If you live in the Northeast USA, are you ready for "Bombo-Genesis," aka The Blizzard of the Century, 24-36 inches of snow?

Leave work before it starts. A lot of people will have your same plan and the roads will be ridiculous.

All morning people will be using the roads to buy groceries, salt, and flashlight batteries.

Don’t forget to plug up your bathtubs and fill them with water.

Today I spend charging stuff, washing stuff, and stacking wood inside the house. I think I’ll go buy some Ben-Gay…

And, as you say, praying we don’t lose power.

One of my Jelly friends advised me on FB to get gas because if the power goes out, the pumps won’t work. Also I am going to get cash out of the ATM today at work. My mom, who is 45 minutes south (near my job) told me it started there already. My daughter is there with them, which is good. That means I only have to worry about myself.

ATM! Good plan. Thanks.

Here is the long list:

- Cash.

- Gas up cars. (This is to be able to get places and also to charge phones and even get warm if your electricity goes out). Gas stations won’t pump if the electricity is down. Gas trucks will not be able to deliver while the roads are bad. Even when the gas station is up and running the credit card authorization system might still be down.

- Plug bathtubs and fill with water (this is to flush toilets if the water systems go down).

- Bottled drinking water for 4 days.

- Hurricane candles and flashlights.

- battery operated or hand crank radios.

- road salt.

- the hand warmers that heat for a few hours by bending them.

- charge up cell phones.

-watch for downed power lines. A live wire in the snow or a puddle and you step in same puddle you get electrocuted. God forbid.

- food for 4 days.

- photos of your furniture, belongings, and the outside of your house.

Know where your flashlights are and test them.
Charge everything.
Look in your freezer and see if there is something you can defrost for meals for the next two days. There is probably no need to run to the grocery store. Shop from your shelves.
Know how to start your generator if you have one.
If you have to go out make sure your car gas tank is full. If the power goes out the gas stations will be closed.
Take lots of pictures.

@LuckyGuy Jinx. I just saw you wrote photos too. :). I just went back to edit.

Did a bunch of those things but not all. Called a handy man who will come and shovel. Thought of gassing up but didn’t but I have about a third of a tank. I have a small propane heater I’ll bring up.

Don’t have work today and I’m sure we’ll be closed tomorrow.

Just hoping the power doesn’t go out.

Good lists.^

Auto preparedness:
1. Plan on not driving;
2. If you have to drive, make sure you have blankets, shovel, chemical-type hand-warmers (they work for your feet, too!);
3. Cat litter can provide traction if you get stranded.
4. Charge up a portable pocket-charger for your phone.
5. Plan on not driving.

If there’s a chance you will lose power set your thermostat a little higher than normal (just 1 or 2 degrees) or set it a fixed temperature rather than using the set back function.
If the power goes out your home will stay warm a little longer as it coasts down.

You already have a couple of full 2 gallon gasoline cans in the garage and a dozen water bottles in the basement, right?

@LuckyGuy Yes. Not sure about the gas tanks but the snowblower has been filled and my guy booked to come blow snow. Just went out and gassed up my car. Water bottles in basement. Brought propane heater up and Shabbat candles are out. Heat is up a bit.

I’m reminded of Sandy but doubt we’ll be hit so badly from this. I’m expecting no work tomorrow.

Cooking chili and meatballs and spaghetti today and tomorrow – as long as I have power. I do have a gas barbecue on the deck.

Flurries just started here. I have nowhere to go.i have plenty of food in the house,phone and kindle charged up,batteries for lanterns and a full tank of heating oil. We even filled up the car with gas.

I’m more worried about my two grown kids who never prepare for anything! I called both of them yesterday and they pretty much blew me off saying I worry too much.

Just be careful around anything that generates carbon monoxide. It doesn’t do anyone good to be warm and dead.

I had everything prepped, then realized I needed to go out and buy ingredients for making cookies.
Phew, that was a close one!

Also nice to see some other humans. It may be a few days.

Shower and shampoo and do laundry.

We also keep a small area outside the kitchen door shoveled for use as a Japanese toilet; there are railings to hang on to.

