Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Let there be snark.

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

Everybody saw this coming.

Trump should be leading, not lying.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

White supremacy is terrorism.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / All In One Irene Open Thread

Reader Interactions

129Comments

  2. 2.

    Linda Featheringill

    I was just looking at Irene at weather dot com and was thoroughly shaken. It looks like the folks on the East Coast should think about moving inland for a few days. Flooding and wind damage and no electricity and . . . .

  4. 4.

    kindness

    Is it wrong to hope Irene wreck’s Congressman Cantor’s district? I mean, he says no Federal disaster help unless the Feds cut other stuff (which Cantor doesn’t like, like Social Security) to balance it out.

    And what exactly would it take for Cantor’s constituents to finally realize they are getting hosed by this asshole and vote him out of office?

  5. 5.

    Jager

    Irene is Obama’s fault or the the gays, too, also. Maybe Rick Perry can organize a big prayer get together and divert the rain to Texas.

  6. 6.

    LoudounLib

    I’m in northern VA, and my favorite weather site is capitalweather dot com (The Capital Weather Gang). They concentrate on the general DC area, and they have excellent info especially during bad weather.

  11. 11.

    BGinCHI

    OK, let’s see if anyone in the beltway media will link assistance in the aftermath of the storm to what the state and federal government can do to positively affect citizens’ lives.

    Given that Rick Perry said that one of his goals as President would be to “keep the federal government out of everyone’s daily life…”, I can only assume they’ll be asking him about this contradiction.

  12. 12.

    ant

    The comments over at Nate Silvers latest blog post about the reelection of President Obama is depressing to me.

    The PUMA stench is strong over that way.

  13. 13.

    Violet

    Latest NHC track (5:00 p.m.) shifted slightly west yet again. That’s bad news for NC, but possibly good news for NY. Intensity of a hurricane doesn’t tell all, as we saw with Ike. Hurricane Irene is big and the storm surge associated with her will likely be large too.

  14. 14.

    General Stuck

    Thanks for revealing this obvious collective type marxist American history challenged so called alleged maybe espionage weather site calling for a Hurricane. Yea right.

    I just hope truth seekers like Issa King, and no you can’t or gawd will get ya, don’t get wind of it and rain on any possible chance for sunshine

  15. 15.

    cat48

    Weather Channel, Weather Underground, & Post & Courier, Charleston, SC, Hurricane Guide Page. We’re under a Tropical Storm Watch now as Irene is passing us by they think. Just high winds & heavy surf/riptides & rain; beginning tomorrow a.m.

  16. 16.

    lamh34

    As a “Katrina survivor” can I just say that one kinda obvious consequence of Katrina that is a good one, is that for what ever it’s worth, people now take Hurricane evacuation and Hurricane preparedness much more seriously than they used to definitely on the Gulf coast, but also along all the coast.

  17. 17.

    Stav

    best thing about Wunderground is that so much of the data is compiled by weather geeks who live in your zip code or close by so you get hyper local weather…not what’s happening at the airport.

  18. 18.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    I got off work early today, not going in tomorrow. Moved all my patio furniture indoors, will move my bird feeders and everything else tomorrow morning. I am in Jacksonville, NC they say we are going to get slammed. I am most scared about flooding, we pretty much lost the house due to Floyd in ’99 and I am not sure I can go through that again. On a bright note after Floyd we replaced every carpet in the house with vinyl tile. Nuthin that a mop and bucket can’t fix.

    Oh and can I just say to the bitch on the weather channel that those of us here in Eastern NC really don’t appreciate her saying “and the good news is that Irene is not going to hit Florida” WTF?

  22. 22.

    cintibud

    I just use the NWS pages, but that’s just because I believe in big government. What does Weather underground add? (not being negative about it, just haven’t looked there in a long time)

  23. 23.

    david in NY

    Doesn’t anybody go to the National Weather Service? http://www.nws.noaa.gov/ It’s mostly their data that everyone else uses (you think the Weather Channel is a scientific organization?). Anyway, the hurricane center has the experts on this. And the Air Force and people are flying around getting all sorts of extra data not usually obtained.

