After Hours·5,453 discussions

Hurricane Irene

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Hey, Eastern Seaboard: DUCK!

Darryl and PS, what’s the plan this time? I assume he has to work again; will she put cats in the car and haul (insert deleted euphemism for ‘kitty’)?

Topic

I wonder about New York

In reply to Hurricane Irene

If thet find out they are in the path, Darryl and Purple can get outta dodge.

What if the 8 million people(or so) in NYC find out they are in the path, what if even half of them want to leave, what happens next?

Same thing that happened with Florida in 1999 and hurricane Floyd

In reply to I wonder about New York

Jammed roads
4 hours to go 8 miles
Hotels trying to charge 10 times normal rate
People buying up tons of water and selling it later at $10 a bottle

It’s the American way!

If they want to leave, I’d suggest doing it early. Go stay in PA for a long weekend.

Walking is faster…

In reply to Same thing that happened with Florida in 1999 and hurricane Floyd

Even hopping from car-roof to car-roof when the motorway floods is faster…
People is ca-ra-zy!

New York is going to be hit

In reply to I wonder about New York

They evacuated lower Manhatten and are closing the bridges. They will shut down all of the mass transit systems (trains and subways) early tomorrow. They’re doing the same thing in NJ. They closed the Garden State Parkway in southern NJ and made all of the lanes northbound so that people can’t go to the coastal areas, but they will be able to leave.

Theres going to be a lot of damage in NY/NJ because of the sustained winds and flooding. If you’re in NY, you really can’t get out. Most people in NY don’t have cars and they rely on mass transit.

I’m not looking forward to this. It’s scary.

AV

Best wishes to all

In reply to New York is going to be hit

be safe!

This one…

In reply to Hurricane Irene

This hurricane I’ve heard has been compared to Bob in 1991…

Everybody PANIC!!!!11

In reply to Hurricane Irene

Evacuate NYC?? Prolly be a lot easier if the MTA didn’t shut down all bus, train, and subway service. Co-ordination!! Another word politicians don’t know.

Is it still 1969??

In reply to Hurricane Irene

And . . . New Year’s Eve to boot – I’m going out partying, see ya next year!!

Yep. Continuously, apparently.

In reply to Is it still 1969??

Yet randomly. For at least a week, so far.

New Year’s Eve, 1969. All day, all night, all nice.

Staring down the eye of the storm

In reply to Hurricane Irene

Well, waving as it passes by, anyway. I’m in Myrtle Beach tonight. There’s some rain, some wind, and that’s about it. Expecting clear skies in the morning.

Best of luck to everybody in the path of this one.

Yep it’s the same here Nick

In reply to Staring down the eye of the storm

Some Rain a little wind and lots of Soggy Lorries demanding to be feed.

And we are not even in the Northern Hemisphere where they have Hurricanes.

Now I’m going out and applying for bankruptcy as the Lorries have already eaten 15 loves of bread and they are just demanding to be feed yet again. :0

Col

May I suggest

In reply to Yep it’s the same here Nick

Soylent Blue… it’s made of Lorries.

Lorries eat bread?

In reply to Yep it’s the same here Nick

I’ve seen a few that tip an awful lot. I’m surprised they aren’t staggering about on the job.

I finished my preparations yesterday

In reply to Staring down the eye of the storm

Now I learn that Irene will miss California completely.

Wow!

In reply to I finished my preparations yesterday

Those are some good preparations! Even the houdoun don’t have it that good!

BTW: Isn’t it on the other side of the continent from you? Or is my geography obsolete… again?

This

In reply to Wow!

is why Irene will miss Santee completely. She must have received the warning, and wants to avoid eye damage.

California doesn’t get hurricanes.

In reply to Wow!

It’s Nature’s way of compensating for the earthquakes, mudslides, forest fires, Hollywood, etc.

What?

In reply to California doesn’t get hurricanes.

What was that Hurricane Arnold I heard about, cutting a swath of destruction across itself?

Irene’s standing on the leading edge,

In reply to Hurricane Irene

the Eastern Seaboard spread before her eye.

Good luck to the Outer Banks.

We’re on the lucky side of this one

In reply to Hurricane Irene

It’s New Brunswick that’s going to get a beating from Irene. It’s going to be pretty crappy for them too; they’ve been flooded out a couple times already this year making the ground saturated. I expect a lot of trees will come down and I imagine there will be a lot of flooding. I work for a major construction firm that is building the new Gateway hi-way going through New Brunswick; I expect it will put some of our guys out of work for a few days.