@canidmajor Yeah, I felt better for going out for gas and to the bakery and seeing some humans too. It may be Fluther friends only for a few days – if we’re lucky and the power stays on.

@janbb Well, you know we’ll be here as long as you have the power to get to us!

@Yetanotheruser Yup – thanks!

@janbb You’ve done everything right and are ready. Doesn’t that feel good?

I’ve had yahrtzeit candles in the basement for 20+ years and never needed them. Like my parents did, I’m saving them for an emergency. I also have 6 to 8 old kerosene lanterns that I have collected over the years and about 10 gallons of kerosene for “just in case”. They have been sitting in the barn untouched for decades. If my generators stop, and the batteries run out, and I run out of wood (a 2 year supply), I’m ready.

@LuckyGuy Yes – I feel quite pleased with myself. Now for some chili-making.

Wish I lived in the north-east.

What the hell does “bombo-genesis” mean? What kind of confusion is that supposed to be?

Our New York offices are prepared to keep the Financial Markets open, we have staff booked into downtown hotels.

@zenvelo The weather channels are on a 24 hour news cycle and they need to make up drama.

Snow scheduled to start here in 43 minutes.

@zenvelo : It’s just really fun to say “bombogenesis”. I can dance to that. :-)

one two three kick, one two three kick!

Wow!!
It’s supposed to get up to 15c that is close to 60f and sunny.
I sure do love living out west here in Canada,
To all you east coasters be careful and stay warm.

@janbb: I thought of laundry too. When I get home from work I’ll do a load or two.

@LuckyGuy: Good idea about making house a bit warmer.

Anybody who knows me knows that there is enough food in the refrigerator and in cabinets to last about two weeks, easily. I’m more concerned about heat. It’s hard to sleep in a house without heat. I’m sure all local hotels are booked up. During Hurricane Sandy, we lost power for 8 days. Luckily a friend has a time share at a Wyndham about 2 hours away. I stayed there for 6 nights. It was great but stressful because the boss I had at the time was not thrilled when I called her daily telling her I could not come in tomorrow.

(We always associate snow with freezing cold, and it often is barely at the freezing point when it snows!)

I am jealous of you imminently snowbound people! I love a good snowstorm, and it looks like this one is going to miss us.

@LuckyGuy I keep meaning to get a kerosene lantern, not because we have frequent power outages, but because they make me nostalgic for my childhood. We’d have long outages in our rural area during the winters, and I did a lot of homework by those lanterns.

I like a good snow storm, too, especially when I’m stuck in and enjoying some TV or whatever. However, I have found that more so lately, and especially where I live now, snow and bad weather is associated with power outages and I can assure you that being home without heat is no fun at all. I can do without hot water, I can do without hot food, but I do like my heat.

@dappled_leaves There were 2 ancient ones in my barn when I bought the place over 35 years ago. I cleaned them up and shaped the wick. Over the years I would buy at flea markets and farmer’s co-ops when I saw interesting units. I even have an old red railroad lantern. They all work.
Will any product made today still work 80–100 years from now? I’m guessing the answer is: “no”.

@LuckyGuy Indeed. Their design is so simple that they last forever.

So simple yet elegant. They use the inside of the handle to recirculate hot air back to the fuel reservoir to preheat the vapor for better combustion. How clever is that?

Wow! I saw it on the news. Wonder where they got that name bombo genesis! Take care you people in that part of the U.S. .

Can’t wait to see Lucky Guy’s updates on fb during and after that storm!

I am in Western NY, 300–400 miles away from the center of the storm.
It has started snowing here but we expect only 6 inches. “Bambi-genesis”.

Sure. There’s just a ton of wind right now. It’s the first day of spring classes and the campus closed at 3. Some public schools are cancelled until Wednesday. This sucks.

I just really hope my wifi doesn’t go out. It’s already been pretty spotty today.

