Oh, Sandy: Your Frankenstorm Open Thread
Submitted by Sarah D. Bunting on October 27, 2012 – 10:18 PM82 Comments
I’ve got your landfall right here. IN MY PANTS.
Hey, friends. A misty rain is starting here in Brooklyn as of this writing, so it’s time to open the Sandy thread. Information, anecdotes about travel, local updates, and meltdowns if your significant other is like “hey could you CTFO about Frankenstorm maybe, ’cause we live in Santa Fe” — it all goes here.
And does anyone have a storm tracker that’s a bit less opaque? I’d like to see one with a better key. And a crystal ball, since I’m supposed to get on a plane Tuesday morning, like, three minutes after this bad boy hits New York. (Spoiler: probably ain’t happening.)
Carolinas and Florida, keep us posted; everyone stay safe.
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Tags: Frankenstorm Hurricane Sandy travel
Update from Central MA – wind is picking up, and rain is blowing sideways (its really just a steady drizzle). The mall finally closed at 12:30 (Seriously they announced it 5 minutes after I got there) and I’m home now. Still have power.
Wind is officially scary at top of 718. Still all systems go at Far Thill for right now, but sirens are starting to be constant; just saw trash can roll by like it was being chased. Guy currently walking Dachshund across the street needs to turn on the TV maybe.
Please take care, dear East Coasters! We’re thinking of you!
My FIL works at Home Depot in Richmond, VA and said they had $108,000 in sales yesterday. Usually they have $7-8000/day. Uh, thanks for the business, life-threatening hurricane?
And take the advice from my friend who worked with me in post-Katrina and post-Rita Louisiana, “Never go to IHOP in a hurricane!” (He tried to go for a lovely breakfast the morning after Rita and nearly got hit by 2 exploding transformers.) I like the Gilmore Girls marathon idea, that’s what I did in our last major snowstorm. Y’all stay home and do that. :)
Wind = gusty in Philly, but not too scary yet. Is it because we are inland? probably…
Took the AC unit out of the window this AM, then went out and bought last-minute food. Perhaps a “get ALL the provisions” instinct. I’ll have to see if it will do any good – my housemates and I have already eaten the Hurricane Pizza. d’oh!
SoapNet is in our corner, currently showing the “I choose me” episode of 90210. Best way I can think of to ride out a hurricane.
I’m starting to get pretty worried. I’m in inland southern NJ and they’re now predicting the eye will make landfall at ~5pm. I’m in a house with two cancer patients (my father and brother) and we might be driving my brother to a hospital for a blood transfusion in the middle of all this.
Yikes, @Katherine. Remember, make sure not to drive through any floodwaters!
They closed my branch at noon. Wind is really starting to pick up here and the rain is pelting. Power is still good for now though we’ve had a few flickers. Also, there is a nice pile of firewood on my street!
@katherine, that sounds horrible on so many levels. Allow yourself plenty of extra time and maybe bring some provisions along with you? Good luck.
I’m in Wilmington, DE. Walked over to the river (Brandywine) near my house this afternoon and it wasn’t too bad – light winds and a few medium gusts, but I heard agree fall while I was down by the river and I heard reports from friends soon after that they lost power in that part of the city. Power in my neighborhood is still on, for now.
And I recommend a marathon of Freaks and Geeks, on Netflix, to get you through.
I have nothing to add (from the West Coast) in terms of weather updates or resouces, so it’s just: thoughts and prayers with all of you in the path. Take of yourselves and look out for each other!
Thanks guys. So far so good.
A good storm-tracker map: http://google.org/crisismap/2012-sandy
Y’all stay safe and look after each other out there.
Hello from the Lehigh Valley, otherwise known as “that weird little blank spot on the radar maps.”
Not much rain here at all, but wind gusts up to 40mph. The college campus right across the street from us has been on generator power for hours, but we’ve still got electricity. This is a mixed blessing: I’m very glad to have power, but I was rather hoping we were on the same grid as the campus, so that when our power went out we’d be tops on the priority list. Oh well!
Seattle here, sending warm dry wishes to Tomato Nationals caught in the blast. We usually save our worst windstorms (not that they’re comparable to a hurricane) for Thanksgiving weekend, like clockwork: the power goes out and everybody’s uncle is out on the deck trying to cram a partially-frozen turkey into a Weber grill. Stay safe, all y’all!
Sars, I can’t stop thinking about Dachshund Guy. How does that even work? Are you sure it wasn’t a weenie-dog balloon? (it is NOW, badump-bump)
@Kim, heh. More like a kite. But the wind at that point was a gentle breath compared with what’s going on now.
Hope y’all in lower Manhattan are okay. The shots of the Battery Tunnel filling with water were sobering to say the least.
I’ll probably fall asleep in front of NY1 tonight. Hope everyone’s safe and keeps fingers crossed for the NYU hospital workers and patients. Five by five here, mostly — some deck furniture moving around, power blinky but still on.
Just wanted to wish everyone in the path of the storm good luck and hope you’re all safe and well. Sounds terrifying.
Seattleite sending best wishes–and consolations. Apparently 10 deaths reported in New York. Stay warm, dry and safe, all, and especially you, Katherine.
Okay, those nurses who evacuated NICU and PICU patients down nine flights of stairs in the dark? I bow to you. Way to keep it together.
Midday report: Everything’s still pretty much fine here. Our studio is probably under a couple of feet of water, but it’s just couches, and mostly we’re glad everyone’s safe here. It’s going to take a good week for the city to drain itself and get going again, but here at the top of Brooklyn, we’re feeling very lucky.