Nova Scotia, on the other hand, isn’t going to get much. Looks like some rain and a little bit gusty but that’s about it. > http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/city/pages/ns-25_metric_e.html Thank goodness because we’ve had more than our fair share in the last 8 years. It will be 8 yrs in September since Juan went through. That year it all started with a huge flood in April, Juan in September, and then White Juan in February. Since then, we’ve had a bunch of little storms, some nasty rains, and a weather bomb this past December (this was an experience to say the least). > http://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/storm_watch_stories3&stormfile=potential_weather_bomb_targe_041210

Over the course of July, I always manage to gather up enough canned goods to last a couple days, freeze three 2 quart jugs in the event that we need blocks of ice, we double check our “camping gear”, and make sure that all three propane tanks for the grill are filled and ready to go; if fill up water jugs if I hear that there is going to be “adverse weather”.

So…everyone in Irene’s path…keep your head down if you haven’t “gotten outta Dodge” – which would have been my option – if you still have time, stock up on power outage needs..canned goods, candles, batteries, bottled water. Please stay safe and I hope you all weather the storm well.

Reponse To Answer

In reply to We’re on the lucky side of this one

Well PS if things get really desperate

You can always eat the children. After all they have to be good for something.

I’m under the impression that they are really tasty if you slow roast ot Spit Roast them after marinating them in Copious Amounts of Cheap Red Wine for a day or so after dressing them. 😉

Col

Dressing them?

In reply to Reponse To Answer

Wouldn’t their clothes get stuck in your teeth?

Reponse To Answer

In reply to We’re on the lucky side of this one

lol…Col

31st Dec 1969?

In reply to Hurricane Irene

what’s that all about eh?after our names….anyway…i don’t do cheap red wine…the stuff i like cost 20 Can. to buy…i’m not wasting it on marinating one of the kidlets…

back to work for me…i’m on housework duty today…giving the “boss” a break…he cooks most of the time, so i best pick it up ’cause i don’t wanna cook 😀

PS the Cheap Red is for Marinating

In reply to 31st Dec 1969?

and serving the neighbors that you are not overly fond of.

You keep the expensive stuff for yourself to drink. Haven’t I taught you anything yet?

Do I have to give you cooking lessons as well? :0

Col

Irene has moved into NJ

In reply to Hurricane Irene

So far, just a little light rain and the wind is kicking up. The bad stuff didn’t reach Northern NJ yet.

I’m as prepared as I can possibly be. The hub and I cleaned up the yard today. I have most of my plants in the house. We put all the lawn furniture away. Anything that can fly around. We cut down a few branches that looked like they might hit the house.

All we can do is hope for the best. They said we can get up to a foot of rain. I can’t wrap my mind around that right now, but my basement will undoubtedly flood. Fortunately, our property is sloped, so the water usually goes downhill. The worst is when we lose power though. We have a well and a septic system, so we will have no water or sewer. I filled up the bathtub with water so we can at least manually flush the toilets.

I even got out my old dialup modem for when our cable goes out. I have an old dialup account for just-in-case moments like this one. Hope I can remember how to set up the modem. :p

AV

edit: fixed paragraph

Here’s a hint about Wind Storms

In reply to Irene has moved into NJ

If they are named after a Female they are going to be damaging and extremely dangerous.

If they are named after a male just ignore them as they are harmless. 😉

Col

Andrew, Hugo, Floyd

In reply to Here’s a hint about Wind Storms

So much for that theory.

Here’s a book about something from your general vicinity (+/-5000 km)

In reply to Here’s a hint about Wind Storms

George Lakoff : Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things
It’s about grammatical categories (such as gender, like they have in French and German), and the title comes from an aboriginal people, whose language (Dyirbal, spoken somewhere up the east side of the peak of Queensland, about the height of Darwin) has one “gender” for such things as Women, Fire, and (other) Dangerous Things.
Sounds like you know that truth.

EDIT: Found a link to the actual book, rather than the amazon blurb’n’cover

Oh no, the winds

In reply to Hurricane Irene

I’m going to have to go soon.

