Preparedness for when

mardatha

Ah meant to say UKP is accepting new members again, we had to stop temporarily to catch up because we got 100+ new signups in a couple of days. Think its because of some tv prog

Dippypud

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/bac1f5c6-211c-11e2-babb-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2AcX13NaD

http://www.naturalnews.com/037717_power_grid_hurricanes_survival.html

States of emergency were declared from North Carolina, where gusty winds whipped steady rain on Sunday morning, to Connecticut. Delaware ordered mandatory evacuations for coastal communities by 8 p.m. Sunday.

New York City’s subways, buses and suburban trains will be shut down Sunday night ahead of the storm.

The storm was expected to continue moving parallel to the Southeast coast most of the day and approach the coast of the mid-Atlantic states by Monday night, before reaching southern New England later in the week.

The danger was hardly limited to coastal areas. Forecasters were far more worried about inland flooding from storm surge than they were about winds. Rains could saturate the ground, causing trees to topple into power lines, utility officials said, warning residents to prepare for several days at home without power.
States of emergency were declared from North Carolina, where gusty winds whipped steady rain on Sunday morning, to Connecticut.
Delaware ordered mandatory evacuations for coastal communities by 8 p.m. Sunday.

lally666young

My husband has it on FOX as he has relatives over there. But he cant get through as it is soo busy. They live in Long Island, I thought they would have moved after the last time, but they love it there, so what can you do. and yes I did have a dig at him about having a stand by bag at the door. There not just for pregnant ladies I told him!!!! He still thinks we are all raving mad.
Mother earth kicking us in the nuts again!

rosieben

lally666young wrote: »

Bring back paper dresses!!! My mum had these when she was young and she loved them! but dont go out in the rain though!!! Ekks!!

I remember them, and paper pants too

missrlr

DH sighed at me when I bought more water and asked which apocalyptic end of the world program I had seen earlier today

GreyQueen

missrlr wrote: »

DH sighed at me when I bought more water and asked which apocalyptic end of the world program I had seen earlier today

You could tell him that there are DHs just like him on the eastern seaboard of the USA and that those without prep-savvy wives are probably going to have a very uncomfortable few days.

After all, 2 litres per adult per day is about minimum for preserving health and doesn't take account of washing, cooking or WC flushing.

I read a fascinating book all about rats (seriously) and it had a major feature on the NYC subway system, which is much deeper than subways in comparable cities. Most of the system is well below the water table and it requires constant electrical pumping to keep it dry in normal weather conditions.

In abnormal ones, it's a fairly easy bet that parts of it will be underwater. To someone like me who has Isshews with being underground, that is a seriously-scary thought.

mardatha

Oh god GQ, me too. My idea of hell is down the pit or in a tunnel :eek:

GreyQueen

mardatha wrote: »

Oh god GQ, me too. My idea of hell is down the pit or in a tunnel :eek:

A gal I used to know went potholing with 2 of her siblings as a newbie. They were going to be underground for several hours anyway but what they didn't know was that there was heavy rain and that the cave system they were in would flood in such a way that they would be stranded undergroud for several more hours than planned. They were able to rest up somewhere safe but they were stuck.

When the waters subsided, they were able to make their way back out and popped out into the TV lights; their poor mother had 3 out of her brood of 4 down that pothole thinking they might be drowned.

You'd have to pay me a helluva lot of money to get me down a blinking pothole. I was in the cave where whathisface (blanked on name, ME moment, Greek legendary dude who went into Hades to retrieve the missus, told not to look back, did, lost missus for the second time, someone must know the legend?)

Anyroad, it's in the Rhodope Mountains of Bulgaria. It's a very big high cave, well-lit, stairs etc. And I had a Bit of a Moment down there. And I've had a wibble in the Blue John mine near Edale, too.

I'm fascinated by caves but my nerves make them difficult environments. I even detest the London Underground esp if the trains stop between stations in the dark - eeeeeeeekkkkkkeee!

ETA Got it; Orpheus and Eurydice.

2tonsils

I have been following the USA storm news on the various sites...they were saying it was going to come ashore at New Jersey but I think its going ashore further north...New England or above. It looks horrendous on the radar.

They are closing all the undergrounds and public transport in case the underground floods as you say. It must be awful if you need public transport to get emergency supplies or to get to a shelter. I guess once they've closed them its too late to venture out anywhere. I saw some photos of Delaware and its already flooding the roads.

Even more scary is the fact that they are frightened of electric black outs affecting the nuclear power stations, apparently there are 12 in one area susceptible to storm surge as well. They have moved federal agents in and inspectors with ''satelite phones' to monitor them. I am really not sure that satelite phones will work in such conditions as there is sure to be some atmospheric disturbance with signals. Has anyone heard of them? or do they just mean our mobile type phones (which also go down in such emergencies...).

I asked the opinion of one of my friends who posts weather predictions as an independent forecaster. I asked him if the UK could get the tail end of this storm in around ten days if it did not burn out over the states. He agrees with me that it could. He also thinks that the cold front it will meet could hold it over the area of land when it moves inland,even for as much as three or four days. The consequences if that happens don't bear thinking about. They are all in my thoughts, as much as you can prepare you can't prepare for everything that might happen.

Here we are in a lull between storms again...its still freakily hot for this time of year. I drove home at 1am and it was still 24 degrees outside. We had high winds and it brought some trees and branches down so driving home was fun! The roads were slippery with the leaves as well.

More storms are forecast for tonight and tomorrow then we have them till Thursday when I hope it will clear up again and the sun will come out. I am ever optimistic... I really need to get my washing done and dried.

GreyQueen

I believe that satellite phones are a completely different thing to mobile phones (or cells, for Americans). They're useful where there are no mobile networks. I can recall reading about how US intelligence hacked Osama's satellite phone back in the day, but kept very quiet about it as it was more useful to keep listening in, rather than do something which would reveal that they'd cracked it.

This was when he was apparently in caves in the mountains of Afghanistan.

Sooo, I'm assuming they're planning to use satellite links if the terrestrial communications systems are down. D'you remember that in the 7/7 London bombings the mobile networks overloaded and were shut down and the emergency services were discovered to have a communications system not fit-for-purpose and that people who died might have lived if it had been better? Lots of emergency planning by the authorities might be found not to be up to scratch when it is tested in the field. Lets hope not.

Having watched with horror the complete pig's breakfast which the US emergency authorities made of Hurriacane Katrina in New Orleans, I wouldn't personally bet my safety on being helped in a timely manner by the emergency services.