I got a full tank of gas, $200 cash and I filled up some empty milk jugs with water. I also have Poland Spring, which is intended for the Keurig but of course, no power means no Keurig, which means the Poland Spring will be for something else. I also am doing laundry and running the dishwasher. I took @LuckyGuy‘s suggestion and turned up the heat a few degrees so it’s nice and toasty in here now. My daughter is at my parents’ house because of no school today and tomorrow and so that means I get to watch what I want on TV. It’s all good for now! :)

I talked to my aunt. Her aide didn’t come today in anticipation of the storm. Probably won’t be there to help tomorrow either. I told her to plug up her tub, but she doesn’t think it holds water well. Hopefully, it won’t be an issue. At least in the snow you can just gather up snow right outside her building for the toilets. During Sandy my sister had to lug gallons of water for blocks and then up 8 floors.

My aunt says the storm won’t be as bad as the news says. I bet she’s right. Especially in the city.

I watched Saving Mr. Banks on the DVR. Pretty good!

Well hows it going stormies?
How bad is it, going to have to wait till spring to find the car?

I just woke up (7:00 a.m.), looked out the window and there is about 4 inches outside. WTF? I’m now watching the Today Show and they’re all talking about downgraded snow totals. They should feel kind of stupid because it’s a drastic difference between what they predicted and what we got. They predicted 24 to 36, highways are all closed so everything is at a standstill, and for 4 inches of snow? I have to speak to friends who live farther south (40 miles south toward where I work) but I think they’re going to say they got similar amounts.

I’m staying home from work anyway. Fuck it.

The news guys say that Eastern New England is getting the crap beat out of them. I’m old enough that I’ve seen superstorms, I won’t mind at all if it was overhyped. We still have many hours of this, we’ll see what it’s like later.
@jca : Absolutely stay home! The conditions are still bad, you’re justified in not going out, and with any luck you won’t have to break yourself getting your car out tomorrow! :-)

It’s ridiculous. A snow storm in the northeast is not worth over 24 hours of constant national news reporting. I was in worse snow and frozen piled high slush in NYC last year. We were walking in the streets while cars along side of us drove over bumpy ice.

Hello from Boston.

A sea of white just out the windows. We are buried. Sharp angles of wood, of house, of metal, of fence, and car, and grill are blanketed into non-definable rolling hills of powder. Diesel engines driving plows punctuate the odd silence. Then there is wind, deep and distant, tumbles toward us and flies past. Branches sway and creek, quickly overtaken by the silence once again.

Living where I do, I would much rather be cautious and over-prepared than not. Even with 8”-10” rather than 10“16” of snow, it takes only one large fallen pine bough to knock the power out for hundreds of families. Those of us who live through this do not consider having ongoing accurate information ridiculous.

The storm warning has been changed to an advisory but there are still serious driving hazards and issues of wind gusts. Acuweather.com: vv

IMPACTS…DANGEROUS TRAVEL CONDITIONS DUE TO SNOW COVERED
ROADWAYS AND LOCALIZED BLOWING SNOW.

* WINDS…NORTH 10 TO 20 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 30 MPH.

* TEMPERATURES…MAINLY TEENS.

PERIODS OF SNOW
WILL CAUSE PRIMARILY TRAVEL DIFFICULTIES. BE PREPARED FOR SNOW
COVERED ROADS AND LIMITED VISIBILITIES…AND USE CAUTION WHILE
DRIVING.

What @gailcalled said, absolutely. I am much more interested in over coverage of a storm that could potentially kill people than in the coverage of the inflation levels of footballs.
I f you live in an area that’s not anywhere near the storm, your local news probably isn’t giving this storm 24 hour coverage, just mentioning it from time to time.

Here in N.Y. (Long Island) we got 8inches of snow but very windy and the snow is drifting. Central Park in the City got only 5 Inches. Schools closed and everyone seems to have stayed home since we have a travel ban here.

This is certainly not “the storm of the century”, what hype. I think the weather people are in cahoots with the grocery stores.

Also, not too much hype here. We got about 14–16” and it’s still snowing non-stop

I’m kind of in agreement with @JLeslie though. For this area at least, this was just a fairly regular big snow storm and while I’m glad I took precautions, I’m also glad I didn’t go in to full panic mode.

