<p>From my Florida hurricane experiences: if authorities tell you to evacuate and you are stubborn and refuse to leave your home, make sure to write your name and social security # on your arm with a waterproof black magic marker so your body can be identified later on.</p>
<p>If you are on a barrier island and told to leave, LEAVE. If you don’t, the road/bridge/access may be gone after the storm, even if your abode is safe. If you are in a low lying area and told to leave, LEAVE. Better to go and be po’ed that you had to leave for “nothing” than to stay and put yourself in peril.</p>
<p>Water, batteries, a radio, and some nonperishable food. Go to Home Depot and buy a car battery charger that you can plug household items into. Then save it for your cell phone (if there is a signal), and important things. Remember not to use it up too fast if you are without power, as you then can’t recharge it. It lasts a long time for critical things like charging your cell or your laptop. (assuming you have a signal).</p>
<p>Growing up in Florida, we always filled the bathtubs with water and some drops of bleach. If you are on a well, or if your on sewer but the pump stations are underwater and you can’t flush, a bucket and a bathtub of water go a long way.</p>
<p>Have plenty of propane for your grill. </p>
<p>And watch the home pages of colleges and U’s. They will keep you posted regarding delays in opening dorms or move in. They will post the info so if you don’t get the email… It usually shows up on their home page and on their Emergency Info page.</p>
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<p>cnp55. I also follow Geoff’s blog - and recommend it. I was heartbroken when he left Channel 8’s 10:00 newsteam. He is so matter of fact, and tends NOT to get dragged into all the hype. </p>
<p>Here, in northern CT, our preparations will be to get some food/drink/batteries, take the furniture off the pool deck, and thank our lucky stars that S’s dropoff is on Friday, not Sunday. </p>
<p>On Sunday, we will hunker down and celebrate our “empty nest” ;)</p>
<p>Hoping to purchase a generator today,hoepfully before they are all gone…filling a cooler with ice on saturday night,to be certain i have enough for my cocktails this weekend ;)</p>
<p>^^Good Plan^^
We already have a generator, so yesterday filled the tank with gas and bought 2 additional cans. We can generate electricity for 27 hours before siphoning from the cars (which will also have full tanks by Sunday).</p>
<p>I’m only worried about power outages. We have a very inept power company (PEPCO) and lost power for 4 days after hurricane Isobel (and it wasn’t even a hurricane when it hit us). There was no ice to be had as there were outages over a vast area. This time, Irene looks to be striking a glancing blow at a much larger section of coastline so the outages could be even more widespread. We’ll all be relying on more western areas to send electrical help. And it’s a hotter time of year, ugh! </p>
<p>I’ll be filling empty plastic bottles with water and freezing them so I can stick them under my neck at night and try to sleep if we lose power and it’s hideously hot! </p>
<p>Maybe I’ll buy some Parmalat so I can have milk in my coffee.</p>
<p>NH State Government (don’t remember the agency) said that residents should be prepared. Our town had two 100-year floods in the past four years and we’ve had numerous ice storms and consecutive storms which resulted in huge snow buildups. I suspect that the buildings that were damaged by flooding are either gone or they have more protection now. I think that the power lines are in far better shape than they were five years ago.</p>
<p>That said, we have lots of LED flashlights and batteries but this is normal for us.</p>
<p>We also have another residence in an adjacent state that we could use should something happen to our primary residence.</p>
<p>In general, strong storms fizzle out by the time they get up here - even those that do a lot of damage in Southern New England.</p>
<p>Stay safe, everyone.</p>
<p>For hurricane Isobel I was worried that our backyard trampoline could turn into the giant frisbee of death. I insisted on flipping it over and staking it down. That was scary! It’s 14 feet in diameter and seeing that thing, hovering on it’s side, ready to crash down was not fun. This time I’ll just let it fly! </p>
<p>JK, I’ll stake down anything that I can’t shove into the shed, but I won’t bother flipping it over.</p>
<p>And seriously, most people are killed by falling trees during hurricanes (at least around here, which is somewhat inland). Don’t sleep through even part of a hurricane in the upstairs of your house and don’t even think you can drive around!</p>
<p>Be careful with your generators too!</p>
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<p>Hazel, Gloria, Isabel all devasted the ES of Md.They are comparing Irene to those hurricanes. Wow what a week!</p>
<p>Our church prepares breakfast at the homeless shelter on Sundays… guess we’d better be prepared for larger than number crowd as people come in out of the storm, and with plenty of pastries and cold cereal in case of power failure.</p>
