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To all my friends in the Northeast. Please take Hurricane Irene seriously. I’ve lived in Florida for 45 years and I’ve seen the damage that these storms can do. You must be ready to be self dependent for 3 days minimum. Expect the power to be out for a long time.

Agreed. We dodged the bullet down here, but you probably won't be so lucky. :( Flooding will be a major issue as well, especially near shore with the ocean swell/storm surge. Models are predicting upwards of a foot of precip, higher in some locales.

Thank god I got a genny... it'll run the fridge, a window A/C, and things like the DSL/networking stuff if the power goes out. Downside? 5 gallons == 8-12 hours runtime. That gets expensive quick.

Keep in mind that the gas stations will be out of service without electricity.

southerncannuck: How many gallons of gas do you recommend to keep on hand for a generator during hurricane season? My mom and sd live in Port St. Lucie and have a 7000 watt generator.

I've tried a few ways, but the best one that I've tried is to get a generator that consumes less gas (go figure). I have a Honda 3000 watt inverter that runs for 24 hours on about 5 gallons. That's a much better approach than tanking 100 gallons at the house. I figure that it's important to keep a 5 day supply before a hurricane. After that some of the gas stations will be up and running.
Msrach: Florida has a law mandating that some gas stations are hooked up to generators, and Publix, a main grocery store also has installed generators. I mainly worry for the states that have no idea what a hurricane is, and what's likely to happen.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/092739.shtml?tswind120#contents

It's currently looking like 40mph with reasonable chance of high 50s for us. We don't even color for hurricane probability at the moment.

In Maine, people are used to severe winter weather so many have backup generators, particularly out in the sticks where one tree falling can take out power lines for hundreds of people. It's areas without any extremes that tend to suffer more in extremes.

Diesel generators are safer and more economical. It would be nice if the Chevy Volt had an inverter output to run your house, it already comes with a self propelled large fuel container.

I am crossing my fingers for a minor hurricane on Sunday (we need the rain, but not the wind) with a few aftershocks during just for fun and to freak people out.

So far so good here. It has been raining all night and the wind started to take off around 0430, maybe gusting to 25mph at this point. The power glitched around 0530 so I have a feeling it may go dark before this is over. We're roughly 50mi west of the projected track so it'll be wet mostly.

Still, we prepared. We have loads of non-perishables around and a good stash of potable water. I also have a pretty good store of water to flush toilets as a hedge against an extended outage. All of the outdoor stuff has been squirreled away, I cleaned the gutters on Friday, and I spent some time in the basement getting tools and such off the floor in case we get more water than the perimeter drainage can handle.

So it's not too exciting here. So far the dogs, who hate rain, are the hardest-hit.

Spoke too soon. That last gust looked like about 35-40mph.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/085722.shtml?50wind120#contents

The NOAA Irene page now has us at
5-10% probability of hurricane winds
40-50% of 50 knot
70-80% of Tropical Storm winds.

The probabilities are based on 1 minute averages.

Weather Underground puts us as peaking at 29mph average winds at 8pm this evening.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission announced this evening that it has lowered the speed limit to 45 mph on eastern stretches of the highway due to deteriorating weather conditions from Hurricane Irene.

Poor visibility and ponding water in some areas are creating hazardous travel conditions.

The 45 mph speed limit is in place for the Turnpike's east-west mainline from the Valley Forge Interchange (No. 326) east to the Delaware River Bridge Toll Plaza (No. 359) and on the Northeastern Extension from the Mid-County Interchange (No. 20) north to the Lansdale Interchange (No. 31).

The lower speed limit affects 44 miles on the Turnpike. The restrictions could be expanded as weather conditions change.

Read more: Turnpike speed limit is down for hurricane - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/state/s_753869.html#ixzz1WKcxuvW6

... 45mph ...

Indeed. It's invicible-SUV-driver-in-a-ditch time.

Having been in more than a few torrential downpours along I-75 in Florida that is a given. :eek:

I saw one in March 2009 where the guy trying to pass me lost it hydroplaning and over corrected slid into the median and ended up rolling his Suburban two times right beside me.

Heavy rain on that road almost always produces several vehicles getting stuck in the muddy medians :(

Hi All:

While Irene is but a memory and TS Lee dumped its load on PA in particular, what the heck is go gin on in PA again with the flood warnings? A regular fall weather front or something else?

I saw Chris’ wife tweet that it was flooding again yesterday or the day before and I have not had the chance to catch up with the weather goings on the past few weeks.

Wayne