I do think the weather channels and websites want you to stay focused on them so there is a lot of hype. Bombo-genesis??

Southern NY got significant snow but nothing out of the ordinary here. Still snowing now, lightly and it’s below freezing. Staying home is a good idea and schools being closed is definitely called for in any snowy or icy weather. Of course it’s always better to be prepared than not. However, the 48 hours of hype, panic, etc. seems to be overkill. Most of my coworkers are going in today.

Just my opinion.

@JLeslie “A snow storm in the northeast is not worth over 24 hours of constant national news reporting.”

Agreed. It’s like weather is the new terrorism. This is what we get for not rewarding the “polar vortex” hype by switching off the news.

Was there any weather channel that got the prediction right where you live? Or did they all use the same models?

@gailcalled Nothing wrong with there being advisories locally. Also, no problem with being prepared for the worst and asking advice about what to have prepared.

Most people who live up there know the dangers that come with a snowstorm though. It’s not like a hurricane that comes through once every ten years. Nor, like a once every ten year snowstorm in Georgia. The northeast knows snow. Especially, New England.

When I lived in the northeast and Michigan and a big snowstorm was coming it was just another snow basically, just more of it. Government services ramped up to clear streets. Neighbors helped dig people out if their doors were blocked by drifts. People did their best to check in loved ones and friends to make sure they had heat. That’s the drill.

I’m watching some of the MSNBC coverage from last night. What a farce – doing a live remote from a not-very-snowy street, talking about how the subway was shut down in NYC… why on earth would they close the subway? Crazy!

@dappled_leaves Yeah, a friend and I were talking about why they closed the subway. Were they worried about flooding or people being out when they wanted them home? But how could essential people get to work?

What I think is that there is still residual Sandy trauma in this whole area and that the government thought it was going to be really bad and they wanted to be prepared.

But I do also think the weather channels thrive on hyperbolistic predictions and stories.

My hourly forecast was pretty accurate on accumulations but the earlier predictions were much worse.

@janbb It sounds crazy to me – I can understand that they might anticipate outages, but what they did is essentially to cause their own outage. Why race to have a dysfunctional subway, especially if all other forms of travel have already been stopped? Just let it fail if it’s going to fail, then work to fix the problem.

Well, I guess they don’t want the nightmare of people trapped in the subway but I’m not privy to all their decisions.

My guess is regarding the subway they wanted people to actively get to where they needed to be for the night by a certain time. It’s like when they lock down bridges before hurricanes. They are trying to make sure people are inside and staying put by a certain time, before winds get too high. Initially they expected a blizzard I guess, so the wind is a big concern. I would say worse than Typical snow accumulation. I’m just guessing. Blizzard I believe is technically sustained winds of 35 mph. To give you an idea, during a hurricane emergency workers stop responding at sustained winds over 40 mph. You can be dying of a heart attack and the ambulance does not go out when winds are 45.

As I said, I’m just guessing why they actually decided to close the subway, I’m not sure the actual reason. Flooding makes sense too. Many tunnels and underground areas of NYC are constantly pumped to ensure they don’t flood.

@JLeslie “My guess is regarding the subway they wanted people to actively get to where they needed to be for the night by a certain time. It’s like when they lock down bridges before hurricanes.”

That is actually what I think, too. But this is where I would draw a line with “government intrusion”. It should not be up to the city to decide how and when I decide to travel. I should be trusted to make my own decisions.

Well, it’s gonna be 70+ here today. Good day for yard work!

Carry on.

@dappled_leaves No one said you couldn’t walk where you wanted. No government intrusion, just no government assistance that would put others in danger.

For one thing, the subway system travels above ground in much of New York, so those lines are in danger. Secondly, the high likelihood of power outages with trains full of people that need to be evacuated in the middle of a blizzard also justifies them being shut down for service.

Shut down of auto traffic is to keep the streets from being clogged with cars that get stuck.

It’s somewhat incongruous that they hyped the storm by giving it what looks like the name of an African ape.

