My 2010 Liftback; Feels like I just gave birth!

[enviri]

yeah we're ok. loss of power going on 3days now.

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by CTScott

We came through unscathed, but are now going on 48 hours without power, thanks to two trees that are hanging in the power lines at the entrance to our neighborhood. Fortunately, we have a generator, but it is still a hassle. I really feel bad for the people who lost their homes and those who will be heading into this cold weekend without power.

Glad to hear all is okay except normal delivery of power. I closed on my house a couple of weeks before Hurricane Ike, so 99+% of my belongings were still out of state. I purpously picked the lot that I did (and paid extra for it) in order to be on a corner and to have a great view of a forested area BUT be just far enough from the trees that if they were uprooted and fell over, they wouldn't hit my house. We also have true underground utilities in my specific area. I volunteered for a couple of weeks in the 9th Ward in New Orleans earlier in 2008 for Habitat for Humanity, and 3 years later much of the area was still as the storm left it. I also happened to be in Houston in 2007 during Tropical Storm Erin and couldn't leave my hotel (11 inches of rain in that specific area in a little over 24 hours). The Wikipedia entry for Hurricane Rita has been completely revamped, but it used to have only one photo on the page --- the contraflow of all lanes North on I-45 near Woodlands Parkway in complete gridlock re people trying to leave at the last minute. Taking all of this into consideration, I decided to evacuate the area ahead of Hurricane Ike.

I left in the late morning on September 11th 2008 and headed up US 59 toward Lufkin and then Shreveport, LA. I spent that night in Shreveport and got the last room in my hotel. The desk clerk told me the hotel was mostly filled with people fleeing a potential hit from Hurricane Ike. The room I snagged was actually only available for that night and the entire hotel was already booked for the next night. I'd never been to Graceland, so I decided to spend the next night -- the night of the hurricane (9-12-08 to 9-13-08) in Memphis and go to Graceland the next day. I drove toward Memphis the next day and stopped just short of Little Rock, AR at a Starbucks to let rush hour pass by and catch up on a couple of things. I came across a picture on the internet (posted just a few minutes earlier) that showed a car at a point on US 59 where I had been almost exactly 24 hours earlier. I had sailed through that stretch with no traffic. The picture showed the person and car 24 hours later in a virtual parking lot on this rairly rural stretch of US 59. Rush hour passed, and I continued toward Memphis and arrived at my hotel there. I watched some weather news and then went to bed, sleeping through the time Ike was hitting the Houston area. Ike continued through Arkansas and eventually up into the rust Belt and beyond. I walked outside in the morning and looked out over the balcony. The wind (and Memphis is 135 miles East of Little Rock) had picked up ALL of the outdoor furniture in the pool area and deposited ALL of it INTO the pool. Outdoor furniture from other areas was also strewn in new areas. I stayed one more night and was back at my house on the 15th, 2 days after Ike hit. My next door neighbors had ridden out the storm in a building one of their sons owns and they were fine and their house was fine. My neighbors next to them decided to stay in their house and ride it out. He is one tough soldier (literally) and still serves reserve duty when duty calls. He said his house shook and HE and his family were scared. He, his house,and his family ended up being fine. the day after I returned he was being lowered onto Galveston Island (a little over 70 miles from us) on a wire out of a helicopter -- something to do with his reserve duty. I never did go down to look at Galveston Island. Parts of it (I heard and saw pictures) seem similar to damage caused from Sandy. Ike was a much stronger (than Sandy) Category 4, but it was 'only' 600 miles wide (vs 900) and was hitting, obviously, a MUCH less populated metro area.

During construction of my house , my construction manager kept mentioning that hurricane clips were being used in the construction of my house and that this was above code (hurricane clips aren't required here once you get more than 50 miles inland from the Gulf). I had my house inspected after Ike and the inspector said all was finer and added "this is a really well built house". Considering that the storm (I'm told) was at 108-112 mph (high Category 2, low Category 3) as it moved through my subdivision, I was pretty happy.

