Todays storm has left destruction on Long Island.

[Renew Deal]

I live on LI. Today's storm is the real deal. The wind has been very heavy. There are trees and street signs down all over the place. There are lots of areas without power. I've seen the flash from several transformers bursting. I saw several business awnigns shredded. I can hear chainsaws and sirens in the distance. This is probably one of the most destructive storms since Hurricane Gloria, though this is still nothing compared to that.

[ddeclue]

1. And you guys didn't really get hit by Hurricane Gloria.. it was a glancing blow.

The last time L.I. got hit for real was in 1938 during the great New England Hurricane that nearly drowned Katherine Hepburn.

The entire tri state area is totally unprepared for it. If Cat II hurricane hits Manhattan it will be much more devastating than Katrina's hit on New Orleans.

[Renew Deal]

2. We got hit dead on.

And it was scary.

[pipi_k]

13. I remember seeing the "eye" pass right overhead

as I was living in a small city just north of Springfield, Mass, at the time.

It was so cool to see that

[ddeclue]

28. Pardon me while I laugh a while..

Charley hit Port Charlotte as a Cat 4 on August 13, 2004 - 22 hours after Tropical Storm Bonnie hit in the Big Bend area spawning a tornado outbreak.

Frances hit Jensen Beach as a Cat 2 on September 4, 2004 - 2 days after Hurricane Ivan hit the northwest tip of Florida as a Cat 3 on September 2nd.

Jeanne hit Port St. Lucie as a Cat 3 on September 27th, 2004

All three hurricanes, Charley, Frances and Jeanne crossed paths inland within six weeks of each other in the metro Orlando area where I live - Charley as a Cat 2 and the others as Cat 1's. I'm one of the few people I know who can say he's been through 4 of these things - (Opal in Georgia in 1995) I lived in Titusville FL in August of 1992 when Andrew went through Miami but fortunately we didn't see anything but high winds in mid Florida from that Cat 5 storm.

Altogether Florida got hit by 5 tropical storms of which 4 were hurricanes and 3 were major hurricanes in the 2004 season. A year later South Florida got hit by Katrina, and Wilma. Fortunately Katrina didn't hit Florida as strongly as it hit New Orleans and Mississippi.

As I said you got hit with a glancing blow..Gloria was a minimal Cat I hurricane when it hit L.I. and probably not where you lived. The last big hurricane to hit your part of the woods was the Great New England Hurricane of 1938.

[RagAss]

34. Amen !....."they don't wanna know !"

[FarCenter]

6. A Cat II would flood all the basements on Maiden Lane and the gold would dissolve

[Stinky The Clown]

12. Gloria made three landfalls. North Carolina, Long Island, and Connecticut

Then there was Carol ........ Diane ........ Connie ........

But of course, you're right ...... right?

[Occulus]

22. I believe that post is called an "OOOoooops".

:D

[ddeclue]

30. Pardon me while I laugh a while..

Charley hit Port Charlotte as a Cat 4 on August 13, 2004 - 22 hours after Tropical Storm Bonnie hit in the Big Bend area spawning a tornado outbreak.

Frances hit Jensen Beach as a Cat 2 on September 4, 2004 - 2 days after Hurricane Ivan hit the northwest tip of Florida as a Cat 3 on September 2nd.

Jeanne hit Port St. Lucie as a Cat 3 on September 27th, 2004

All three hurricanes, Charley, Frances and Jeanne crossed paths inland within six weeks of each other in the metro Orlando area where I live - Charley as a Cat 2 and the others as Cat 1's. I'm one of the few people I know who can say he's been through 4 of these things - (Opal in Georgia in 1995) I lived in Titusville FL in August of 1992 when Andrew went through Miami but fortunately we didn't see anything but high winds in mid Florida from that Cat 5 storm.

Altogether Florida got hit by 5 tropical storms of which 4 were hurricanes and 3 were major hurricanes in the 2004 season. A year later South Florida got hit by Katrina, and Wilma. Fortunately Katrina didn't hit Florida as strongly as it hit New Orleans and Mississippi.

As I said you got hit with a glancing blow..Gloria was a minimal Cat I hurricane when it hit L.I. and probably not where you lived. The last big hurricane to hit your part of the woods was the Great New England Hurricane of 1938.

[elleng]

3. When was Gloria?

When did we get off school (in RVC, south shore?)

[Nite Owl]

5. September '86

or close, that's what I'm remembering.

[Stinky The Clown]

17. Actually, 1985

Here she is just about to make her second landfall, on Long Island.

[KittyWampus]

4. I'm on eastern LI and the wind is howling something fierce. A real old fashion Nor'Easter for sure.

lights are blinking on and off.

Winds about 60mph.

[elleng]

7. Where xactly?

Good luck!

[KittyWampus]

14. south fork. I just tried to open the door to let kitty out to pee and the wind wouldn't let me.

[elleng]

18. 450,000 without power in NorthEast.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/03/13/us/AP-US-Stormy-Weather.html?_r=1&hp

[KittyWampus]

19. Yikes, that's why we got a generator!

[williesgirl]

8. Stay safe. Hope you don't lose power.

[Renew Deal]

10. Thanks

They are blacked out across the street. My neighbors tree fell right on the power lines. The lines haven't gone down, but I guess it was enough to blow the power.

We have found the flashlights. I think it's going to be an early night. :boring:

[Lochloosa]

9. Welcome to Florida.

:evilgrin:

[Renew Deal]

11. lol

:rofl:

[ddeclue]

29. What a bunch of whiners those New Englanders are...

:rofl:

Q:What do you call a hurricane in Florida?
A:The Weekend.

