsn=0&svr=0&cams=0&sat=0&riv=0&mm=0&hur=0

National Hurricane Center
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/#IRENE

Hourly Weather Forecast for my home town
http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=41.02940&lon=-74.30190&unit=0&lg=english&FcstType=graphical

River Height Data for NJ (home state)
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nj/nwis/rt

The Davis Vantage Pro Plus in my back yard
http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KNJHASKE1

You can search for you location at any of those web sites to get more specific data.  These links are somewhat better than the Weather Channel because the NOAA is usually the source of weather data for all weather reporting agencies (at least the free ones).

Good luck, folks.  Remember to fuel up your chain saw and have extra gas ready.

[tschmidlin]

Sam Calagione is on the news talking about the preparations they made at Dogfish Head for the storm.  They filled the empty outdoor fermenters with water to help hold them in place - good idea.

My sister NE of Raleigh has several trees down, but that's it so far.

[punatic]

The officials need to be careful about over-stating the dangers.  You can have a boy-who-cried-wolf effect.

Next time people may not heed the warnings, if this time they are too dire.

[Hokerer]

Biggest result of her fury here is that she cut short our scout campout.  We were camping in the National Park and they made us evac by noon.  Would have been fun to see which of the kids floated away

Shenandoah National Park?  I spent a lot of time there in my Scouting days.

Maybe they could have gotten their Mile Swim Patch 

Sorry for the hijack.  Just curious.

Probably would have been Ok in Shenandoah as it's west and higher altitude.  We were in Prince William Forest Park which is east and lower.  Never had so many visits by rangers before - guess they really wanted to make sure we left plus we were about the only idiots in the park by then.

[loopy]

Never had so many visits by rangers before - guess they really wanted to make sure we left plus we were about the only idiots in the park by then.

I imagine they wanted you gone so they could close it up and go take care of their own houses and families. 

Sounds like you're involved with load dispatch.  Not sure what you mean by "spares."
From my experience, after the storm has passed, generation capacity is not the problem.  Power plants usually weather the storm well.  It is transmission, and particularly distribution infrastructure that suffer the most damage.  The plants can generate all the power needed, there is just nowhere to send it.

No we are generation, by spares, I meant cisco routers and switches and Verizon/Sprint/ATT 3g HWICS, satellite broadband equip, ups's.  Many of the plants are in remoteish areas and literally rely on the telephone poles running down the road for T1 service.  The existing 3G antennas may well get blown off the building.  It is expected that we will lose network connectivity with plants and need to be able to get them back online quickly.  We went through the same thing a few months back with the massive tornadoes that spun though Georgia and that area.  Getting network back online is critical because the power is sold into exchanges which requires connectivty from the tradefloor and the regulatory agencies in the grid. 

[MDixon]

In case anyone needs a list of what you need for a hurricane, here it is in a nutshell -
Water - enough to last until your power comes back on
Ice - to keep the things you need to keep cold, cold
Gas - full tank, no less
CASH - you cannot get gas in the aftermath of a hurricane without it
Flashlight - fresh batteries

Now the key is if they say evacuate, evacuate. I got the front wall, side wall, and back wall of Fran for 12 HOURS back in the day. If they even hint it's coming my way I am gone. Not scared of much, but Hurricanes don't play!

[bluesman]

Strong wind gusts. Trees are whipping back and forth. Water is seeping into my cellar. Lights are flickering. Tornado warnings just north of me in New Castle, DE. Pretty scary right now. We're pretty lucky so far as over a million without power, knock on wood. I just poured an Oak aged RIS. Might need to break out some bourbon to calm my nerves. Hopefully I'll make it through the night without losing power.

Cheers.

[euge]

Strong wind gusts. Trees are whipping back and forth. Water is seeping into my cellar. Lights are flickering. Tornado warnings just north of me in New Castle, DE. Pretty scary right now. We're pretty lucky so far as over a million without power, knock on wood. I just poured an Oak aged RIS. Might need to break out some bourbon to calm my nerves. Hopefully I'll make it through the night without losing power.

Cheers.

What precautions have you taken? Good luck man...

[tschmidlin]

Strong wind gusts. Trees are whipping back and forth. Water is seeping into my cellar. Lights are flickering. Tornado warnings just north of me in New Castle, DE. Pretty scary right now. We're pretty lucky so far as over a million without power, knock on wood. I just poured an Oak aged RIS. Might need to break out some bourbon to calm my nerves. Hopefully I'll make it through the night without losing power.

Cheers.

Update us when you can Ron.

[bluesman]

We made it through the hurricane unscathed.

A rather large leak formed in the house from wind driven rain. Rain was coming down in huge sheets from the NE side of the house. Half of the floor carpeting was saturated and the water traveled to the cellar behind my kegerater. I have the carpets pulled up and fans blowing to dry out the room. The pool is loaded with leaves and twigs and the yard is covered in debris. There was a tornado that touched down about 3 miles from my house but thankfully it missed us. We didn't lose power but had a few surges.

I'm glad that is over.

[MDixon]

Now envision that as a Cat 3 thru 5...it's an experience no one wants to experience

Glad all is well and the thing is being downgraded!

[denny]

Good to hear you made it through relatively unscathed, Ron.  Hope others fared as well.

[tschmidlin]

My brother in NJ still has no power at his house, but that's just a minor inconvenience.  No real damage at his house, and as longs as the lakes don't overflow it will be fine.

Glad you came through ok Ron.

[1vertical]

Good on ya Ron  !   

[euge]

Whew!