I needed to get gas the day after I got back. I spent about 4 hours in line at one station and then they ran out of gas. Then I spent 2 1/2 hours in line at another station and then someone drove by and said another station nearby now had electricity and had just opened about a mile away. i drove to that station and was able to fill up about 30 minutes later. Seven hours in gas lines, 3 days after the storm. Given the much higher per square mile concentration of people in much of the Northeast (as well as other factors) the gas scenario (in your Tri-State area especially) appears to be 'orders of magnitude' worse. This might be one time that the mandatory attendant law in New Jersey is actually beneficial and keeps tensions from coming to a boiling point in a normally routine situation.

We had water and gas service in my subdivision after Ike, but we didn;t have power for 3 weeks. In general, those of us who are single just toughed it out and families bought generators. there were downed trees and downed power lines for miles in each direction. There are many Starbucks in my area and many of them were able to get generators. The ones that did were constantly packed. People were sitting on the floor and half the time even the floor was full and people had to go outside...no AC outlets outside. Without power at home, many people were deprived of internet connections (remember this was pre 4G and pre iPad), and the WiFi network at Starbucks was up. An amazing number of out of state insurance adjusters were working out of these Starbucks locations. The only two things that bugged me re the after math (other than 3 weeks without power inside my house) were parking outside (re now power for my garage door opener) and the exhaust fumes that hund in our neighborhood from all of the generators. All in all, microscopic, trivial annoyances compared to what others went through and what so many Sandy victims are going through.

My heart goes out to all of you who are suffering through the aftermath of Sandy.

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by enviri

yeah we're ok. loss of power going on 3days now.

(hope you get your power back soon )

[DeathBeard]

I wish I was located near ctscott

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by DeathBeard

I wish I was located near ctscott

When I wondered how CTScott and his family were faring through the aftermath of Sandy, my next thought was that he is probably more prepared for what might happen than anyone in Connecticut except the military.

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by nookandcrannycar

When I wondered how CTScott and his family were faring through the aftermath of Sandy, my next thought was that he is probably more prepared for what might happen than anyone in Connecticut except the military.

Here's a facebook PM I received from one of my neighbor's this week, during the outage:


"Dude it wasn't very nice to have all the lights on and the big screen going. My wife is very angry with me for not getting a generator installed."

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by CTScott

Here's a facebook PM I received from one of my neighbor's this week, during the outage:


"Dude it wasn't very nice to have all the lights on and the big screen going. My wife is very angry with me for not getting a generator installed."

I knew it!

[bewley]

Hey Nook, Thanks for thinking about all of us. Things are pretty crazy here. Lots of friends with no electric still. No heat and sometimes no working toilet, now for weeks. It's pretty crazy. The gas shortage is pretty crazy, I'm sure it's just as bad in CT and probably even worse in Jersey. And now many places aren't allowing people to fill containers. My friends in Red Hook all offered up their drowned cars to the people who needed gas for generators and we went around siphoning last week. Enviri, I'm really sorry about the damage to your car. Hope you guys who lost power finally got it back.

[enviri]

in the beach areas in CT, everyone's in a shelter waiting for the insurance to deem the houses to be condemned or not. everyone about 1.5mile away from shore, life is normal. Gas is like normal, or near normal. The damages are small dents. nothing big. It's one of those things that irk you for the first few days then it's like..."eh, not worth the 300$ per dent fix"

[bewley]

i know what you mean. it's so weird to go inland in Brooklyn where life is virtually normal (except the gas lines) and then go to Red Hook, or worse, the Rockaways, where everything is still so, so bad. My family at least has power (except my sister) now because of course the priority was getting Manhattan sorted (downtown was dark for almost a week and driving down there was eery if awesome). I have about twelve friends, all in Red Hook, who had to move permanently and lost almost everything. And our friends who own businesses there are screwed. People have been amazing though. My husband was on BBC World News (he's English) and after his friends saw it, manyl donated money (and because of the exchange rate, they donated quite a bit) So many volunteers and donations in Red Hook, it does warm my heart. I'm just sad for all of the people who are trapped on the higher floors of the projects (http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/...icle-1.1197748), that sounds like total hell. switching castes, I was in Southport last week. I helped my aunt and visited a friend who moved up there recently. The fire fighters are awesome up there and they drove over a truck to power her sump pump. The gas situation was not great then so I thought it would be worse by now. i had to drive north on Post Road to find a station both with power and fuel but not too much of a wait once I found one. Glad the dents aren't too bad.