I’d love to hear from Nationals north and west of the city…everywhere, really. Let me know how you’re keeping. If we can help, let us know. Those of you far away, please consider donating to the Red Cross, or Googling some of our local shelters and support orgs.
And thanks so much to everyone who’s checked on me, here and on Twitter/email. I’m touched.
Bay Ridge area of Brooklyn – we seem to be fine, or at least our building is. The wind did scare the heebie jeebies out of me, but it’s died down somewhat, and we still have power, heat and hot water. Still waiting to hear from some family members and friends. Glad to hear you are okay.
“Okay, those nurses who evacuated NICU and PICU patients down nine flights of stairs in the dark? I bow to you. Way to keep it together.” Somebody get those people some medals or something! That is incredible valor, courage and work from some incredible nurses and staff! I hope all those babies are well.
Glad you’re still safe Sars, and if you have any local shelters you want us to drop a few bucks to, let us know. Otherwise, I’m off to Red Cross.
Midtown East and Yorkville is relatively calm. A few stoplights out and some downed trees and awnings, nothing major. Any restaurant that managed to get open by lunchtime was mobbed; there was a group of tourists begging to be let in a McDonald’s (which was prepping to open but not ready by noon)as if it was the only shelter from the zombie apocalypse which was kind of amusing.
Power was out for 23 hours, and I burned my hand trying to make coffee on the stove. Nice. But otherwise, we’re okay. Well wishes for everyone affected by the storm!
Life stuff has taken me out of my regular blog-reading routine lately, and it just occurred to me tonight that I hadn’t checked in on TN lately. Glad to see that you weathered the storm safely, Sars, and I hope everyone else here made it through intact as well!
My dad’s running his wifi hotspot, so I thought I’d check in.
Mid-Union County, NJ here, and we are fully without power in most areas. The winds Monday night caused transformers to go off in a way that looked like fireworks in the night.
Trees are down everywhere, huge honking things that mostly clipped houses and cars, but some did cause some serious damage, and many snapped telephone poles and wires.
In an area that prepped for the return of floods like Irene or worse (we saw water coming in through first story windows in a good quarter of our town last year), it stayed surprisingly manageable water wise.
My parents and my grandmother saw some branches take out their grills, but we’re mostly safe for now. No heat or electricity for close to a week may bring out the seriously scary suburban streak!
Watching from San Francisco and wishing the best to the Nation that’s currently suffering from the wrath of Sandy. At least most of our disasters just come with little or warning (earthquake! fire!) – I can’t imagine having to endure hours and days of possible chaos and damage.
I thought we’d made it through with power intact, when we lost power Monday @ 10 pm. Still not back up yet, and power company is sticking to the 10-day-maybe estimate. Mostly, they can’t start putting power back until they clear the trees and pick up the wires.
Cruelly, the neighborhood two blocks from me is fine. So close, yet so far.
In the few moments I could access email (yay McD wifi!), I got a message from my boss in midtown offering to pay carfare while the subways are out. But I live so far out, it’s significantly cheaper to drive in and pay even midtown parking prices, so that’s what I did. They’d finally reopened my preferred artery in, and traffic was not horrible when I made it in. I suspect outbound will be a snarling hellscape, but that’s for a later worry.
After a day with just radio, it’s startling to see the photos of the damage. Yikes. Thinking about you, LI and Jersey!
“Cruelly, the neighborhood two blocks from me is fine. So close, yet so far.”
@attica – My building lost power, but the one across the street didn’t. I kept checking and saying, “I can’t believe they still have power!”
Northern Virginia-
we were VERY fortunate; we lost no trees, no cars, nothing fell through the roof. less than 5 miles away, there was road flooding and blockage from falling trees. I feel for you in NJ and NYC.
Thinking of y’all in the Northeast – we got hit with rain and serious snow in our upper latitudes but other than that we got off so very easy here in East TN.
Sars and all – light, love and blessings to you – and may the power be on soon!!
After one day, El Bloombito limited incoming cars to those with 3 or more occupants, so I couldn’t drive again, and had no way to use the trainlines that were working. So another day off. Went out to run errands (after pitching all the spoiled food from my fridge–sad–), learned that the Red Cross had set up a shelter in a nearby community center. I washed my hair, and hied over there to plug in my blow-dryer. Yay! Charged up the phone, and then learned that the neighborhood YMCA was letting non-members use the showers for free. O.M.G. ILY, YMCA!
When I finally got home, half the street was blocked off for a crew from Alabama working in a bucket truck. Hilariously but wholly unsurprising, a whole clutch of neighbors were ringing the sawhorses gawping, barely daring to hope. The crew was being non-commital to all the ‘are we there yets’ they got, but bless their hearts, we again have power!
Can I just say how impressed I’ve been with how great everybody’s been around here?The cops who have to serve as human traffic lights, the people at the Y who smilingly let us grubby strangers in, and mostly the Red Cross staff who could not have been nicer — excited, even, to lend a hand and a handy outlet. The volunteer was describing what-all they had on hand for folks, and it was really impressive. 3 hot meals, snacks (both healthful and not-so) and coffee all day, movies and games for the kids, a quiet room for grownups who wanted to work or read, computers for people who didn’t have them, toiletry supplies, and cots for the overnighters. Anybody who’s throwing their money that way? Know that it’s well spent, and thank you!