:rofl: - That was a joke from the John Kerry campaign HQ in Orlando.

[Fla Dem]

33. Actually Long Island (LI) is in New York and not considered to be

part of New England, thank you very much. New England has had their share of historic hurricanes, and each year experience several nor'easters which can be just a step below hurricanes.

[unabelladonna]

15. i left LI last year

and haven't missed it....too much traffic, ridiculously high taxes, monstrous utility bills and obscenely high cost of living.

having said that i hope my friends are OK and everything returns to normal ASAP. take care of yourself.

[elleng]

20. I left after college, in '66. Will check with friends who stayed.

[njlib]

16. It's been pouring & windy all day in northwest NJ

My basement's flooded, there's some street flooding, and I'm hoping all my trees stay up and the septic tank stays underground. According to weather.com's hourly forecast, the wind by us should start to die down around 11 pm. I just want the rain to lighten up and so do my dogs! I was thinking today that if this was snow, it would be a repeat of the 3 feet we got a couple of weeks ago. I'll take snow any day of the week!

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

21. I'm in Westchester and although not as fierce as where you are, lots of trees down - probably

weakened from that huge snowfall that killed many trees here.

The Saw Mill River Pkwy was closed from flooding. My son was acting in his college play tonight and the main road to the college was blocked by falling trees. Luckily we found a back way in. My knuckles are still white from driving there and back home.

[tabbycat31]

37. the Saw Mill always floods

thats nothing new. My parents still live in Westchester and they said the flooding was bad and their basement had 4 inches of water in it.

Monmouth County, NJ (where I live) was his very hard. I went out with a few friends last night, and we drove around for about 2 hours trying to find a place to eat. Either the roads were closed (really bad flooding) or the restaurants were closed (power outages). It was crazy.

[Lugnut]

23. It was brutal here in NE PA.

I opened the back storm door to put recycling in the bin. The wind whipped the door open with me holding the handle and dragged me out on the porch. Later in the day I went out to run a quick errand. I had to battle the wind just to keep my car on the road. On the positive side, the two feet of snow we had two weeks ago is all gone.

[KittyWampus]

24. from what I could see on the satellite the storm was still obviously circulating when it passed

over you. It turned into a slow moving wall by the time it edged further north.

[NutmegYankee]

25. It was nasty here too on the Conn. shoreline

The wind was incredible and knocked the power out several times.

[RagAss]

35. Sorry to hear it...a sympathetic Floridian.

[trusty elf]

26. Gulp, I have to fly from Paris to New York tomorrow.

[Renew Deal]

27. Update: What a mess

I'm posting from my Blackberry because the internet is out. It turns out that two trees fell on the power lines. Tree removal showed up at 2AM and cut back most of the tree. I have lost cable, phone and internet. Thankfully I have power. Some neighbors and family don't have that. I hope people came out of this OK. It's going to be an expensive mess.

[ddeclue]

31. Observations from living through 4 of these things:

1) Get a generator! At least 5kW. Learn how to operate it safely. Typically, more people are killed by shocks or carbon monoxide poisoning than by hurricanes in the U.S.
2) Buy a lot of gas cans and fill them up if you think you are going to need them. I have about 35 gallons worth of gas cans around my place which is enough to run the generator about 8 hours a day for 4 days (enough to keep the fridge cold and run the TV, lights, etc. when you need them.)
3) Satellite TV! - I had DirecTV and it worked great throughout except during the heaviest rains of the actual storm passage when I was watching off the air local coverage anyways.
4) Get a broadband wireless internet card - Verizon EVDO service is the best. You'll never lose your internet unless the storm is as catastrophic as Hurricane Katrina or Hurricane Andrew. If you REALLY want to be sure not to lose service, get satellite based internet through DirecWay - but I don't think it's worth it.
5) Have a lot of canned goods and a hand cranked can opener.
6) Live in a sturdy old house built in the 1950's or before - a lot of these modern houses come apart like tissue paper in these storms because they are built so cheaply.
7) Don't live in a house surrounded by big hardwood trees - they can't handle these storms - you want lots of shrubs and bushes to block flying debris and palm trees are made to survive this kind of wind without falling.
8) If possible you want your power lines and other utilities to be buried so they don't fall.
9) Don't live within 10 miles of the coastline. It's just asking for trouble. Better to live 25 miles from the beach and drive to it.
10) Get hurricane shutters for your windows that way you don't have to work so hard to "board up".

[NutmegYankee]

36. Some of these don't apply to New England.

1. Hardwoods do well in storms up here, and unless the roots pull out (which can happen in really wet seasons), it's just pines that typically snap in half. Of the trees you have, just ensure they are out of reach of the house in case they tip over.

2. Living within 10 miles of the Coastline is typical for New England. Flooding isn't as much of a problem due to the hilly topography. I'd recommend living at least one mile inland, as the insurance is a LOT cheaper.

3. We rarely get winds strong enough to damage windows. Just ensure that the window is in good shape.

[southernyankeebelle]

32. All storms are bad and I don't care where you live. I have been in

hurricanes, snowstorms, tornadoes, typhoons (another name for hurricanes) and earthquakes. I will say the one I fear the most is the tornadoe. You never know where it is going to land. All scary stuff.

[elleng]

38. Maybe folks have seen this.

Rain and Wind Created a Fatal Storm.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/15/nyregion/15storm.html?pagewanted=1&hp