<p>Stay safe out there everyone. The lights just flickered in our NYC apartment. It MUST be a fluke. After dragging my mother here kicking and screaming wouldn’t it be something if the power went out. I am very concerned about our home in the Philadelphia suburbs. We are on a wooded lot and I keep the trees cut back but a hurricane is…a hurricane.</p>
<p>Even with the mass transit shut down some Mom and Pop places in our neighborhood were open this morning. There was a line out of a local coffee shop with people picking up their coffee and muffins. DD and DH’s gym is open and was packed. There are people grousing about the subways and buses being stopped as early as last evening but aside the fact that it takes time to shut down these systems, if transit had run for part of today I believe that most offices would have opened and people would have been forced to cut it too close in returning home.</p>
<p>It’s getting bad around here, and we are still 5 hours from the arrival of the storm. It’s quite windy, and trees are whipping around like mad. We are quite near LI Sound, where storm surges of 12-15 feet are predicted, but we are 30 feet above sea level. The street behind us is 4 feet above sea level, across the street from an inlet from LI Sound; those houses flood all the time, and they always have to evacuate in storms. </p>
<p>We still have power, but I don’t imagine we’ll have it much longer.</p>
<p>“emilybee - How strong wind should be to break windows? They are now saying the storm picked up speed and coming in sooner.”</p>
<p>Binghamton is well inland (100+ miles from the coast and north west from NYC) - they will get trop storm force winds later this afternoon and overnight, with some higher gusts but not enough to cause windows to break - unless some flying projectile happens hit her windows. Most likely the worst for her area will be downed trees, branches and loss of power. </p>
<p>" LOCATIONS… ALL OF CENTRAL NEW YORK AND NORTHEAST PENNSYLVANIA.</p>
<ul>
<li>WINDS… INCREASING TO SUSTAINED VALUES OF 30 TO 40 MPH LATER THIS AFTERNOON… WITH SIMILAR MAGNITUDE WINDS THEN PERSISTING OVERNIGHT… AND ON TUESDAY MORNING. FREQUENT GUSTS OF 50 TO 60 MPH ARE EXPECTED… ESPECIALLY ON THE HILLTOPS. OVER THE HIGHER TERRAIN OF THE WESTERN CATSKILLS AND THE POCONO PLATEAU… OCCASIONAL GUSTS OF 60 TO 70 MPH ARE POSSIBLE."</li>
</ul>
<p>I went out to the shopping plaza at Porter Square in Cambridge before and it was interesting to see what was still open. Shaw’s and Michael’s seemed to have no plans to close. The bookstore/coffee shop and Panera closed at 1. The natural stuff store was closing at 2. The liquor store was closing at 4. Public transportation stopped at 2, so I’d guess the ability of their employees that were in to get back home was probably a factor.</p>
<p>Well, I don’t even know who those folks are, but overall, that show had about as much to do with the Jersey Shore as it did to Santa Claus. Starting with no one here ever refered to “Jersey Shore” without the “the” in front of it.</p>
<p>What windows can take is probably a function of the area and thickness. I’m in an office with three large glass windows, about 7’ by 8’ each. There are two layers of glass, they look like 1/4 to 5/8 inches thick. The airflow is around the building so it doesn’t look like they take a direct hit from the wind. Something just hit the building a minute ago, probably a branch off a tree.</p>
<p>My windows all have old glass. I am guessing 1/8", the leaded kind. It didn’t occurred to me that I should close the shutters. In fact, I never thought them anything other than decorative.</p>
<p>I still don’t think Julie needs to be worrying about her windows breaking. Now if her house was on the ocean I would be <em>very</em> concerned.</p>
<p>They’ve been showing that image on TV. They said the concern is what’s going to happen if it falls and how much do we trust the integrity of that half-built condo building?</p>
<p>It’s been raining lightly here all day (Pittsburgh area). Not much wind yet, but just got word our school district is closing tomorrow. It’s rather unusual for them to close ahead of time.</p>
<p>Stupid local news station is sending its own reporter to New Jersey shore - like they can’t rely on other people’s reports! We are getting updates from the road on how dangerous it is! Duh!</p>
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