Hurricane Sandy and East Coast - anyone preparing yet?

[DISshopkeeper]

We moved into a house with a well recently so this is a first for us. Thanks for the bathtub suggestion. We lost power for a few hours over the summer and not having a flushing toilet with 6 of us in the house freaked me out lol

There's no end to what you can learn on the DIS.

 

[LisaNJ25]

There's no end to what you can learn on the DIS.

Lol so true

 

[scrapquitler]

We moved into a house with a well recently so this is a first for us. Thanks for the bathtub suggestion. We lost power for a few hours over the summer and not having a flushing toilet with 6 of us in the house freaked me out lol

It would freak me out too! If you don't have a bathtub (because some houses just have showers) you can use a garbage can instead (that's what we do at work...we have an extra 30 gallon big garbage can with a lid)

 

[LuvsDragonflies]

Don't forget about pool water if you have one, for flushing. We were out for a week, I was lucky enough to score a generator last October so it wasnt' too bad. Just annoying as heck. It was a scary ride getting my MIL back to my house, we were actually driving under trees bending into the roads, trees were down all over, crazy crazy crazy.

 

[JVL1018]

Looking online everywhere for a generator..no luck. My friend went to 5 Home Depots and got the last one at the 5th.

My husband is going out to our nearest HD tomorrow as soon as it opens.
I KNEW we should have bought one!

 

[HippieChickadee]

With the talk of possible snow here in eastern Ohio, I guess I should get the snow tires mounted Saturday morning..just in case

I hope it's not the yellow path!

 

[mamamary]

Looking online everywhere for a generator..no luck. My friend went to 5 Home Depots and got the last one at the 5th.

My husband is going out to our nearest HD tomorrow as soon as it opens.
I KNEW we should have bought one!

My friend was in Home Depot for something yest and she said the crowds were crazy - bought up all the generators.

 

[smkiya]

i am getting a generator tomorrow....if we dont use it,

itll be returned....

DH and I went out yesterday at 4pm to get a generator, and there was only 1 left at the 4th Home Depot we went to! It was $800, and we got it, there were 3 guys who came in after us who were not happy....

A few years ago our basement flooded, insurance didn't cover it, and we had to pay several thousands to have it fixed! Not again!

 

[Nancyg56]

Don't forget about pool water if you have one, for flushing. We were out for a week, I was lucky enough to score a generator last October so it wasnt' too bad. Just annoying as heck. It was a scary ride getting my MIL back to my house, we were actually driving under trees bending into the roads, trees were down all over, crazy crazy crazy.

We were grateful that my neighbor had a pool last October. Our water pump was hardwired so we could not plug it into the generator. I almost kissed our electricians feet when he got to our house and changed everything over so we could use the pump and get ri of the multitude of cords.

i am getting a generator tomorrow....if we dont use it,

itll be returned....

I would not return it. A generator is one of the least expensive little insurance policies you can own. You have one, you test it once in a while and when the storm casters are predicting something like this you are good to go. In the NE we had Irene and Alfred and now Sandy. Just before Irene we had a line of tornadoes. Our generator was a lifesaver.

It looks like the worst will be South of us which is nice for our area but I hope my Southern neighbors stay safe.

 

[kirstenb1]

We were grateful that my neighbor had a pool last October. Our water pump was hardwired so we could not plug it into the generator. I almost kissed our electricians feet when he got to our house and changed everything over so we could use the pump and get ri of the multitude of cords.




I would not return it. A generator is one of the least expensive little insurance policies you can own. You have one, you test it once in a while and when the storm casters are predicting something like this you are good to go. In the NE we had Irene and Alfred and now Sandy. Just before Irene we had a line of tornadoes. Our generator was a lifesaver.

It looks like the worst will be South of us which is nice for our area but I hope my Southern neighbors stay safe.

I totally agree. I used to freak out every time it snowed hard, etc. We lost power at Christmas one year, so we bought one. During Hurricane Isabel, the power was out for 4-5 days. It was such a blessing to have power.

A1 Tink, if you lose one fridge/freezer's worth of food, you're probably halfway to the price of a generator at least. Maybe more if you stock up on meats, etc for the freezer.

 

[Nancyg56]

I totally agree. I used to freak out every time it snowed hard, etc. We lost power at Christmas one year, so we bought one. During Hurricane Isabel, the power was out for 4-5 days. It was such a blessing to have power.

