Preparing for Irene

Since many of our readers live in areas that may be in the path of Hurricane Irene TBAT will be using this post as a source of community information and support for the next few days.

This post will be updated as further information and more links become available.

From FEMA:
a list of resources for state emergency management websites and social media accounts along the east coast.
The FEMA storm blog -- which is regularly updated with the latest official news.
What you need in an emergency supply kit.
How to plan an evacuation and protect your home

Hurricane Preparedness (The National Hurricane Center)

Be Prepared (The National Hurricane Center) [this site leads to really useful checklists]

To find an evacuation center in New York City

The American Red Cross Hurricane Safety Checklist

You can find the nearest Red Cross Shelter using this interactive map.

"Safe and Well is a secure, easy-to-use online tool to help families connect in an emergency. People can register by visiting the Red Cross web site or calling 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767)."[from www.redcross.rog]

Making Light's Jim Macdonald on what to pack in an emergency go bag.

Hurricane Lantern (Making Light, August 25) has an excellent set of links to articles on emergency and disaster preparedness. There are also some great ideas and useful links among the comments.

Hurricane Lantern info and updates (again, Making Light) has updated news, more useful information and what to do and where to go and helpful comments.

James Carville gives, A Louisianian's advice on coping with Hurricane Irene.

Canadian Hurricane Current Conditions - Hurricane Track Information
Links to the provincial emergency management organizations.

The ASPCA -- disaster-preparedness for people with pets.
Note: New York City evacuation centers are pet friendly

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The Board Administration Team
(hapax, Kit Whitfield and mmy)



Comments

[cjmr]

My across the street neighbor just cut down a 50-foot tall dead tree in his yard as hurricane preparation. That was interesting to watch.

[MercuryBlue]

Debating with myself whether to bring my computer upstairs. I'm not bringing up any of the peripherals, monitor or keyboard or such, or anything stashed in the computer desk, but if the water gets high enough to threaten my computer (which it shouldn't, because we're in an area that has under a point two percent chance of flooding) all that stuff is trash. And there's thunder, so computer's going off regardless. See you on the flip side.

[Mmy]

@MercuryBlue: Having lived through a flood I would move anything you care a lot about to higher ground immediately. Floods are relentless and can move wayyyyy faster than one expects.

Definitely unplug everything you care about.

And take care of yourself.

[Literata]

Thanks, TBAT, for this post/thread. Everyone take care and stay safe.

[Indiana Joe]

Thanks for posting the info! Hopefully we won't need it...

[QuantumLobster]

Thanks for the info. Here in CT, we'll get hit Sunday, and the eye (so far) is projected to go right down the middle of the state. Got my supplies, and filled every empty 2-liter pop bottle in the house with water (why spend the money on bottled water when I've got all those empty bottles and a tap?).

[Invisible Neutrino]

Best of luck, everyone, and please be safe and well.

[Kit Whitfield]

Plus, with computers, I'd suggest getting a flashdrive or two, saving the important stuff and keeping them in your pockets or round your neck. And/or if you can't afford that, set up a free account with hotmail, yahoo or gmail, and e-mail yourself the essentials as attachments. Just in case.

Good luck, everyone.

[Coleslaw]

Don't just set aside water for drinking. As a Facebook friend put it

As a battle-hardened Katrina veteran, I recommend to all of the people on the east coast that if you plan to stick it out, you need to think of how to handle your bathroom needs now BEFORE the water pressure goes out.

Saving some buckets, barrels, or bathtubs of water for non-drinking purposes is a good idea. Before Gustave, hubby and I froze extra ice cubes and bagged and saved them in a cooler,too.

[MercuryBlue]

I'm back for a bit. Flash drive and external hard drive are in my purse upstairs with all the important things on them. My dad keeps saying there will be no flood (did I mention the map that shows us in a less-than-point-two-percent-chance-of-flood zone?) and I'm trying to believe him.

I made it through Hurricane Erin and Erin was stronger than Irene is. I made it through Hurricane frigging Opal and Hurricane frigging Georges and both were much stronger than Irene is. Why do I keep flipping out over Georges?

[MercuryBlue]

And why did I type Georges there instead of Irene?

[Literata]

I know we have some people here who also post at Making Light, but for those who haven't seen them, may I suggest the classics Real emergency preparedness and Tips for an apocalypse? If you're not in Irene's path and you're the appropriate kind of geek, you might settle down and enjoy some fascinating reading in Jim MacDonald's medical posts over there too.

