Prepping for Isaias

I just spent the afternoon - and a part of yesterday - prepping for Hurricane Isaias. I cleaned all of the gutters yesterday. Damn! I hate hanging my butt off of the ladder scraping leaves and other debris out of the gutters. Today I put the outdoor dining set, garbage can, BBQ grill and other misc. items in the garage, then went out, filled the car with gasoline and I stocked up on batteries, candles and other necessary items. One positive I can take from the Covid lockdown is that we are already fairly well stocked up on food. I've prepped the studio for rapid evacuation, so it should only take me about 45 minutes to get the really important stuff out of harms way if things take a turn for the worse. Our "Go Bags" are packed and ready. So far, anyway, it just looks like a lot of high winds and heavy rain but nothing devastating (predicted 40 - 60 mph winds, 2"-4" of rain for here in the NYC Metro area), and we haven't had a warning from the town, which is pretty good at keeping us informed about potential problems of this type. They haven't even set up the sandbag stations at the firehouses.

Maybe I'm being a bit paranoid, but, as many of you know, I was completely flooded in 2007, and came very close during Superstorm Sandy; in fact all that saved us during Sandy was that the worst of the storm hit at low tide, we had comparatively little rain and she blew by us very quickly. I've had a few other close calls as well.

I know I'm being paranoid, but am I being paranoid enough?

If you are along the storm track get yourself prepped. Good luck to all of you here on the US eastern seaboard!
 
My wife's family refuses to leave North Carolina, even though their property is right on the water. Flood after flood after flood, and I guess they've never been hit hard enough to care? I've only been through several Hurricanes and 1 tornado. Not fun at all.

I feel like Canada is the best spot to be in regards to weather these days.
 
What the hell kind of name is "Isaias"?

It's an Hispanic name. My wife should know, she's Hispanic. She also informed me that in the Spanish language all vowels are pronounced.

The name Isaias, loosely translated, means "Helper Of God."

We had a very brief but violent thunderstorm last night. One thunderclap scared the crap out of me, even in my studio with basement walls, studio walls and two thick doors. The rain was torrential for about 30 minutes or so.

Right now it's very windy and a brief rain squall once in a while. I've got a few small tree limbs down. There is a rock in the middle of the nearby river, and I keep meeting other neighbors checking on the rock. It's still about three feet above the water at high tide; it's when you can barely see it we start to get worried.

There are power outages in the area and tornado warnings.

That's it for now.
 
So, I was going to post that Isaias turned out to be a big nothing. On Wednesday I cleaned up all of the branches and other debris from my yard, and then ran out to get some food. I couldn't even get near my usual food store, the street was closed. I went to the downtown area and, low and behold, BOTH of the food stores were running on generators. Most of the staff was busily scanning and then trashing everything from frozen and refrigerated foods, including meats and deli. While driving around I had to circle around numerous downed trees and powerlines.

So Isaias didn't affect me much personally, but he did have an impact on the area.

I hope that all of you in Florida and the Carolinas are okay.

Peace,

Uncle Bob
 
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