Good Grief, Irene

Hurricane's a-comin'. Irene is slated to hit the NC Outer Banks sometime Saturday, then head up the coast wreaking havoc. Let's hope the Weather Boys' penchant for giving us the worst (and most exciting) forecasts prove to be overstated. We expect wind and rain here in central NC. (God, I hate wind! It makes things fall and power go out. I dread that.)

Mostly, at the moment, I'm worried for Becky, the horses and the cats. The projected line of the storm takes it right over her position. Beck, I know you've posted some about this elsewhere, but where will you go if you evacuate? Are you in touch with your horse community? Is there such a thing as a shelter for the big guys?

I have thought of Jeane, but I'm not exactly sure of the hurricane's path right now. I know it can change without warning and the weather people can only guess on what the path might be.

they're giving us warnings to make sure we have drinking water etc.....but they don't know for sure how it will hit. they say at least high winds and rain. rain is bad here ...not specifically where i am, but in this area there's for much flooding. I just picture myself walking to and from work in winds so high i'll have to go from light pole to light pole to keep going...or fly away like Mary Poppins.
I've never lived through a full blown hurricane...flooding- yep. torrential rain (and i mean the real....deep in TX kinda torrential where the rain is so thick you can't see you hand in front of your face and cross the street figuring somebody's going to hit you no matter what!)- yep. high winds...yeah...winds that knock over trees and wires and things but not hurricane blow the windows out of the house winds.

so its we'll see...and we'll watch the news .. and we'll wait. There's supposed to be rain coming Fri...or late Thurs i think.

and now i'm worrying about becky's critters...i know that since katrina there have been laws changed about being able to take your cats and dogs when you have to evacuate, but i don't know about the bigger things. (and wonder what people do you have dairy farms...or even things like goats!) i just want everyone to be safe and dry and not blow away!

as for the electric going out...i don't like it, but since living out in the country for more than half my life, i dealt with it enough to know how to get by. its the folks upstairs who freak out when they don't have tvs and computers etc. I've got plenty to books and needle work and i can always make a minizine out of it;)

Wwlp, we're prepping as I type. I've cleaned up the yard ornaments and most of the bird feeders. We're leaving a plastic hummy one out because the little ones are used to it and will be looking for the food except during the worst weather. If the plastic things get busted up, it's no big deal.

As for pony evacuation, I have 2 contingency plans. The first is waiting on word from Sabi's foot vet clinic west of Richmond. They might have a place we can go. That's choice #1 since it's closer than choice #2. Choice #2 is to take the guys to Leesburg up near the MD/WV border. There is a lovely facility there that has already offered me 3 stalls free of charge. It's abour 4 hours each way, so it is awfully far to drive if we can go about 2 hours each way and be just as safe. (Not that either location will be untouched.) But, either way, we're going. I have reservations at pet friendly hotels in both places. We're ready as we can be, I guess.

I dread the whole thing. When Isabel came through, we were without power for 19 days. Ugh! Even though we have a nice big generator, it is still a pain to be with no power. We don't have one of those automatic generators, so we have to crank up the big thing to have water. Fortunately, it's big enough that we have essential conveniences like refrigerator, water, and light. We wouldn't have AC though. It's usually so sticky after a hurricane that you REALLY want that AC.

Jeane, take all the horrible weather you've seen in your life and bundle it into one day. That's a hurricane. The rain pours so hard that you can't see 2 inches in front of your face. The wind howls with a nasty, whining sound. There are cracks and booms of things falling and stuff breaking. Sometimes there are mini-tornadoes in the storm. The tides rise so you see water approaching slowly up the street. And then there's the weird silence under the wind. Nothing is making any noise. All of nature hides and there are no birds, not crickets, nothing. The only things you might see are fire ants and snakes that are looking for higher ground. Hurricanes are SCARY!

Stay safe Becky............I've been thinking about you and Jeane. They say that hurricane will go right up the coast hitting everything including NYC.

stay safe, Becky
We are supposed to get hit on Sunday according to the latest trajectory, but we don't know how intense irene will be by that time. usually the intensity gets demoted a bit but not always. Still, they expect losts o flooding etc, and certsin parts of Long Island are gearing for possible evacuation.
Also getting some ready to eat stuff and bottling some water just in case.