[Mmy]

@Literata: Thanks -- I forgot about those classics. I just checked out Making Light and they have collected the posts you found (and some other great information) into two posts. I have added them to the Preparing for Irene post.

[Literata]

Thanks, mmy! Glad they were useful.

[Ross]

Hey all. Not that anyone knew to worry, but I was out last week on a cruise down to the Bahamas. We turned around and booked it after a day in Freeport, dropping one of our ports of call and cutting a day off our trip. Friday night, as we got back into range of cell service, I found out that my parents had been evacuated and had shown up at my house, scaring our cat and the friend we'd asked to come watch our cat. (Someday when it is more relevant, I will comment at length on how everyone in Freeport thought it was absolutely fantastic to live in a tax-free city (Or as the people I met all said "What we have at this time is what is called 'tax-free'), and didn't seem to think it was odd that about 2/3 of the city had been closed for repairs since 2004.)

The other day, the weather channel kept making me feel old, but saying, over and over "For most people on the east coast, this is the worst weather they have ever seen in their lives. The last time a hurricane this strong hit the region was Hurricane Gloria in 1985!"

I remember hurricane gloria. We got the day off school and dad ran the little 4 inch TV off of a car battery

[Froborr]

Good news for us DC-ans, Irene is passing well to the east of us, but it looks like Delmarva is going to get hit pretty hard. I know that's where Fred lives. Anybody else out there? You folks prepared and ready?

[MercuryBlue]

We're as ready as we're getting. Dad says we've been through worse thunderstorms. While we were here, so it's not like he's counting Hurricane Opal or Hurricane Georges. Right now my main problem is boredom.

[Coleslaw]

http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/08/26/carville.hurricane.irene/index.html

A list of hurricane tips from James Carville

[cjmr]

We're all ready for whatever decides to hit us here in central MA. (So far it's been about 1.5 inches of rain in 30 minutes!) Now we are sitting around being bored, mostly.

[MercuryBlue]

Power went out about ten minute after I commented last. Back now, obviously, but who knows how long that'll last.

[Ross]

@Froborr: My parents and sister live on the eastern shore. Mom and dad have evacuated to my house, but my sister has elected to Stick It Out. She's in a slightly better position than they were, since she's not on an island, but I still think it was a bad decision. She says she'll pack up the baby and head to some friends over in Denton if it gets dangerous.

[sarah]

Philly's supposed to get 45-65 mph winds and 6-12 inches of rain. We've taken everything on our porch inside and filled up lots of pots and buckets with water. It's raining now--winds are supposed to pick up tonight.

We're a little worried about the sycamore tree in front of the house. It's growing out of the sidewalk, so we don't know how deep the roots are. Lots of heavy branches, too.

We'll see. I think it's going to be a lot of hunkering down and waiting it out.

[J. Random Scribbler]

I can't recommend James Macdonald's advice (linked in the main post) highly enough. He's been an EMT for many years, and is a veteran of enough New Hampshire winters that he knows what it's really like to be without power or transportation for multiple days. Aside from that, his advice is very lucid and readable, probably due to the fact that he's also an experienced author.

Another recommendation I heard at Making Light was to have a box of kitty litter along with the water and bucket(s) you've set aside for toilet needs. If you ever need to use that bucket, drop in a scoop of litter when you're done. It'll do what it was designed to do, leaving you with less odor and an easier cleanup later on.

Also, if you've got any empty space in your refrigerator or freezer, fill bottles of water about 4/5 full and stuff them in there. If the power goes out, the bottles will keep your food chilled much longer, and lessen the effect of opening the door to get something out. Just don't put water in the freezer after the power goes out!

Ross: I've heard multiple times over the years that people shouldn't plan to leave "if things get bad". That's when everybody who had the same plan, or no plan at all, will be trying to leave all together. Ross, I wish your sister luck!

Beyond that, I wish all of you luck, and nothing worse than boredom. Apparently Irene isn't as bad as first feared, but that's small comfort to those in its path. Hang in there, and stay safe!

[MercuryBlue]

Checking in. Power blipped twice just now. Other than that we've been fine.

Irene's a Cat 1. Cat ones are piddly little things. The problem with Irene is that it is not little. I'm not sure, but I think Irene might be comparable in size to Katrina, and Katrina basically covered the entire Gulf.

[Amaryllis]

My daughter has just come to me with a dreadful thought: what if the power goes out during tonight's episode of Dr. Who?

O, the horror...

Seriously, stay safe, everyone, and may nothing worse than boredom befall us.