A1 Tink, if you lose one fridge/freezer's worth of food, you're probably halfway to the price of a generator at least. Maybe more if you stock up on meats, etc for the freezer.

Power outages don't happen just with huge storms either. Last year when the line of storms went through our area they were not widespread. It looked like they were on a path and did not deviate from that path. A big tree across the street went down and we were without power for two days. When DH called me to ask where I kept the cords I knew that I was not going home to just another mess in the yard.

 

[Pixiedust34]

Here's an up-to-date forecast. These people are usually pretty accurate.

http://www.footsforecast.org/

 

[monkeybug]

Here's an up-to-date forecast. These people are usually pretty accurate.

http://www.footsforecast.org/

I love footsforecast!

 

[wvjules]

Here's an up-to-date forecast. These people are usually pretty accurate.

http://www.footsforecast.org/

I love their forecasts in the winter.

 

[buzzrelly]

We are in CT and lost power for 6 days last October. We also were the least unprepared out of anyone I knew!. Some people could cook, or had a gas fireplace or had a generator. We had nothing and it was miserable!! The worst part of it was being cold....brrrrrr! So yesterday, I called every Home Depot and Lowes and Sears around and they were all out of generators. But lo and behold, we went to BJs last night and bought one of the last two in the store! Score!

Still hoping we don't get it...last year was awful! And my kids will have a fit it Halloween is cancelled again .

 

[tuckerkeys]

We are in CT and lost power for 6 days last October. We also were the least unprepared out of anyone I knew!. Some people could cook, or had a gas fireplace or had a generator. We had nothing and it was miserable!! The worst part of it was being cold....brrrrrr! So yesterday, I called every Home Depot and Lowes and Sears around and they were all out of generators. But lo and behold, we went to BJs last night and bought one of the last two in the store! Score!

Good for you for being prepared this time! Make sure you have PLENTY of gas! ( and oil for the unit ) We have a gen. ( we call her Jenny ) and last night we got @ 40 GALLONS in the red containers. Our unit is 11 hrs for 5 gallons so this gives us 4 days worth - we will be outta NJ next Fri heading to the Keys ( hopefully! ) if you don;t have the red gas cans, you can fill up both of your cars & use this gas as needed....please keep your gas cans in a shed not inside your garage! Having that much gas inside your garage or house is pretty dangerous.

We think the media is over hyping this storm, as they usually do. I live on a barrier island ( Long Beach Island, NJ ) no evacuations will be happening. Flooding is the main concern b/c of the full moon Monday eve. We stayed for Irene and didn;t lose power and flooding was minor. With that said we will be preparing the same as we did for that storm, moving cars to higher ground-mainland & just dealing with it....also plenty of wine is at the ready!!!!

 

[tuckerkeys]

Ho hum. The coastline is reshaped twice a day every day.



Most likely that will be the case. It's smart to be prepared but some of the reports I'm hearing are the typical "storm before the calm" hype and scare tactics.

Jim

Hi neighbor!

in Ship Bottom, where are you? Are you a year rounder?

 

[wvjules]

Wow, that's a huge "ALERT" area!

I also wanted to go to to Deep Creek this weeknd but I don't want to drive home in the rain on Sunday.

 

[Pixiedust34]

Wow, that's a huge "ALERT" area!

I also wanted to go to to Deep Creek this weeknd but I don't want to drive home in the rain on Sunday.

Unfortunately, we'll be on the road through this on Sunday. I'm trying to figure out exactly when the storm is supposed to hit. It looks like the rain will begin on Sunday, but the worst of it will come Monday and Tuesday for the at-risk areas?

 

[weluvdisneyx4]

I just got a text alert that the Govenor has declared a state of emergency for VA.

I'm in Roanoke, so I don't think we are supposed to get anything too bad, but the way the new forcast is looking, who knows? I might go ahead and move my grocery trip to Saturday instead of Sunday. I am going to get a replacement tank for our grill tomorrow anyway, I think the one we have is almost empty.

I would be more worried about us losing power due to the wind. We had such a problem in this area w/ the Derichio in June w/ no power. Ours was out for only 1 and 1/2 days, but so many people were out for a week or 10 days. (At least it won't be 100+ degrees this time)

We have a well and lack of water for flushing is a BIG problem, I like the water in the bathtub idea. During the Derichio, we had about 15 gallon jugs sitting in the kitchen filled w/ water. We had brought them from my parents house and didn't want to empty them until we were sure we wouldn't loose power anymore!