Hurricane

Good luck to everyone who is going to be affected.
Stay safe. Our thoughts are with you.

Sandy


(GO SF GIANTS!!)

Thanks Sandy, but I would like to take this opportunity to say "Good-bye" to everyone, as we all here in the State of New Jersey are expected to be blown away tomorrow.

Hi - the news looks awful - how about getting OUT of there??
Seriously - good luck and don't take uneeded chances..
Sandy

Believe me, Sandy, if I were on the coast, I would be evacuating! We're pretty far inland, though. Expected to get 75 MPH wind gusts here, which is the scariest part. We've never had wind that strong since I've lived here (15 years).

We are surrounded by old-growth forest on the property. 100+ year old pines. We expect to have to chainsaw our way out of our driveway (over 1/2 mile long) on Tuesday. And last year this time, we had a horrible snowstorm, and were out of power for TWELVE days!

Thankfully, we have generators running everything... and I have to look on the bright side: last year, we met new friends because we invited neighbors over to shower, stay overnight, have hot meals, etc. Our house was like Grand Central Station, and it was somehow wonderful. It reminded me of what it would have been like many decades ago, before the internet, when people got together regularly.... talked to each other... were neighborly, etc. I try to see the positive side of everything (even a hurricane) - it keeps me sane!

Next week's weekly challenge will be "Horizontal!"


Kent in SD

Please stay safe everyone!

--P

I'm a Floridian and have lived through many hurricanes so I definitely feel the pain of you Northeastern folks. Be safe - evacuate if possible, or hunker down and hold on tight. Good luck, and God bless!

Update from NJ - I cannot believe this is not the worst of it. I just had to walk our driveway (to put our truck at the end of it, because we are certainly going to be blocked in by downed trees, and G-d forbid we need to get out in an emergency). There are already tree limbs down everywhere. I was dodging them on the way out, and doing my best to move them to the side on the walk back in. It is raining horizontally. For the first time in my life, I am afraid of a storm.

Our State is going to be absolutely devastated by this time tomorrow.

I wish you all the best. good luck and stay safe!!!!
Kisses
Joana

We just said "adios" to power here at our home in Northern NJ. We have running bets on how long it will be before we are restored. My guess is 14 days. We are on the top of a mountain, and our lines run up the mountain through a dense forest. There are only our three houses up here, so we are literally last on the list of places to restore. I can't complain too much: at least we have generators.

Power went out at 12:30pm in my part of NH. We don't have a generator. After last year's Halloween snow storm should have learned our lesson. At least we still have a cell phone signal and it is not cold. Stay safe everyone especially those in the mid Atlantic states.

Driving rain and blowing like crazy. Still have power. They have a ban on all traffic and a forced evacuation order for all shoreline and low lying areas has been issued. Flooding from LI Sound is the number one worry for those along the CT shoreline. Winds are to reach the 90mph range.

Still have power/cable/internet here on Long Island but I'm definitely the exception... very windy... not much rain. Flooding is going to be bad tonight in all the coastal areas....

Thank you for all of your good wishes! I'm in the Hudson Valley, Orange County, and one of the few lucky ones who escaped without power outage. Trees down, roads blocked everywhere. The County Executive has asked people to stay home if they don't have to go out. Westchester County is a complete disaster; the roads there flood in a normal rain. Still very windy here, but not as bad as last night. As Rebecka said, NNJ took a big hit; lots of flooding, lots of people without power. I fear that when it all clears I may have more images for Environmental Journalism.