    Anyhow, that’s what I look at — including my local NWS forecast center, available from the same site.

  24. 24.

    Nutella

    @kindness:

    Is it wrong to hope Irene wreck’s Congressman Cantor’s district?

    Not if you’re hoping the damage is limited to property of Cantor and the fools who voted for him.

  26. 26.

    4tehlulz

    I am looking forward to having no power or internet for a couple of days.

    It will either restore my sanity or drive me over the edge for good.

  27. 27.

    Skepticat

    The eye went over my house an hour ago; now I’m waiting to hear whether I still have a house after a battering by sustained winds of 115 mph. It’s about an hour from high tide, and because of the direction, the storm surge is really wreaking havoc. At least the storm moved quickly, but it is strengthening.

    Many of these links are specific to my area of interest (Abaco) and where the storm is at the moment, but the sites themselves are excellent.
    http://weather.unisys.com/satellite/sat_vis.php?image=enh&inv=0&t=cur&region=ea
    http://www.crownweather.com/?page_id=4557
    http://www.intellicast.com/Local/WxMap.aspx?location=USFL0244&weather=hdRadarSmoothPaletteA
    http://www.boatus.com/hurricanes/windFields.asp?storm=Irene
    http://radar.weather.gov/radar_lite.php?rid=amx&product=N0Z&loop=yes
    http://classic.wunderground.com/global/stations/78065.html

  28. 28.

    MarkJ

    @kindness: I don’t think it’s wrong. If it’s going to hit VA then it might as well hammer the idiots who voted for him hard. I just hope whatever democrat is running against him will use his “we won’t be helping” words against him every chance they get.

  29. 29.

    Violet

    @cintibud:

    What does Weather underground add?

    I like the model info they have. Also the recon stuff. Frequently they even put up the next NHC update before the NHC does. Kind of funny. I also like reading Jeff Masters’ blog.

  30. 30.

    Donald G

    Cantor’s district is unlikely to be badly affected unless the storm veers majorly westward from its projected track.

  32. 32.

    Halteclere

    I’m jealous. Can I haz a hurricane? Or am I still being punished for having Parry as my governor? (yea, that ‘a’ was intentional).

  34. 34.

    BGinCHI

    @Donald G:

    Cantor’s district is unlikely to be badly affected unless the storm veers majorly westward left-wing from its projected track.

    Fixed.

  36. 36.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @Violet:

    Thanks, I have to say that sometimes my boss can be the worst son of a bitch on the planet, but at times like this, when he heard that the storm had wobbled to the west and was heading straight for us (about noon today) he said “that’s it shut it down I’ll see you next week sometime go home” he is the best. My last boss (albeit 15 years ago) left us staff in the office while she hightailed it to higher ground and finally let us leave the office about 15 minutes before the damn storm hit.

  37. 37.

    MarkJ

    Unfortunately it looks like Cantor’s district is far enough west that it won’t get hit too hard (the foothills of the Shenandoah). I did note that he has a “help with federal services” tab on his congressional district website. I find that a little hypocritical given that he doesn’t believe there should be any federal government services.

  39. 39.

    South of I-10

    @Skepticat: Good luck to you.

    I follow Wunderground and our local meteorologists. If you are somewhere that is in the storm surge map, it’s time to go. In case you haven’t experienced it, sustained hurricane force winds are pretty damn scary too. Stay safe y’all.

  41. 41.

    PurpleGirl

    @david in NY: I use the National Weather Service/Hurricane Center. I like that their maps are large to start with.

    For NYC residents — the City’s severe weather web site. The evacuation finder page is extremely slow at this time.

    http://www.nyc.gov/html/oem/html/nycsevereweather/weather_home.shtml

    I love how the memo from my complexe’s management office used conditional forms — loose items MIGHT be blown away by high winds. How about WILL be blown around. For the 11 years I’ve lived here, I’ve brought chairs and other stuff inside because I don’t want windows broken by my own stuff. Just a normal wind one day blew a loose cushion away.