AV

To a spot safer than where you are, I hope

In reply to Oh no, the winds

Away from the computer and out of communication? Not out into it…

please

In reply to Oh no, the winds

be safe…

Best wishes.

In reply to Oh no, the winds

Stay safe.

Now remember

In reply to Oh no, the winds

Sitting in a room with a Petrol Generator Twitting every few seconds will get you killed. No the Hurricane will not hurt you but the Carbon Monoxide will most certainly Kill You.

If you have done everything possible just sit back and hope that the neighbors downwind have done the same and stay away from the windows.

Also open the Windows away from the wind to prevent a pressure buildup inside the house which will lift the roof.

Provided you are high enough above water you’ll be A OK. 😉

Col

That’s a wives tale, Col

In reply to Now remember

IIRC, the Mythbusters shot this one down several years ago. It’s not the pressure differential, but the wind speed that causes problems. Opening a window creates turbulence, which only increases the problem.

Myth Busters got it wrong

In reply to That’s a wives tale, Col

I was in a house at Townsville when a cyclone hit. No biggy it’s normal here and we expect these things. If you don’t open the windows away from the oncoming winds the roof will blow off. Been there done that.

But to be fair if the wall facing the wind gets breached like the idiots in the house directly downwind do not take in the rubbish bin and it blows into a car port then the roofing iron of the car port demolishes the wall and you have 8 foot sheets of Corrugated Iron embedded in internal walls.

If the windows behind the house are open the roof stays on. If they are shut you loose the roof and then the majority of the house. 😉

OK maybe not what Myth Busters tried but it is certainly what happens. Also you need to remember that once one house/building goes it starts a chain of destruction downwind. Bits of roofing Iron floating around in the breeze are not my idea of fun though to be honest bits of Brick floating about in the same breeze are something to be avoided as well. :0

It was interesting looking at the aftermath. The place I was in had the wall facing the ocean mostly demolished and a couple of sheets of Corrugated Iron sticking out of internal walls but otherwise fairly intact. The next house downwind was destroyed when bits of the same car port hit it. It was empty and locked up tight and was no more. Then every house downwind was simply gone. OH it was Brick where as the house I was in was weather board.

So we had the Ocean then the first house in only loosing a rubbish bin and the car port, the second house from the ocean had the wall facing the ocean gone but otherwise intact and then everything behind that was gone/demolished. No one died but I’m not sure how they didn’t in that area. :0

Col

‘House for Sale’ signs

In reply to Myth Busters got it wrong

Those are what really scare me – some realtor’s 2-foot square piece of sheet metal spinning at 110 mph. Those rarely get taken down as part of pre-storm preparations, especially if the owners have already moved out.

Yep they are scary things to see floating around

In reply to ‘House for Sale’ signs

When that happens it’s time to hide as deep inside the house away from the outside as possible.

Of course with modern houses you are flat out getting more than 1 wall away from an exterior wall. 😉

On the up side here most of those signs are plastic so they mash up on themselves when they hit anything. Mind you the few that have metal ones are very scary.

Col

Trailer parks scare me….

In reply to ‘House for Sale’ signs

We’re in a trailer park of around 350…many have metal siding. You don’t go outside when you see that stuff flying around in the middle of a hurricane….as scared as you may be inside a flimsy trailer, it’s just way too dangerous outside.

Well I see we have Katia heading for the East Coast now….that should be fun….NOT!

Those lines:

In reply to Oh no, the winds

“Oh no, the winds. I’m going to have to go soon.”

They leave us aloft, AV.

It was a very long night

In reply to Hurricane Irene

Irene made landfall in NJ at Little Egg Inlet, right near the nuclear power plant. Its a good thing that Gov. Christie had ordered it to be shut down prior to the storm.

We got about 6 to 8 inches of rain overnight and our basement is flooded, but all in all, we fared pretty well through the storm. Lots of tree limbs down. The wind was pretty scary last night and we lost our power, but it was restored early this morning.

We still have another band of rain coming and its very windy here. I definitely will not venture outside until the storm is completely gone. Many roads are closed with down trees and flooding, even on the major highways.

I can’t wait till Irene moves on.

AV

Good

In reply to It was a very long night

A dark and stormy night and no shot rang out.

Hoping

In reply to It was a very long night

your flooding and any other damage stays limited to what you already have. I also hope your flooding is rainwater and not, er, “backup”, and that cleanup is easy.

