Irene-y Days And Sundays Always Etc.: Hurricane Open Thread
I just spent an hour playing cards on our new backyard deck with Mr. S and Gen. All quiet on the Brooklyn front, except for one romantically desperate cricket who didn’t get the memo. “Um: CHIRP!” “Hurricane, bro. Try again Monday.”
The air is feeling too still, though…so if you’re freaking out, freaking out that you’re not freaked out enough, think the city of New York is being a giant collective baby, or just need to share an awesome “good night, Irene” pun you thought up, we’re here all weekend. Well, hopefully. Con Ed might think differently, but fuck ’em, we’ve got candles and Modelo.
Got power? Check in and share how it’s going, your favorite satellite maps or canned-food casserole recipes, the scale model of the Louvre you made out of Aquafina pallets, how your honeymoon got evacuated WTF, whatever.
And take care of yourselves, Nation.
Tags: city living Hurricane Irene puns for which I should be slapped
No power where I am weathering the storm in SE CT since 7:30 am. We got some good gusts and rain, nothing terrible in my immediate area, but down the road and neighboring areas lots of down trees and power lines.
My sister lost power in NE CT last night before the storm even really hit because the tree in her front yard was so heavy with rain that it touched the transformer on the power line and caught fire.
I’m so glad the members of the Nation are staying safe and sane. I’ve been so sick of people mocking those who were taking any actions to prepare. Preparedness is not the same as panic! If you want to be “hardcore” and not prepare and be miserable when you have no comforts, don’t bitch to me about it!
Yeah, the “Irene: Overrated?” headlines were all over Twitter by noon. It was way less bad than I’d expected, and less windy-seeming than Blizzocalypse, but I would much rather have this — not nearly as bad/inconvenient as I’d expected (allowing that it may not be over yet, but still) — than what happened with the blizzard.
Weird: we had lots o’rain on the overnight (I’m on a hillside, so no flooding on my block – yay), all of which stopped like 11 am. Now it’s 5 pm, and it’s really gusting like crazy. I guess this is the back end of the storm. Only a nano-second power outage so far, about 15 minutes ago. These winds don’t portend happiness, what with all the oversaturated ground and old trees, though. Yeesh.
Apparently there are trees and mudslides all over my train route, so, no immediate service. I might have a forced day off tomorrow, with lovely weather to enjoy it!
Shit. Spoke too soon in my last comment. Parents’ basement full of water, sump pump broken, still no power, my freezer full of their food, everyone is in a foul mood and my brother is being so fucking self-righteous that I want to throw him in a volcano. Also I wanted to read old Dawson recaps and I can’t find them. Looks like it’s me and Bridezillas and avoiding my (damp) family tonight. Cats continue to be completely unimpressed.
1. I just saw a glimpse of blue sky. The clouds are really rolling by up there, though; still pretty windy.
2. http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show/dawsons-creek/recaps.php
Brooklyn resident (Bay Ridge) checking in here. We weren’t too affected, thank goodness; some stray branches here and there, but nothing too big, and the worst thing to happen was the boiler went out in our apartment building last night, so we had no hot water until around noon today. The worst part is wondering how I’m going to get into work tomorrow with no public transportation.
My aunt and her second husband, who live in Long Island (Port Washington), unfortunately aren’t as lucky; their power and phones are down, and it might take 2-6 days for all of that to get fixed (no flooding at least), so if you could spare some thoughts for them, it’d be much appreciated.
Thank yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew Sars!
Maybe Irene was less overrated and more adequately prepared for. We have plenty of bad flooding here. And 7 collapsed buildings. And a couple of storm-related deaths. But I think it would have been much worse if people hadn’t taken it seriously and stayed IN. And I’m glad no public servants were put at risk from last night through this morning with foolish people thinking they should be out and about in a tropical storm/hurricane.
A little soon to write the postmortems, too — it’s still quite windy and the clouds look rather threatening. We could get a few whacks with the tail yet.
If anyone’s got links/info about shelters that need extra supplies, please feel free to post regardless of location. I’m sorry to say I already ate the hurricookies, but we might have some canned goods/water for those in a pinch.
Middle of Union County, NJ here, and we are underwater. My friend’s in-laws ignored an evacuation here, and now they are stuck with water coming in their front door. Which is more terrifying when you take in the fact that they are on a hill, and their cars in their inclined driveway are only seen when the current calms down.
Power outages are rampant, so many sump pumps are no longer sump pumping. I can’t get to my mother’s to assist on street level, and the Garden State Parkway is inaccessible for three exits either way. She’s the next town over.
Lots of trees fell out of wet ground here, spectacularly taking out a few telephone poles on my block. Lots of stranded cars and bridges under three feet of water, but fortunately, no reported casualties.
My Manhattan friends are scoffing; I am this close to punching them in the face.
Best birthday weekend ever, really.
@Tori so sorry to hear that. I give you permission to bitch out all your NYC friends for their thoughtlessness.
Or guilt trip them into Paypal-ing you birthday presents.
I’m getting off easy on the West Coast, but I’ve got family in Philly & Boston so it’s nice to hear how things are going. Be well TNers.
Best wishes to y’all from Devil’s Prostate, southwest Georgia. I have family members who are STILL rebuilding after April’s tornadoes hit north Alabama. Y’all totally have my pre-emptive sympathy and my prayers.