  42. 42.

    david in NY

    @MarkJ:

    Unfortunately it looks like Cantor’s district is far enough west that it won’t get hit too hard

    Really, these forecasts, as the NWS keeps saying, are only approximate. God, or Mother Nature (remember “Don’t fool with Mother Nature!”) will have the last say on whether Cantor’s district gets hit. Could still veer west, still out to sea. All depends …

  43. 43.

    MattR

    I remember deciding to keep my last non-cordless phone for situations where the power is out. I just wish I could remember where I put it for safe keeping.

  44. 44.

    david in NY

    @PurpleGirl: Thanks, I meant to refer to the Hurricane Center, which you get just by hitting “details” at the end of their front page summary or by your link.

    I see by NYC’s storm surge map that my house in Central Brooklyn will be safe from all but water in the basement, trees falling, or slates blowing off the roof. The worst hurricane winds I ever remember here (and they weren’t bad at all) has slates (they’re heavy) flapping in the breeze. Very odd.

  45. 45.

    Neal

    As far as daily weather information goes, ditto on the wunderground…and I also use weather.gov/NOAA – so I suppose that makes me double commie/librul.

  46. 46.

    PurpleGirl

    @srv: It’s the COBRA subsidy that is ending — the stimulus money that the Fed’s used to reduce the amount the unemployed had to pay for COBRA coverage. (A lot of people can’t afford a COBRA payment to begin with.) It’s been ending piecemeal as people could no longer afford their insurance payments if they could afford it with the subsidy. When my UI ended, I had to end the COBRA insurance because my premium was also going up and it would have been like paying a second rent.

  48. 48.

    Uncle Clarence Thomas

    .
    .
    Perhaps Mr. Cole has now read further than a single early tweet about President Obama’s wise and fierce attempt to intimidate New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman into joining him in capitulation to his savvy businessmen friends in the financial sector.
    .
    .

  49. 49.

    Elie

    @lamh34:

    You are right on that for sure…

    I believe that Katrina is a powerful symbol that we are still wrestling in so many ways. She exposed a sense of futile and powerless America that angers many and makes all of us deeply ashamed… she exposed our lie — that we take care of the weak and care about planning and competent governance… we got the reality like a pie in the face. The Republicas pretend that they want it that way,but are secretly ashamed, but defensive – bluffing from emptiness – while the rest of us are trying to piece together our national self respect and belief in real power — caring for, building all our people….as a source of real wealth…

  50. 50.

    Steve

    I’m not really sure what we NYC high-rise denizens are supposed to do in this situation, particularly those of us who don’t own a car we can just pile into. Guess I’ll stay tuned.

  51. 51.

    Jax6655

    @srv:

    The story you’ve linked to actually says that the federal unemployment subsidy for COBRA is ending, not COBRA.

    I’ll avoid snarky remarks about reading comprehension . . .

  52. 52.

    MattR

    @Steve: Food, water, candles (and a book)

    And hope it doesn’t turn into “The Day After Tomorrow”

    @PurpleGirl: Wasn’t really thinking about wind damage. I guess I should add board up/cover the windows to my list.

  53. 53.

    PurpleGirl

    @Steve: They are supposed to go to a lower floor — like the 10th floor — or find friends they could stay with. It’s in the Hurricane Guide. In my case, I’m on the 17th floor of an 18th-story building, I could just move into to the elevator lobby which is in the center of the building.

  54. 54.

    UncommonSense

    No, I’m a commie liberal. I get all my information from big government: NOAA.gov.

  55. 55.

    WaterGirl

    Edit: Never mind, I see that about 18 people beat me to the COBRA issue.

    Stay safe everyone.

  56. 56.

    Alan

    @Skepticat: Hopefully the damage won’t be severe. You live in my favorite part of the Bahamas. Back in the early 80s, my friends and I used to go to Elbow Cay all the time to surf. I haven’t been there since the late 90s though. I saw pics of what Floyd did 10 years ago — it was awful. Hang in there.

  57. 57.

    Violet

    @Steve:

    I’m not really sure what we NYC high-rise denizens are supposed to do in this situation,

    Stay away from the windows. Windows in high-rises can get blown out. You don’t want to be near that.

