Hurricane Irene - Anyone in the way of this hurricane's route?

Every grocery store is packed like a colony of ants. The water and the canned food section have been emptied out by the people. Even all the beers are gone.

Seems like most people aren't underestimating this upcoming natural disaster. Not saying that we should.

The current max wind sustained at 100mph and up to 115mph, according to the news.

This hurricane's supposed to hit my area on Sunday. I live in NYC but at the very far end. An hour drive away from Manhatten.

Is anyone in the way? planning to evacuate temporarily? Or getting something special to withhold Irene's bloody attack?

I don't eat canned food so I bought a portable burner, fueled by butane gas, to cook some food when everything goes out. Stacked up with Evian water and my favorite beverages that I tolerate very well, goat milk and OJ.

I love cup ramen noodles but can't have em no more. It sux for people like me who don't tolerate such food that contain MSG, preservatives, etc. too well during these circumstances.

I probably won't be at the top if the second ice age were to hit the world. Survival of the fittest, not my thing atm.

I will be thinking of everyone that is in the storms path.....please be careful!

I'm in S. Jersey. about 40 miles inland from Atlantic City. So far we've had lots of rain and the wind is picking up, but nothing too crazy yet. Hopefully it won't be too bad.

I'm on Cape Cod- it's 9:10 Sunday AM, & it's just starting to get really windy. No rain yet though. My biggest issue us that we have well water, so no power = no water! No flushing toilets- aaggghhhh!!!!! Although you can pour water into the toilet tank, & flush that way. I have some bottled H20, plenty of dry food, so we'll see how it goes. I expect to lose power, but hopefully not for too long. We don't live right on the water, which is good, as the storm surge is expected to create flooding. It's high tide, & combined with the waves from the store... But you always get a pretty decent hurricane every few years, so nothing to do but ride it out!

      Reading this post on Monday.  We live in Bellmawr, NJ about 45 min west of AC.  We had higher winds yesterday than with the storm on Sat night..lol.  While some neighbors have flooded basements, we put in a French drain about five years ago, and always had a sump pump...so no water, thank God.  It could have been a lot worse and we are so grateful it wasn't.

     Eil...you must live close to me.

For sure we lucked out in Manhattan. The major rain started around 5 PM Sat & continued for 16 hours straight. When it finally stopped ca. 9:15 AM Sun, we had a couple pretty calm hours before the wind picked up strongly-- that saved us a lot of problems! Public officials had feared that Irene would bear down on NYC with 100+ mph winds at high tide & flood out the Battery & Wall Street areas; fortunately, the wind maxed at ca. 65 mph-- tropical storm strength rather than hurricane force. So, we're very relieved that our island was spared (also Long Beach Island off NJ), but feel sorry for inland sections of NJ, NY Catskills, & Vermont where residents never expected the severe river flooding they just got courtesy of Irene's wide swath. / Old Hat (30 yrs with left-sided UC; presently in remission taking brandname Colazal)