What the Folk!

I'm glad to hear she made it okay.
I bought storm staples... Well, let's just say I probably won't be happy weighing in on Monday, ahem, M&Ms, ahem, KitKats, ahem, cough, cough.

Bibli, Sully, SW, how are you folks? It should be starting to get interesting down there. Just rain here, but I won't be surprised if the power's out when I wake up. Hoping not, but.....

Nancy- the storm staples are fortifying and will help keep your spirits up! I believe the calories and fat are canceled out by hurricane or tornado.

I see that a dam in Maryland is in danger of spilling over the top of flooding houses downstream. They say it's not in danger of failing- just overflowing and causing worse flooding for the 28 or so homes in its path.

Vibing that Irene veers away from the coast.... I hope everyone's power stays on and there's no horrible flooding, but it's scary.

Tom and I watched a show on History last Wednesday about how NY is very vulnerable to a hurricane if there's a direct hit. Apparently, there was a horrible one in 1930-something that killed around 800 and thousands were homeless. They said it's now all but forgotten. I know I'd never heard of it. And they were saying it wasn't a question of If but of When another big hurricane hit NY directly and that there'll be major flooding and building damage and people left homeless.

Very creepy and I hope they're wrong! I don't know if they showed it because Irene was headed to the East coast or if it was purely a coincidence...but maybe it made people who watched it decide to evacuate when they otherwise might not have.

Good timing, SC!

I love a good storm, as long as there is no real danger. I hope all you east coasters are safe and snug and battened down.

The river has topped the retaining wall 1/4 of a mile from my house. Go to the end of my street, cross over the main drag and that's the area affected. 2 feet of water is freely and fast flowing there now and expected to get much higher between now and crest at 2:00am. It's too close for comfort for me. However, I've been assured that I'm on high ground and it's highly improbable that the water would ever reach me. Logically I guess I know this. I live in a large apartment complex where the building originate on the main road and go higher and higher up until the last section, which is where I am. And the area where the flood wall is is basically a basin with little old lake houses in it. But still, it's scary. I barely slept last night with visions of myself surrounded by water and I thought tonight I might be able to make up for lost sleep but I have a feeling that I'll be waking up at 2:00 and not being able to get back to sleep.

Tylenol PM? Hot toddy?

Being up on a hill sounds good for you but I'm still sending vibes your way that water stays away.

I'm a-ok. Spent last night at my parents' place west of the Garden State Parkway. Had a hard time sleeping but at least good old Mom & Dad have 200+ channels of cable and the electricity didn't go out. But that's not what really kept me awake.

At 4:30pm Friday I came home to a notice in the mail that because my mortgage company failed to send payment, my homeowner's insurance had lapsed. Called my insurance agent, who is on Long Beach Island and was under mandatory evacuation, to straighten s*** out. Then had to call mortgage co. to find out WTF went wrong - they had three different addresses for my insurance company, so instead of sending it to the same address as last year, they didn't do anything except call my old phone # (which is my ex-husband's cell phone) ONCE, ON THE DAY THE INSURANCE LAPSED. No message to my email, which they have on file, and no message in my online account, which I check weekly. The mortgage company overnighted the payment to the ins. co., who are near Atlantic City, also under mandatory evac, thus NOT IN THE OFFICE UNTIL MONDAY.

Fortunately, nothing happened to my house. All the horrible scenarios I entertained from Fri. night - Sun. morning didn't happen - the trees surrounding the house didn't collectively fall on it, the storm surge didn't flood my house, my roof didn't fly off, gremlins didn't TNT my mailbox, etc. So tomorrow I'll confirm my insurance is still in force, and then write a nastygram to the mortgage company.

I'm glad the hurricane wasn't as bad as predicted, but the flooding will keep things in NJ interesting for the next few days. SW, you have my sympathy. I know how anxious my active imagination makes me, even though my logical brain knows the odds are against the worst-case scenario.

bibliaddict - that is some terrible timing, right there. I'm glad your house is OK, can you imagine the legal red tape if it wasn't? I can't believe your mortgage company didn't pay the insurance bill.

SW - I hope you followed Laura's advice and drank a hot toddy (whatever that is) and went straight to bed.

Wow bibli, that sucks! Unnecessary extra stress- I think they owe you a check for that! Glad your house is safe and the storm wasn't quite as bad as they'd feared.

mock, a hot toddy (to me) is tea, honey, lemon, and booze of your choice. Bourbon for me. When we were kids, Mom would give us a tablespoon's worth when we were sick.

