The mayor of the next town down the line -- Asbury Park -- ordered a mandatory evacuation by noon on Saturday. Figured it is only a matter of time till they kick my ass to higher ground. Don't know where I'll go. Maybe Vermont, maybe find a party someplace. Where is everyone else in the path of this storm going? We ought to plan a hurricane party, either in person or online.

I'm still on the fence about whether this is hype or real. Either way, I'm freezing water jugs to keep in the freezer in case we lose power. I'm on the PA border so I won't get the nasty stuff you will, but the ground is soaked from all the rain and when the wind blows the trees will start to come down.

My commercial fisherman buddy down on the Eastern Shore is pulling his boat out and getting the backup pump and generator ready.

Pardon the re-post, but now that we have a official thread....

Charging batteries, loading shells, rolling fatties...

Battening down in eastern VA, and expecting nothing worse than we usually get when the panic alarms are sounded.

Beebs wrote:Charging batteries, loading shells, rolling fatties...

The man has his priorities straight.

'Scratch wrote:

Beebs wrote:Charging batteries, loading shells, rolling fatties...

The man has his priorities straight.

Damn straight he does!

Was gonna go to the beach in St. Aug tomorrow but they're gonna close the beaches in St Johns county.
Maybe I'll hit Jax Beach. They're dredging there. It might be a good day to find some shark teeth.

They are already evacuationg Cape May and Long Beach Island. The Atlantic City Casinos close at 6 AM Tomorrow and they will be evacuating that city. I haven't heard anything here, but we have cancelled our Satuerday night gig. I am baking two loaves of honey whole wheat bread and making a crock pot full of my famous chilli. Whoever hosts me for the hurricane will get to sample those fares. I am less than a mile from the ocean, so I doubt I will be allowed to stay here.

Looking for the residual effects out here, but got friends up and down the coasts.

OC MD has been evac'd at midnight, though some friends and their families are holding it down because they paid to vacation...can't say I'd chance it but some people are stubborn folks.

Got a friend who lives in VA Beach, but is vacationing in OBX. He is staying there because he's a live truck operator and smells news out. Praying OBX doesn't get obliterated.

I think Irene is freaking people out so much, because as much as we kinda sorta know where its going--we really don't know. Yeah it could go right up the coast, but it could make a left at the Chesapeake Bay and follow that on up. Happened before and its not a pretty picture.

My parents are in Orlando, but it looks like they'll miss the bulk of it

These storms freak me out. I've got a creek in my backyard that floods when we get lots of rain. But it's got to be a lot of rain in a relatively short time, like 4 or 5 inches in an hour or two, which is pretty rare. Usually it happens only with bad storm cells that dump a lot of rain. Coastal storms, even ones that dump several inches of rain, don't usually cause problems because the rain is spread out over a 12 or 18 hour period. Right now they're predicitng 6-12 inches from Saturday night through Sunday.

One time during a storm in 2004 the creek overflowed and we got 5 feet of water in the basement, and a couple of times since then we've dealt with lesser "nuisance" floods of about a foot or two. They leave a HUGE mess inside and you usually have to deal with loss of electricity and gas, and replacing the washer and dryer, hot water heater, furnace, etc. That can take up to a week and going without all that stuff gets really hard. Plus, there is a big mess to clean up outside. We have flood insurance but with a basement it doesn't cover nearly as much as you'd think. And then there's the emotional/anxiety/stress component, which is brutal.

So about two years ago, after the last time the creek spilled its banks, we said fuck you to the township's uniform building code and cinderblocked the basement doorway, which is where 99% of the water enters the basement. That should keep the water out, but the creek hasn't overflowed since then so it's still untested. I'm assuming this will be the test. Hopefully it'll keep the water out. I can deal with the outside clean up but keeping the water out of the house is important. Really important. Fingers crossed.

Huge line of cars in front of my house heading north and east. 75 percent of them have NY Plates. One way to get rid of the bennies before labor day.

They are evacuating Keansburg at 4:00 PM today.

My chili is cooking. I am going to start baking bread soon.

RevMatt wrote:My chili is cooking. I am going to start baking bread soon.

