East Coast jellies, check in here!

Just got the computer up, internet was out. We have heavy, wet snow that is breaking trees and powerlines, but so far I’m with power and dry.

Hello.

Surprisingly, I did not lose power (we often do during storms), but much of my neighborhood is out.

Daughter’s school and wife’s work is closed. My job is open, but I was off today anyway.

@chyna

Are you in West Virginia?

North Carolina 75 miles inland, branches and leaves down. A few areas of the county lost power, back on now.

Upstate NY. We’re in one piece! Haven’t been into the city or near the river yet. Power stayed on mostly, but that was some wind.There’s stuff on the lawn that’s not ours.

Nice day if it don’t rain.

In north-central Connecticut all we had yesterday was a lot of wind, a little rain, and today a lot of leaf litter on the roads.

The coast got pretty well hammered, though. I hope we hear from Jill soon.

NJ and NYC got hammered. How are our jellies from there?

We didn’t get hit too terribly. There was some pretty intense wind (I know a couple people who had trees get blown over) but the worst that I experienced was the cable going out and the internet being super slow. Thankfully, we kept power through the night, though it went in and out a few times. I’m fairly sure I’ll be back in school tomorrow, as the storm seems to have died down (here at least) quite a bit.

I was supposed to get hit directly with the hurricane(im in south jersey). It was pretty lame. Some rain/wind but never got extreme at all. I’ve seen normal storms way more intense than what I saw yesterday. Didnt lose power at all. But everything is friggin closed today cause we’re still in a state of emergency. (It’s sunny outside right now….)

I was very lucky although there are still gusts up to 40 MPH. I can see the tops of the large white pines swaying like the main mast of a Brigantine.

My friend, who lives 4 miles away, is coming soon to have a shower and store some frozen food. Her power has been out since 6:00PM yesterday. Her chimney cap and several bricks blew off but luckily, hit the siding on the house and not the picture windows.

I heard very loud banging early this morning, as though the world’s largest woodpecker were hammering on my shingles, but cannot see anything (yet).

The wind blew from a direction I rarely see…N to NE. It must have been the combo of the two storms.

@Brian1946 Yes, in WV. It rained all day yesterday and now snow. It will be a sheet of ice when the sun goes down.

Maryland, except perhaps for the coastal area, got a pass. We had rain and wind, but it was not nearly as bad as last summer’s duracho, Hardly anyone lost power and there were many fewer trees down than the last major storm.

Yay to everyone!
Glad you’re all okay!
Is the worst of it over now?
I haven’t been paying much attention, it is sunny and 76 degrees in my neck o’ the woods out west here.

In Philly we had some wind, but not the huge gusts like they had at the shore. I live on a hill, so there isn’t any flooding. My basement is perfectly dry. We have a bunch of torn up leaves all over the place. Like they’ve been through a leaf shredder. There are fewer sticks than we would normally find in our backyard after a storm. Work is closed.

Mostly it’s a big yawn. It’s not even like there’s snow to shovel. People are bored and going crazy. I’m going out to see what’s what soon. Hopefully the rivers will be excitingly high.

^^^If the river is high, it will be your tax dollars paying for the clean-up. I remember some serious flooding of the Schulkyll in the 1970’s where the banks overflowed the now Kelly Drive and formerly East River Drive. It was an expensive mess.

I escaped the brutal property prices of Boston’s North End last month. Moved to Everett, which is a suburb just north of the city. Here, we have a little over double the square footage and are paying over 30% less for it.

We’re about 4 miles inland from Revere Beach which took a good pounding. We had some gusts during rain squalls that must have hit hurricane force. I had to rescue our trash and recycling containers. A neighbor helped lash them down to our chain-link fence. But other than that, we fared well. Never lost power.

The house next door didn’t do so well. Perhaps nobody was home, or perhaps they are deaf. The storm door to their 2nd floor back porch was unlatched and every big wind gust would slam it against the porch railing. Its one of those aluminum frame types that’s mostly all glass and I was sure the glass would eventually break. To my surprise, the door won its contest with the porch railing. It took out the center post, which is now precariously dangling, held up by two sagging 2×4’s that used to be the porch railing on that side.

It’s still breezy today, but sunny and warm. Glad we aren’t on the blizzard side of monster Sandy. Best wishes to all who are.

Well I’m in Eastern Canada. Last night we had huge winds all night, but nothing else. The power went out once, for like a second. I’ll be happy if that’s the worse of it, considering the damages I’m seeing on the news that this has caused. :/ This hurricane sucks.

