bring it on irene

I'm ready. I locked my car. Might go for a walk later.

In all seriousness, good luck to all. The one benefit is there's enough GRM'ers on the east coast they could probably get a fixit posse together and knock out all the repairs that are needed. Or they'd get bored and before you knew it, the house would have a v8, barely run, and be on a trailer to gainesville.

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

makes me glad I am 15 miles inland

I've got my swimmies and rubber duckie packed. We evacuated a number of hospital patients today. I'm scheduled to work tomorrow from 6:00a to 10:00p. Were supposed to start shutting down all service around noon and then stand by for anything OEM needs. Should be fun.

It should be interesting. Between prepping at work and prepping the house, I'm exhausted. The good news is that the gutters are clear, the yard is clean, and now I just have to get some gas for the truck and chainsaw tomorrow morning.

Good luck everyone!

I'm going to have a look at the gutters and will put the generator and a can of gas in the garage. The 2 spare small sump pumps + extension cords will be in the stairwells Saturday afternoon. We may grab some extra donuts or bagels for Sunday breffus in the event the power is out for the whole area, but I doubt it.

Everyone in the DC metro area is on full meltdown but according to NOAA/weather.com/accuweather/reuters storm tracker/CNN we're going to get some solid rain and 35-40mph wind for about 6 hours Saturday night/Sunday morning. Meh.

Been watching all the forecast stuff, every time I look we are going to be effected less and less. Now we are down to getting an inch of rain or so and maybe 25mph winds.

Neighbor just finished her preparations. Stacked her plastic porch chairs and set them in the corner with brick walls on two sides. That will probably work since the winds will be coming at the other side of the house.

I was just out and about picking up a few last minute things. I cannot believe the amount of shiny happy person drivers out there. People are literally in a "OMG we're going to die! mode and are driving like they are hurrying to get there.

Generator filled and ready.
New sump pump.
Deck furniture away or secured.
Cleaned gutters yestereday.
Spare water and food at hand (and beer!).
Race cars safety put away.
Street cars parked as far away from trees as possible..

Here in Morris County, New Jersey, we're about 30 miles inland and we're as ready as we'll ever be.

G'luck to all our friends closer to the shore line!

Monday!! New York City!

Be there!

OK, fast forward the first two minutes)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TlkxMdFifu8

Hey All!! Don't forget pictures. Before and after would be cool. During, even better. Just don't be stupid doing a Jim Cantore thing.

When panic > logic: http://jalopnik.com/5835034/packing-tape-and-plastic-wrap-wont-save-new-yorkers-cars-from-hurricane-irene

We're as ready as we're going to be. Since the g/f's house in the middle of renovation, it has incomplete siding and they removed the gutters... well, the last storms that came through sent a good amount of water through the loose-stone foundation. So to prepare for this, we bought the cheapest gutters we could find and I installed them during the week. Somewhat annoying since they'll get ripped off in a few days when the siding and permanent gutters go on, but if they keep the basement dry it'll be worth it. The side result will be the shed will get a front gutter... and her brother will take some of the other parts since his house has no gutters either.

We stuffed her MINI into the garage sideways on dollies... along with her Volvo, Spitfire and grill and kitchen cabinets and powder room bits and other various odds and ends removed that is hoped to be reused.

I'm friggen exhausted...

That's too funny

Hurricanes are weird creatures. When we got hit by Charlie, things initially seemed fine--no trees down at our house or next-door and no damage. Just the power was out.

Then we went for a walk and saw that the rest of the neighborhood looked like a war zone. No major damage, but lots of trees down--big ones, too. (And by the way, having a good tree guy has been a godsend as lost just one small branch.)

We're ready. We got supplies, we're inland and up hill, neither of us are supposed to work until Tuesday, and to top it off Irene should be down below hurricane strength by the time it gets here- down to the barely less severe tropical storm strength.

I wonder what the dirt and wind are gonna do to the paint on that poor land rover...

I don't remember this area getting so worked up over a summer storm before.

My generator is wired up and fueled. All the stuff is out of the yard. We've got plenty of everything and most of the fleet, except the truck is fueled up and crammed into the garage.

At this point, I'm tired and bored and just waiting for all the bad E36 M3 to start happening.

Woody wrote: At this point, I'm tired and bored and just waiting for all the bad E36 M3 to start happening.

It's funny how that happens. I never hope for the cruel reality of the fury that can be/is Mother Nature upon anyone, but when a storm--be it tornado, hurricane, blizzard, or something else--is hyped up this much, I want a good show.

Part of this I'm sure is because of the fact that the only bad storms I've ever had to deal with are a few hours of power outage, and not being able to go any further than you would walk in waist deep snow. I like snow.

Here in PA, it has been nothing but a steady rain and a little gust of wind here and there. Nothing major so far. The fridge is full of beer, Mountain Dew and water and I have food,lights and batteries ready to go. So far today, I have watched three episodes of Top Gear, one of House Hunters, and today's leg of both the USA Pro Cycling Challenge and also the Vuelta de Espana.

This is NOT a canoo !!

You can listen to live audio feeds from 911 dispatch, PD, FD, EMS, Emergency Management, Public Safety etc. right from your computer at Radioreference.com

Click on Live Audio, pick your state then county, city etc... or for that matter any state or city in the US. Keeps you informed of what's happening in your area... and it's free.

Whenever my computer is on I'm tuned in to my county 911 broadcast... you'd be surprised just wtf is goin' on right around you.

Repeat: this is NOT a canoo

I can confirm the non-canootitude of that. I have tuned in when the E36 M3 hits the fan.

we've been getting hit with some heavy rain for about an hour now and an occasional burst of wind. Not worried just yet, but do expect it to get worse as the night progresses. Last time I walked down to the bay the tide was high but not abnormal for a new moon..

If the fire island breaches it could be a different story though..

We just went out for a drive in the Land Rover, which is in its element with stuff like this.

Basically, just a rainy, windy day. Everyone still seemed to have power, small tree debris on the road, and a lot of standing water. The creeks are getting high, but not to flood stage.

We are in SE PA, Northwest of Philly. Supposedly the city is getting more rain than we are.

Northern Delaware doesn't seem too bad, lots of rain, not too much wind. The wife and I said this is the stress test of the basement. We kind of bugged when water started trickling in, but the French drain is doing its job.

Then we hear from friends who have ankle deep water pouring in. Which sucks worse since many of them have to go to the basement due to tornado warnings in their vicinity.

Woody wrote: I can confirm the non-canootitude of that. I have tuned in when the E36 M3 hits the fan.

Wow. Bookmarked.

I'm from W Pa but tuned in to my brothers area in Stafford Co. Va. earlier, light to moderate damage reported w/ trees down and some power outages, winds were letting up after midnight.

The Richmond/ Henrico County scanner feed has been offline due to losing their internet feed due to power outages. 370,000 power outages in Richmond area, 2 million in the state of Va.

Listening to FDNY Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island Live Audio Feed right now, 3:45 am. Many reports of trees down, transformer fires and power outages... responders and ConnEd are keeping pretty berkeleying busy there.