Just for fun, get some of those flavor packs for water. Drinking the bottled stuff can taste a little stale after a couple days. (I doubt major cities lose water for that long, but still...) Also, make sure your ready-to-eat stuff has protein in it. I've noticed that a lot of emergency food is very carb heavy, which is great for instant energy, but you lose steam quickly from it. Tuna is perfect since you can pop a can open and get pure protein. If you're adventurous, you can combine it with some canned veggies for a pretty terrible cold casserole. I don't recommend that! I also like the canned chicken for a change of pace.

Does it sound like I've done this before? Ugh!

peanut butter....gotta have peanut butter and bread....then you get your protein and it doesn't have to be refridgerated. and cans of beans...sounds stupid but they're not only good for ya but have protein.
i think i've lived through rain like a hurricane in TX....just don't think we got hurricane winds that year. the hurricane hit Galveston area so we got the edge of it then.
and gawd i remember the fire ant balls! thankfully i don't THIHNK there are fireants here or many snakes. but i remember seeing fire ant balls on the news in TX. One single ant will get on something teeny tiny like a little tiny leaf and all these others will start climbing on top of it and create this huge ball of ants. you DON"T want to get into that.
I pray if we do get flooding that we're high enough up not for it to come in here. as far as i've known there's never been a flood up this street but the turnpike will flood and it floods down the street both ways.

Here's hoping we're ALL safe and that if the storm hits it doesn't punch us out. for the count.

Becky, I'm glad you have such a good plan... 2 plans. This must be awful for you, but I'm glad you're going. It's just not safe to stay. Can your trailer take 3 horses?

True, most emergency food is carb-heavy, but if the power goes out and you gots no refrigeration, what can you do? I have pretzels & Triscuits, peanuts & peanut butter, apples, oranges & raisins, and foil-bagged tuna. Oh, and a 6-pack of little (low sodium) V-8 cans. I love those. I don't have to worry about the big bottles I usually use that have to be refrigerated.

The trailer only takes 2, but plan #1 worked out. I will be taking the horses to the race track that is about an hour away. They opened the race horse barns so people could come for free! Wow! I'm a little worried because you have to make your own stall "doors". My friend and I are using stall guards, which are nylon "nets" that clip to eye bolts. I think the horses will be fine. Race horse stalls are pretty comfortable and safe, and the track is completely surrounded by fence, so if somebody does get out, they won't get too far.

We are staying at a pet friendly motel close-ish to the track. The track make arrangements for evacuees and their pets to be able to stay for $30/night. I think that's SO cool.

We will still see lots of the storm, but we will be out of the way of the tidal surge, which is the biggest worry at my house.

I've been really bad and have not stocked up on food. I have a few cans of tuna and some soup. I have a gas stove, so electricity isn't a worry there. I have a ton of stuff in the freezer that I will have to cook on the grill if the power goes out. We have a generator, but we don't run it 24 hours/day, so the freezers don't keep things quite cold enough. We thaw the meat and cook it. It's fine in the refrigerator. We also invite a ton of people to help us eat.

We begin the trips tomorrow around 11 AM. The track starts accepting horses at noon.

and don't forget that you don't have to heat up water to make tea...you can just let the tea bags sit in the jar or pitcher OR if its after the rain you can sit it outside in the sun and make sun tea.

and most importantly,make sure you have enough critter chow and litter!

that's great that the track has made a deal with the hotel....they probably could use the good karma anyway;)
i think i need to turn on the news....i was clicking past it earlier to watch Big Bang and they had a guy in a raincoat and it looked like it was raining wherever he was!

That's a huge relief, to be able to stay close but be safe. And it sounds like there will be others there in the same boat so you can all support each together. There may be a few bits of pandemonium, but in my (limited) experience with horse people, they are usually pretty practical and level headed, so I hope things will be fairly smooth. I'm very impressed with the track people, that they've stepped up like this.

Staying at the hotel with the cats should be interesting. Cats are level headed and practical, too, but only by their own lights. Freaking out, to them, might seem like the most logical thing to do at any given moment.

Good luck, my love, and check in if you can. You will have my best thoughts and vibes throughout.

Jeane, what about you? Are you safe from flooding? I think you've mentioned that you
get heavy rains and have flooding.

Becky, glad you have good places to go. That's great the track has offered stall space.
Are your ponies used to stall guards? What kind do you have? The gate type or the mesh
type? If you get bored with peanut butter try almonds butter.


