Checking in from Baltimore. The friend I'm staying with didn't really do any preparations so I'm getting ready to head out in search of coffee, ice, a lighter, and wine. I'm also doing it just to get one last chance to get out of the house before it gets worse here. Right now it's just a rainy windy day, but the core of the storm is still hundreds of miles and 16 hours away.

hehehe. . later on his pee will be frozen and his cahones may be falling off, as for the newspaper box, maybe it will be located a few miles down the street, and the guy singing kumbayah may be signing something else about oh sh*t and not be so happy.. hehe. So, maybe you will have a peaceful, quiet night and not be so entertained Nomad, cept for the wind and rain sounds. Better get prepared for that drinking game. Good luck!

.. good thing about that, is when you wake up again it may be all over?


Has or Is anyone evacuating at this point or is everyone pretty much staying inside and hunkering down ?

Be safe and stay warm everybody!

Birds are getting quiet, animals are sensing the storm coming and NY will be shutting down Wall Street, NYSE, and the subway and transportation system. They are calling Sandy a "100 year storm" now and one of the worst storms in history.

My part of Brooklyn is okay but they evacuated Red Hook, Coney Island and the Far Rockaways yesterday, as well as part of Lower Manhattan. Governor Cuomo just had a press conference, and kept saying, "Don't underestimate this storm." They're saying now, that it will be worse than Hurricane Irene, which caused evacuations and hit last summer when I was in Ecuador.

I'm sitting here with my outdoor furniture and bicycle stacked in the livingroom, since we all had to clear off our balconies. It's just windy out, and occasionally a weird structural noise will happen, or a white plastic bag will go floating up near my windows, which is sort of unnerving since I'm on the 9th floor.

Baltimore, MD
 

rain and wind picked up a little around 10:30 am

Hope everyone is staying safe. I talked to some friends in LI and near Cape May NJ this morning both are saying things are getting a bit worrisome thus far. Flooding etc...everyone will be in my thoughts

It's getting dark and blustery here.
I just went to go run one last errand and it's an interesting dynamic out there. Lots of folks shopping in their pajamas, calm, interesting.
Schools just closed. I live right on a river so I went and took pictures of the water levels so I can compare later. When Irene went through that was one of the things that put me in an evacuation zone- the locks and bridges were unstable and blowing out.
Now we wait and see. Trying to get as much work done as I can while I have power...

Still quiet here. Now it seems that later tonight will be the actual moment of truth. Closer to 6-8pm. This thing is crawling. The winds pick up and die down.

Good news is Mare gets to stay home. That is a huge load off my mind. The roads here are prone to flooding and since we live in the sticks of south jersey so to speak, there will be downed trees everywhere.

Once again, stay safe, be safe.

Folks in part of New Jersey, Long Island and of course low-lying parts of Brooklyn are much worse off than those in my immediate neighborhood, though my worry ratcheted up a tiny bit when I looked out my 9th-floor window and saw that some of the people in buildings across the street have criss-crossed tape on their windows, or cardboard.

They're closing the tunnels at 2 today; subways, busses and commuter trains were shut down last night.

The worse part will be around 8 tonight. High tide and the storm's peak are going to hit at the same time.

I'm watching sheets of rain move down the street. And I swear, there are white globs that look like snow falling on my balcony, but I know it must be something else. Trees are already falling.

It's easy to forget, I live on an island. But now I'm acutely aware of it.

Just found out that a friend who lives in a very flood prone area with her three kids has decided NOT to evacuate despite evacuation orders. Now THAT just pisses me off -- she can decide that for herself, but her kids deserve not to go through that.

Mayor Bloomberg is live on TV urging people to leave the evacuated areas now, if they haven't done so already, while there is still a window of time in which they can safely move outside. "Conditions are deteriorating rapidly," he said.

Connecticut is closing all interstate highways, including the Merritt Parkway, at 1 pm today. Power outages already reported.

Here in RI the heavy rains and winds are just starting. The storm will get more serious around 2 pm with the worst being around 8-10 pm tonight. I'm far enough away from the ocean that I am not worried about storm surges, but we are very worried about flooding here.

There are 12 to 15 ft waves hitting the beaches here. Coastal areas and low-level areas evacuated. I definitely expect to lose power tonight.

It's getting blustery up in Western Mass now.

I'm cooking up everything perishable and about to have a very long hot shower lest we lose power later.

So far the forecast is predicting high winds and widespread power outages. The wind is usually to the right of the path of the storm, the heavy rains and flooding to the left. I'm really hoping we don't get hit with the heavy heavy rains, this region was ravaged with flash floods last year, the last thing those communities need is more of the same. But I did run to my office earlier (school is closed) to pull everything up from the floor - during Irene we discovered my office was the lowest point in the building after the local stream flooded, came up through the drains in the old mill building we're housed in and all of the water ran through the hallways and pooled in my office.

Stay safe and dry and warm - everyone!

Just got some pictures from my uncle who lives in SI and did not evacuate...smh hard headed. Does not look good at all.

Where is she in Baltimore? I'm in the city, and it's just a normal rain, breezy but definitely not anything torrential or sideways - more like a normal breezy rainstorm. If she's east of Baltimore, then perhaps that's what's on its way here?

Wonder how Maryoosa is doing? I am not on Facebook anymore. If anyone knows, . . . I saw that her area of NY seems to be largely evacuated.

The rain has just started... However -- 10 minutes from me and across the river an hour ago.

http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/o...n/newburgh.jpg

She should have been evacuated she lives in the same area as my mother. Hope she is ok

I have a friend in Jessup that posted on her FB 5 hours ago, said it was wet and windy there then. Haven't heard a peep out of her since that post.