I was at work when the worst started. I ended up leaving work early, around 1am during the brunt since we couldn't find any drivers to make the runs. My boss actually asked me to make a run to Hopkins at double time pay. I agreed and my biggest worry wasn't the weather. It was getting mugged or finding parking. He laughed and said you're an emergency worker...double park. He ended finding a driver to make the run though so I just headed home. It was a strange ride home because all the highway lights were out along I-95. Got home to no power. I was told it went out around 11pm. It came back on about an hour ago. WTG Baltimore Gas & Electric and a huge thanks to the 3,700 out of state utility workers that came to help.

I remember when we rode out Hurricane Charley that hit Punta Gorda, FL in 2004. This was a fast moving hurricane that hit Orlando, about three hours later. I am a native Floridian and that scared me. When we were able to go outside the next morning, we walked from our neighbors apartment to our apartment, and we had a small oak tree in the stairwell and we had to climb through it to reach our apartment. The French doors were blown open, water and debri was all over the living room and my two cats, were scared to death in the bathroom. As a result, I ended up with pneumonia from the black mold and it took the management company several weeks to clean up the mess. You could see where the high winds lifted the roof of our apartment and dropped it back down. You could see the roofing nails through the paint. I tried to call my mom, who lives near Daytona Beach, FL and the cell phone towers were down for AT&T. It took me a few hours to finally get in touch with her and found out that she was ok and that they lost power for two weeks. She lives near the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway and the river, came up over the seawall and left a mess in the pool.

I feel for the people who have lost their power and lives and my thoughts and prayers go out to them!

Zimmy

No problems here and we have power.

Luckily my mother is here on vacation with me but Staten Island is BAD....my mother and fathers cars have water up to the side windows and they are doing rescues out there. I cant get a hold of my family so we are praying and hoping all is ok. Stay safe everyone in LI and SI

Just checking in to say Scorp and I are fine but we lost power a couple hours ago. Sump pump is running, though, so yay!

NYC evacuation order to be lifted at 3pm today
 

Just wanted to say I have been thinking about all you east coasties and hope everyone is safe and ok and not too much property damage.

Crazy flash floods have caused several dams to break around our area.

The photos and videos are really shocking.

Stay Safe you.

3pm in Brooklyn -- why are the winds so high if this thing is over? The howling woke me up from a nap.

Hope there isn't too much damage in your area.

It is also just strange to live in one part of town that isn't flooded, only to see footage of rescuers in boats 10 miles up the road from you.

Hopefully you are within a safe distance. And if not... Please get where you need to be safe.

Julie

Ms. Meander and I are both on higher ground. No worries for our homes.

This is downtown Shelburne Falls, MA.

https://www.facebook.com/video/video...72863&comments

Friends report things are BAD in the Catskills. But media keeps focusing on the five boroughs and a few downed branches. Bloomburg wants his Giuliani moment. Ugh.

Our power was out for about 3 hours. Not bad at all. I just saw a Facebook comment from someone in Providence, and she says it might be a week before they get theirs!

I'm glad everyone here seems to be okay. My thoughts go out to those who aren't.

When this happened to me during Hurricane Charley, I called AT&T and begged the woman to let me know how long the cell service would be down; since it was the only form of communication I have with my mother. Thank goodness, I had an operator who cared and told me that the towers would be down for a few more hours. I wish you and your family the best and hoping your brother contacts you and lets you all know, that he is alright.

Zimmy

The gov. of Pa. was just on the news saying it is too soon to start listing the damages.

There is severe flooding in the Eastern part of the state and lots of wind
and water damages from the heavy storms. The state has been declared
in an emergency and all available west coast personel are asked to help on the east coast. No footage of film was shown. The national guard has also
been deployed.

The east coast is where many oil refineries are at, but no mention.

Wow! The flooding in NJ and VT is horrible! CNN has been showing some of the worst, and in some areas the worst is still to come. Stay safe all.

I am glad to see posts from ya'll on the east coast, I pray everyone is safe.

Sending my love and thoughts to everyone.