I went in to the city by the river. We’re in good shape. The river is up some but not too bad. Some minor wind damage but nothing major. We got lucky compared to some areas.

@CWOTUS dude, Jill’s not here. But she’s okay. :D

Glad to see people updating here.

MA here. It was windy yesterday but nothing destructive. Never lost power. Today is much better. Glad to see this question and see our jellies checking in!

Good to see so many reporting in ok. Anybody know about @augustlan in WV? How about @janbb in NJ?

I think jca lives in or near NYC, and she hasn’t posted in over 9 hours. I hope she’s okay and updates us with her situation.

@Adirondackwannabe

How many air miles inland do you live?

@Brian1946 Probably 240 to 250 miles from the coast.

Eastern panhandle of West Virginia, here, and we’re okay! We lost power for about 18 hours, and it got seriously damn cold last night so we were freezing in this old, uninsulated house. My cell phone didn’t work for quite a while. The winds were crazy and scary. We’ve got shingles, a trash can, and a plant pot (none of which belong to us) strewn about our yard.

<Whew—relief for Auggie> Did you get snow? I saw a report that said parts of West Virginia had 17”. That is a lot of snow.

@chyna has reported snow and temps. below freezing which means ice.

@augustlan; At least the shingles aren’t from your roof.

We were on the other side of the storm from @chyna, so no snow for us! And since we have a standing-seam metal roof, it was easy to tell the shingles weren’t ours, haha. Thank goodness for small favors!

Well jeez you guys, some excitement!
I feel guilty sitting here at 6:30 PDT with the house wide open after a beautiful sunny day in the 70’s. I am rather envious, we need an exciting storm out west. I may be jinxing myself. lol

Snow forecast for parts of West. Virginia through Thursday.

@marinelife In my part of Maryland a lot of people lost power/had trees down. Apparently three of the trees in our backyard fell partially down. We also found a few shingles in our front yard, though we’re not sure whose they are. Ocean City got hit much harder than we did, though.

@mangeons I’m sorry that happened to you.

I just meant overall. There were 289,200 customers without power in Maryland according to the Baltimore Sun this morning just before noon. This compares to 900,000 customers without power in Maryland during the derecho in June 2012, according to wikipedia.

Just a quick note: @Fly lives just outside of OC, and she’s safe and sound. It was pretty bad there, though. I’ve asked her to update us here, when she gets a chance.

@augustlan

What’s OC? Ocean City, MD or NJ?

@Brian1946 Oh, sorry! Ocean City, MD. See some pics here.

No problem. My first two guesses were Orange County in CA, and Oklahoma City. ;-p

@Adirondackwannabe

Probably 240 to 250 miles from the coast.

What mountain ranges are between you and the Atlantic?

Wow, 65% of NJ is without power. Perhaps Sandy is to NJ as Katrina was to LA.

I heard the winds were strong enough to blow one of the ice cream cones out of Gov. Crispy’s hand. ;-0

@Brian1946 Poor guy, now he only has the one left to eat :)~

It is great to hear from everyone and know you are all ok! We just need to hear from a few more people (still looking for the penguin), and all will be right in the Fluther-verse.

Not East Coast, but Ohio, here. A few tree limbs down and the neighbor’s gutter took a beating. The neighbors yards all seem to have been replaced by grassy ponds, and despite being the neighbor on the hill, we did end up getting quite a bit of water in our basement. We didn’t lose power, but most of the surrounding areas did, guess we lucked out in that department. My sister is a bit closer to Erie than I, and she was without power for about a day and they had more flooding than us. Class has been canceled the last 2 days for them, and schools more local to me in low-lying areas are closed from flooding or power outages.

Nothing terrible or even very bad, mostly just surprising that it got as ugly as it did since we are relatively far from the coast and I hadn’t really expected much more than a drizzle and a breeze. Glad to hear that everyone here that was closer fared well, though I am hearing stories roll in from my loved ones in NY and they don’t seem to have been so lucky.

My thanks to @ETpro for pointing out to me on another thread that I should check in over here. I decided not to go to work on Monday, because according to what I was hearing, if I didn’t get out of Dodge ASAP, I would not be able to, due to roads closing and also due to trees being down, and general total mess. My boss was not too happy when I told her, and she texted that she understands I have a small child and that is my priority, but my coworkers were coming in at least for a few hours. I did not get into comparing myself to my two coworkers because there would always be the chance she would tell them and that could get catty. I just took the opportunity to hit the road by around 10:00 am. and figured she’d have to get over it.

