Hurricane Sandy

[ilovepaydays]

Here is Virginia Beach, I just have a lot of wind and rain. There is flooding in a lot of places.

It's supposed to get worse tonight. Wondering about work tomorrow - our office building tends to lose electricity fairly easily and our server tends to go down a lot. I would hate to drive in this and then not even be able to work.

Meanwhile.....12-year-old floats down Portsmouth (VA) street on air mattress.

[cruisin]

Here is Virginia Beach, I just have a lot of wind and rain. There is flooding in a lot of places.

It's supposed to get worse tonight. Wondering about work tomorrow - our office building tends to lose electricity fairly easily and our server tends to go down a lot. I would hate to drive in this and then not even be able to work.

Meanwhile.....12-year-old floats down Portsmouth (VA) street on air mattress.

Please don't go to work! It's not worth risking your safety! Governor Christy (NJ) has recommended that all private businesses close, though he has not made it mandatory. Almost everything in NJ is closed - Government - Schools - Universities - your name it, it's closed!

[mkats]

We're in Atlanta and despite it being REALLY windy outside, I thought we would be just fine since we're so far down south, so I went to lab. Came out to find all the construction fences blown over and hid in a bus shelter until Boyfriend picked me up.

On our way back, we heard this huge explosion and I thought someone had shot fireworks into the air over the street, until we realized that a power line had literally blown up right in front of us We were the first car on one side and obviously we skidded to a stop, same with all the cars on the other side, and as we were trying to figure out what to do literally three or four more bigger explosions went off. Needless to say, we U-turned and got the hell out of there. Traffic instantly dissolved into a mess seeing as there are no traffic lights anymore, and it's Atlanta traffic...

I got home and moved my car out from under a tree - admittedly not a huge tree, but a reasonable sized tree all the same, and scooted it to an open area in front of another neighbor's house. Didn't have time to check with him to be sure it was okay but I'm hoping he's not going to call the tow truck on us in this situation.

[milanessa]

That's scary, mkats. Time to hunker down.

[Karina1974]

Greyhound just cancelled the buses to NYC, so we're not leaving tonight. It's sad but given the situation even if the group decided to go I may have stayed at home. Thanks to all of you who helped me with this. It's appreciated!

Again, stay safe everyone!

I'm relieved to hear this. I hope you can at least get your $$ back for the bus tickets since it was Greyhound's decision to cancel the bus run.

[cruisin]

mkats! That is scary! Glad you're okay!

[judiz]

I teach in a child care center and we usually never close because the parents freak out if they have to miss work to stay home with their kids. We opened in blizzards, we were open last year during Hurricane Irene and every Noreaster that came our way. Got a call 90 minutes ago that we are closed tomorrow!!!

[Kelleys6th]

OK New York Metro area....hurricane Sandy won't even start raining here until tomorrow. So, WHY DID THEY PRE-EPT SKATE CANADA TODAY?!!!!!
We get so little figure skating on free TV each season. I really don't care hearing about the same news for 2 hours when they SHOULD BE BROADCASTING SKATE CANADA!!
Just had to vent. Sorry........

[genegri]

Another central Jerseyan checking in. Our 3 cars are all gassed up. Two fridges full to the brim and cabinets of canned food. Four cases of drinking water (35 tall bottles each case) from Costco. Filled large pots and pans with cooking water and bathtub and a few buckets with sanitarian water. Flush lights ready. Decent supply of batteries. We are at a high ground so flooding is not a concern. But lots of trees around pose a different type of threat.

DH works in Manhattan commuting via NJ Transit and he plans to work from home Mon and Tue. My company has numerous sites in NJ and all are closed tomorrow. It has NEVER been closed during the 5 years I have been with the company, including Irene. So I have to assume this time it is more serious.

Sincerely hope everyone will come out of this Frankenstorm safe and sound and without too much misery.

[Rob]

We are allowed to work from home Mon and Tues. will see what it looks like in the am. Just hoping all the trees hold.

