brit_columbia

It's not due to make landfall until later tonight, lucky me, and it'll be north of me. We're expecting high winds between 60 and 80 mph, and several inches of rain (two or three today, and more tomorrow, though they don't seem to be able to reach a consensus on that)

Looks like I'm in a mostly safe area and will just get the tail end. Our worst worries will be flooded roadways and downed trees and telephone poles. Potential loss of power.

So right now, I'm enjoying the fact that because I work for county government (hoorah), I got to leave at noon and have tomorrow off. I won't even be leaving my little apartment until Wednesday morning. I've got food, blankets, and reading material. What more could a girl ask for?

So thank you for worrying, but I think I should be okay in my little corner of Pennsylvania. So glad I'm not in the Jersey area (or further north).

Food, blankets and reading material... Yep, those are the basics. And you get to spend a day and a half reading! I hope your power doesn't get knocked out.

One of my dear friends is in New Jersey, but she's kindly giving me progress reports. If she stops, I'll know she's lost power and then I'll probably gnaw all my fingernails off!

Enjoy your reading an d remember to share your crackers with the dogs!

My best wishes to everyone who is affected by the hurricane / earthquake as well! Sometimes I'm glad to live in middle Europe. Apart from a few quite harmless autumn storms, everything's calm here.

Fingers crossed that no-one of you will get harmed!

Middle Europe makes me think of Middle Earth!

Everything's calm here on Canada's west coast. In fact, we were supposed to have a rainy day, but instead it's clear and sunny, which meant I could put on make up before my bike ride to work, instead of after.

I also hope no one will get harmed and that no one's house will get flooded either.

Well, there are actually some Europeans who look like hobbits and elves, now that I think about it... ^^

It's good to hear that everything's fine over there! Last night on Twitter, I saw so many horrible photos of flooted streets in America that I got a bit anxious.

Stay safe everyone. xx

Seconded. We are so lucky this is not happening in our areas. Our west coast news tonight is all: Are you prepared for an emergency???? Most people on the street say no.

In my case, it's around 50/50. As long as my house doesn't fall down and my toilets still flush, I could exist for a really long time on my non-perishable foodstuffs and my vast wine collection. I have tons of batteries, but not enough candles, thanks to our last Earth Day. Well, I do have two battery operated candles. A lot of matches. Absolutely NO water. Big fail. Hmm. As the news keeps reminding us, we live in a major earthquake zone. Maybe I should buy some water.

I love your Drake icon!

I'm very lucky I live in a part of the world where we don't really get any weather extremes. The worst we get is the occasional flood and even those don't compare to the type of floods other areas of the world get. We're hurricane free, earthquake free, volcano free and typhoon free. We're very fortunate. (Although always under prepared for the winter snowfall and everything grinds to a stop for a few days.)

Subsituting wine for water in a crisis... if you get penned in for a few days you could end up completely hammered. It's probably the only time you could say that you *had* to get drunk, if you're anything like me, you and hubby could ride out the storm talking complete drunken crap until rescue arrives and things settle! But you may need to get water for Fluffy.

Take care hun, this whole situation is pretty scary. xx

Erin, thanks for the report from Brooklyn. I really hope you don't lose power, and if you do, I hope you don't have a fridge full of perishable food right now! (I guess you'll have to eat the whole tub of ice cream if that happens!;D)

Do you and Zak have lots of blankets and food? And candles?

They've got to pay you for a hurricane day. How are you supposed to get to work with no MTA?

Congrats, by the way, and you know what I mean. I did that too, so if I can be of any help...

I'm just south of Philadelphia, about 60 miles northwest of Atlantic City. The eye passed over us about 6-6:30. The rain has slowed considerably but the winds are strong. Most of the damage around here is water damage - creeks and rivers going over their beds, stuff like that. This happens all the time when it rains heavy, it just varies how high over the banks the water flows. Luckily I don't live near any streams or brooks so that is not a worry. It's the winds that are picking up now that are cause for concern. They will continue through the night.
Atlantic City is a mess and their dumbass mayor said it was fine if the residents wanted to ride it out. This was after the Governor ordered evacuation of all barrier islands, on which Atlantic City is built.
One thing that adds to the problem is that when you are on a barrier island it is just that - an island. The water surrounds the land, and water levels rise from all directions. The bay that is toward the mainland will usually rise faster than the ocean, and with more drastic results.
We have a family home in Wildwood, about 20 miles south of Atlantic City, just five miles north of Cape May, and are more concerned with possible damage down there. We are several blocks from the back bay.
The fact that Sandy hit land several hours before high tide was a blessing, since the high winds will now push the tides out as they try to come in. High tides during the full moon are always higher than normal. We will have to wait until we are allowed back in Wildwood before we can assess any damage we might have. We just redid the interior of the place this spring.
To anyone else out there in Sandy's path, I hope you fared as well as we did.

Wow, thanks for the report from the front line!

I'm so glad you still have power. You're probably better prepared than 95 percent of the people around you. I was very impressed with the generator and the pumps for M's basement.

I wonder if the Atlantic City Mayor will get a few angry phone calls tomorrow?

As to the mayor, I do hope so. I don't like Governor Christie but he was right in ordering the evacuation. The mayor hemmed and hawwed, fully knowing that there was an evacuation order, until it was too late to get everybody out. That order was issued either Friday night or Saturday, in plenty of time to get it done.
BTW, Chocolat is feeling much better today. It must have been a 24 hour bug.

Oh I'm so glad he's feeling better! Although I do understand that a Chocolat who is feelin' fine is more likely to be a little rotter. Or what was your word? Stinker!

I think we'd rather have them misbehaving than listless!

Did you ever bake those cookies?

I would have to say that I'm only experiencing the tail end of this one, so mostly wind and possibly some rain like what celtic77irish will be experiencing, unfortunately I will still have to go in for work tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll be able to leave work early tomorrow.

Aw, too bad you have to go into work! You may find that it's a really quiet day at work, though. Is your area in any danger of flooding? Or power loss?

No power loss and I'm unsure about flooding as it hasn't really rained any in my area. So safe to say no.

Moon! I tried to respond to this last night, but I kept getting interrupted. I haven't heard from Erin since her last post here, and I'm thinking she may not have Internet or just may have aftermath-type issues with power and transportation.

I hate water, too! Well, I like looking at it, but I don't like being in it or on it, especially if it's deep and cold. I don't ever want to go on a cruise.