Hurricane Sandy -Stay Safe Everyone!

[Diabolique]

Looks like it's going to be a BAD one. Yikes!

[KenseidenXL]

Gonna miss me by a hundred miles.

[Roemello]

We'll be getting rain, but hopefully not much more than that if it stays on the course they're projecting... the worst of it will just barely miss us. So long as it doesn't decide to climb up the coast instead of veering straight inland from Delaware. I know Soloist is in Jersey which is set to get smacked hard when it goes inland... stay safe to any in this thing's path!

[soloist]

Indeed! My area is going to be hit rather hard
since the heaviest of the storm will fall
right on top of us. Local buses hav-
e already been cancelled and t-
he train will end service a-
t midnight. Severe win-
ds and flooding is e-
xpected along wi-
th power fail-
ure. Only
9 mp-
h
winds
for the ti-
me being, bu-
t we're expecting
to be hit by tomorrow
morning. I hope it tapers
off away from us, but I just
checked the latest reports and t-
he opposite is expected to take plac-
e... and the storm may linger in our area
for a bit before parting. It's not looking good.

(according to reports...)

[soloist]

Nothing out of the ordinary for the moment.
The storms intensity has now been m-
entioned to arrive here by later
this afternoon. Buses and
trains are still not op-
erating. I'm just
enjoying the
calm bef-
ore t-
he:

(storm...)

[TStodden]

With an estimated diameter of 1,000 miles... Everybody east of the Mississippi River will be affects to some degree (with a minor exception to the SE US), but those in NE US (especially the NJ / NYC area) are going to get hit the hardest.

I caught a tweet from JusD about an hour ago (3:25 PM ET / 2:25 PM CT) that he lost power, but he did manage to get all his 3/DS/i XL's charged beforehand.

I've also caught sight of a few pics by Masamune (via Facebook & her Tumblr page) of the flooding in her area.

[soloist]

I'm glad to hear Masa is doing ok (haven't heard
from her in a while). We've experienced a f-
ew black-outs but nothing major (the lo-
ngest only being about 10 seconds s-
o far). Wind gusts have been sai-
d to reach up to 70 mph, and
it's evident over here. Wh-
ile not constant, the gu-
sts are fierce! Work
is closed for tom-
orrow (my ma-
nager calle-
d), so I
gue-
ss I ge-
t another d-
ay of rest. I've
charged up all of m-
y systems yesterday for
lighting just in case the el-
ectricity is out for an extende-
d period of time... and for gamin-
g (laughs). The worse is said to be c-
oming, so we're bracing at the moment.

[Diabolique]

Great to hear that so far, everyone is doing OK!

[soloist]

Oh what an experience I had! Since my last post, we've lost
electricity and had been without power ever since. Pow-
er was restored yesterday evening, but for more th-
an a week, we've been in the dark. Good thing
I had my portable devices as light sources.
It was a challenge because once the ev-
ening hours arrived, there wasn't m-
uch that we could do but sleep a-
nd it got dark VERY quick. All
of the food in the refriger-
ator went bad so a lot
had to be thrown a-
way. When I lea-
rned that a S-
hoprite in
our ar-
ea
allow-
ed custo-
mers to rec-
harge their ele-
ctrical items, I sta-
rted visiting it nearly e-
very day. It would take two
hours to charge my devices (w-
hich were all used as light sources,
not for entertainment mostly), along w-
ith those of my family members. It would t-
ake me an hour to walk there since no buses w-
ere running at the time either. The bag I carried w-
ould weigh about 25 lbs, plus I'd pick up groceries while
there for my family. I spent most of the time sleeping and
running errands for my family, but they were getting serious c-
ases of cabin fever (laughs). Other people were without hot water
or couldn't get a signal for their phones. ATM machines weren't worki-
ng for a while also, so it's good that I had some put aside. We talked A LO-
T (laughs). It was a challenging experience and one I hope not to have to end-
ure again. I did hear that a severe wind/snow/rain system will be approaching fo-
r today and tomorrow with wind gusts up to 40 mph, and I hope that doesn't knock out
any more wires or we could have a repeat performance for the dark era (laughs). It feels g-
ood to be back online! A lot of stores are still being repaired and only those with back up gene-
rators were really running. Others had people with flashlights to guide customers to items
since they still didn't have power then. I think by now, most of my area should have t-
heir power restored. We still don't have some trains running, but hopefully those
will be ready by today, because the bus that I catch now is always crowded a-
nd takes MANY detours due to the downed trees and telephone poles alo-
ng its path back into NJ from my place of work. People there speak
of problems ranging from lack of water, no hot water, no electr-
icity, losing homes and having no food. The inability to was-
h clothing was another issue since laundry locations wer-
e without power also. For a week we had to endure
such conditions. Throughout the week, people
would have their power restored. Our hom-
e was one of the last ones to get powe-
r back (late yesterday). I'm mentall-
y fatigued right now, plus I hav-
e to get ready for work so I
shall return some day la-
ter for regular posti-
ng. I hope every-
one else is o-
k despite
this or-
dea-
l.