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by bewley

Hey Nook, Thanks for thinking about all of us. Things are pretty crazy here. Lots of friends with no electric still. No heat and sometimes no working toilet, now for weeks. It's pretty crazy. The gas shortage is pretty crazy, I'm sure it's just as bad in CT and probably even worse in Jersey. And now many places aren't allowing people to fill containers. My friends in Red Hook all offered up their drowned cars to the people who needed gas for generators and we went around siphoning last week. Enviri, I'm really sorry about the damage to your car. Hope you guys who lost power finally got it back.

Thanks. I feel for those suffering even more with the Nor'easter hitting all of you. I've heard good things about people in CT seeking customer service re their utilities (phone numbers being manned by actual people 24/7) and the opposite about LIPA. I've heard some LIPA representatives have been rude and that the phone number listed on the notices they leave when people aren't home is not manned by a person at any time. I've heard that some people in Nassau and Suffolk Counties are so frustrated with the Long Island Power Authority that they want the military to come in and be in charge of the power until all power is restored. I also heard about the tent city on the grounds of a racetrack in New Jersey that can serve 4,000 people. It sounds as though local law enforcement and the USMC and other emergency personnel are doing a great job serving at that site. So much need. So much will need to be done for so long. Hopefully at least some of the rebuilds will incorporate some building strategies from hurricane prone areas.

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by bewley

i know what you mean. it's so weird to go inland in Brooklyn where life is virtually normal (except the gas lines) and then go to Red Hook, or worse, the Rockaways, where everything is still so, so bad. My family at least has power (except my sister) now because of course the priority was getting Manhattan sorted (downtown was dark for almost a week and driving down there was eery if awesome). I have about twelve friends, all in Red Hook, who had to move permanently and lost almost everything. And our friends who own businesses there are screwed. People have been amazing though. My husband was on BBC World News (he's English) and after his friends saw it, manyl donated money (and because of the exchange rate, they donated quite a bit) So many volunteers and donations in Red Hook, it does warm my heart. I'm just sad for all of the people who are trapped on the higher floors of the projects (http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/...icle-1.1197748), that sounds like total hell. switching castes, I was in Southport last week. I helped my aunt and visited a friend who moved up there recently. The fire fighters are awesome up there and they drove over a truck to power her sump pump. The gas situation was not great then so I thought it would be worse by now. i had to drive north on Post Road to find a station both with power and fuel but not too much of a wait once I found one. Glad the dents aren't too bad.

I heard a phone recording (either on the radio or TV news....can't remember which) of a woman stuck in a situation like the one you describe. Harrowing.

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by nookandcrannycar

Thanks. I feel for those suffering even more with the Nor'easter hitting all of you. I've heard good things about people in CT seeking customer service re their utilities (phone numbers being manned by actual people 24/7) and the opposite about LIPA. I've heard some LIPA representatives have been rude and that the phone number listed on the notices they leave when people aren't home is not manned by a person at any time. I've heard that some people in Nassau and Suffolk Counties are so frustrated with the Long Island Power Authority that they want the military to come in and be in charge of the power until all power is restored. I also heard about the tent city on the grounds of a racetrack in New Jersey that can serve 4,000 people. It sounds as though local law enforcement and the USMC and other emergency personnel are doing a great job serving at that site. So much need. So much will need to be done for so long. Hopefully at least some of the rebuilds will incorporate some building strategies from hurricane prone areas.

At some point yesterday (before I wrote this....but I didn't hear about these particular details until today) Reps Peter King and Steve Israel sent a letter to Obama requesting that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers come in and assume the work of LIPA stating "It was the USACE that went into Baghdad and Kabul to turn the lights back on".....probably all over your local media by now, but adding newer, better information to a previous post never hurts .