SW, how high did the water get? Did you stay home and if so- did you get some sleep? I hope so.

I also hope everyone's taking pics of flooding and damage...

All is well - finally - here in RI. I was in the middle of a post at 11 am Sunday morning when the power went out. Just before that, they were telling us that the worst had passed - THAT'S when all hell broke loose with the winds really blowing and the power going out. I can't believe my Sunday NY Times was at my door Sun morning, so I spent the day catching upon reading old newspapers and listening to the tv simulcast on the radio by cranking up the little emergency radio I have that can be used without batteries. I finally tired of cranking it up and put batteries in it to keep up to date.
I took a stroll down to the Common Room where some residents were cooking - the generator provides power to the kitchen in the Common Room, so there's a stove that works! They made soup and salad, and we all had a great time with our hurricane dinner - lot of laughs.
The town i moved from had a lot of damage - the water came over the bridge that goes through the middle of town. My brother took a ride past my Mom's house (where I used to live), and part of the road was closed because of a downed utility pole that was still across the road. He said they did a smart thing that helped remove a lot of trees and branches from other roads - they put plows on the town trucks and pushed all the debris to the side of the road.

My power came back on at 4 am this morning, but as of 9 am, 3 out of 5 homes in the state of RI were without power. Geesh.

Bibli, so glad everything was okay for you. How did Long Beach Island fare? Is it still there?

SW, hope it all went well. I'd be having Petrov, Yelyena, And Me nightmares about being surrounded - lost, but happy - at sea.

This is so sad! One of three lost forever:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck7Xtxo2 ... e=youtu.be

That's awful.

Glad you're ok, Nancy.

Wow, I hope there was nobody on it at the time.

Laura - sounds yummy. I'll have to try that this winter - with chamomile tea, I'll bet it's quite soothing.

Glad you & la kittenz are okay bibblez, same for you Nancy.

I slept like a baby last night once I turned off the bloody computer where I had obsessively been watching the local Police dept updates coming in fast and furious the last of which said ALERT!!!! LEAVE HOMES NOW!!!!

Warning! Rant ahead: I went to a dr's appt this morning, didn't know how the roads would be getting there but short of slow moving traffic all was okay so afterwards I decided to go to the mall, not the normal mall I would go to because it's in a flood zone and probably looks like a moat right now. On my way to the other mall I notice that traffic coming in the opposite direction is completely stopped for as far the eye can see, miles and miles and miles...note to self, do not go back home on this road. I shop then I get on the big highway that is quite elevated in most places but in a couple of miles we stop and crawl the rest of the way home. I can't get off at my exit because that area is flooded so I get off at another one that is out of my way and the traffic there is very bad, probably due to everyone bailing off the highway. A journey of what is normally 15 minutes clocked in at about 90.

As of this morning 60 people were trapped in the Holiday Inn by me since Sat with no water or electricity and water in the parking lot as high as the cars. There isn't even a river there. Why hasn't the storm water abated by now? The storm ended yesterday morning, why were there not crews in boats attempting to rescue these poor people yesterday?

So...I was supposed to go to NYC tomorrow but I don't see how that's going to happen with all the local roads flooded. I attempted to reach the bus line to find out what the deal is but no one answers and when I go to their website I get a virus alert & it closes. F**K it, I'm opening the wine.

ETA: Oh, "my exit" as mentioned earlier - is not flooded, the road and bridge on it collapsed. Great. *chugs wine with vigor*

Ooh, SW, love trips that are supposed to take a few minutes taking hours. Hopefully you had a full gas tank.
At least you've got wine.

They think a tornado touched down in my old town just north of where I lived. They were able to track it across the Bay to the other side - Bristol, I think.
Still over 200,000 without power here. I think ours came on so soon because we have so many sick and elderly, plus we're on their priority list. The wheel that squeaks, I guess. Whatever the reason, I'm glad it's back on. My only casualty was a bottle of fake wine that didn't make it through the temp changes in the refrig. Luckily I discovered it, and spent the evening mopping up red fake wine and glass.
They're telling people without power to throw out all their perishables - like they're gonna hear that announcement.

Wow so sad about the covered bridge. I don't think I've ever driven through one like that. The ones around here are mostly stone.

A friend of mine lives in Manville NJ, a notorious flood zone and lost his office and all of it's contents about 11 years ago after a big storm. We are used to seeing images of flooding in Manville but this is off the charts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6b54bZe ... r_embedded

So as it stands now I can get to work but I can't get back because the road collapsed. WTF?