    @MattR:

    Food, water, candles (and a book)

    No, no, NO! NO CANDLES! Candles are a fire hazard. The last thing you need when the city is inundated with storm surge and fire fighters can’t get to you is to start a fire. Use flashlights. Stock up on batteries.

    I remember watching a house burn down while it was flooded during a hurricane. They thoughts a gas line had burst and that’s how it started, but no one knew. The streets around the house were all under water. They just let it burn. The local TV news covered the whole thing. Tragic.

  60. 60.

    MikeJ

    @Violet: Hand crank lights. I got some when a winter storm knocked out my electricity for almost a week. One of my crankable flashlights will charge mobile phones too. It’s always in my camelback for hiking.

    Crankable radios are good too.

  63. 63.

    bjacques

    @MikeJ: Curse you! Beat me to it!

    That one never gets old.

    Flying to Boston Monday. Hmmm.

    Y’all stay safe.

    ETA: OT, but Mark “The Human” Steyn is getting airtime on BBC Newsnight right now.

  64. 64.

    Violet

    @MikeJ:
    I’ve got one of those too. It’s also got a solar panel in case we get a little sun, which always seems to be the case after a hurricane blows through.

  65. 65.

    scav

    Competitive liberal-commie weather info bingo! Gotta have something from the Guardian then. Different video from ISS (yesterday)

    Practical idea. Why not establish a phone tree / point of contact now so you don’t contribute to overloading the (local) phone networks later? Arrange it so you’ll need to contact a single person outside your area to tell them what’s up and they can be the point of contact or dissemination after that.

  66. 66.

    Steve

    @Violet: Every room in our apartment has big windows. I’m trying to think up ideas just in case. I’d prefer not to try and bundle the kids into the bathroom or the walk-in closet, but hmm.

  68. 68.

    gogol's wife

    My husband refuses to freak out about the hurricane so I’m glad I can come here and freak out.

  69. 69.

    kindness

    When I was a kid we lived on the shore in CT and in the late summer you’d occasionally get hurricanes (or their remnants) come through. Mind you, we were on the Long Island Sound, so we were pretty much protected from the big stuff in the Atlantic. But there was always something truly majestic about a storm hitting the beach and waves two and three times normal pounding the surf. We were kids. We didn’t care we were getting soaked. It was summer and there was a hurricane going on. Easy to say when you were where we were. No doubt the people facing the Atlantic had other thoughts and didn’t let their kids go out and play in it.

    btw – I like the doppler radar site: http://radar.weather.gov/ridge/Conus/southeast_loop.php

  70. 70.

    Violet

    @bjacques:

    Flying to Boston Monday. Hmmm.

    Depending on what Irene does, Boston Logan airport could sustain storm surge damage. It’s not very far above sea level. Wind damage too, of course.

  71. 71.

    patrickT

    @Angelia:

    I am in Virginia Beach too. It looks like from the latest projection, that we might get to see the actual eye of a hurricane.

  72. 72.

    WaterGirl

    Seems like we are always having a hurricane, tornado, major storm somewhere in Balloon Juice land. Every time we get a tornado here I think “I really should put together that emergency kit”.

    If there are enterprising BJ-ers who are out of work, but wanted to do some research on the best crank radio and the best crank flashlight, etc and then wanted to put together an emergency kit, I would pay cost + $25 bucks + shipping just for the simplicity of getting an emergency kit. I can’t be the only one. Just a thought…

    For less than a hundred bucks you can get free shipping with amazon prime for a year.

  73. 73.

    Violet

    @scav:

    Practical idea. Why not establish a phone tree / point of contact now so you don’t contribute to overloading the (local) phone networks later? Arrange it so you’ll need to contact a single person outside your area to tell them what’s up and they can be the point of contact or dissemination after that.

    This is the usual suggestion and is a great one. You contact the out-of-town friend or relative and they call everyone else. Remember that texting will probably work much better than actual voice calls on your cell phone. Tell your contact person you’ll probably be texting them.

    @Steve:
    Do you have an interior hallway? Elevator area? Fire staircase? You may want to plan to go there. Make sure you’ve got food and water in backpacks and stuff to keep your kids busy. It can be a very long day or night waiting for a hurricane to pass. BTDT three times now.