I came to a time share in the Berkshires that is owned by a friend of mine who lives in CT. Gov Dan Malloy (CT governor) said that they were going to close CT highways to cars coming from out of state as of 1:00 pm so it was good I got on the road when I did (I live right near CT and must go through CT to get to the time share). Ride up was fine. Got to the time share around noon, checked in, went out shopping, came back to no power in the resort for a few hours. I still felt that I’d rather be here without power than be home in a cold, dark house.

My friend left her house around 3:00 pm, and by then, the driving conditions were way worse and it took her 5 hours to get here, even though she lives closer than I do. There were trees down and she had to keep detouring, and almost gave up and would have had to find another hotel room to get off the roads.

Power came on here after about two hours of being out, and it’s been fine ever since. I am so grateful to be here and not home without heat, power, computer, etc.

I am staying here till tomorrow (Thursday) and going to crash on a friend’s couch closer to home then, assuming the power won’t be on where I live by then.

My parents, who live around 45 minutes from me, are also without power as of this time. I am so grateful to be in this timeshare and away from all the “no power” issues at home. A friend is going to my house to feed my pets and says I have no power, which means my house is cold, too.

Jersey City got hit pretty bad – some major flooding, power and all internet out for two days. But at least we’re better off than poor Hoboken. And the storm itself was fine – people were walking around most of the time despite the pedestrian curfew. Our local Shoprite got onto an AP article about the storm because they were the only store open yesterday – must’ve had massive generators going or something – and the lines were hours long at times.

Something that really pissed me off is that yesterday there were about three cars on every block idling their engines for literally hours at a time, so their owners could charge and use electronic devices. Yeah guys, your personal convenience is way more important than your massive pollution. I get doing it for 15 minutes or half an hour to check in with people, but two hours is just ridiculous. Quit playing Angry Birds and go read a book.

What really sucks is that the subway and PATH trains and NJ Transit won’t be up and running for like 10 days! Holland Tunnel, too. Might have to paddle across the Hudson for class if they don’t get the water out by next week.

Near the shores of lake Ontario in Western NY. We got a reverse 911 call declaring a state of emergency and ordering mandatory evacuation. The police were coming door to door asking people to leave. I stayed because I was ready: generator hooked up and gassed, food, water…. Many people are without power but sadly I never lost it. Darn it!
The only damage was to my roof antenna which I fixed already with the help of my neighbor and about 20 small trees blown down in my woods. They will become firewood. Others lost siding and roof shingles, and had trees blown over.

The penguin is fine. Just checked in on FB.

“Alive and o.k. Couchsurfing intermittently. No power or phones; now at X’x office. Tree down on garage but not too bad. House destroyed on the street. Sleeping with friends (that’s the best part.)

We had power through most of the storm; but no cable/internet or cellular coverage. The winds were very wicked here and there are some trees and large branches down on the grounds of our complex. We drove a few miles up the road yesterday to get a phone signal to call and check on our families. I posted check-ins on FB and other social sites, but was unable to access Fluther – I guess there were problems with the site.

When we got home, the power was out. Dinner was cooked on the gas stove by candlelight. Then I taught my fiancé how to play Russian Bank. Three-and-a-half games in, the power came back on. Cable came back up within an hour of that. Still no cell service.

Watching the coverage on TV is mind-blowing. Seeing towns where friends live and I’ve spent a lot of time that are essentially leveled is heartbreaking. I’m watching POTUS speak live right now, and the fact that more lives weren’t lost is amazing.

http://www.news12.com/articleDetail.jsp?articleId=338960&position=1&news_type=news

This is footage filmed from a helicopter along the NJ Coast this morning. Even though I’m familiar with these towns, I followed along on the satellite map to see the difference. Amazing.

Hurray for everybody who’s fine! I’m so sorry for any losses or damage. I’ve been following the story closely and looking at hundreds of photos because I have so many friends and relatives in New England and along the coast. It has felt strange to me to be seeing such fine weather where I am in Northern California while our eastern counterparts were being whipped and battered and flooded.

Here’s to a full and fast recovery wherever possible, and ample help where needed.

