Irene

[tkaz]

Been watching this storm for days now, not looking too good for the east coast...the new tracks as of this morning have it coming into Wilmington, NC and up through NYC.  Going to affect a lot of people, and a lot of SMC'ers (Bubba, Dan, Curtis, a lot of others I'm sure I'm forgetting!).

I'm supposed to head up to Cape Cod for vacation this Saturday  ...not looking good right now...what's everyone doing to prepare?

[indymanjoe]

not much to worry about here in mich..i dont have any family or friends on the east coast,yet.just have to say a couple extra prayers and hope all goes well i guess.I thought i had bad luck with vacations.could be worse,couldev hit while you were there.

[halehouse]

I'm not doing anything to prep here. I think it is going to be too far east.

Stupid 4.5 aftershock woke me up this morning at 1:05 a.m. though.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/Quakes/usc0005jg1.php

[bubba]

I'm not doing a whole lot to prepare. I'm going to get some spare water jugs filled up and probably a new battery for my battery backup sump pump. I'm not quite on the coast, so shouldn't be too bad I hope. I had a buddy ride out the storm in the Bahamas, and he said it was pretty impressive, but not as bad as was expected. Hotel was running on generators, but no real major damage..

[RetroMe]

Not sure where you guys are located but trust someone who has been through several major hurricanes ( Andrew, Katrina, Ike, Gustov, etc) a cat 3 storm is nothing to take lightly. I live in Baton Rouge which is approx 70 miles inland from the gulf.  We still had sustained winds with many of these storms well over 70 MPH and with Ike and Katrina over 100mph. Devestation was everywhere. The days following the storm are the worst. Just be prepared with enough water, food and cash to sustain for a least a week.

[BrianB]

Yeah, I can definitely agree with the statment about the follow-on days being difficult.

When wind remenants from Hurricane Ike blew through Southern Indiana in 2008, my house sustained moderate roof damage which ended in a full roof replacement. Who would have thought that 70-75 mph winds would still exsist that far inland from a storm that originated over the open ocean! 

[halehouse]

I'm about 30 min. south of DC in VA. I figure power might go out, but not expecting damage. It will be worse to the east.

[90grad]

I live in Harford County, MD, which is in the northeastern part of the state.  We are expecting 3-6" of rain and 30-50 mph winds.  Should make the power go out, so I gotta get some gas for the generator today. 

[Jim]

Hopefully Irene will head more in an easterly direction an not strike land as much...
If nothing else, be safe ! ! !