  74. 74.

    PurpleGirl

    @kindness: Have you seen a TV show about the New England Hurricane of 1938? It roared up the coast line and Long Island Sound; pounded the CT coast as it swept further up the coast.

  76. 76.

    Violet

    @patrickT:
    It’s cool when the eye goes right over you. We went outside and it was totally calm and blue sky above. We splashed around in the water in the street and chatted with the neighbors. Then the clouds started to close in and the winds began again.

    It was the second half of the hurricane, when the winds were going the opposite direction from the first half, that seemed to cause the most damage. Trees that had been blown in one direction were being blown in the opposite direction. They didn’t like that and often fell over.

  77. 77.

    Skepticat

    @Alan: In that case, if you don’t have them already, check these links–when BEC gets the power back up, that is. Say 2012, 2013 …
    http://www.tilloocut.com/Tilloo_Cut/Webcam.html
    http://www.rockybay.com/

    Floyd was indeed awful (I lost about a quarter of my house), and Irene is much like it–except that Floyd sat over us and chewed us to bits for 36 to 40 hours, while Irene’s been kind enough to move fairly fast. The storm surge is pretty horrific though–Marsh Harbour’s flooded almost to the airport.

    If I still have a house, come visit (one island over from Elbow Cay) this winter. The surfing’s still good, but you won’t recognize the Abacos now.

  78. 78.

    Heliopause

    What sources are you using to follow this?

    My Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This was predicted in His Holy Word, as was the earthquake.

  80. 80.

    mclaren

    Somebody report Cole to the Department of Homeland Security! He’s involved with the Weather Underground!

    PHONE THE SECRET SERVICE NOW!

    By the way, I’m still waiting to be interviewed by the Secret Service for my “dangerous threats” to the White House. “Threats” like saying I voted for Obama in 2008, and saying I’ll vote for him again in 2012.

    Boy, the kooks and cranks and fringe lunatics on this forum are a bunch of epic wackaloons.

  81. 81.

    MattR

    @Heliopause: Pat Robertson (talking about the Washington Monument)

    Now there’s a crack in it, there’s a crack in it and it’s closed up. Is that a sign from the Lord? Is that something that has significance or is it just result of an earthquake? You judge, but I just want to bring that to your attention.

  82. 82.

    Mustang Bobby

    I’m in suburban Miami, and I made it through Katrina and Wilma and all the others by using Weather Underground.

    In October 2005, Wilma passed over Miami moving from the southwest to northeast, and the eye passed just north of my place. The house survived intact, as did most of my neighbors’. I was without power for 56 hours. I was lucky; a lot of people went weeks without power or phones.

  83. 83.

    patrick II

    Good news for me by the way. I live in an apartment building near the beach in Virginia Beach that is replacing all of its windows with new Hurricane proof windows. Mine are due to be replaced Monday.

  84. 84.

    Donald G

    @patrickT:

    I am in Virginia Beach too. It looks like from the latest projection, that we might get to see the actual eye of a hurricane.

    I grew up in Chesapeake and still have family there. Fortunately, when I was growing up, we didn’t experience a direct hit (praise Pat :)).

    Now that Kurt Williams sits at the anchor desk, we no longer get the spectacle of seeing him sent out to be blown away in the winds and lashed by rains.

  85. 85.

    Skepticat

    @Alan: Update, Alan–the dune in White Sound has again breached north of Rocky Bay, breaking the elbow as it did in Floyd. Dayum.

  88. 88.

    kindness

    @PurpleGirl: I had heard about it from my Dad & Grandfather. It was terrible. Killed scads of people. No, I never saw anything on that level.

  89. 89.

    birthmarker

    I know this isn’t applicable to apartment dwellers, but during the tornadoes in the south in April, we made a lot of use of our camp stove. If you have one, grab an extra propane bottle.

    Ice, ice chests, gas in the car, water (we never lost our water), flashlights, batteries, radio. Paper plates and cups. Soup and easily warmed up food. Things to eat with the things you cook as the fridge and freezer begin to defrost the food.

