Hurricane report

[wetibbe]

Hey Guys:

The great Nor-Easter hurricane of 2011, "worst" in 70 years has now passed me in New York. It's now Sunday afternoon, 1:39 PM August, 28, 2011.

The "wind" started blowing last night around 8:00 PM along with rain.

As recommended. I laid out my candle. Got a box of matches. Put batteries in my battery powered radio. Laid out three flashlights. I have a kerosene lamp.I charged my cell phone. Set some flowers on my deck down lower.

My son pulled his boat out and secured it on land. Took deck furniture off his deck. Tied down garbage cans with bungee cords.

I went to sleep at 10:00PM. woke at 12:45 AM, heard the wind and went back to sleep. My radio/alarm went of at 6:00 AM. Didn't lose power.

I have 80 trees on my property. No trees down, a few branches and leafs on the lawn. Phoned my daughter in Maryland, no events, no power outages, no nothing. Phoned my son in New Jersey, all OK did have a power outage around 3:00 AM but came back on. This morning no trees down, no nothing. We both live back from the coast many miles.

The winds never reached predictions. Only 30 MPH. We only got 5 inches of rain. Indeed some coastal people did get slammed and many lost power. However, the 2011 hurricane turned out, for me, to be a WIMP. It didn't even come close to predictions.

[Patriotic Army Mom]

Great! It seems as if they keep trying to put fear into everything.

[wetibbe]

After I posted the above, about 9:30 PM last night while I was watching the sinking of the Titanic on TV there was a popping loud noise outside probably at the big power company transformer on a pole, and my lights went out, back on, more noise, out, on again and then off. It was actually the trailing edge of the hurricane but winds were only about 20-30 MPH and no rain. This was 12 hours after they eye of the hurricane passed me. So I went to bed. Got up at 6:00 AM and no power.

So I went shopping at Costco, no lanterns, Lowes, all sold out, Wal-Mart completely sold out, tried to go to Davis's short shop and the New York State Thruway was closed at exit 15. Ramapo River. That exit goes to I-287 South, so I took it, no choice. A couple of miles down I exited onto Route 17 South East. Complete pandemonium. Traffic Northbound a parking lot. Three lanes all full. Tractor trailers, trucks cars parked on the shoulder. More than 2 mile backup on Route 17. Stopped at Ramsey Outdoor. All sold out since Friday morning. Beckerle Lumber has 4 stores. All sold out of generators since Friday. I tried to buy ice at walmart - no ice, sold out.

Stopped by Village Hall and the Mayor told me the power company was saying 6 days to restore power. I went to the power company main office and spoke to customer service. She checked the computer and said they are working on trees today and tomorrow, and will begin restoration after that - 5 to 7 days !!!!

Came home at 2:00 PM and my street was blocked by Town Public Works trucks and front end loader cutting up a tree. They let me by. No power so I picked up fallen branches which were down in great abundance. At 2:30 PM the power came back on.

[Twoller]

Nice to hear the first hand report.

Be careful powering up with your consumer electronics unless you have surge protection. Try to turn things off or unplug them when the power goes out.