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The wind last night was hypnotic. It sounded like waves breaking on the shoreline. I dreamt I was tanning on a beach. The really good news was that I did not hear the sound of trees creaking and groaning. During Irene trees in my neighborhood snapped off above the root line from the wind and you could hear the wood cracking.
Photo: Charlie Walker / Flickr
AT 8:30 AM when I turned on the local news they reported that between 7 AM when they had 1,200 power outages and 8:30 it had surged to 6K. We are now up to 10K without power. Obviously, I still have power. It’s probably the-wash-your-car-to-make-it-rain effect, I am so super stocked up on batteries, firewood, oil lamps and candles, that I may have reverse jinxed my house.
The NYC news stations are reporting Battery Park still increasing flooding an hour after high tide. Port Jefferson is expecting it’s entire downtown to flood. They are also reporting flooded roads south of Montauk Parkway.
Update: 11.50
Sorry I’ve went AWOL, but right after this post went up, my power went out. Amazingly I was able to speak to live human person at LIPA, and she was able to promise me I would have power back no later than 12:30PM, they beat that estimate by 45 minutes.
Thank you Andy Cuomo for appointing a monitor to keep LIPA’s feet to the fire. This is the first time in 12 years of living here that LIPA has been this well staffed at the call in number.
Update 12:05PM
Local news announcing 21K power outages on LI
Update 12:50PM
The rain has started. It does not fall, it’s more like bullets being shot out of a gun. They are largest drops and it sounds like schrapel hitting the roof.
31 Comments
Where are you on LI? I grew up in Franklin Square and still have people living there, one friend in particular whom it is still to early to call.
I’m glad you’re so well prepared.
Thanks, Cynthia. Stay safe.
Don’t knock those reverse jinxes. It’s how I get through Hurricane Season in Central Florida. My last big purchase was a generator and I have not seen a storm since.
Hope your cable stays up an running and that your live blog continues. Stay warm and dry.
Hey, I grew up in New Hyde Park and used to live near Port Jeff.
I dated a guy from Franklin Square!
Live up in Plattsburgh now. We are supposed to get wind gusts up to 60 mile and hour winds.
Thanks for doing this and good luck, stay safe!
yeah…you pushed them all up the east coast with that damn generator. :-)
The storm intensified during the night, and took a sharp turn, now headed directly at Staten Island, and the eye is directly South of central Long Island.
There’s already flooding in Log Island and Brooklyn. Sandbagging subay entrances ? FORGETABOUTIT !
I’m on th north shore
The probklem will be if salt water floods the subway b/c the salt water will corrode the third rail connections and disable the subway line for weeks.
There are two little islands off the coast of my town. The Mayor ordered them evacuated, but I’m not sure how that notification was made.
About 1/2 hour ago, a tree feel and blocked the only road that leads from the bridge to those islands. So, anybody who didn’t evac from their already is virtually trapped.
There is a back way out via a gate that is chained shut, but it takes you through a public beach, which I expect is probably underwater already. So, those folks are stuck for a while. Big beautful houses (if you watch Royal Pains, they are regualrly used as location filming pretending to be the Hamptons), yet they could end up being a trap for their owners.
Not just the third rail but there are utilities down there as well. All electrical connections as well fiber will be corroded and degraded.
Talk about a mess.
OY !
People on barrier islands. Those of us from the gulf states and Florida know all about that.
A housing version of Russian Roulette.
For those who have shortwave radios such as the Sangeon or Radio Shack or Grundig you can tune into the Hurricane Watch Net which gathers information from local Ham Radio Stations in the effective area and relays it to the Hurricane center. it is on 14.325 MHZ primary and 7.268 MHz backup.
They also have a live audio on the website.
They use SSB mode Upper Sideband.
Good thoughts to you and everyone on the East Coast, Cynthia, for their safety on all accounts and that Hurricane Sandy simply bounces back to sea with minimal damage to the Coast.
These are islands that stick out into the LI sound, not traditional barrier islands.
OKaaayyyy, we just had this gush of horizontal rain. It went parrallel to my fornt window and looked so fake like som low production value Hollywood special effect.
If I saw it on the screen,instead of through the window, I would have said it was not believable.
Who was the guy you dated from Franklin Square?
Now imagine that continuing on for hours at a time.
Stay safe, Cynthia! And, good luck!
We have this stand of Bamaboo along the property line that gives us privacy from the neighbors. The Bamaboo is higher than the house.
Whenever this sideways rain thing happens the bamboo bends all the way over and th tops touch the ground. Also looks fake like cheezy special effects.
Hurricanes suck. It’s one of the reasons I left Florida.
Sunshine State ? In a pigs eye !
Gawker has a gallery of stunning pictures.
http://gawker.com/5955757/battery-park-is-underwater-and-sandy-hasnt-even-hit-yet?utm_campaign=socialflow_gawker_twitter&utm_source=gawker_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow
IOW, inconceivable?
I have a feeling you’re going to see a number of things like this. Can you see the LI sound from your place?
It took me living through 4 hurricanes to buy the generator. I never lost power in any one of them but felt great with my generator which I have lent out to others less fortunate. But after the 4 I lived through, I swear I had PTSD which took years to overcome. Finally stopped being hypervigilant last year. But every June when the warnings come out I get the hebeegeebees (technical term) and go over my list to see what I need. I really feel for anyone who is in this one’s path. No escaping these mega storms as long as we turn a blind eye to climate change. There will be no place left to hide.
{{Hugs}} from Florida.
Wow.
Hope you’ll be safe, some surges expected to hit up to 11 feet!
Best wishes to you and all in harms way back east.
OT– I noticed this. Meanwhile this smells funny.
Just laughing out loud. One person’s generator pushing the entire storm front around – now that’s what I call Climate Change!
But my heart is heavy at thought of the many people who will be hurt, stranded and perhaps killed by the storm.
Hope you’re hanging in there, Cindy.
You describe that perfectly. I lived thru some terrible flooding in New Orleans, so that every drop of rain meant move the car, don’t go to sleep, what’s coming…never did it mean a nice sleep to the sound of rain. you’ve got it in describing the experience. I finally moved and have never regretted that choice; no place is safe, but safer is better. Thanks