@Jeruba A wimpy little storm for us NorCal peeps tonight. Wow, a ¼–½ inch of rain and a whopping 2–4 inches of snow for the Sierras. lol

No power yet, ha ha, but I am fluthering by candlelight, how romantic! I am veerrry romantic after all! Today my husband chauffeured me to my office, late, but better late than never. Of course I have an important deadline looming. I am very pissed off at having missed 2 days! I wish I could have just enjoyed it like a snow day but no chance. Tomorrow Bloomberg is enforcing minimum passenger mandate for cars entering Manhattan. Like I’m supposed to find passengers goiing to Queens or I can’t get to work?! Sorryy, don’t know anyone, but what the hey, I appreciate what he’s trying to do, greatest good, blah, blah,...I love mass transit when it works, but hey, it’s not running now and yet you won’t let me drive in without commandeeriing another passenger?? Luckily I see that a train within walking distance of my office is running tomorrow! Yeah! I can work! Yeah, I can help pay the mortgage!
Seriously though, so many people were harder hit than me. I know people who lost their homes, others who had major damage. So my problems pale next to theirs. I am very lucky. I feel very blessed. It could have been so much worse. I spent all day preparing in my basement for water and we had none. So, yes, I am lucky. Lots of trees down around me and no power, but still, I am lucky.

Oh, I forgot to say that last night, in honor of Halloween, I read an Edgar Allan Poe story by lamplight. That was fun, but tonight is Halloween and I don’t see any ravens or zombies…WTF! Damn, that Christie, he cancelled Halloween.

Present and accounted for.

@blueiiznh is the eye of the storm. ;-)

ok, update. It took ,e 2½ hours to drive to work today. Luckily, I have a chauffeur, lol. The bridge traffic was incredible. We left at 6:30 and it took us an hour to get over the GWB (George Washington Bridge) As we were ¾ of the way there, listening to the traffic reports on 1010 am with Pete Toriello, Pete gives us this little tidbit of info. Folks, they said no restrictions on the GWB but they didn’t give us the whole story. Yeah, you can drive in without 3 passengers, but once you get to the other side if you want to go into Manhattan you need to have 3 passengers or the cops will turn you back at the checkpoint! Pete says “That is so wrong!!!!” 10 minutes later he said maybe his tirade had an effect because they were going to rescind the restriction and let people through. Luckily we were going to Queens and even though we would normally take the Harlem River Drive through part of Manhattan to get to the next bridge, the Triboro (aka JFK bridge) we took an alternate route (the Major Deegan) that got us there without having to go through Manhattan. Phew!!! At one point the road split and those who wanted to go to Manhattan after an hour long or more wait on the bridge were stopped by cops holding up 3 fingers. I saw two drivers jaws literally drop!!!
There is no gas to be had. Tonight it took 2 hours to drive home in what should have taken 40 minutes. I am still formulating my game plan for tomorrow. Due to my deadlines this week, not going in is not an option. We have ½ tank of gas left. All the gas stations around the area are closed and they are trying to get the barges allowed in to refuel. But there is storm damage to lower Manhattan holding things up. I think they will work it out soon, hopefully. Meanwhile people are tweeting what gas stations are open! Ah me, the 21st century is really here!!

@Earthgirl Whoopi Goldberg talked about the checkpoints on The View today. She almost lost her mind she was so angry…As she said how were people supposed to know about the checkpoints & 3 passenger rule when there was no power.

@SpatzieLover All you need is a battery operated radio. That is your go to in these kinds of situations.But they only gave part of the story. They said the GWB had no passenger restrictions. But WTF good is that if once you get over the bridge they turn you back!!! Like Pete said, “Wrong is wrong!!!” That was wrong. I would have taken passengers on, but I have no one going the same place!!! It’s not so easy. But I still need to get to work and there aren’t any trains! Maddening!!!

I am seeing from friends on FB that there are long lines at many gas stations.

Just got our power restored! Yay! Looks like its going to be a great weekend. Now if only the trains were back…..

@Earthgirl Yeay. Good for you. Oh crap what a long time to go with no power.

@Adirondackwannabe Thanks, I am so glad I decided to buy candles and lanterns the day before! Last night I not only ate by candlelight, I cooked by candlelight! I am going to call my new recipe Blackout Chicken!

I still have no power as of Friday night, nor do my parents, nor do relatives that live in NYC. It’s tough because it’s cold inside and out without heat. My parents said their house was 50 degrees. I could not sleep in a house that was 50 degrees.

@jca Yes, being cold is the worst. I was without power for 3 days a couple years ago with a snow storm and I had about 14 blankets on the bed and stuffed the cats under the covers, haha. It was fffffrrreeezzing!

One of the storm-related photos that disturbed me was a shot of two New York firefighters extinguishing a street campfire that some people had made in a barbecue grill using fallen timbers. They were crowded around it for warmth until the firefighters put it out.

I could understand the danger that the firefighters were averting, and I’m sure they were enforcing some law against open fires in a public street, but at the same time it seemed to me that making a fire and huddling close to it when you have no other heat ought to be some kind of basic human right.