    AT&T went out the day of the storms, Wednesday, and stayed out through Sunday, power was out Wednesday through Monday, Verizon was horribly spotty to nonexistent, and began to improve on Sunday. Texts didn’t come in either.

    The best thing was the hot water heater held for 48+ hours.

  90. 90.

    Violet

    @birthmarker:
    In every hurricane I’ve been through, landlines — the old fashioned kind, no the modern VOIP — kept working. If you have an old fashioned plug into the wall phone, you might find it useful if you’ve got a landline.

  91. 91.

    Judas Escargot

    My house (Salem MA) is scarily close to the water, but it’s survived many hurricanes (built in 1890), including the big one in 1938, so we’ll see. Normally a hurricane is just a very bad nor’easter by the time it gets this far.

    For us, it’s all about the storm surge, and if it coincides with high tide. We have supplies and a run-like-hell plan so we can GTFU, cats and all, if we need to. But if we’re lucky, it’ll just graze us up here.

  95. 95.

    Bill Arnold

    I grew up in the lower Hudson valley. There were still many old decaying fallen trees, mostly hemlock, in the woods from the 1938 hurricane. Hoping Irene veers out to sea as usual.

  97. 97.

    PurpleGirl

    http://project.wnyc.org/news-maps/hurricane-zones/hurricane-zones.html

    WNYC map of evacuations zones. Supplements the City’s zone finder, which has been slow this afternoon.

    I live in one of the white areas, luckily.

    Christie and Cuomo have declared emergency situations. Bloomberg has ordered medical facilities in flood zones to begin preparing to move [patients by Friday night; and will decide by Saturday morning to order evacuations.

  99. 99.

    Uncle Clarence Thomas

    .
    .
    Fortunately, President Obama fiercely believes that Wall Street is our Main Street.
    .
    .

  100. 100.

    PIGL

    @MikeJ: There’s no need for hand crank lights. LEDs are good for weeks with very small batteries. And they are now cheap. Every home should have a led head-lamp or two.

  101. 101.

    Dennis SGMM

    Am I just paranoid or is the Republicans’ goal here to shut down FEMA and replace it with the much more efficient, and privately owned, Disaster Response Incorporated? Pols from both sides seem to love themselves some Xe. IIRC, they sent armed thugs into NOLA after Katrina so maybe that’s the new norm.

  102. 102.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    Heavy rain here in Falls Church, VA, this afternoon, but clear skies now. Beautiful, huge cloud bank to the southeast, which I saw walking from the store to a restaurant.

    Traffic slow in the store, which is fine with me. We are actually about 100 miles from the coast, shielded by the DelMarVa peninsula, but we still get coastal effects from Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac estuary. Flash flood watch in effect right now.

    I have (minor) surgery in the morning, then will repair to my brother’s stately manor in Arlington to recuperate and ride out the weekend. Hope all stay safe.

  103. 103.

    Argive

    Someone with more hurricane experience help me out here: I live on the 3rd floor of a 3-story apartment building and have double-pane windows. How worried do I need to be about them blowing out?

    Fuckin’ Irene.

  104. 104.

    Mike E

    @Skepticat: Yowsah…not much different than that other 5pm model. Ohai Manhattan!

    I’ll make sure to eat a lotta beans here in Mayberry, make my own high pressure system if ya know what I mean. Mebbe the Atlantic Steering Current will jack this thing out to sea like it’s supposed to, but dang…
    ETA @Argive, where do you live? If you get 50+MPH I’d worry about pinholes letting in rainwater. Be ready to do some “collecting”

  105. 105.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @PurpleGirl:

    will decide by Saturday morning to order evacuations.

    What’s the amount of time NYC needs for an evac? Nola needed 72 hours. I can’t see how Saturday morning is going to give enough time. It’s a different storm/different city.

