As someone who has lived through her share of hurricanes, I just wanted to say that my thoughts and prayers are with all those who find themselves in the path of Isabel. I'll be praying she continues to weaken, and passes through with a minimum of damage.

I also wanted to add one bit of advice, for anyone who has not experienced a hurricane. I'm sure you've seen on TV or heard all about the preparations to take, and hopefully you are all stocked up on bottled water, candles or flashlights, etc. You may or may not have heard that you should fill your tank with gas. My first experience with a hurricane was Hurricane Hugo. Back then, I heard this piece of advice and thought it only applied to people who were planning on evacuating (you know, to make sure you didn't run out of gas while driving to the evacuation center.) I later learned (through first hand experience) that after a hurricane, it is not uncommon to be without electricity for some time (often even days). Apparently, gas pumps don't work without electricity. You need a full tank in case it is awhile before you can get gas again. (sorry if this is obvious for most of you, but I didn't know that my first time)

- Vicki

Another Vicki,

I'm quite in awe that you already faced two of the most powerful hurricanes I heard about.

I never did face one, it was mostly storms or tornades the big one was in 1999 and two others: one in june 1996, the other this summer in august.

So, thanks for the gas advice, now that you explained it, it sounds logical .

Your story reminds me of a book from Isabel Allende: Eva Luna. It's about a girl, Eva Luna, whose island is due to face Hugo, the Hurricane you described. So she barricade herself in her wooden house for the night and writes about the instants she's living while 'facing' the hurricane. Her main fear being: "am I gonna see the daylights alive?".

She's really fighting the hurricane and you can really feel it approach, pages after pages. Quite amazing and even better in spanish... but I'm disgressing!

Carole

Thanks, Vicki.

I'm inland enough that I'm not too terrified personally. But we are stocked up on water, flashlights, candles, gas, etc., just in case. After the ice storm this winter (which was the worst week of my life - I literally thought I was going to freeze to death at times) we were taking no chances. I'm more worried about my best friend, who lives on the coast but can't evacuate because she works for a newspaper, and, well, the news must go on. She's pretty scared. And I'm just worried about my state in general. Today is the four year anniversary of Hurricane Floyd, and watching all that anniversary footage on TV is a bit scary. It looks like Isabel might not be as bad as they originally predicted. I hope they're right. Right now it's *gorgeous* here. The calm before the storm. It's really impossible to imagine that in a day or two it will be so drastically different.

Thanks for the advise and the prayers. I'm sure there are people out there who haven't heard some of your advice, and even if we've heard it before, we can always use it again.

Annie

Thanks, Vicki -- we're preparing, really. Got lots of advance warning on this one (almost a week) so we've had time to think of things... for instance, I've washed *all* the dirty laundry in the house -- with the electricity out, doing laundry is somewhat difficult We do have a generator, but that's not enough to run the dryer.

I'm starting to think of this as old hat, really. We got *slammed* by Hurricane Fran, seven years ago -- huge trees down everywhere, etc. We didn't have any property damage, but we didn't get our electricity back for five days. Had to throw everything out of the fridge & freezer Since then, we've bought the aforementioned generator We've lived through Floyd without too much local damage. For variety, last fall we had a killer ice storm -- once again, no power for five days, in freezing temperatures, no less.

So this time, we're trying to be as prepared as we can possibly be.

Be safe, everybody! If you don't hear from me for a week, just imagine me going stir-crazy from lack of Internet

PJ

I'm thinking about you guys, Annie and Pam - and Chris Mulder too. Stay safe! And as soon as you get the chance, come back and tell us that you're safe.


Wendy

Me too, guys. Keep safe

Yvonne
(who recently discovered, much to her amusement, that she's a hurricane in a Star Trek fanfic )

Another Vicki, are you from Puerto Rico because thats how we call our island "Isle of Enchantment" "La Isla del Encanto"

Hi,

If you are, you know we spend almost 6 month of a year in 'hurricane season' and we had more that Hugo.

This is in base of my experience in hurricane.

Important: During and after a hurricane you probably woun't have water or electricity for a while. Think of 5 days to be safe.

1. Stock ice in your freezer or ice box. After a hurricane the weather turn hot. People do crazy thing for ice. Including "ice-jacking"

2. Water for drinking and other use like flushing bathroom, cleaning dishes and sponge bath.

3. Small radio that don't use to much batteries.

4. Portable TV- (use batteries) Believe me you want to know what is going on out side.

5. Flashlight, Oil lamp and battery lamps, that have bright light. No candle. Is dangeros when the wind strike.

6. Gas stove for heating. If the next day you don't have electricity, make a cook out and cook all your meat. Its spoil fast.

7. Full Gasoline tank in your car, be careful after the storm a lot of gasoline station tend to have water leak in their tanks.

8. Cellular phone. Use only in emergency. Have emergency phone number at hand.

9. Everything canned. Please, don't forget can opener.

10. Important: Your daily and special medicine.

11. Small Emergency kit.

12. If you have small children. Have their thing in small bag, milk, pamper, medicine, toy and blankets.

13. Mosquito net. They attack after a storm.

14. Portable battery fan.

15. Have always important document at hand, birth certificate, Social Security,insurance paper other house document, camara to take picture for the insurance company and "cash" you won't find a ATM machine when there is no electricity.