I guess if they expect the next storm to deliver more than 18” of snow, they’ll name it something like “King Kong Klimate catastrophe”. The alarmist headlines might read, “Total whiteout expected with impending KKK catastrophe!”. ;-o

@Brian1946 “It’s somewhat odd that they hyped the storm by giving it what looks like the name of an African ape.”

Far from it – I thought it was named for a bumblebee.

@dappled_leaves Well, the city does get to protect their workers though. If they feel there is a risk to train conductors and others working in the subway system, then they can shut it down to ensure they get home safely. Some of the lines you can come above ground through a building, but some you have to go out into the elements.

If a train got stuck from a power outage they are stuck in the tunnels or have to walk through the tunnels, which is not fun, and can be risky. If they walk through to a platform or exit, they might be walking through a blizzard to get anywhere once above ground. We have to think about employees, not just the patrons.

@JLeslie Well, I understand that. But this is the first time in history that the subway has been shut down for a snowstorm. I’m just finding it hard to believe that this isn’t the result of a hysteria buy-in, rather than following an actual policy.

I think there was some hysteria. I also think, it’s not a bad thing to let employees be home safely with their families. The subways aren’t travelled very heavily very late at night with a bad storm on the way. The one thing I worried about would be shift workers not being able to get home, because the subways were shut down, hopefully all employers were doing what they could to ensure fairness to everyone. Hospital shift workers probably got stuck at the hospitals anyway, because employees didn’t come into work. My aunt’s aide didn’t come to work, my aunt had no one at her apartment all day yesterday, I’m not sure about today, and my aunt is supposed to have help every day.

Ironically, I will say this, during the icy snow I feel safer on the subways than above ground. Unless you get stuck in a tunnel.

@JLeslie That’s exactly it. People take the metro in droves here when the weather is bad. It’s much more efficient. Of course, ours never goes aboveground.

@dappled_leaves A lot of the NY system is above ground (over a third) especially in certain boroughs (NYC is divided into 5 boroughs). In the middle of the night when a snow storm is expected, not many people are going to be out anyway. I’m not too freaked out they closed the subway. It would be interesting to know what New Yorkers thought. I’ll have to ask my sister what people were saying inside the city.

From Gawker:

Did Cuomo need to shut down the subway?

The consensus is: No. The MTA has a number of reduced-service options for inclement weather, allowing it to protect its trains and tracks while still providing limited service for the few people (emergency and service workers, stranded commuters) who need it. (The chair of the MTA said as much, before Cuomo made his unilateral decision.) As Benjamin Kabak of Second Avenue Sagas puts it:

The problem with Cuomo’s decision is that it doesn’t make sense. It’s a noble goal to keep cars off the road so that emergency response teams and plows can move through the city unimpeded. But it ignores the reality of New York City — an often inconvenient one for Cuomo — to shutter the subway. Now, New Yorkers, from everyone building cleaning crews to service employees at bars who are on duty until 4 a.m. to nurses and hospitals on duty overnight, can’t get around the city because the Governor decided it was somehow a danger for a subway system that operates largely underground to keep running through a massive but hardly unprecedented snow storm. Cuomo doesn’t want to deal with headlines placing the blame for the next stranded subway on his shoulders so instead, the entire city is effectively shut down.

I am not a NewYawka and don’t know anything about the subways. Don’t most of them occasionally run above ground? Who shovels off the tracks? What happens when there is a plop of 2 ft of snow and a train plows into it? Are they fitted with plows to push the snow to either side? I’ve hit snow banks with my Tahoe and it is jarring.
It would seem that this exercise was good disaster practice. People thought about what to do and were ready. Great! Except for the folks who do field work that must be on location, we all can learn how to work from home occasionally.

Maybe the tracks stay warm from the electricity? Night trains still run every 20 minutes or so I think? I’m not sure. Maybe it is less frequent in some places.

This might be a lesson not to close the subway. We’ll see what happens the next expected blizzard.

@LuckyGuy so how’s the weather today?

@LuckyGuy I know that in Calgary, their light-rail system can easily be paralyzed by snow which was a constant source of amusement for an easterner like me. But they had virtually no workers and no machinery for snow removal.