I prefer overprepared to Katrina II any day of the decade.
Watch as Obama is blamed for not hand to hand fighting Irene now.
@Jen S 1.0: Word on that. Besides, according to this morning’s radio, there are still a lot of roads that are closed because of flooding, downed trees, downed power lines, etc. And my brother’s house still doesn’t have power.
So I hope the “Ha ha, you all got punk’d by Irene!” naysayers avoid my sister-in-law for the next few days. She’s getting stabby.
Upstate NY here. In Albany, most of the people live far enough uphill from the river to be out of the flood zone, but train tracks along the Hudson are reportedly underwater. There is a lot of localized ponding and flooding and power outages. Nearby cities and communities of Schenectady, Troy, Waterford, and most of Schoharie Conty are in much worse shape from rising rivers and streams. Lots of trees and big branches down everywhere. Here among the Bad Barn Cats, we spent Sunday at the Church of St. Matress, all 5 of us on the bed watching The Weather Channel alternating with WTEN (our local ABC affiliate). Miss Parvati and her brothers loved all the extra petting, and even grouchy Mr. Duzy Batz was calmer than usual.
My house is safe, as far as I can tell, although I haven’t really checked the basement yet. I’ll go down there after work tonight. My office is open and unhurt, so as far as I can tell, I’ve come through unscathed. I wish that all of you are as well.
Sunshine this morning was blindingly bright, and never was more welcome!
Checking in from “Upstate NY” – really, the Hudson Valley, about an hour’s drive from NYC. Personally had no damage or power outages here in my immediate area, but this morning’s commute was insane. The NYS Thruway was still closed this a.m. from West Nyack to Harriman (my exit) and from Newburgh south to Harriman – so all the drivers who knew the secondary roads used them…and I gave up and worked from home!
My sister, who recently moved to the big city of Burlington VT from the small town of Waterbury, broke the news last night that her former hometown was under water. Poor Waterbury, and Vermont as a whole…flash flooding has been tremendous, and many, many people have been evacuated or otherwise affected. She is safe, but has many friends who were in harm’s way. Two very serious things affected by the Waterbury floods: VT’s Emergency Response Center – which performed wonderfully until they, too, had to evacuate out of danger – and the Vermont State College Data Center, which basically had to shut themselves (and all state college communications systems) down and get the hell of out of Dodge. Nation, send any spare thoughts and prayers Vermont’s way – many of us may be largely clear of the aftereffects down here in the NYC area, but Vermonters will be hurting for a while.
Man. Poor Vermont… I have extended family mostly all the way to the North, but all Vermonters and northern New Englanders have my sympathy, getting hit more heavily than expected. Also, all that rain in northern New England and Canada still flows down through southern New England (ie CT), so we aren’t out of the woods yet entirely, either, though it is beautiful out right now.
Still no power in my neck of the woods. We are in the 80-100% without power region, so who knows what the next couple days will bring. Still grateful for not too much physical damage here, considering, though.
Oh Robin! I want you to write a children’s book starring the Bad Barn Cats! Those are such fantastic names (what are the brothers named?).
I am sending everyone dry, happy thoughts. I have dry thoughts to spare and share, living in Phoenix.
We got hit a little harder than expected in Williamsburg (VA): not so much with rain, though there was a lot of that, but with insanely strong wind gusts. Apparently about 80% of the city lost power. I was without for two nights and got it back this morning; other friends have been slowly getting theirs back over the course of the day. It was a bit surreal last night to go two blocks over and get a blizzard from the fully-powered DQ.
Suzanne, my cat did the exact same thing yesterday morning, though I think she slipped rather than jumped. I was laughing my ass off. Thank goodness she didn’t immediately head for the litter box, which she did once, as a kitten, when she fell into the bathtub while I was taking a bath.
Please take this the right way, but the idea of Williamsburg being without power makes me laugh a little. I imagine all the reenactors thinking “THIS is my chance to shine!”
@Kristen, thank you for your kind comments. If I ever did write a book about the Bad Barn Cats, it would have to be a bedtime story, because about 23 3/4 hours of their days are spent sleeping. Their names are: Parvati (the calico girl), Rajah (the reddish tiger, who may be a Pit Bull in a cat suit), and Panjandarum (a tiger if you look very closely in just the right light, but strongly resembles a cinnamon pwodered donut). The Incredible Mr. Duzy Batz is unrelated to the other three (except through me!) and is a very pale yellow tiger. They will smile when I tell them you asked.
By the way, their alma mater, Mohawk-Hudson River Humane Society, has been offering to temporarily take in the pets of any humans in our area who had to go into shelters themselves. I am so proud to be one of their legion of supporters. If anyone else would like to help them, the address is http://www.mohawkhumanesociety.org .
@ heatherkay: What’s really funny is that Colonial Williamsburg has a policy that all the costumed employees must show up to work in full costume (rather than changing when they get there). Which means you’re entirely likely to run into random colonials filling their tanks at the gas station or Thomas Jefferson in line at the Trader Joe’s.
This is total thread highjacking. But we visited W’burg a few years ago, and I amused myself for nearly an hour imagining career day at Williamsburg Elementary. “My dad’s a mechanic.” “My mom’s an actuary.” “My dad’s a cooper.”
More hijacking: Our favorite photo of our Williamsburg trip was the British redcoat in full kit on his cell phone in the motel parking lot.