Large Nor'Easter + Hurricane set to impact eastern US

[Dhylec]

Hope & pray Sandy's nothing serious when it's here. But, better be safe than sorry.

[NoiseHERO]

What about a Cat G........




Akrid attack.......

[gigawuts]

Just buy batteries and plug in any backup power supply systems you have. That's what I do. Where I live now we're not really hit hard, but I've lived in areas that were utterly wrecked before. I'm talking streets flooding four feet (that's when we realized why houses were built on man-made hills), screen enclosures being ripped out of the cement and thrown into neighbors' pools, metal shutters being literally shorn right off the side of a house and the storm breaking in the windows, etc.

My best advice? Stay away from trees and power lines and especially trees near power lines - the trees you guys have don't normally deal with these kinds of storms and some WILL be knocked down - and get some 3 or 5 gallon jugs of purified water like you see at walmart or costco/bj's/sam's club/etc. It's a cheap investment, most of the cash is spent on the bottle itself.

And get some stuff for s'mores and beer. Propane/coal too, then some propane/coal accessories like a barbecue maybe. And canned food. A week's worth or more.

And if you have a generator? Do not. Do not. DO. NOT. Leave that shit in your fucking house when it's running. Put it in the garage, leave the garage open a bit, and seal the door to your house if you must. DO NOT LEAVE THAT IN YOUR HOUSE. You might think every floridian knows the drill right? Hell no. Every fucking storm season some dumb fuck dies from carbon monoxide poisoning. They're usually ones that have lived here their entire lives. Idiots.

That all said most of you guys should be fine. Even the worst storms only usually kill stupid people that either refuse to evacuate an area, decide to go swimming in the torrential rain, want to see why that power line is flailing about (they actually do do that, so you should really back the fuck off), think very big very old trees make for great cover, or think snuggling up next to a generator to keep warm is an awesome idea. Most storms don't actually result in many deaths in florida because we know the drill and (usually) have infrastructure designed to withstand it - but that's the problem, new england doesn't have building codes for all that.

When it comes to freak once-in-a-century storms, especially two in as many years, it's better to overreact and prepare for the apocalypse than underreact and run out of food in just 3 days.

[CelestialBlade]

Latest forecast is showing an early Monday morning landfall for Sandy in New Jersey, and the wind field has expanded to a massive 450 mile radius from center. This means we could be looking at massive storm surge and widespread coastal flooding all throughout New England, plus tons of wind/precip throughout the eastern US. Several states, from New York through North Carolina, have already declared states of emergency.

This is definitely looking like a once-every-couple-decades storm, rivaling the "perfect storm" from the 80s, so whether you take this seriously or not, stay safe. At least 31 have already died from this storm and it hasn't even merged with the cold front yet. The northeast coast isn't as built to deal with storms of this magnitude the way places like Florida or the gulf coast are, so I certainly have my concerns. Even after it makes landfall it's forecast to sort of hover between NYC and Philly for a while, so inland flooding/snowfall is a very real threat too.

I stress again: be safe, friends.

[Ryno]

oh its already impacting me. but not by much. since its moving to the right a bit.

[Blue-Hawk]

Once again, not worried here, but then again I NEVER believe anything that's told by weather forcasters. They say it's going to be sunny, it rains. They say it rains, we get sun. And they never said ANYTHING about last Halloweens snow. So why should I be worried about a little rain and wind that will, most likely, change course again anyway?

It's like what I tell people about doomsayers. We are mankind. We can no more predict the future than we can predict the weather.

That and the top 4 types of people I say are full of shit, not in any order, are politicians, psychics, weatherpeople and religious leaders. But that's a different argument for a different day.

[gigawuts]

Right well if you won't listen to a weatherman about hurricanes being potentially bad how about you listen to people who go through them almost every year.

I lived in new jersey. A proper hurricane is nothing like any storm you've ever seen.

[CelestialBlade]

I think it's important to remember that meteorology is a science, and all fields of science are ever-changing because we're always learning new things and we can only work with the tools we currently have. Obviously, predicting mother nature is no easy task and is nowhere near an exact predictable science. A lot of weather-tracking technology is still extremely new. It is a flawed science but it has saved countless lives, and I think that's easily worth your inconvenience when it happens to be inaccurate.

Ask any actual meteorologist about "infallible forecasting" and they're just going to laugh at you. That's all media-talk to get you to watch their station, there is no such thing as perfect forecasting right now. Yes, it really is all educated-guessing, but they're usually damn good guesses. Maybe they don't tell you it's gonna sprinkle one day. Big deal. They've gotten every tornado outbreak right this year, which is just a bit more important. They still give citizens plenty of advanced warning, and most of the time it's accurate. That's about all it can be. And it's still worth listening to.

I'm a registered NWS storm spotter, so I work to further increase the accuracy of this science and I like to think I know a fluke from something worth considering by now. I know this forecast could be all wrong and it's indeed subject to change, but if you look at it as "there's a 80-90% chance of this happening", why wouldn't you prepare? Power outages alone kill people. If you think every hospital ever has cutting-edge backup generators that are full-proof, you're dead wrong. We rely more on electricity than we ever have before and there *will* be deaths if there's a huge, widespread power outage.

None of this may even happen, but it's not gonna hurt to stock up on a bit of food. It's not exact science but it's usually pretty damn close.

[NoiseHERO]

I'm a registered NWS storm spotter

Whaaaaahhh that sounds so coool /Japanese kid voice

N-not that I'm impressed or anything.

(But really what's a NWS storm spotte- Augh I'll just google it.)

[Heskett]

Once again, not worried here, but then again I NEVER believe anything that's told by weather forcasters. They say it's going to be sunny, it rains. They say it rains, we get sun. And they never said ANYTHING about last Halloweens snow. So why should I be worried about a little rain and wind that will, most likely, change course again anyway?

It's like what I tell people about doomsayers. We are mankind. We can no more predict the future than we can predict the weather.

That and the top 4 types of people I say are full of shit, not in any order, are politicians, psychics, weatherpeople and religious leaders. But that's a different argument for a different day.

When Irene last year suddenly weakened to a Cat 1 from a Cat 3, everyone was like "oh it's just a cat 1 pishaw!". Hurricane Irene is the 5th costliest Atlantic Hurricane and most of it's damage occurred when it struck the Northeast as a strong tropical storm. Hurricanes should be taken seriously, every time.