((((STAY SAFE VIBES))))))))))))))))))))))

Of course I thought of Becky and the horses and jeanebellini and lovekitties in all this. Stay safe everyone!

Of course I don't want it to go up North, but it looks like it will slow down significantly once it hits land, as they usually do. Hopefully it will slow WAY down and minimal damage will occur (and hopefully very, very low injuries!) I'm getting a little nervous, though, and have begun to prepare in case it somehow turns and heads our way. It looks like it's coming in mighty close. We've been warned to expect very strong winds and rain. If it does turn towards us, it will be coming in at 120 miles an hour with extremely little land to slow it down. I don't live right on the beach, but we are not far from the ocean, but the problem is we are surrounded by salt marshes everywhere that feed directly into the ocean. The surge will get us if it comes this way. A category 1 and we are under water and this is a 3. We are only 20 feet above sea level in our town.

I've gotten the ratties' emergency cage ready and Desperado's travel carrier is ready. Bluesy has a travel bowl and the dogs have harnesses that attach them to the car's seat. I've made a list of stuff I'll need to bring for them and for me and we have a place by Atlanta to go if we need to.

I hope this hurricane just dissipates into nothing so no one will have to relocate or be harmed. Just stay safe, everyone!

It does look like it's by-passing Georgia, as they predicted, so we're ok.
Just supposed to have a lot of wind. I'm glad I made preparations, though.
I'd rather have things in place and not need them than to be caught in a panic at the last minute.

Keeping the folks up North in my thoughts and prayers.
Please be safe and heed warnings and take care, dear Mutties.

I just heard this morning that it might go further inland than originally thought. I really hope it doesn't and it swings back out to sea instead. Stay safe dear Mutties.

right now the tragectory will take it right over Queens, which is right next to me, (and where warrior lives)they are talking about evacuating various parts of the city , near the beaches, etc like Coney Island which is only 3 miles from where I live, and also battery park City in Lower manhattan, right next to the WTC site and where I work.
They are also talking about shutting down the whole subway system tomorrow just in case as if there is severe flooding they will not be able to pump the tunnels that well, and the winds will wreak havoc with the elevated trains.

Oh, goodness! I forgot about Warrior being up there!
To anyone else that my brain mislaid, I apologize!
EVERYONE in the path, stay safe!

To all my Mutts friends in the path of this horrible creation of nature. Please stay safe. Watching news reports over here is worrying enough, it must be terrible to be there.

right now the sun is still shining and it is warm and humid. I'm about to leave the office so won't be able to get back in touch here til Monday or possible Tuesday depending on when they bring the trains back up. LOL Even the CFO just said every one should shut off their computers tonight or they might not have them on TUESDAY. (but them he's also the card who said the fish died after the Earthquake. Can you imagine, earthquake, floods and hurricane all in one week, (ands shmaybe even a tornado thrown in)

Anyway, I;m going to be positive and say I'll talk to you all on Monday.

i've got the local radio station on right now...its just one town over/right down the turnpike so i figure its gonna give me the most accurate info. its not supposed to hit until tomorrow night and go through Sun.I hope that the rain doesn't hit until after i'm home tomorrow and that if it hits the idiots at corporate will close the store! they don't close it when there's a state of emergency for a blizzard...when they say not to be on the roads and not to walk in the snow...so we'll see.
the tv news is talking about evacuations and how the roads will be closed everywhere from Sat 9:00pm til Sun 9:00pm. the trains etc here will stop running either tonight at midnight or lunch time tomorrow...they keep saying 12 but i doj' tkow which 12!

the radio just said we won't know how its going to hit us until it hits..it was either virginia or the carolinas either late tonight or tomorrow morning.

It's beating up Hatteras in North Carolina's Outer Banks. Craziness. I think it looks kind of icky for the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, but who knows what it's really going to do until it's doing it.

Everybody stay safe! Listen to the radio and leave early if people tell you to leave. As a hurricane veteran, I say that you shouldn't challenge nature. She is a powerful woman!

I fear for Jeane and Michele, from what I heard on tv today it's going to hit them straight on by early tomorrow morning! They said they were evacuating millions of people. I know Michele has places to go, but what about Jeane and the kitties?

I have been concerned about Jeane since the first time I heard about the projected path. I hope Jeane will be okay.