16. If you have cristal use masking tape it won't prevent from breaking but will help.

17. Aluminiun blade wind. "A tip" use plastic bag between blade it seal from coming in water.

18. Don't leave nothing that can fight with the wind, it become a projectile and can kill someone.

19. Take care of your pet, older people and children is a hard experience for them. Is traumatic experience.

20. Disconnect the thing that are not needed like lamp, can opener, fans, air conditioner, ect. Can be damage went the power return or the varietion of electricity.

21. Don't go out of your home unless is an emergency and if they said is OK, huracane are very umpredictable. If your in the eye of the hurricane your think the storm is gone 10 minute later everything start again.

22. If you have friend in a safe area don't stay home, get out of the path.

I hope this help you. If your in does state.

My prays with everyone up there.

MAF

Maria,
Yes. I moved here in 1978. Hugo was my first hurricane. (but not my last!!)

Oh, about the ATM's... I forgot about that. To everyone in the path of Isabel: You can't get money from the ATM when there is no electricity. Take out some cash tonight, while you still can!! (Good point, Maria.)

- Vicki

Yep, got cash today. And then I gave the kids a bath, just in case we can't do that again for a few days :p

I've been hearing chain saws tonight, as people cut away the tree limbs they think might fall on something -- my husband trimmed a few limbs off our neighbor's tree (with her help) because they were on and tangled in our power & cable lines. At one point, he was convinced he'd knocked out our power a day *before* the hurricane But our generator works, and we've got enough gas for about two days continual use. Unfortunately, that power is too uneven for turning on computers...

Last I heard, we'll start getting hit tomorrow afternoon. I'll keep you guys posted when I can.

PJ

Hi ChiefPam,

You have generator, your bless.

Are the house made of concrete?

Remember to open the opposite side where the wind blow to decompression the house.

Safer place are usually the room in the center of the house that could be hall or bathroom.

If the house is made other material get shelter is not safe.

My favorite web for information:

http://orbit-net.nesdis.noaa.gov/arad/fpdt/imgs.html

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/satellite.shtml

http://hurricane.terrapin.com/

http://hurricane.accuweather.com/ad...amp;getarea=car&type=&sattype=ei

MAF

Good luck, Pam and Annie. We'll be thinking of you as well as all our other FoLCs who live in North Carolina and the other neighboring states who will be in the path of the hurricane.

Stay safe! We'll be thinking of you!

Good luck guys. Eek, I didn't even know one was churning in the waters til I visited my mom today. (I don't watch tv.) Glad you have a generator, Pam! For some crazed reason, my family has been living on the Gulf Coast since '87, and every time we get slammed by a hurricane, we're like, "Yeah, we get to rough it!" And then by the 3rd day it's, "I'm buying a generator next month!" My dad still hasn't bought one to date.

Jen

Thanks, guys. We're getting some wind and rain right now -- and the power flickered briefly once already -- but they're predicting that the storm will peak here in 2-3 hours. We'll be on the South-West side of the eye, and most of the damage is done on the North-West side... so I'm worried about our Baltimore/DC FOLCs...

Thanks for the tips, Maria! I hadn't heard about having something open to decompress the house, but that makes a ton of sense. And our "safe room" is our laundry room -- center of the house, lower level, with no windows and next to a foundation wall... I don't think we'll need it this time around, though.

Jen, it's kind of like a leaky roof -- no point in fixing it when it's not raining, but when it *is* raining, who wants to go out and work on the roof? We've had this generator about five years and have only used it four days. But for those four days, we were really glad to have it!

PJ

I just made it home from work. They finally decided to let us go once they heard that some major roads were closing and there were lots of areas without power. I was amazed by the number of customers who threw huge fits because we announced we were closing. If one more person yelled at me, I was going to have a nervous breakdown. It took me about 45 minutes to get home (normally a 10-15 minute drive) and I had to change routes halfway because there was a tree down blocking the road. I also saw a powerlines all down in the streets all over the place and one pole snapped in half. Suffice it to say, all I wanted to do was get home safely, and I was furious that my managers hadn't let us go earlier when the storm was still rather mild. Anyway, I'm home now and we have power, though it's flickered a few times since I walked in. We're stocked up with batteries, candles, water, food, etc just in case. Hopefully it will blow over soon without too much damage. Thanks for the thoughts and prayers, they're greatly appreciated.

Annie

That sounds seriously scary, Annie. I admit that I can't even imagine what it must be like, since we don't get that sort of extreme weather over on this side of the Atlantic. But still, and despite all Maria's excellent advice, I can't imagine that anyone ever really gets used to hurricanes.

Take very great care, all of you NC, VA, DC and Maryland FoLCs (see, I don't know the abbreviation for Maryland! ). We want you back safely with us once Isabel's blown over.


