http://www.reuters.c...E89N16J20121029

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/hurricane-sandy-causes-evacuations-closings-throughout-east-coast/2012/10/29/8eac52ba-2162-11e2-8448-81b1ce7d6978_story.html

 

As hurricane Sandy heads my way, I feel kind of like the no-name nebbish in a disaster film, soon to come to a (briefly) exciting end.

 

Gigantic waves! Blizzards of snow! Cities evacuated! Stores empty of water! Emergency declared! Possible loss of power for an indeterminate amount of time!

 

Gulp.........

 

If you don't hear from me ever again, you will know what happened!

 

All of us in the path will just have to prepare as best we can, ride it out and hope for the best, I guess. In the meanwhile as I sit here, checking in with friends and family I wonder who else out there is battening down the hatches and waiting.

 

Oh, and be safe, guys!

Hopefully this will be a repeat of Hurricane Irene from last year where nothing ended up happening. But I don't know as this one looks major.

 

Keep safe Devon and everyone.

Yes, us folks down under will be thinking of you.

 

Devon, you didn't mention the most dire of disaster comsequences- LOSS OF INTERNET CONNECTION!

 

:-)

Yes I did. :-)

 

That's why I said you might not hear from me. In fact, if there are a lot of users from the northeast of the US, site traffic here might actually take a dip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from a weather balloon.

Our server farm lives in a suburb of Washington D.C., right in the bull's eye from what I am now seeing in the latest NOAA updates. About the only thing that will take out the Network Operation Center (NOC) would be a massive fire or nuke. This little dust up with Momma Nature won't bring AVSIM down. If the main arteries of the net in that area are blasted, that could take us off line, but the odds of that happening are pretty low.

 

More importantly, for me anyway, is that my home is in central Virginia. I am on the west coast at the moment, and my wife is in the bulls eye of the southern edge of the storm as it shows tonight. If things go as NOAA is showing, she will be okay. If things go further south, a totally different story could emerge.

 

Here is the latest radar loop showing our home (Charlottesville) and the bands. Note the progress of the yellow bands

 

http://radar.weather...101111&loop=yes

 

Yes, it can be kinda tense, waiting for nature to throw the dice. Best of luck to all of us!

I lived in Nova Scotia for years and seen my share of these storms. Call me nuts but I find mother nature fascinating. I remember my house in Cole Harbour being hit by +100 mph winds and just lost a few shingles. But that house was designed for the wind as it has been sitting on the coast since 1973, seen many storms.

 

Now I live in Wellington which is considered one of the windiest cities on the planet. 70 mph winds are common here (a few times a month).

 

Think I might follow the storm and load the weather into FSX with a C130. Those USAF guys are out there right now tracking that storm from above with a front row seat. B)

I'm in Chesterfield, about an hour or less away from Tom and right now like he said, we might be getting hit by the southwestern quadrant of the storm. Any deviation south, and we get hit harder, but as Tom knows, it doesn't take much wind to knock trees and powerlines down in our neck of the woods. For me, I'm lucky I get off from work in a few hours and have Mon-Tue off. You guys up on the NJ-PA-NY area, buckle up and stay safe!

Stay safe guys. I wouldn't be able to give any advice since I live in the relatively safe and shielded Borneo. No experience in this sort of matter.

Stay safe and all the best to everyone in the path of this hurricane.

 

This one does look very nasty and unfortunately it doesn't look like it's going to ease up :(.

Southern VT here and who says we are hoping for a repeat of Irene? No one from around here! I think this time we will be on the less destructive side of center than last year's incredible flood, but most folks are a bit edgy with this one. Best of luck to everyone and hopefully we'll be chatting with you straight through.

Be well,

Southern VT here and who says we are hoping for a repeat of Irene? No one from around here! I think this time we will be on the less destructive side of center than last year's incredible flood, but most folks are a bit edgy with this one. Best of luck to everyone and hopefully we'll be chatting with you straight through.

Be well,

 

That's right...Forgot about the floods. I was just commenting how New York was left a ghost town but the storm didn't really do much damage other then trees and power. You are correct that flooding was the real problem from the rain further inland.

 

I was in NYC around that time and I recall the snow storm in January following causing more problems then that hurricane. Garbage was backed up for weeks while they were plowing the snow.

I remember once being about to start a raid in an mmo, and several members of the group were describing a tornado in their area. Every once in a while somebody would say something like my house is shaking, or one of my windows just got smashed, but not a one of them would leave the raid even with others encouraging them to sign off and take care of themselves.

 

Wonder if that happens in vatsim! LoL

 

Right now I have done all I know to do, and am just waiting to see how the dice tumble.

I am in Long Branch NJ, projected to be hit the worst in a few hours. If this is the calm before the storm we are really in trouble. Irene was devastating here and this is supposed to be much worse in terms of storm surge and flooding. Here is the notice I got last night before the firemen knocked at the door:

10/28/2012 8:52:15 PM EST - THIS IS AN EMERGENCY COMMUNICATION TO RESIDENTS OF THE CITY OF LONG BRANCH . HURRICANE SANDY MAY GO DOWN AS THE WORST STORM TO

 

EVER HIT THE COAST OF NEW JERSEY. TIDES ARE

ALREADY RUNNING SIGNIFICANTLY HIGH, WITH MINOR-MODERATE COASTAL FLOODING THIS MORNING.

WITH EACH HIGH TIDE CYCLE, COASTAL FLOODING WILL WORSEN. AT ITS PEAK, MONDAY EVENING, WE

WILL LIKELY BREAK RECORD HIGH TIDES BETWEEN ALREADY HIGH TIDES WITH THE FULL MOON (OF 4

FEET ABOVE NORMAL) ON TOP OF 5-9 FOOT SURGE. THIS ALONG WITH 20 - 30 FOOT WAVES AND A STRONG

NORTH-NORTHEAST WINDS OF 40 - 60 MPH, GUSTS UP TO 80 WILL ERODE BEACHES AND LIKELY RESULT IN

PROPERTY DAMAGE. WHILE IMMEDIATE COASTAL AND FLOOD PRONE AREAS ARE MOST AT RISK,

FLOODING IS POSSIBLE IN ALL AREAS WITH 3-6” OF RAIN. STRONG WINDS WILL ALSO KNOCK DOWN TREES

AND POWER LINES, RESULTING IN POWER OUTAGES… THE WORST OF THE STORM IS THRU MON NIGHT.

 

CITY OFFICIALS URGE RESIDENTS LOCATED IN MANDATORY EVACUATION ZONES TO EVACUATE THE CITY IMMEDIATELY

 

This was 8:30 this morning during a "lull"

 

Coming right for us here in Allentown, Pa. In 2 hours (3 PM), it's supposed to start getting strong...then continuing through tomorrow. Loss of power is a big concern, and I have enormous trees on my property next to the house. Hopefully, we'll all get through this safely.

 

Stan