bring it on irene

I am boarding up tomarrow and heading to work

Modern Highrise Building with a raised parking garage for employees to park in.. much safer than the pile of sticks my place is. If I am lucky, I will still have a place to come home too... yes, this place is that beaten up

Watching the radar in Richmond, VA as we speak. We're stocked for Saturday. Got a generator this time around so we're gonna be alright.

Good luck to those of you in the way of Mother Nature. Speaking from experience, she can be a bit of a female dog.

The last real hurricane that came through here was Hugo in 89. 7 days without power. Eating canned food cooked on a Coleman stove and taking cold showers. No cold drinks, no ice and no refrigerator. All that while working 12 hour days trying to put all the power poles back up.

Soon after, I built this:

10000 watts, trailer mounted, and diesel powered. Enormous exhaust system to keep it quiet. The engine only turns 2150 rpms and 13 gal of fuel will run it for a day and a half continuously.

My mom and others on Hilton Head Island, SC lucked out (phew, she's 94) but a brother just finished boarding up his house at Barnegat Light, NJ. Right in the path. It's raised up about 10 feet, though. Funny thing is his winter home further inland will flood like a mofo. It did just recently.

The only way I'm gonna get wet is if Cali drops into the ocean,

Stay safe, everyone.

cpl cases of MREs are good to keep around for an emergency. If nothing happens you can always take 'em for lunch or when huntin'

No chance of getting propane at this point.

Refrigeration will be my biggest concern.

I'm hoping it gets down to a cat 1 by the time it hits RI.

We'll see what happens...

In Raleigh, so no biggie here, but my family has a house right on Emerald isle, where this jerk is trying to make its first landfall. We can just wait and watch at this point. It sucks because we have put a lot of work and effort into the house, but that is the risk you take with coastal property.

It's looking better for those of us in the Mid Atlantic. THe Model Tracks have shifted slightly easteward, putting 2/3s of them just skirting the coast of NJ and slamming into Long Island and New England.

This is better than when 2/3s of them had them inland of the coast.. with any luck, Irene will continue to track slightly Eastward as the day goes on

well.. having just spent two hours cleaning up my yard of potential debris and boarding up my windows... I can say this. Most of the Mid-Atlantic is doomed if they are all like my neighbors.

I have only seen one other person boarding up windows.. and nobody is putting away their lawn furniture/nicknacks/trash.

It also looks like everybody is leaving. The Casinos are shut down to a skeliton crew of essential personal (I don't think the doors even have locks) and the Atlantic City Expressway, Garden State Parkway, and both the White Horse and Black Horse Pikes are bumper to bumper with everyong evacuating.

the good news... 7 tracks according to the Weather CHannel. Three are out to sea, three are over NJ, and one tracks over Pa. Looks like it is slowly creeping eastward

‎Per NBCNews: All New York City transit will be shut down at noon Saturday. #Irene

what is wally going to do?

I just had to add this. One my neighbor's kids.. who I think has a small mental issue.. just stopped by to make sure I knew the storm was coming.. as if all my windows being boarded up was not a big enough clue?

Good luck all.

I'm gassed up, got water and food for several days if not weeks. Cranked up the generator this morning. It runs. Picked up loose E36 M3 in the yard. Need to make a beer run, but other than that, I think I'm ready.

Stay safe all and don't do anything that starts with "Hey ya'll, watch this"

Hang in there, all. Be safe.

fasted58 wrote: guess the price of plywood will be goin' up again.

This is something I've always wondered about: the national news always shows people buying more plywood before every storm - what did they do with the plywood they used for the last storm?

it generally gets ruined. It's usually low grade stuff too, so it is already warped when you buy it

This is why I like Tornados in the midwest more than hurricanes. I'd go friggin NUTS sitting and watching for days on end of this massive impending doom looming over me. At least the Tornado is up, over and done in an hour. I guess we;re the ADHD of the storms.

Good luck to y'all out there. My B-I-L is going to get to see it close up (wall, nj)

Yeah. The waiting drives me nuts. The Cone of Uncertainty is coming right at us!! We're all going to die!! Oh, never mind, it took a turn to the east. OH GOD!! It took a turn to the west!! We're all going to die!! It freaking exhausts me, only because I have been through some bad ones. Glad this one is well clear of us, but feel bad for the folks now in the way.

Best thing you can do is ignore it until it's within 24 hours of landfall. Nobody knows where it's going until then. Even then, the accuracy is only within 100+ miles.

Everyone in Charleston was buying crap like crazy a week ago. If the news says it's going to hit you in a week, you're golden. That's one place it's not gonna go.

It's been windy and raining all day here. I think it's about due east of us at this point.

Good luck peoples, some of you are going to get hammered.

We'll be praying for you.

Here in Columbia, it's hot and sticky with a lot of cloud cover. That's the very outer bands of this thing. Yeah, it's a big 'un but at least it's dropped to a Cat 2.

My oldest brother lives in Murrells Inlet, they dodged the big bullet but it's raining like crazy. So much for his birthday celebration. All of you in the way of this thing, be careful.

W Pa FD Rescue, EMS, River Rescue are loaded up and ready to assist. They've been told they're likely going to the hardest hit areas, they just don't know where yet. Same with the utility companies. Hope it doesn't even come to that.

Be safe.

Time for the GRM Kite Tournament?

Good luck guys, keep your cars on the high lands.

Curmudgeon wrote: Here in Columbia, it's hot and sticky with a lot of cloud cover. That's the very outer bands of this thing. Yeah, it's a big 'un but at least it's dropped to a Cat 2.

yes.. she should be a cat1 by the time it hits NJ.. I am hoping less

What worries me about Jersey is the high tide and surge combined.