<p>The wind has picked up in central CT over the last few hours. There’s a branch on one of my neighbor’s trees that leans over onto my property that was damaged by last October’s storm, but has been wedged in the tree since. With today’s wind, it’s moved and is now swaying. DH and I hope the wind tonight brings it down. It would only fall in our backyard, not on a structure. If it doesn’t come down, I don’t want to deal with my neighbor over it. I doubt he’ll do anything about it, but he’d yell and scream if we do anything to his tree.</p>
<p>A friend just posted a live fox news link about a crane that snapped at a construction site near carnegie hall. Is this the same crane…or a different one?</p>
<p>I don’t know where this one was but one fact they kept mentioning was that a condo in that building that the crane is working on recently sold for $90 million.</p>
<p>That’s the one - 57th, between 6th and 7th. Anyone hurt?</p>
<p>The Boston news stations have been entertaining us all day with live shots from the coast. Apparently many folks feel the need to walk on rock walls etc and put their lives at risk. It is so windy the reporters are having trouble standing up straight.</p>
<p>I was at Hampton Beach during a hurrican or maybe it was a tropical storm by then. There was sand blown from the beach onto the parking lots and big pools of water. Some folks went onto the beach. I think that there was a television crew there too. Crazy stuff but something you can do once in a lifetime.</p>
<p>Still have power in the path…can’t believe it. A major road between Atlantic City and the mainland is washed out where the ocean and bay have met. OceanCity, NJ is also taking a pounding…this is where our business is and with this morning’s high tide , we had two feet of water in the store before the cameras shut down…we know that our friend’s house, two blocks away had 36" on the ground level floor ( garage level , no living space ) Really concerned for the people who foolishly decided to ride this out and hope that my friends and neighbors to the north who still have the chance to get out of areas deemed evacuation zones heed the warnings…this is not media hype</p>
<p>Just saw a news conference and there were people on Fire Island who didn’t evac when told and decided they wanted to leave now, but, unfortunately, the rescuers could only get to 14 of them before they decided it was too dangerous. For the life I me, I cannot understand why people have this need to ride a storm out in an obvious danger zone.</p>
<p>Three windows that I knew were problematic have developed leaks, and Happydad and I have tested our marital relationship with our somewhat successful efforts at limiting the water damage. The Facebook message to my unemployed former contractor BIL in Ipwa has already been sent. I’m offering free room & board and local professional contacts if he’ll fix my windows first.</p>
<p>Update: The wind did bring down that branch on my neighbor’s tree. One problem averted.</p>
<p>How did nobody think that crane in NYC needed to come down before this storm? We’ve known about this storm long enough for someone to have planned better.</p>
<p>I agree that those people out on the beaches are crazy, and I would never be one of them. But I secretly want to be! I envy those people out in the wind and the waves. I love the ocean, love big waves, and I have to keep reminding myself that it’s dangerous. I have no natural fear of water and, in general when I’m around the ocean or the great lakes, have to be guided by my head and not my gut.</p>
<p>Back to reality - I’m shaking in my shoes here, feeling like one of the three little pigs, worrying that Sandy will blow our house down around us. A slate went flying off our roof a while ago. No trees threatening our house, thank God, but there are plenty of big trees in the neighborhood and they are blowing around like crazy. And the worst part of the storm is still more than 3 hours away.</p>
<p>Still here with power in central jersey - about 10 miles inland. Wind is fierce and nowhere near what it will be another few hours! Worried about a huge oak in the front so D and I staying in the family room at the back of the house. I can’t believe that we haven’t lost power yet!</p>
<p>My elderly and arthritic dog does not appreciate having to walk on wet steps slippery leaves in high wind gusts and heavy rain (puddles are blowing uphill in front of our house northwest of Philly). We should get the real high gusts in about an hour, so will probably lose electricity then.</p>
<p>I have a huge old maple (80 feet or so) in our front yard that I always panic about but my husband won’t agree to have cut down. One of these days he will come home and discover it gone, if I can save up the money.</p>
<p>Glad that I don’t live in West Virginia - their October blizzard is making ours from last October look not so bad; I was out of electric for over two weeks last year.</p>
<p>Latest report from Williamsburg, VA: No power outages yet, but we haven’t reached the peak winds either. We’re sitting with gusts of about 35 and slated to increase. VA power outages seemed to be concentrated in the Norfolk/VA Beach are and up near the Maryland border. This will likely change as the storm continues to move inland. </p>
<p>Hope you guys further up north are okay. I’ve been seeing some nasty shots of the NY/NJ/RI coasts.</p>
<p>Just got finished talking to my sister. The top of the very large tree in their back yard snapped off taking out the cable and the neighbor’s fence. I told her at least it did not hit the houses.</p>
<p>Sandy made landfall…we witnessed the eye pass over our store in Sea Isle City</p>
<p>Thanks for the reassurances about the windows. I just worry because they are old and one has already cracked due to… ghosts? No idea, but we did not do it. </p>
<p>For those more in the path of the storm, good luck and take care.</p>
<p>They have a time lapse of that crane on the link that Booklady posted on page 26. You can see the sheets of rain move across the area, YIKES!!</p>
<p>My husband was outside. Our house is actually in a little valley. Uphill it is very windy…he estimates at least 30’mph. He said it was hard to stand. He saw several trees that snapped off about four feet from the ground. And it’s pouring rain too. It’s going to be a long night.</p>
<p>The storm has picked up speed - moving at 30 mph now, so hoping that the worst will be over by 10 or so… wind speed is up though - expecting gusts up to 90 mph at coast, 75 mph where I live.</p>