Come on Irene! - Hurricane Watch 2011 [UPDATED]

So here we are, just days after experiencing an earthquake, waiting for the arrival of Irene. Part of me thinks that this is a case of over preparation, over reacting...but then again maybe not? The news and all the talk around town has been of "flood zones" (we're in Zone B if you would like to know), "Storm Surges", MTA transit shutdowns and emergency supplies. We've made our preparations: we have our candles, matches and lighters out and accessible in case of power outage; we have extra bottled water, enough for several days so that's no problem. There's very little chance we'll need to evacuate Zone B, as that usually only happens with a direct hit from a Category 2 storm. Right now there are conflicting reports of whether we'll be hit by Category 1 or whether it will be downgraded to a tropical storm.

Either way, people are taking this seriously. There were massive crowds at almost any store that sells groceries or emergency related items. I have plenty of candles and flashlights, but my coworker wanted to stop and pick up and extra flashlight...we entered the Home Depot and were greeted by a woman standing at the entrance with a sign and yelling "We have NO flashlights, NO batteries, NO candles and NO generators left - Sorry folks!". Well, hopefully we won't need any of it, but I think the worst that could happen here would be a power outage.

Yesterday was a busy one for everyone, preparing for the worst. Mayor Bloomberg started evacuation of everyone in Zone A. The evacuation was supposed to be completed by noon today. This also included evacuating hospitals and other medical facilities. Yesterday I spent my whole day at work calling each of the division administrators in the Department of Medicine to find out who exactly on the emergency plan would be available and to what degree they would be available. This meant finding out what docs were accessible physically to the hospital, and which ones were accessible via phone and email, but not able to access the hospital due to the danger in travel or the shut down in transit. This is partially due to the fact that there was an expectation of a rise in patients from the evacuated hospitals. I'm optimistic that our hospital is totally prepared for any scenario, as we have really terrific doctors and dedicated hospital staff.

Well, I will keep you guys updated as time passes. We've only seen a bit of rain so far, but they predict that starting later tonight and through tomorrow midday we'll be experiencing the worst part of the storm. So look back for updates and pics...

UPDATE - 9:15pm:
So, we've experienced a lot of rain yet today however the reports say the worst is just on the horizon. We're just starting to get the wind and the rain as the hurricane passes the New Jersey coast. On top of the rain starting, we're now under tornado watch as well (in addition to the hurricane warning - a first for me!). So yeah, I guess we'll be keeping an eye out for that too. All of the news coverage, which is probably the same that you'd be seeing if you were watching it on TV, says that people are "hunkering down" all over - it's really amazing how many times I've heard that phrase today. What does "hunkering" mean anyway? I guess for us it means hanging out on the couch watching TV.

The eye of the storm is supposed to hit us around 8:00am, which is apparently high tide...so they're really worried about flooding here, especially since we've had a very wet august and the ground is totally saturated.  This also is worrying people that trees will uproot because the ground is so soft.  We don't have any trees by our 6th floor apartment to really have to worry about them damaging our home, but there is always the concern that they will fall on a powerline.  We're very fortunate right now to still have our power, as I've heard over a million people have lost their power by now.   So yeah, saturated ground, high tide and storm surges...that's what we have to look forward to.

Apparently the city is boarded up and the streets largely abandoned. Here's a few pics from around the internets:

Michael Appleton for The New York Times


An empty Grand Central Station from the MTAPhotos flickr feed.

So that's the update now...more rain and tornado warnings. Will keep you updated as we get more information.

P.S. - why make all those poor weather reporters stand out in the rain all day? seems dangerous and bit stupid as it does not validate their weather reports any more than if they made the report from safely inside of a building....