To me, the greatest argument in favour of not closing the subway is that no one has ever seen a need to do it before. This is a region that sees a lot of snow; they are prepared to handle it. It’s definitely not the first time anyone has thought of clearing the NYC tracks of snow. I mean, I get that this was a big storm – but surely it would be better to keep people moving as normally as possible, while it was possible. Why pre-empt an accidental transportation failure with a deliberate transportation failure? I don’t get how that’s better. Either way, people are inconvenienced, except that the accident might never happen. As indeed it didn’t.

It wasn’t that big in the city.

My aunt just said that NYC was going to have the subways closed all day today, not just the middle of the night. That is crazy talk if that was the plan. She might be wrong. She said she shut off the news last night, because she thought the storm hysteria was ridiculous.

@JLeslie The subways started running on Sunday schedule this morning at 9 o’clock. All the travel restrictions have been lifted in the greater NYC area.

@zenvelo But, did they actually plan to have them closed all day? Then they reversed it? Or, did they tell people they would evaluate the situation overnight?

Regarding subway power loss during an outage: don’t they have backup generators?

When I worked for AT&T, each central office usually had 2 backup systems: battery-arrays and a generator.

I would assume there is some sort of back up. That would be interesting to know. How many trains can run on the back up? How many hours? If there is back up.

When the power was out after Hurricane Sandy, there is no backup generator big enough to power the subway system, including lights and all that. Also, there was a big flood of sea water into the subway, onto the tracks and wires. Salt water, which is what sea water is, will eventually corrode the wires. Probably they closed it for a bunch of reasons: safety of workers, safety of riders, not wanting to deal with potential power outages, wanting the workers to be able, as much as possible, to be home with their own families during the storm, not wanting people to be all over NYC partying which is what they do when there’s no work the next day. This way it sent a message that this was serious, stay the f home, don’t put others including emergency workers at risk because you were foolhardy and restless. It is also nice to have a mayor who cares about the safety of the employees by not wanting to have them be out working.

I have close relatives who live in NYC, one who works in Hoboken and I am not sure if she went to work today, because I think she takes the ferry and I’m sure it was not running. The others live in Murray Hill section, who are wealthy enough that they are never on public transportation except maybe occasionally Metro North (which is the regular commuter train, not a subway).

Everyone that I know agrees that the storm was a dud. It is really cold out in my neck of the woods. Very cold and windy. The snow is light and powdery, blowing all over the place. Boston and Long Island got hit hard. I got about 8 inches. It was about 5 or 6 this morning and then it started back up from around 8 to around 11 this morning.

@Dutchess_III: I don’t believe @LuckyGuy lives near the storm area. This was one snow that missed him.

The storm wasn’t actually a dud (talk to the folks in Rhode Island and eastern Mass), they just couldn’t precisely predict where the line was between outstandingly dangerous and just a bad snowstorm. The amount of ice from previous wet precip, under the new super cold, tiny slick flakes, coupled with high winds made it a bad storm. maybe overhyped, yes, but the number of casualties because everybody stayed home was very low. Some may have been inconvenienced, and I guess it could be annoying to see so much coverage (we all have the internet here, not hard to get away from the reporting) but I think many fewer people were in trouble because of it.
It’s weather. Absolutely accurate predictions are not available yet

It was a dud to my local peeps because they predicted up to 40 inches and we got about 8 total, which is no more than any other storm. As I said earlier, Boston and Long Island got it bad so I did acknowledge that for some, it was bad.

@jca

What’s your geographic relationship to Long Island? I have the impression that you live NW or WNW of there.

@Brian1946 Long Island is basically east of all of New York State. @jca is almost directly north of NYC. Long Island is long west to east sticking out from NYC.

@Brian1946: Here’s a map of NY Tri State area. I am northeast of NYC near CT border. To put myself in relation to Long Island is hard, since it’s so long, it really depends on where you’re talking.

Funny, I don’t think of you as NE if NYC, but I guess you are. Or, NNE at minimum.

Sorry I forgot the map:

http://metroeast_climate.ciesin.columbia.edu/images/mec_map.gif

NYC is the purple, in the square.

Thanks for the map. :-)