[Literata]

Thanks, MB - good to know things are mostly okay.

Southern DC area is getting wind and rain but nothing terribly destructive right now. May the Powers That Be grant it remains so!

[Froborr]

My daughter has just come to me with a dreadful thought: what if the power goes out during tonight's episode of Dr. Who?

Eh, it was actually pretty mediocre IMO. My fiancee liked it rather better than me, though.

[Laiima]

We are in northern Baltimore County, and outside of normal winds for a stormy day, we've only had nine hours of slow, steady rain. Not even torrential rain.

[Jon Maki]

Northern Virginia - or at least my part of it - is wet and a bit windy, but it doesn't seem to be anything terribly remarkable. Not even as bad as a standard summer storm. I don't think I've even heard any sirens, which I would hear a lot of during a standard summer storm.

[Ross]

@Jon Maki: In the county where I grew up, you won't hear any sirens. They've announced that it's too dangerous to keep emergency services operating, and if you call 911, they'll be very apologetic, and not send you any help.

[Literata]

We seem to be just about out of the rain here. No visible damage, thanks be to all the Powers. My thoughts and prayers are with all those further up the coast, especially in NYC.

[MercuryBlue]

Checking in. Internet was out all night. The worst seems to be past us.

[Ross]

Hey. Guess who in all the world is happy about Hurricane Irene: (Hint: it's Glenn Beck): (tw: Exactly what it says on the tin)Hurricane Irene is a blessing

(Note: He is arguing from a religious perspective, not a political one. But not even a "As christians, we want to find some way to see God's majesty even in stuff like this" religious perspective. More of a "See! We TOLD you you should be hoarding! This justifies my religion's position!" thing. Not that it't a contest, but to me, that is squarely in the middle of my mental chart of how much of a douchebag he could have been about this.)

[cjmr]

So far we've had four hours of power loss (it's back on now) and half a tree down (fortunately it fell to block the road, not hit the house). And we're about halfway through the storm--what's left of the eye is supposed to pass us around 2 p.m.

[Jon Maki]

It's still a bit windy here, but it's sunny and warm. It doesn't appear that my neck of the woods suffered any ill effects, thankfully.
Hopefully everyone else has fared well, too.
Utterly coincident with the weather, my main computer's UPS decided to die late last night, so this morning I went out to buy a new one. I've been meaning to upgrade to a better one anyway, so this seemed like as good a time as any. Unfortunately, along with all of the other emergency shopping, people decided to stock up on battery back-ups, so my choices were limited and I ended up getting more or less the same one I already had.
But, if that's all I have to complain about...

@Ross: Normally, during a run-of-the-mill thunderstorm around here the power surges enough to set off alarms at various businesses and whatnot, so the fire department is constantly on the go to investigate/turn the alarms off.

On a totally unrelated note, as of today I've been sober for 11 years. I mention this here, as I do every year, not because I'm seeking praise or congratulations (but thanks in advance to anyone who provides such), but rather in the hope that if there's anyone out there who needs it, reading it will provide at least some amount of hope, or inspiration, or...something. I'd be lying if I said it's easy, but it gets easier, eventually, and in time you may find that, like me, it's no longer really even muich of a consideration.

[Invisible Neutrino]

*thumbs up to Jon Maki*

A note: Canadians in Atlantic Canada may still be at risk from the storm so if any of you are in the Atlantic provinces, stay safe!

[Froborr]

Congrats, Jon Maki!

Yeah, we're high and dry here in SW DC, not even a power outage.

My sister in Virginia Beach was evacuated, but they went back today and said it looks like their house made it through unscathed.

So far, what I've been hearing says it's nowhere near as bad as it could have been. However, as Amanda Marcotte points out this morning,, there may be a self-selection bias at work: We're only hearing from people who still have Internet.

Still, my hopes are high that this turns out, in hindsight, to have been relatively minor.

[MercuryBlue]

Internet keeps being in and out. Ditto cable. Something's up with the local Comcast. Bah. BAH I SAY.

Congratulations, Jon.

[Indiana Joe]

Well, it's pretty much over in CT. Nothing lost except one tree that I wanted taken down anyway.

[cjmr]

Definitely not as bad as it could have been.

We had more damage than we did with Isabel(2003), though.

It's going to be interesting trying to cut up half a maple tree with no chain saw.

[Ruby]

Congrats, Jon. Way to go!

[Andy]

Adding to all the congratulations for Jon. A great accomplishment!