So Tuesday we had an earthquake and tomorrow we have a hurricane. I totally missed out on the earthquake because I was driving when it hit so I didn't notice anything. If it was shaking I would have assumed the road was bumpy. M and co-workers felt it though. They were on the 2nd and 3rd floors on campus and said the whole building was swaying and pictures and chandeliers were moving. I'm sure I won't miss out on tomorrow's hurricane though, there's no hiding from that. We're getting indications that we will get very high winds 50-100 mph gusts and maybe a 6 ft. storm surge with flooding. They're evacuating parts of town near the river and they've never done that before (at least in the 8 yrs I've lived here.) They also evacuated Ocean City (I haven't seen that before either.) They were busing all the foreign students who work on the boardwalk and beach, out to places near Baltimore (3 hrs. away). They were telling all tourists to leave town. They shut down the city at midnight last night. Only emergency vehicles will be allowed in. So everyone here is taking this one seriously and preparing for it. So for the past 48 hrs. I have mowed the lawn (it's going to be raining for a couple days). I have taken all the deck furniture off the deck and piled it upside down behind the garage for a little shelter from the winds. I have moved all my hanging and potted plants down on the ground behind the garage as well. I have stocked up on water, foods that can be eaten without heat or electricity. I have filled all 5 of my hurricane lamps with kerosene. We already have a huge supply of flashlights and batteries. I filled the gas tank on our generator and got 10 more gallons of gas in case we have to use that for electric for a couple of days. I filled the gas tank on our 4 wheel drive in case we need to drive this vehicle with higher ground clearance. Next I'm going down to the basement and building brick platforms for our dehumidifier so when (not if) the basement floods we won't short out the dehumidifier or electrify the basement floor. We had planned a hurricane party for tomorrow night, but then the forecast got a little more ominous so we canceled the party. We could envision 30 guests getting stranded at our house and we didn't want that. Oh and for this picture. Yesterday all the "D" batteries were sold out all over town for peoples' flashlights in anticipation of power outages. Ace Hardware advertised that they would have a truck in today with more batteries. Ace is lucky if they have 8 people in the entire store on a busy day. Here is what it looked like this afternoon with people coming to get batteries and kerosene. The line went from the front of the store to the back, plus there was a long line for any remaining batteries (the Ds were already gone) and there had to be over a 100 people in 3 lines waiting to checkout. Yes, people are taking this hurricane seriously. Wish us a good strong wind to push this storm further east off the coast.
Friday, August 26, 2011
Hunkering Down
So Tuesday we had an earthquake and tomorrow we have a hurricane. I totally missed out on the earthquake because I was driving when it hit so I didn't notice anything. If it was shaking I would have assumed the road was bumpy. M and co-workers felt it though. They were on the 2nd and 3rd floors on campus and said the whole building was swaying and pictures and chandeliers were moving. I'm sure I won't miss out on tomorrow's hurricane though, there's no hiding from that. We're getting indications that we will get very high winds 50-100 mph gusts and maybe a 6 ft. storm surge with flooding. They're evacuating parts of town near the river and they've never done that before (at least in the 8 yrs I've lived here.) They also evacuated Ocean City (I haven't seen that before either.) They were busing all the foreign students who work on the boardwalk and beach, out to places near Baltimore (3 hrs. away). They were telling all tourists to leave town. They shut down the city at midnight last night. Only emergency vehicles will be allowed in. So everyone here is taking this one seriously and preparing for it. So for the past 48 hrs. I have mowed the lawn (it's going to be raining for a couple days). I have taken all the deck furniture off the deck and piled it upside down behind the garage for a little shelter from the winds. I have moved all my hanging and potted plants down on the ground behind the garage as well. I have stocked up on water, foods that can be eaten without heat or electricity. I have filled all 5 of my hurricane lamps with kerosene. We already have a huge supply of flashlights and batteries. I filled the gas tank on our generator and got 10 more gallons of gas in case we have to use that for electric for a couple of days. I filled the gas tank on our 4 wheel drive in case we need to drive this vehicle with higher ground clearance. Next I'm going down to the basement and building brick platforms for our dehumidifier so when (not if) the basement floods we won't short out the dehumidifier or electrify the basement floor. We had planned a hurricane party for tomorrow night, but then the forecast got a little more ominous so we canceled the party. We could envision 30 guests getting stranded at our house and we didn't want that. Oh and for this picture. Yesterday all the "D" batteries were sold out all over town for peoples' flashlights in anticipation of power outages. Ace Hardware advertised that they would have a truck in today with more batteries. Ace is lucky if they have 8 people in the entire store on a busy day. Here is what it looked like this afternoon with people coming to get batteries and kerosene. The line went from the front of the store to the back, plus there was a long line for any remaining batteries (the Ds were already gone) and there had to be over a 100 people in 3 lines waiting to checkout. Yes, people are taking this hurricane seriously. Wish us a good strong wind to push this storm further east off the coast.
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9 comments:
Ugh. Here's hoping for a quick and harmless passage.
Ditto. I do hope it passes you by!
I read about this, it's Hurricane Irene right? I'll be thinking of you and hoping that it passes quickly and without doing damage.
I'm glad everyone is taking it seriously though, I think people are going to be better prepared this way.
Please let me know that you're ok afterwards, okay? I'll be thinking of you.
PS - i finally posted :)
It's about 9:30 a.m. M and I went out and took a couple mile walk in the early morning rain from the outer bands that are just hitting us. Since Irene made landfall in NC first, it has weakened. If it continues to stay on land and head north it will continue to weaken. If it bounces back out over the ocean it will gain strength. We're expecting a couple of days of non-stop rains and flooding, not worrying too much about the winds right now.
Okay, it's after 10 p.m. and I believe the worst is past us and we still have another hour of rain and a few wind gusts. No damage here that I know of, we'll look around tomorrow morning. Goodnight.
I have been thinking about you and wondering how you are...I'm so glad you gave an update tonight...I hope and pray that the worst IS over for you, my dears....!
Irene is exiting our area with some high wind gusts. We just walked around our neighborhood and saw a little bit of tree damage but nothing else. Some blocks have been without electricity since yesterday. Other than a 30 second outage for us yesterday, we never lost power. M says we didn't lose power because she bought a generator. It's a good luck charm. Ocean City opened at 9 for residents and business owners. It opens to everyone at noon. We'll head out there this afternoon after M has a meeting on campus.
Wow - I'm glad you are all okay. Been worried about you.
So happy you didsn't need to use that generator. And it is great that you had that "safety net", in case....! And I'm relieved to know that you all came through, with flying colors....!
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