[Roemello]

Good to see ya back and survived the brunt of that nasty storm! I was wondering how ya made out with that where you were smack in the middle of the worst of it. That had to be a total personal hell to go through... ya must've almost felt like ya were in your own version of "Fallout"... having to walk the Jersey wastelands in search of food and power We hardly got anything here, which I can only feel extremely thankful for after hearing of your experience! Hopefully this nor'easter coming doesn't further disrupt things as you're just getting everything back to normal!

[soloist]

Thanks! After what I've experienced, I'm not sure what more
that nor'easter can do (though I'm sure it'll find some-
thing... laughs). It felt like a combination of Fa-
llout and the movie Pitch Black in a way (la-
ughs). I'm glad to learn that you have-
n't experienced anything near wh-
at I have. It made me strong-
er and better prepared t-
o deal with a situati-
on of survival, s-
o I can appre-
ciate tha-
t mu-
ch. I de-
finitely wou-
ldn't want to en-
dure it again, but if
I had to, I'll know how to
deal with it. My other family
members had more of a difficulty
handling it so I had to keep them in g-
ood spirits along with all of the other resp-
onsibilities which was quite the balance act. I
guess we'll see what this storm brings. I've heard
that wind and rain/snow will be an issue but the wind
is the real kicker since gusts will reach 40 mph. Rain is e-
xpected at first, then snow and back to rain; so these conditi-
ons combined with the high winds could be a problem... especially
for power lines. If I'm not here in a few days, that means another pow-
er problem has surfaced. Here's hoping that this nor'easter isn't as strong.

[Diabolique]

Oh what an experience I had! Since my last post, we've lost
electricity and had been without power ever since. Pow-
er was restored yesterday evening, but for more th-
an a week, we've been in the dark. Good thing
I had my portable devices as light sources.
It was a challenge because once the ev-
ening hours arrived, there wasn't m-
uch that we could do but sleep a-
nd it got dark VERY quick. All
of the food in the refriger-
ator went bad so a lot
had to be thrown a-
way. When I lea-
rned that a S-
hoprite in
our ar-
ea
allow-
ed custo-
mers to rec-
harge their ele-
ctrical items, I sta-
rted visiting it nearly e-
very day. It would take two
hours to charge my devices (w-
hich were all used as light sources,
not for entertainment mostly), along w-
ith those of my family members. It would t-
ake me an hour to walk there since no buses w-
ere running at the time either. The bag I carried w-
ould weigh about 25 lbs, plus I'd pick up groceries while
there for my family. I spent most of the time sleeping and
running errands for my family, but they were getting serious c-
ases of cabin fever (laughs). Other people were without hot water
or couldn't get a signal for their phones. ATM machines weren't worki-
ng for a while also, so it's good that I had some put aside. We talked A LO-
T (laughs). It was a challenging experience and one I hope not to have to end-
ure again. I did hear that a severe wind/snow/rain system will be approaching fo-
r today and tomorrow with wind gusts up to 40 mph, and I hope that doesn't knock out
any more wires or we could have a repeat performance for the dark era (laughs). It feels g-
ood to be back online! A lot of stores are still being repaired and only those with back up gene-
rators were really running. Others had people with flashlights to guide customers to items
since they still didn't have power then. I think by now, most of my area should have t-
heir power restored. We still don't have some trains running, but hopefully those
will be ready by today, because the bus that I catch now is always crowded a-
nd takes MANY detours due to the downed trees and telephone poles alo-
ng its path back into NJ from my place of work. People there speak
of problems ranging from lack of water, no hot water, no electr-
icity, losing homes and having no food. The inability to was-
h clothing was another issue since laundry locations wer-
e without power also. For a week we had to endure
such conditions. Throughout the week, people
would have their power restored. Our hom-
e was one of the last ones to get powe-
r back (late yesterday). I'm mentall-
y fatigued right now, plus I hav-
e to get ready for work so I
shall return some day la-
ter for regular posti-
ng. I hope every-
one else is o-
k despite
this or-
dea-
l.

Yikes!! So sorry to hear that you had to endure so many days without electricity!!!!
Hopefully everything will feel more normal soon!!!! Hang in there!

[soloist]

Thank you Ingrid. It's been quite the experience. I'm fortunate
though because I've heard of people being assaulted by m-
obs at night (at least in two scenarios via news on tel-
evision well after the fact of course). At the same
time, it show me how resourceful I can be und-
er such conditions and I feel stronger as a
result. These situations either bring o-
ut the best or the worse in you, a-
nd I've seen the better after t-
his experience. Last week,
I was just busy at work
so I wasn't around t-
hen as a result.
I'm much be-
tter now.



W-
e've h-
ad an out-
age again on
Monday for abou-
t 3 minutes, but sinc-
e them, everything is ba-
ck to normal from what I see.
While I see that I can do without
it for a while, it's good to have elect-
ricity again! It's great to be back online.