I am o.k. here in northern DE, it wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been but. the delaware shore got a pretty serious pounding. I haven’t read everyone’s updates. I will have to do that tomorrow, it is kind of late now. but if you have checked in they you are at least kind of o.k. Still alive and at least have access to some kind of power and internet. The internet is great for this kind thing. I have a dear friend in Manhattan, on the upper side… they didn’t lose power but they were without phone and internet… but she was able to borrow somebody’s “device” long enough to post message that she and her husband and kids were ok. That was great.

I remember when I was packing my car on Monday, one of my neighbors came by, walking his dog. He teased me about leaving and I said that I wanted to get out before I was not able to drive on the roads. It turns out that after 6 days, my whole neighborhood still has no power and his wife cannot work because her job was/is closed all week. A 13 year old boy whose father works for Con Ed (the power company) was killed when a tree fell on their house. Another person from my job (not a coworker because we don’t work together but he works near me in same building but for different department) ranted to me via email yesterday about how the older generation stays put and would never abandon their houses, whereas the younger generation blah blah blah which is why I left my house. Is it better to stay in a potentially dangerous situation without heat or power, risk having a tree fall on your house (where I live the trees are huge) and stay in a house where it’s colder in the house than outside? I can’t understand that logic. I was thinking about asking a Fluther Q about it – the logic of the older generation staying put and dealing with things and the younger generation wanting luxury (like I am in right now, escaped from my cold, dark house).

@jca Sounds like a good question to ask.

This just in from my cousin in Larchmont:

It’s a nightmare. We lost power Monday night still not back. They said if we are lucky Nov, 9th. Trees down everywhere.
Lost everything In frig and freezer. A 100+ foot pine fell across dead end blocking off access into or off our street. Which meant no emergency vehicles could get to us if needed. We flagged down some tree cutters to cut the tree on Tuesday and made all the neighbors chip in.

Then the corner house had a tree fallto it obliterating all 5 bedrooms on second floor as well as the staircase. The woman on 2nd floor had to jump with all her ribs broken from a limb that came through window and hit her to her husband on the first floor.

. I am at Penn. station; can’t wait to get the hell out. Will get to New Orleans tomorrow night..

Has been a long week. I had to drive from town to town and then finally found an open laundromat. Had to wait in line 2 hours for a number and then wait another hour just to get my clothes into the washer. I have had it.”

Fleeing to New Orleans…that says something about recovery right there, @gailcalled. Hope your cousin is able to return home soon.

@gailcalled Wow…what a stormy story! Best wishes to your cousin!
I had a home surrounded by 80–100ft. tall Ponderosa pines for 8 years. We were always hoping one didn’t go down in storms. They were magnificently huge but scary trees.

5 days after the storm and now we lose power… go figure.

… and the power was restored late tonight. Yay!

@hearkat Sorry that you lost power but glad to hear you got it back! :-)

For those of us in the NE US, brace yourself. More bad weather predicted for the end of the week…a classic nor’easter.

http://www.b.weather.com/newscenter/nationalforecast/

@mangeons: Thanks! Other than having to throw out some food, it was only a minor inconvenience. I have a friend whose lost her home, and so many others have lost theirs – and more.

@hearkat, what is your friend going to do? If my home were destroyed by fire or flood, I really have no idea where I’d start to piece things together. Did she have time to grab her important papers?

I’m glad you didn’t suffer a worse disruption.

All you folks in the Northeast, I’m hoping you weather the next one safely. I’ll be watching for news.

Tonight’s weather forecast for the approaching nor’easter was for 1.6” of snow in downtown Boston. After our move, I’m north of Boston. For the sake of those still without power or heat, I can only hope the snowfall concern is a worst-case scenario that never comes to pass. Our weathermen tend to give us the worst possible prediction just in case it comes to pass. It helps us guard against being unprepared when the perfect storm does hit.

@ETpro, did you mean one point six inches, or was that 1’6”—a foot and a half?

My neighbor who lives about 5 houses away got power last night, so I am hoping mine gets turned on today!.

@jca, fingers crossed!

@jeruba: I’m unsure what she’ll do. It’s been a year full of tragedy for them, and I know they have a lot to consider.

Power came on today as predicted. My parents got theirs on too, so we’re all happy and home safe now. I have no cable and so I can’t watch election results. My refrigerator got a total cleanout and it’s spic and span inside. I know I will be tired tomorrow going to work but I look forward to my normal routine.

@Jeruba It was one point six inches, and it looks now like the storm will hug closer to the shore so the coastal area (my abode) will get mainly rain. Windy and raw, but rain.