Happy Birthday Oldr!

[oldr_n_wsr]

Well here on LI it was overhyped, but I say that as a good thing as I am sure had they not evac'd Fire Island and many of the south shore towns, our death toll would have been larger. Ounce of prevention and all that.

As I said before, I think upstate NY and NE in general were totally unprepared for what they got hit with. I believe that those "up there" do not worry about hurricanes and the wind and rain they get after it slams us on the coast they thought they could deal with.

Surprise surprise, mother nature fooled us again. Never take her for granted no matter what the "experts" say. I had a tub full of water, three cases of botted water, 7 flashlights in the house (and one in each car, for 4 more). Two propane powered coleman lanterns with 8 extra tanks. 10 gallons of gas in two 5 gallons cans, a chain saw and an 20x30 foot tarp. Both refigerators were turned up to the max cooling/freezer setting 4 days prior to the hurricane hit date with both freezers stocked with whatever water container I could find and fit making block (bottle) ice. I always have extra batteries and am not one of those raiding HD/Lowes/WalMart/etc to get last minute supplies. Always have 3-4 days of canned goods in the pantry and we basically ate everything that was perishable the first two days that we had without power. After that we turned to the canned goods. Ounce of prevention... and all that.

My wife went and picked up a few items at the grocery store on thursday (8/27) and saw a bunch of people buying frozen foods. WTF??? when power goes out, you need to eat that first. Buy refidge stuff, at least ice in a cooler can keep it from going bad. But freezer stuff, once defrosted, you either eat it or throw it out.

I thought Vermonters (?) were that sort. But again, when a house is washed away or hit by a tree, not much you can do about that. But the basic nessecities could and should be prepared ahead of time. Again, seems they were caught off guard.

And I am not making light of what they are going through. If I could talk my wife into it, I would be up there helping. My dad in northeastern Pa lost power and quite a few people in the area got washed out by either the Delaware river or local streams that went to record heights.

I know we lucked out here ont he LI. I was in my house for hurricane Gloria in Sept 1985. Had a tree fall on the roof and lost power for a week. All that with a son who was one week old. So I know the problems. But I learned. Seems many Nor'easters here on LI are worse than Irene was and every one of those I make sure I have what I need to live for a few days without outside assistance. Heck, if a weather system snuck up on me I could survive 2-3 days without outside assitance. Too bad many people don't take those precautions.

[Guinevere]

No, we weren't unprepared in NE, and we certainly worried. I had my glass boarded up, as did most of my neighbors. And many of us evacuated. No amount of prep can keep trees from blowing over, rivers from flooding, roads from disappearing. Waters were 20 feet over flood stage -- not one forecast predicted that.

Certainly in VT when bridges and roads disappear, and people are totally cut off, you can't get away from the flood even if you wanted too. And you can't replenish, get to shelters, get help, nor can help get to you. Nor can you go home, if you went to a shelter. There are displaced people by the 10s of thousands.

The thing that has worked well is the communities have shared what they have had with as many as they can, and will continue to do so. That's the nature of the place.

In the end, no preparation is too much, and when things go badly, you cannot prepare enough. I'm furious about all the press about the "over prep" and the "hype" that has spinning around the last few days. It's short sighted, and ignorant, and if I took out some of my frustrations about it on you older, I apologize.

[oldr_n_wsr]

I'm furious about all the press about the "over prep" and the "hype" that has spinning around the last few days. It's short sighted, and ignorant, and if I took out some of my frustrations about it on you older, I apologize.

Not a problem. I view the press as a "hype machine". No matter the situation, they will manipulate to get the most amount of attention. They used to be the 4th part of government (keeping the other 3 in check by reporting EVERYTHING to the citizens). But now they seem to feed themselves with more sensationalism to any little, big or perceived threat or problem.

It gets to a point of the "boy who cried wolf" for many of these events. But still, I prepare for hte worst and hope for the best. And it's really not that hard. We always have extra canned goods as my wife buys them on sale and they are in the pantry. Monthly I check the batteries in the flashlights and the grill always has propane. Getting close to the storm, I make as much ice in as big blocks (bottles) as I can. Takes about 10 minutes.

One day I'll buy a generator. Not very big, just big enough to power the fridges and maybe some lights.

And good luck with your Vermont trip. I would really like to join you up htere (or more likely would be eastern Pa) but not having a job has put a strain on my gasoline budget. Elbow grease I have plenty of.

[loCAtek]

That's much better than Californians who don't have much of any preparation at all for the inevitable earthquakes. Oh, most aren't bad, but have a good sized one hit, that knocks out power, and that's when folks run out to the Hardware stores to buy generators!

[oldr_n_wsr]

And complain that the store didn't have any more generators.

Th night after tropical storm irene (actually that sunday night, it hit sunday morning) I was at an AA meeting (dedicated am I ) a lady shared how she works at wal-mart and a customer had come in saturday night (about an hour before closing) and demanded batteries, shouting "how can you not have batteries with a hurricane coming" and basically belittling the associate. The associate shared how much she wanted to strangle the lady and yell back how she should have come in days ago as the forecasts were there telling people to stock up. But being the "calm soul" she is thanks to AA, she held her tongue as nothing good would have come from telling the customer off.

[loCAtek]

Haha, is that how I got it?