Prayers for my fellow East-Coasters

[90grad]

Lots of prayers going out to those on the east coast.  I am in Maryland and we are expecting quite a wallop fro Sandy.  You guys in , New York, New Jersey and Philly BE CAREFUL!!!!!

[halehouse]

I'm in VA and the school district already closed for Monday and Tuesday. Those north of us, including you Wayne, good luck!

[Jacko1070]

Boston checking in...........powers that be are erring on the side of caution here too, schools for most already cancelled for tomorrow and it's just been drizzling all day so far.   My best to all and let's hope Sandy comes and goes without much fanfare

[Blind1968]

Prayers are with you, You guys stay safe!

[kbareit]

Already had First Energy send a bunch of repair crews east from Ohio. Hope everyone out that way stay's safe.

[Slider-Bob]

My cousin is home in Michigan today from Boston, and tried to head back to Boston today.  No go.

They cancelled all flights to Boston until Wednesday, so he's stuck in Detroit for a few days (I'm sure he'd rather be in Boston!).

Prayers to stay safe and warm go out to the entire east coast!

[halehouse]

They say it will get nasty, but nothing here yet. A little drizzle. I guess the winds and heavy rains start tomorrow.

[Jim]

Hope everyone fairs the storm without harm or damage ! ! !
Be safe and hopefully you will not experience electrical loss...

[Creighton]

Thoughts to all. Hope it is not as bad as forecast.
Creighton

[collecture]

Thinking of you all!
May Sandy be milder than forcast!!

[Tomahawk27]

I'm a little more inland (Pittsburgh) so we won't get hit with the worst of it. Rain and strong winds here but stay safe to all who are further East

[VMAXMAN]

New York here....prepared today...unfortunately for me....work wont close at all....go figure!

[MaineT]

First the earthquake on the 16th, now the hurricane... What next??

[90grad]

Let the games begin.  It's raining hard and VERY windy.  The next 24-36 hours are going to be interesting.  Forecasters are predicting up to 70mph gusts tonight.  I am probably about 120 miles from where it's going to come ashore.

[jholmgren]

Rain is coming down at a 45* angle here in downtown Baltimore.  I'm getting ready to get the heck out of Dodge and make the trek north to PA to huddle in the bunker.

[90grad]

Sandy has strengthened.  We are expecting over 8" of rain and SUSTAINED winds of 45-50 with gusts of 75. 

[bcharlton]

We, who live in the Northeast can use this time (the storm)  to start or complete one of our many projects that have been neglected.  I am determined to finish my Seeburg 100b this week.  I will send some pictures.

Brian

[halehouse]

Sandy has strengthened.  We are expecting over 8" of rain and SUSTAINED winds of 45-50 with gusts of 75. 

That's what there saying for us too, but so far it's been mostly just a cold rain. It started getting gusty over the past hour or so. The sustained winds and up to 70 mph gust are supposed to come later. We'll see, but so far not much is going on.

[TomFromJersey]

Thanks for the well-wishes to the Northeast. I'm in Bordentown, NJ, about 45 min northeast of Philly, and 45 min inland from the shore. We are getting sustained medium force rain right now and steady wind around 30 mph. They're calling for the worst tonight and tomorrow. It's a state of emergency and a driving curfew was instituted after 1pm today. The shore, specifically the barrier islands are just getting pounded right now. The forecast is a min of 8 to 10 feet over flood stage, and with the storm surge, during high tide, and a full moon, they are saying in areas it could get up to a 40 foot surge.
  I worked this morning, for Fedex Express, and we shut down at 1pm. We are officially closed tomorrow, I've been working for them for 23 years and they have Never closed for a storm. This is going to be a tough one.
   TFJ

[jbrooks]

Its starting to get dicey up here in North Jersey now, winds are picking up.  I pray my garage does not get trashed by falling trees.  There's a lot of valuables out there.

[mznb1u]

Hang in there and be safe!  Looks like it is going to be a helluva storm.  We are already experiencing high, gusty winds in Michigan and we are pretty far from the action.

  Tim

[flippa]

It has been real windy with large gusts, but not much rain in the Boston, MA area. 

I have been working in my home office.  I am surrounded by woods and have been listening to trees & limbs fall all day long.  At least half a dozen have come down right in back of my property.  Thankfully I had several very large Oak trees removed over the past few years; they were huge & could have fallen on my house or garage in such a storm.  I am keeping my eye on a few big ones that are out on my street.  Hopefully they stay intact and do not take out our power lines.

Hope you guys down south of us stay safe.

[jholmgren]

Here in York, PA it's raining sideways - wind gusts are really picking up as the afternoon progresses. 

One short brownout this afternoon, no power loss yet.  We should be all set - I have everything short of a generator.  Bottled water, portable stove, laterns canned food. Everything battery powered is fully charged. 

Hatches battened down, chin strap buckled.   

[90grad]

Well, the Lord certainly watched over us.  We live in the woods and even though there were 50+ mph winds, we lost no trees.  Power never even flickered.  I pray for those in other areas who are struggling with water, power, etc.  All the prayers to you guys.

[jholmgren]

We kept power here in south-central PA as well.  So far it looks like minimal damage in my area, our main office in downtown Baltimore stayed 'on the grid' as well. 

It was a long night as we enacted our DR plan, I'm operating on about 2 (non-consecutive) hours of sleep, but in the end it was worth it to find the small 'gotchas' in our plan and be able to work through them. 

I know there are a few IT folks on this site - hopefully your infrastructure was not badly affected.   DR planning is a major PITA, but it is a big weight off your shoulders when you actually get into an emergency situation and you can pull out a document and go step-by-step down your task list in front of your executives and C-level bosses without scrambling like crazy.

Jim

[tkaz]

Lost power at 4pm yesterday, still down.  8" limb missed my Nova by about a foot last night, I heard it fall and spent the night figuring it was through the car.  Next door neighbor lost a large oak across the front yard again missing everything.  Overall lucky

[halehouse]

I'm not far from Tom (tkaz) and we actually fared pretty well. We have woods and many large trees up the hill behind our house. While the winds got strong, I don't even see any branches down in the immediate neighborhood. The lights dimmed a couple of times, but that's about it. I thought the storm was going to be a lot worse than it seemed.

[TomFromJersey]

Fared through everything well here in Central New Jersey. There were some brown outs last night but nothing substantial. Our shore area was absolutely devastated though.
   TFJ

[jholmgren]

Dan - it really has been an odd storm.  It seems to have really pounded the NJ coast (Atlantic City is under 3-5 feet of water) and it really thumped NYC.  It  is also dumping upwards of 3 feet of snow into West Virginia.  

Meanwhile PA/MD/VA which are in the center of the storm seem to have had only heavy rain and moderate wind gusts.   I've seen worse during occasional thunderstorms here in PA.   I think those of use in the northeast that were not badly affected were really very fortunate and my thoughts go out to those of you on the eastern coasts.

[Jim]

Glad to hear everyone is doing well in the wake of "Sandy" ! ! !