Great minds Rev. Just put up 4 quarts of chicken stew and got a big ole pot of moose chili simmering now. Long as we're throwing a hurricane party we might as well eat like a party.

Been canning and digging onions all week anyway but now need to pick up the pace to get what we can out of the garden. If it blows like they're saying my tomatoes and peppers are doomed.

Beebs wrote:

RevMatt wrote:My chili is cooking. I am going to start baking bread soon.

Great minds Rev. Just put up 4 quarts of chicken stew and got a big ole pot of moose chili simmering now. Long as we're throwing a hurricane party we might as well eat like a party.

Been canning and digging onions all week anyway but now need to pick up the pace to get what we can out of the garden. If it blows like they're saying my tomatoes and peppers are doomed.

Strength in numbers, right? Can one of you guys post your chili recipe?

Easy recipe:

Cut up two yellow onions
One Red Pepper
One Green Pepper
Cook two pounds ground beef
4 cans of diced tomatoes
3 Cans kidney beans
two cloves of garlic
Two packages of McCormicks Chili seasoning
Dump everything into the crock pot
Set for ten hours
Go into the livingroom and put on The Dirty South, preferably on vinyl. "The clouds started forming at 5:00 PM ..."

Clams wrote:These storms freak me out. I've got a creek in my backyard that floods when we get lots of rain. But it's got to be a lot of rain in a relatively short time, like 4 or 5 inches in an hour or two, which is pretty rare. Usually it happens only with bad storm cells that dump a lot of rain. Coastal storms, even ones that dump several inches of rain, don't usually cause problems because the rain is spread out over a 12 or 18 hour period. Right now they're predicitng 6-12 inches from Saturday night through Sunday.

One time during a storm in 2004 the creek overflowed and we got 5 feet of water in the basement, and a couple of times since then we've dealt with lesser "nuisance" floods of about a foot or two. They leave a HUGE mess inside and you usually have to deal with loss of electricity and gas, and replacing the washer and dryer, hot water heater, furnace, etc. That can take up to a week and going without all that stuff gets really hard. Plus, there is a big mess to clean up outside. We have flood insurance but with a basement it doesn't cover nearly as much as you'd think. And then there's the emotional/anxiety/stress component, which is brutal.

So about two years ago, after the last time the creek spilled its banks, we said fuck you to the township's uniform building code and cinderblocked the basement doorway, which is where 99% of the water enters the basement. That should keep the water out, but the creek hasn't overflowed since then so it's still untested. I'm assuming this will be the test. Hopefully it'll keep the water out. I can deal with the outside clean up but keeping the water out of the house is important. Really important. Fingers crossed.

Good luck, Clams! Fingers crossed.

My friend who lives in Belmar just posted on her facebook page that they are being evacuated.

My roommate rented a zip car and wanted to head west tomorrow, I think we'll be okay (thanks for the text RevMAtt) ..Lower lying areas of Manhattan are being evacuated, but the storm's already been downgraded and the last thing I want is to be stuck in traffic in a zip car with my roommate singing Erasure songs. I'm going to wait this out and hope the Barcade has their video games in higher lying areas. We'll see! Right now stores have fun out of bottled water and flashlights...maybe they still have cans of lentils.

As of 3:45 these are the NJ towns being evacuated:

MANDATORY
Atlantic City
Avalon
Barnegat Light
Beach Haven
Cape May
Cape May Point
Dennis Township
Harvey Cedars
Keansburg
Long Beach
Lower Township
Ocean City
North Wildwood
Sea Isle City
Ship Bottom
Stone Harbor
Surf City
Toms River (beach areas)
Upper Township
West Cape May
West Wildwood
Wildwood
Wildwood Crest
Woodbine

VOLUNTARY
Hoboken
Jersey City
Old Bridge
Perth Amboy
Sayreville
South Amboy
Woodbridge

Mrs Swamp wrote:Sure hope that everyone will be ok through all of this....
Please evacuate if they tell ya to....it`s better to be safe than sorry.
We are suppose to get lots of wind and rain but nothing major.
Keeping all of you in my thoughts .