WOW! this morning I saw footage. You can not rebuild historic. I live near the three rivers of Pittsburgh and have seen the waters rise and the damage that has happened. BUT NOTHING LIKE THIS. The PEAK will occur tomorrow.

For many, it's not over as waters keep cresting for another day or so. Vermont and the Catskills of NY, among others, have devastating flood damage.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/ny...y.html?_r=1&hp

The day after .....
 

Fortunately, we didn't lose any power. The lights flicked now and then, but otherwise, it held up pretty well.

We have some water in the basement, but thankfully, we were able to contain it and must have dumped out about 100 gallons of water. If we didn't have power, it would have been much worse.

The flooding throughout NJ is awful. The surrounding towns are flooded out due to the Rancocas Creek - and houses in those areas are under a lot of water. Even our town is flooded out, but because we are on higher ground - our streets are clear. (Thank God).

I've been hearing on the news that a lot of people are complaining that too much hype was broadcasted about this storm. I'm infuriated about that. They should take a look at all of the flooded areas. I guess more people should have died or more damage should have been caused for people to not complain. It just shows how ungrateful and unthankful people in general really are.

.. and another thing .....
 

The news would broadcast morons standing on unstable piers during high winds - "surfers" trying to take advantage of a surge ... people trying to drive through ten feet of water ..... WTF?!?!?!?

One elderly woman in NJ called 911 when her car got stuck in a flooded street. Minutes later, they lost contact with her only to have found that she unfortunately drowned in her car in 16 feet of water. :(

Some dingbat in Massachusetts decided to walk out on a flimsy dock when the hurricane hit. He's okay, but wtf was he thinking??? People always seem to underestimate the power of Mother Nature.

Mare laughed when I told her that one of our tomatoes from our garden was found in the middle of the street. One lonely green tomato that tried to make a run for it ... lol .... but seriously, it unnerved me a bit.

Our front lawn has a lot of leaves and partial tree branches - but thankfully, no trees came down in our immediate area that I know of. We were concerned about that because we are surrounded by huge trees - some of them seemingly old.

It is gorgeous outside though... and the rest of the week is supposed to be nice which will hopefully help in clean up efforts. I've heard that Red Cross volunteers from the west coast will be making their way over here to help - as well as some volunteers from down south.

I'm still stunned that we experienced an earthquake (albeit minor) and a major storm in a matter of a few days. I was tempted to keep my eye out for the four horses, but refused to give it that power.

Yes, we saw this too. Unfortunately it was used as a reminder of what happened here last week. How dangerous fast moving water is, and don't PLAY around.

You wonder, do they think? When I saw that I thought
*Stupid Tourist*.

I think people gauge response to personal circumstance. In other words, if their home wasn't damaged, or someone in their family didn't die, then it was all hype or overblown coverage. Yet, I find it interesting that these are some of the people who boarded up their homes and businesses and evacuated. The arrogance of people fascinates me ....

The media warned the public all weekend long - the ground is saturated and we can't handle an inch of water, let alone a foot. Water will rise and streets will flood - but that didn't stop the thrill seekers out there looking to have "fun".

You can always count on the stupidity of people.

To say nothing of how much worse the damage could have been (i.e. lives lost) if people hadn't evacuated!

We saw on the news this morning how one guy had to be rescued by the coast guard because he tried swimming to his boat that had come loose off its moorings. So stupid....

I think shutting down the entire MTA transit system in NYC was an over-reaction that cost millions of dollars for small business owners and made it overly difficult on workers who have to work whether there's a hurricane or not, (first responders, shelter workers, hospice care, etc). Most of the city was NOT in a flood zone, yet people couldn't get to work and businesses had to close because most city-dwellers do not own cars.

I was annoyed by the overfocus on Mayor Bloomberg and his 5 boroughs of NYC, and the lack of attention paid to the flooding and real devastation further upsate. Plus there was almost no reporting about prison populations or provisions for homeless/mentally ill folks. I really hated the media coverage - overblown, un-enlightening, repetative, and politically motivated.
(The New York Times did a pretty good job though).

Heart