  106. 106.

    quannlace

    Hand crank lights. I got some when a winter storm knocked out my electricity for almost a week. One of my crankable flashlights will charge mobile phones too. It’s always in my camelback

    Gotta a combo radio/light from LL Bean. Solar powered and crankable. In the midst of a blackout, cranking does help pass the time. Oh, that sounded kinda dirty.
    **********
    Now as I type this, please understand, I’m not trying to make light of these predictions at all. It’s just from my spot, inland New Jersey, we’ve gone through this so many times before. And thankfully, it never has lived up to the apocalyptic predictions of the Weather guys. What has usually happened- Storm goes inland and has a lot of the stuffing knocked out of it. Or it veer’s east and beats the hell out of poor Long Island yet again. Preparedness, yes. But lets not go screaming into the hills just yet.

  108. 108.

    PurpleGirl

    @Argive: Is your building in the open or does it have others close around it? You probably don’t have to worry too much. I grew up in a 3-story building, and lived another 26 years on the 3rd floor of a 4-story building. Both places had other building close by.

  109. 109.

    Violet

    @Argive:
    Where do you live? If you live near the coast and are in the path of a direct hit from Irene, then it’s more of a concern. If you’re 50 miles inland, not such a big deal.

    When was your house built? New building or retrofitted windows on an old building? The building could give out before the windows do, if it’s quite old.

    How about what’s outside? Lots of trees? Neighbors renovating a house and won’t move the construction mess? Outside things can hit your windows and break them, even if they’re otherwise strong.

    A lot of factors go into making your decision. That being said, the third floor is generally fairly safe. The real worry is for higher floors. Like maybe above the 10th or 15th floor. The higher up, the stronger the winds.

  110. 110.

    PurpleGirl

    @arguingwithsignposts: They wouldn’t be evacuating everyone, only low-lying flood prone areas — areas bordering the ocean and the sound, lower Manhattan, etc. According the article I saw, Bloomberg will decide by 8 am, and then they will want people leaving as soon as they can leave for higher ground. That will likely be inner sections of the city, with friends. The City might open schools in non-flood areas for people to go to.

  111. 111.

    arguingwithsignposts

    Gulf coast experience again. One of the most irritating features of a hurricane is the constant drone of the high winds. A thunderstorm will have bursts of high winds, but imagine sitting in a house for hours with no pour and nothing but lots of rain and a *constant* high wind wailing outside, watching the water rise.

  112. 112.

    Violet

    @arguingwithsignposts:
    It’s damned scary. And don’t forget there are also tornadoes embedded in the bands around the hurricane. So you might also have the misfortune of having one of those go through where you live. Ugh.

    @quannlace:
    I hear you and hope you are right. One of the things that is different with Irene is that she’s unusually large. Larger storms cause bigger storm surge. From what I’m reading, she’s approaching at an unusual angle, which means NY could be more vulnerable. Of course this is if the models verify. Won’t know until it’s over.

  113. 113.

    Argive

    @ MikeE, PurpleGirl and Violet:

    I live in Center City Philadelphia and am surrounded by trees that are at least as tall as the building and in some cases taller. As far as I can tell Philly is on the fringe of the storm’s direct path. There aren’t many buildings taller than mine surrounding it – my main worry is the trees. I think I’ll just button the place up and go stay with my parents out in the suburbs. Thanks for the help.

  114. 114.

    quannlace

    I hear you and hope you are right. One of th

    I hear you too. And even if the storm turns out hitting us in a much lighter form (tropical storm?) we’ve already had so much damn rain that flooding is the major concern.

    Back in July, my lawn guy did some major pruning of all the trees around my property, for which I am very grateful.

  115. 115.

    The Dangerman

    @kindness:

    Is it wrong to hope Irene wreck’s Congressman Cantor’s district?

    Assuming no harm to any sentient beings, I say flatten the district; then he can tell them they are SOL because there ain’t no money.

  116. 116.

    Mike E

    @Argive: Take your perishables in a cooler with you to the folks’, in case your place loses power. If they happen to lose power also, you can still grill out on the porch! Too.

  117. 117.

    pika

    @Violet: LOVE Wunderground. Been with them since they were a Gopher site. Still don’t like the site redo, but have gotten used to it.

  118. 118.

