Let The Hurricane Roar
It's a quarter after noon as I start typing; I moved my ice reserves out of the freezers and into the coolers a couple hours ago, though now I highly doubt I'll need any of the water I bottled or bought. I still have electricity (obviously, else you wouldn't be reading this), but from what the TV says, that makes me a minority in Connecticut right now. The cities and towns on the coast and along the big rivers are getting slammed, but the little river under my street appears fine (by which I mean, I can still see my street rather than a river).
Most annoying thing so far has been the robo-calls from the city telling us where the shelters are in case we need to "self-evacuate" (which is what I was doing, in the bathroom, when one of the calls came). Second-most annoying was seeing that odious kiddie-diddler pimp Janet Napolitano on TV posing in front of the FEMA logo, and wondering what indignities she will inflict on East Coast Americans in the name of protecting us from this vast and scary threat. Perhaps people visiting the shelters need to have their genitalia fondled by TSA flunkies, just in case a terrorist is trying to smuggle a crotch bomb? America, being a mere 3,000 miles from coast to coast, is not big enough to simultaneously contain constitutional rights and Napolitano's fat ass (immune to TSA groping, by virtue of her position), and Napolitano clearly isn't leaving so it's the Constitution that has to go.
Apparently the worst of the winds have yet to hit us, so I might still lose power before this is over. Napolitano and FEMA will gain power, either way.
ADDENDUM: Looks like every church in the state has closed today, not just the staid, sensible Methodist and Episcopalian types, but even churches with names like the Jesus Christ Almighty Independent Freewill Baptist Rattlesnake Handlers. O ye of little faith.
SECOND ADDENDUM, 2:03 pm: Rain stopped, a little sun is visible, but the wind is blowing more furiously than ever. I still haven't ruled out a power loss.
THIRD ADDENDUM, 2:13: Lights just flickered twice, and went out long enough to reset the digital clocks. I'm going offline and unplugging my computer. Talk to y'all later.
Most annoying thing so far has been the robo-calls from the city telling us where the shelters are in case we need to "self-evacuate" (which is what I was doing, in the bathroom, when one of the calls came). Second-most annoying was seeing that odious kiddie-diddler pimp Janet Napolitano on TV posing in front of the FEMA logo, and wondering what indignities she will inflict on East Coast Americans in the name of protecting us from this vast and scary threat. Perhaps people visiting the shelters need to have their genitalia fondled by TSA flunkies, just in case a terrorist is trying to smuggle a crotch bomb? America, being a mere 3,000 miles from coast to coast, is not big enough to simultaneously contain constitutional rights and Napolitano's fat ass (immune to TSA groping, by virtue of her position), and Napolitano clearly isn't leaving so it's the Constitution that has to go.
Apparently the worst of the winds have yet to hit us, so I might still lose power before this is over. Napolitano and FEMA will gain power, either way.
ADDENDUM: Looks like every church in the state has closed today, not just the staid, sensible Methodist and Episcopalian types, but even churches with names like the Jesus Christ Almighty Independent Freewill Baptist Rattlesnake Handlers. O ye of little faith.
SECOND ADDENDUM, 2:03 pm: Rain stopped, a little sun is visible, but the wind is blowing more furiously than ever. I still haven't ruled out a power loss.
THIRD ADDENDUM, 2:13: Lights just flickered twice, and went out long enough to reset the digital clocks. I'm going offline and unplugging my computer. Talk to y'all later.
posted by Jennifer Abel at 9:14 AM
5 Comments:
Nice to see that y'all survived. Still having power is a rare bit of good fortune, too. Judging by the radar map at weather.com and from what you say, it looks as though Irene got there a little ahead of schedule. The very center had been projected to reach Hartford about 2pm your time. There might be some wind as the southern end of the hurricane passes, but looking at the radar there isn't much storm left south of the eye. You should be getting wind from the east-northeast about now. Seems the only thing you might have to worry about is flash flooding from the rain runoff later on tonight or tomorrow - if your area is even susceptible to flash flooding. I wouldn't know about that.
Did you get much wind or rain in the night or this morning? Any trees down in your neighborhood or other serious damage?
Without knowing for sure, I'd guess my area IS prone to flash flooding -- I'm about 100 feet above sea level, but on the lowest land in my immediate neighborhood; I live at the bottom of an inland valley, and if you stand in my yard and look in any direction the horizon is much higher than your head, because we don't actually have a "horizon," we have the tops of the hills surrounding the valley.
My first newspaper job was in an office only a few blocks from me -- and if there is any elevation difference 'twixt that office and my apartment, it's too subtle to notice when you're walking -- and the newspaper archives only go back to August 1955, because everything before that was destroyed in the flood that trashed a good chunk of Connecticut that month.
The weathermaps claim the rain stopped here a couple hours ago, but that is clearly not true. So I don't know hat the devil is going on.
My main concern right now is the big tree in the backyard next door; if it fell, it's very unlikely it could hit my building, but it COULD very conceivably smash my car. (Which is insured, of course, but I think its total book value is only two or three thousand dollars. I would NOT be able to buy as good a car for that much money, and I'd hate to have to give up the car when it only has 109,000 miles on it; if it's not trashed in the storm, I figure I should have at LEAST another two years of driving in it before I need a new one. And we recently shelled out $600 to refill the air conditioner and other things, and I'd hate to think that money was ultimately wasted.
His lordshit, The Obozo, (I really must do something about this keyboard) would tell you that you should have turned that car in to his cash-for-clunkers program to help out the auto industry, the finance companies, and the country's economic recovery like a good patriotic American.
Seriously though - is the weather still too bad to go outside and move the car? Even for a boyfriend? :-)
There's no place to move the car to -- there's a ban on on-street parking (reasonable, given the circumstances), and most of the major roads in my town are flooded out. Seriously, if I wanted to drive out of town right now, I don't know if I could go anywhere. The main roads are closed (not merely by police fiat, but because there really is too much water on the road).
If the tree withstood the winds earlier, it probably will the later ones, too. I just thought perhaps the car could be moved to a neighbor's driveway or even the front lawn temporarily. But if there is nothing you can do about it, there's no point to worry about it. Sorry I have no better advice for you.
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