[dbell1]

Went downstairs tonight to move the shop vac higher. Then discovered that I apparently tossed it out a few months ago when I did a major purge of the basement Of course, no one has them in stock at this point. I feel like such an idiot.

[Fergus]

We attended the most fabulous Halloween celebration in New England last night......

......and now we're back in NY a day early. In fact, with the parental units in the suburbs, just to make sure they ride it out ok. Humans and animals are together, secure and supplied.

Good luck everyone! Let's hope for a smooth ride!

[ssminnow]

OK New York Metro area....hurricane Sandy won't even start raining here until tomorrow. So, WHY DID THEY PRE-EPT SKATE CANADA TODAY?!!!!!
We get so little figure skating on free TV each season. I really don't care hearing about the same news for 2 hours when they SHOULD BE BROADCASTING SKATE CANADA!!
Just had to vent. Sorry........

Here in Philly too! Of course they went back to regularly-scheduled programming when football started...

[Southpaw]

Uh oh. It could be a bad sign of things when the SS Minnow shows up. And me without any coconuts from which to build a radio.

[talulabell]

My work has already sent out emails to say that the building will be closed to non-essential employees tomorrow (datacenter, lab folks). We are encouraged to work from home tomorrow, if we are able, otherwise to take a vacation day (um, huh? if you've closed the building, why should I take vaca?). If I have power, I'll work from home. I have lots of ice freezing in the freezer (after ready a few pages of this thread, I took a break to go fill more things and put them in the freezer). Everything that can hold water, is, for cooking, the tub is full (for now, my stopper dont stop that great), and all the iDevices are fully charged. Flashlights, batteries, candles and matches are ready. I'm a little more nervous now, because Philly news just mentioned my town as "be prepared to evacuate"). Yikes.

[victoriajh]

my girlfriend is headed to nyc on friday to run the marathon... yikes!!!!

[Karina1974]

OK New York Metro area....hurricane Sandy won't even start raining here until tomorrow. So, WHY DID THEY PRE-EPT SKATE CANADA TODAY?!!!!!
We get so little figure skating on free TV each season. I really don't care hearing about the same news for 2 hours when they SHOULD BE BROADCASTING SKATE CANADA!!
Just had to vent. Sorry........

Well, gee, that's just too damn bad that the collective public good/safety outweighed your "right" to watch something as comparatively trivial as a sporting event. You clearly have no idea how serious a situation this is going to be if the storm runs true to the forecasts. Very ironic that this post was written by someone whose location says "Long Island." Maybe you ought to look at the following and consider that this could happen to the NYC area this time around:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobile..._n_941867.html

[vesperholly]

Well, gee, that's just too damn bad that the collective public good/safety outweighed your "right" to watch something as comparatively trivial as a sporting event. You clearly have no idea how serious a situation this is going to be if the storm runs true to the forecasts. Very ironic that this post was written by someone whose location says "Long Island." Maybe you ought to look at the following and consider that this could happen to the NYC area this time around:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobile..._n_941867.html

Oh, take a joke.

[Marge_Simpson]

The hospital I work for didn't bother to make provisions for the staff; ie setting aside beds for the employees to spend the night. Dunno who's going to be working in the laboratory tomorrow. The techs on the night shift all called in; they couldn't get to work because they take the NYC subway. Everyone on the day shift who takes the subway to work called in also. 2 evening techs were manadted to do a double shift in order to cover the night shift. If the bridges are shut down tomorrow, the people who drive to work won't make it in. That only leaves people in walking distance, but AFAIK, nobody is. They can't mandate anyone to do triple shifts, so goodness knows what will happen in the morning.

The father of one of my coworkers owns a small grocery store. She told me that he shut the store down on Friday because he had run out of everything and the shelves were bare except for a few vegetables.

[LadyNit]

Good thoughts going out to all of you that are in storm's way. Huge hug to each of you that has to ride this thing out. Be safe.