My power is out

In reply to It was a very long night

I am using dialup on a laptop. Man! I forgot how slow dialup can be.

The winds are really strong.

AV

Fun using Dialup isn’t it

In reply to My power is out

And do you remember when Dial was the fastest thing you had experienced and you couldn’t conceive of anything faster?

Col

The amazing speed jump of going to 28.8 or even 33.6 after living with 9600

In reply to Fun using Dialup isn’t it

Those Hayes modems were a great piece of gear; that aluminum chassis was strong enough to serve as a wheel chock for a ten-ton truck.

I do remember the dialup days

In reply to Fun using Dialup isn’t it

56k was the ultimate. But, back then, web pages were simpler and easier to load. I forgot how painful it is to load graphics – verrry slowly, frame by frame. I forgot what it was like to listen to the modem dialing in and the screechy sound of the modem when it connects.

I can’t believe how far we’ve come since those days and how important the internet now is to everyone’s life. I never could have imagined how fast technology has moved since those days and what we have today.

AV

Good thing the telco lines aren’t down, then.

In reply to My power is out

Good for you.

I’ve got a laptop with a dialup modem, too. Didn’t come with wireless, though. Go figure. (Yes, it was available for that model, but I didn’t order/buy it.)

I hate this, I’m sitting in the dark on a dialup line

In reply to Hurricane Irene

The wind is blowing hard and there is no sign of JCPL, our power company. Oh, geez. I’m SOL. My battery is low, so thats it.

AV

See you when you’re free and have power.

In reply to I hate this, I’m sitting in the dark on a dialup line

Until then, best wishes.

If you haven’t already heard,

In reply to I hate this, I’m sitting in the dark on a dialup line

The problem with getting the power back was that the utility companies couldn’t deploy the ‘bucket’ trucks. The winds were still too high to safely elevate the ‘cherry pickers’.

8 million customers without electricity along the eastern seaboard.

I finally got my power back

In reply to Hurricane Irene

It was some time during the middle of the night. What a joy! The things you take for granted. I have to say, my low tech landline phone and modem saved the day. If it wasn’t for them, I would have been completely cut off. I think I’ll keep my landline. Its worth the money.

I made it to work today, one of the few people that did. The highway was good, but all of the backroads are an absolute disaster. Many roads are flooded or impassable because of downed trees. Its going to take days to recover from this storm. Many people that live in more Northern NJ where I work will not be seeing any power until next week.

My network at work weathered the storm very well. Only 1 server was shut down by the UPS. All in all, I feel very lucky after hearing what some people went through.

AV

glad to hear :)

In reply to I finally got my power back

NT~

Did you get the storm?

In reply to glad to hear :)

I hope if you do it doesn’t drop as much rain as it did for us. We got 10-14 inches where I live.

AV

No, we didn’t get much from it at all….

In reply to Did you get the storm?

Just a very windy night & about half an inch of rain….a couple places around town lost power but ours didn’t even flicker enough to reset the clocks 🙂
It seemed to hit the Quebec/New Brunswick border area kinda bad….we just got lots of big waves along the coast.

I’m glad it wasn’t worse for you.

In reply to I finally got my power back

And hooray for UPS!

I hope your basement isn’t too much of a disaster.

Yay!

In reply to I finally got my power back

Must be quite odd, moving about the aftermath.
No zombies, I hope!

Glad to know

In reply to I finally got my power back

that all is well with you. I can now unbate my breath. 🙂

There is so much tree damage and flooding here

In reply to Glad to know

Every river and creek is overflowing with water in NJ. There are huge trees down on top of power lines, everywhere. There is a huge tree down on my street blocking the road, so we only have one way out. I’m so grateful I have electric. Many people I work with in more Northeast NJ won’t have power until next week.

It was like going through a maze to get to work. You never knew what road was closed. Its going to take awhile to recover. I am so lucky that we just had some minor basement flooding and a few limbs down. Its still a huge mess, but I’m not complaining after seeing what other people have to deal with.

AV

My favorite part

In reply to Hurricane Irene

The governor of New Jersey during a press conference talking about people walking around on the beach during the storm… “GET THE HELL OFF THE BEACH!”

If only more would do that!

Let ’em stay out there

In reply to My favorite part

It’s Darwinism in action…

It’s an all-american tradition

In reply to Let ’em stay out there

“Foolkiller got ’em!”