    JR in WV

    I was in Mobile Bay when Hurricane Agnes blew thru between Mobile and Pensacola, FL. I was on a USN ship in a floating drydock, and we put every piece of rope, hawser, and cable in the shipyard between the ship and the drydock, and between the drydock and the piers. And they were pulled tight, too!!

    Most porthole covers were dogged shut, and no one was allowed outside on deck, we had to move about using inside hatches, which were dogged shut most of the time for safety’s sake…

    But we were able to open a cover on the downwind side, and take turns looking out at the blinding rain, not that there was much to see, but still.

    It was terrifying, the rain was blinding, and water poured from top decks down past lower decks like a waterfall. And that was with the main storm 50 miles east of us. When you can feel a ship propped up in dry dock move, that’s one very seriously bad feeling!

    Most deaths in Agnes were up in Virginia, where the rainfall caused flash floods that killed several dozen people. Nothing to fool around with, that’s for sure.

  119. 119.

    Svensker

    I hate that my husband and son are there this weekend and I’m not. My son’s first big drive on his own, which was hard enough to bear for momma, then a frigging hurricane at the other end. Not happy.

    Stay safe everyone.

  120. 120.

    General Stuck

    Just ran the NOAA satellite loop, and looks like it’s drawing a bead on the SC/NC border region.

    When I lived in Biloxi in the 90’s, we had several near misses, the most dangerous of which was Opal. I was living in a shack a few hundred yards from the beach, and at 2 AM, it had a bead drawn on what looked like my forehead, with 155 mph winds a hundred miles out, or so. Tight sphincter time, but it veered to the east at the last minute and hit AL and Fl panhandle area.

  121. 121.

    WaterGirl

    @Svensker: That would be so hard. Not happy is right.

    @Steeplejack (phone): That will be your dermatology-related surgery, right?
    Not a barrel of fun; glad it will be over for you tomorrow!

    I have shared this joke so many times that you all probably hate me by now, but i just have to do it:

    Q: What’s the definition of minor surgery?
    A: Surgery being performed on someone else.

  122. 122.

    birthmarker

    @Violet: Our landline (and most everyone else’s) was out. AT&T brought in things that looked like generators and hooked them up to the neighborhood outlets (we have below ground utilities in my neighborhood.) Part of the trouble may have been that a lot of the poles in the area were down.

    @JR in WV:Whoo. Dry dock in Mobile Bay during a hurricane. Wow.

  123. 123.

    Violet

    @pika:

    LOVE Wunderground. Been with them since they were a Gopher site. Still don’t like the site redo, but have gotten used to it.

    You know about the Classic Wunderground version, right? It’s the old version everyone loved before they messed everything up with that terrible redo. I still use the Classic.

  124. 124.

    Heliopause

    @The Dangerman:

    Here’s a good hypothetical. Let’s say you could choose between the following two:

    1. Widespread damage in Cantor’s district plus one human fatality.

    2. Statue of Liberty gets destroyed.

    Which would you choose?

  125. 125.

    Alan

    @Skepticat: That Tilloo Cut image brings back memories. Too bad those cameras aren’t able to update. Which island are you on– Tilloo, Man-O-War? Or are you on the big island? I wish I could spend some time down there again.

    @Skepticat: Man, I hope the Abaco Inn hasn’t washed away. It sounds like it’s going to be a rough cleanup for everyone down there. How unfortunate for those in March Harbor.

    Anyway, continue to hang in there.

  126. 126.

    Comrade Mary

    Toronto had a wicked electrical storm and some threatened tornadoes last night, but we don’t do hurricanes very often. Stay safe, guys.

    (Can’t find any streaming audio or video of Pere Ubu’s Goodnight Irene, but it seems fitting:

    Treat me like a carnival rain king
    who blew apart in his own hurricane
    he’s laughin’ loud, a fool on a hill
    who should know better, but he never will

    It’s my calling
    and I’m falling
    driven by the will of the wind
    I know it
    and I know it …)

  127. 127.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @WaterGirl:

    Yes, Mohs surgery on a patch on my right forearm. Not really a big deal, but a little time-consuming. Hope to be done by noon. Then an extended weekend. Yee-haw.

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