By the time it reaches here it is supposed to be a category 1 or, at the most, a weak Category 2. Not expecting much wind damage. But we have had a lot of rain in the past week so trees will fall which means power outages. And the storm surge along the coast is supposed to be major. Beachfront houses may be washed away along with boardwalks.

We don't get hurricanes as powerful as the ones down south, but so many areas in our cities are at sealevel with lots of rivers and streams, so the heavy rains will be very disruptive. They are closing the NYC Subways for fear of flooding.

Our little house is on a hill, so we don't really have flood worries. But she's surrounded by really big oaks, which drop huge-ass branches on us in your garden-variety thunderstorms. If any of these fellows fall at the right angle they could do some serious damage. So I'm thinking we'll be sleeping in the basement Saturday night (which is when it's expected to roll into coastal CT here). Fill the bathtub with water, load up some coolers with ice (and, um, beer), park the cars at an Agway lot down the hill. Basement party!

uncle rickey wrote:Our little house is on a hill, so we don't really have flood worries. But she's surrounded by really big oaks, which drop huge-ass branches on us in your garden-variety thunderstorms. If any of these fellows fall at the right angle they could do some serious damage. So I'm thinking we'll be sleeping in the basement Saturday night (which is when it's expected to roll into coastal CT here). Fill the bathtub with water, load up some coolers with ice (and, um, beer), park the cars at an Agway lot down the hill. Basement party!

Sounds like a rockin time. I haven't figured out where I'm waiting this one out yet. I am too close to the beach not to be mandatorily evacuated. But I believe they are holding off on that until tomorrow so the tourists can get out of here today. Either way, I'm not staying in a shelter.

Hurricane Ike decided to blow through and wreak havoc on us in southwestern Ohio a couple of years ago...we were not prepared at all. Wind howled all day/night and we were hiding out in the basement afraid the house was going to blow down. Ended up sleeping down there. I could hear the wind howling even down in the basement and wondered if our house would still be there in the morning. My dad had a sump pump running to keep the flooding out, otherwise we'd have been in REAL trouble. Our neighborhood looked like a swamp. ALL the power lines for miles were destroyed. We went without power for weeks - people were checking into hotels just to take showers. Of course, the high school had a back-up generator that powered it, so still had to go to school - didn't seem fair the school could have power while all of us didn't. Paper plates and cold food and stumbling around in the dark...It was awful. I hope that's the last hurricane I have to cope with.

Please stay safe, y'all. Make sure you have hot food and hot water. I will be thinking of you over the weekend.

Sure is pretty out right now. Just got a haircut, some dog food, a shrimp taco, farm eggs and some library books. Dum de dum dum....

We're just about ready. Between canning tomatoes and freezing corn my wife has been filling jugs of water and putting all the good stuff in the chest freezer with some ice blocks. I've been helping. Really.

Beebs, where'd you get the moose? That's some good eats!

Got two loaves of honey whole wheat bread baking in the oven. Plus my potato for dinner. Got a t-bone steak marinating in the fridge. And watching the Live From the 40 Watt version of "Tornadoes". Life is good.

So it turns out that hurricanes are an excuse to buy every kind of comfort food known to man and generally no longer permitted in my house Just shows to go ya, there's always a silver lining <he says as he munches on a mouthful of potato chips>. I swear, I did buy all the things i was supposed to, also.

Roommate and I were unable to secure food, batteries, flashlights or water; however we're stocked up on vodka, limes, eggplant (mysterious grows in our backyard) and figs (from our neighbors fig tree). We're all set to take on Irene! Can someone tell me what zone I'm in because these maps are confusing...? UR and CG, come and get me and take me to your high lying house

Waited in line for a goddamn hour to fill my propane tank this moanin'. Grrrrr!

Penny Lane wrote:Roommate and I were unable to secure food, batteries, flashlights or water; however we're stocked up on vodka, limes, eggplant (mysterious grows in our backyard) and figs (from our neighbors fig tree). We're all set to take on Irene! Can someone tell me what zone I'm in because these maps are confusing...? UR and CG, come and get me and take me to your high lying house

You're always welcome! We've got vodka here, too. And bourbon.