The only problem is . .

In reply to Let ’em stay out there

Someone will try to rescue the fools.

AV

Or die trying…

In reply to The only problem is . .

That’s why he could have said “Get the fluck off the beaches, or the national guard will retrieve you with whaling harpoons – to avoid endangering themselves over your dumb asses”. Would have been warranted.

NYC pressing charges against those rescued?

In reply to Let ’em stay out there

I caught part of a radio report that NYC is pressing charges against some kayakers that had to be fished out of Long Island Sound. Endangering emergency responders, or something to that nature. They outta bill them for the cost of picking them up, too.

I love my Governor

In reply to My favorite part

He tells it like it is.

AV

Power failure at work

In reply to Hurricane Irene

I’m not having a good week. We lost our power at work for about an hour today and had to down all of the servers because we had no way of knowing how long the power would be out. There is still so much flooding, tree damage and power line issues in the area I work, I believe this is going to be the new normal for a while.

Our Exchange server is still a physical server and unfortunately, there wasn’t enough battery left to down it gracefully, so it crashed. Our UPS’s are pretty spent because of all power problems over the weekend.

The Exchange server wouldn’t boot up all the way when the power came back on. That’s my worst nightmare! I was fearing the worst. It took three tries and finally it was able to boot. I was soooo relieved! Having no email is the worst case scenario for any company.

There is nothing like experience to give you a real handle on what disaster recovery at a company should look like. We’re a mid-sized company. We should have a generator and emergency lights in the computer room. Its kind of surreal downing all of the servers by flashlight. The company should spend the money because their most precious aspect, their data, is really at risk.

We have a physical and virtual environment, about 25 servers, so it takes a while to shut everything down. Even though we have UPS’s on the virtual hosts, they will not do an orderly shutdown on any of the VM’s that they host. We have to manually shut all of the VMs down. Its a bummer. Especially doing it at the console on the server rack with a flashlight.

Everything is thankfully okay for the moment. Thank you for listening to my boo-hoo moment. You guys are the greatest.

AV

No emergency lights?

In reply to Power failure at work

Geez Louise. I guess that was the moment for you to really shine as an IT pro. I’m glad your servers didn’t bork out. I certainly wouldn’t want to be responsible for a messed up Exchange server, of all things.

Kudos to you. Scratch the boo-hoo reference. I, for one, appreciate the damage reports and tales of adventure. I’m glad things weren’t worse for you.

I think management never sees behind the scenes

In reply to No emergency lights?

They can’t appreciate how precarious some situations are. If our Exchange server didn’t come back up, it would have been a disaster for the company. And for me.

I know what its like to be the fall guy.

AV

Wouldn’t it be great…

In reply to I think management never sees behind the scenes

if managers in general had enough knowledge of how tech works and doesn’t, that they could be relied on to know that shit happens, and know when it’s avoidable with a little money, and when it’s just not reliably avoidable.

My emergency lights

In reply to No emergency lights?

are positioned directly opposite the server racks and main KVM console. When the power goes out and I stand in front of the console, my body blocks the light and I can’t see the keyboard or touchpad. Every time we have a thunderstorm, I swear I’m going to have those lights moved; yet there they remain.

In my bunker

In reply to My emergency lights

Kerosene lantern to the left, sidearm to the right, illuminated Logitech front and center makes it work for me.

Well,

In reply to In my bunker

a fuel oil lantern would probably set off the halon system. Firearms aren’t allowed on company property. I don’t want or need a bunker at work or at home.

Good for you

In reply to Well,

Trust in Mother Nature, management, and the kindness of marauding strangers.

Oh, thats good to know

In reply to My emergency lights

Thanks for mentioning placement! I will make sure that the lights have the best placement possible in the computer room. We don’t have too many options because we have the punchboards for the phone system on the walls. If the light maybe was behind and above the network racks, that would work.

AV

Thanks for that

In reply to No emergency lights?

I don’t have emergency lights in the computer room because the company doesn’t want to spend the money, but after this, I’m going to insist. I’m working on a disaster recovery project right now, so hopefully, after I make my case, they’ll go for it. Its not that much money to do.

Aside from the network, the PCs took a hit too after the power outage. Many of them couldn’t log in because they lost their date and time. I fixed them with good old DOS commands. Sometimes it pays off to be an old-timer.

AV

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