<p>And I’d better set a battery alarm clock in order to get there on time!</p>
<p>UNH moved move-in from Sunday to Saturday for non-Freshmen.</p>
<p>Fellow NJ residents- here is a good web site-<a href=“http://www.newjerseyweather.com/”>http://www.newjerseyweather.com/</a></p>
<p>Also, checked out Geoff’s blog mentioned above, fun reading an experts personal opinions. </p>
<p>Ije62-will be thinking about your shore businesses. Garland, OC truly lovely area.</p>
<p>We live in Central Florida, just north of “mickey land.” This is not a high risk hurricane area, more likely than not we are more concerned w/ tornadoes spawning off coastal hurricanes or flooding in poor drainage areas because of heavy rainfall. We went thru the summer of 2004: Charley, Frances, and Jeanne. Charley hit us the worse, although we lost power with each hurricane. </p>
<p>We got exactly 8 hours, give or take, notice that Charley had switched directions and would not be traveling up the west coast across Tampa as first believed. About 11am, I remember standing in the cul de sac with neighbors and someone coming out and saying the hurricane was going to come across FL and hit us. It did … directly. And we did not get the brunt of it like Punta Gorda and those southern cities did. It was only a category 1 when it hit us. Thankfully, I am a planner. I already had hurricane supplies in, as well as plastic sheeting, blue tarps (3 of them), rope, batteries, flashlights, propane for the grill and camping stove, collapsible containers from camping (which I filled w/ a couple drops of clorox and water). I also had two vehicles w/ full gas tanks and cash from the ATM’s. We took that time to bring in all outdoor things on every porch on our cul de sac, including bringing in our neighbors backyard things who happened to be on vacation. We tied down our garage door, backing a vehicle in the garage up against it so that sucker wasn’t going to provide entrance. (many people who lose roofs, lose a garage door first) I filled zip loc gallon size bags full of water and put them inside my freezer. Scrubbed and filled the bathtubs w/ water, packed a carryon bag for every member of the family, with meds, etc, inside. We put photo albums in rubbermaid containers and put important papers in zip lock bags. We took video and photos of everything inside the house and kept camera in our bags. We got ice then and put it in a cooler w/ drinks so that we wouldn’t have to open fridge if we lost power. We made our “safe room” a downstairs bedroom that only had one small window which faced the way debris might be swirling. Before the night was over we wished we had had time to board up. Remember, we were inland, and it was only a category 1, but it was freaky scary for about two hours while the worst was over us. Thankfully, we lived in new construction, and only had young trees blow down. Before it was done, I had given those blue tarps and plastic sheeting to friends who were not so fortunate. A year later we still had blue tarps on roofs around our town. We lost power for almost a week, and we were fortunate. Others around us still had no power 3 weeks later. Having freezers full of ice gave us time to have a friend from 4 hours north of us get us a generator and we were able to keep the inside fridge/freezer working. (BTW, be totally careful w/ generators. Do not keep them running inside, watch for ventilation issues … people die of carbon monoxide poisoning all the time). </p>
<p>All told, with all 3 hurricanes we lost power for about 2 weeks. Again, we were inland. All it takes are trees down on the lines to screw everything up. </p>
<p>Praying that none of you have to worry about any of this …</p>
<p>zebes</p>
<p>I am reading this thread from the safety of Oregon… but I’m on a flight tomorrow morning to Newark for my sister’s Catskills wedding on Sunday. If it were any other occasion, I do believe I’d be cancelling. I remember all too well trying to get back to Boston the day after Hurricane Bob (and coming home to find downed trees all over town and a friend’s house split in two by a hundred-year-old oak)–fortunately I had taken out most of our leaner-trees after Hurricane Gloria. </p>
<p>Standard New England potential power loss preparations would apply here: food you don’t mind eating at room temperature. Lots of clean water. Flashlights. Hmm. I guess I should pack some protein bars, an empty water bottle, and a flashlight!</p>
<p>Those LED flashlights that will theoretically run for 50 hours on a set of batteries are pretty cool. I keep one in my backpack and two in the house. We have a bunch of other flashlights or electronic devices with LCD displays.</p>
<p>I live in NYC and my house is on a hill. We lose power if someone spits across the street, so we’re preparing for being powerless this weekend. We were supposed to drive straight down the coast into the path of the storm to bring D to school in Delaware on Sunday, but the University has asked that people delay moving in until Monday and is providing support accordingly.</p>
<p>Shout out to those with Cape May ties. Latest news, Cat 2 coming right over Cape May…ugh. 8:00 AM Sunday</p>
<p>Stay safe SouthJerseyChessMom!</p>