Wendy

As someone who hates being outside in even the gales we get here, after a childhood experience which doubled the heart-rate (walking along minding my own business when a sheet of plate glass from who knows where came sailing over my head, missing me by mere inches, and then dropped to smash at my feet ) I'm thinking of you guys!

Keep safe!

LabRat

Oh, I like wind <g> But this is pushing it...

Our power was out for a few hours this afternoon -- we ran the generator for awhile, then realized other houses on the street were lit up again. We've got sticks down all over the front and back yards, but nothing's damaged.

In some ways, it was a very boring day <g> But we weren't out on the roads -- I've seen some of the pictures of trees down and blocking a few lanes of traffic. Glad you made it back safely, Annie! (And why on earth were people complaining that you were going home? )

It's still windy and we're still under tropical storm watch, but I believe the worst of the weather has moved on.

PJ

And we're battening down the hatches and getting ready for tomorrow.

There are two possibilities. One - the storm will lose power and we will just have lots of rain and strong winds, but not overly horrible, or Isabel will meet up with another weather system that's hovering in the area and it will be back to full power. Gee, guess which possibility I want to occur!

Irene
who remembers hearing stories of Hurricane Hazel that hit southern Ontario in '54 and killed 81 people...

Well, it seems that the worst has passed. It's still raining pretty hard and REALLY windy, but it's much better. By some miracle, we never did lose power. It kept going off for a minute or two, then coming back on. Everything around us is dark though - somehow it seems that just my block was spared. We just went out and drove around a little to survey damage and Chapel Hill looks pretty bad. The whole town is dark and there are lots of streets blocked off. The streets that are passable are covered with leaves and small branches. Powerlines are down everywhere. Good luck everyone up North in the path of the storm. We'll be thinking of you.

Annie

Wow, I'm glad you are okay, Annie and Pam! I was watching the news reports tonight and they looked really scary. Thank goodness you are okay! I hope FoLCs in other affected areas fared equally well!

The edge of the storm is hitting Cleveland now, but it is not intense at all since it has been through so much land. We are only getting an edge -- a very weakened edge, and it is pouring rain, but not windy at all -- thank goodness!

- Laura

Good luck, Irene! The best advice, they tell me, is to *not* drive through any puddles in the next few days. A huge percentage of hurricane-related deaths occur when people try to drive through water that turns out to be deep enough to sweep their car away. Apparently, it only takes two feet of water to carry off a car.

It's a beautiful morning here. Annie, I don't know how you got so lucky -- our power went out four times yesterday! I'm getting really tired of resetting all the clocks It went out around 9:30 last night... we waited for an hour, but it hadn't come back, so we fired up the generator to power the refrigerator overnight. Power came back sometime during the night.

I've checked with Chris Mulder, too -- their power flickered a few times, but that was pretty much the extent of it, so she's fine.

Virginia got the worst of it this time around, I think. I heard that 90% of Virginia Beach is without power -- I think that's where Crys Wimmer lives, but Annette said Crys had been evacuated.

PJ

Glad to hear you're all safe and have power again (or soon).

I hope that Irene and the Northern FoLCs are okay as well...crushing fingers and thinking of you.

Carole

PS: as for Maryland abreviation, I'll go for MD.

Yes, it's a beautiful morning here. Looking out my window, it almost seems like yesterday was just a bad dream. Pam, I never lost power for any sustained period of time, but it flickered and went out for a couple of minutes over and over. Everytime it happened, my roommate and I would look at each other say, "Uh oh. That was it." but eventually it would come back on. So we were really lucky, but we also had to reset the clocks over and over. We finally just gave up and waited to reset them before going to bed.

Yes, the VA Beach/Norfolk area got slammed. My best friend lives in Norfolk, so I was terrified for her. They ordered an evacuation of her area, but because she works for the newspaper, she couldn't leave. So she wound up moving into the newsroom for about 24 hours. (Check this picture - that's their view from the newsroom. http://www.hamptonroads.com/images/weather/isabel/12isabel.jpg )

Late last night she was able to find someone in a truck to drive her home and survey the damage. The water was right up to her front door, but it didn't make it into her house, and even though she (like 95% of the electric customers in the region) was without power, she was glad to be home, safe and dry in her own bed.

I'm just thankful it wasn't any worse. Thanks again to everyone who was thinking/praying for us. And to everyone in the path now, be careful and stay safe.

Annie

Well, where I am in Ontario really isn't suffering - at least, not yet. Lots of rain, yes, but not overly horrendous. No wind to speak of, but it's been bad all around us. In Burlington, 45 mins. away from us, they're warning people not to approach Lake Ontario as the surf's really high and it would definitely be possible for someone to be swept away. In Toronto, an hour away, there are about 30,000 people without power and lots of downed trees, powerlines, etc. But here - nada! And I'm not complaining!!

Irene
who is still keeping a wary watch on the weather...

Well, Isabel hit us today in Toronto, and nothing except lots of rain and lots of wind really happened (so far). So I guess that means Evil has been laid to rest. I know a guy who was expecting cows flying in the air

Good to hear you guys are okay I expect you've had enough time with the lights off in the blackout!

PJ