The hurricane does appear to be weakening and will probably be a tropical storm by the time it hits New England. Hoping it will continue to weaken.

It's not just the wind, but the flooding on coastal areas.

I agree, the flooding is a big threat...even inland.

Here is hoping. I worked all day to get prepared, I am so exhausted. Bring it Irene I am ready! You are probably pretty safe now with the last storm track..I am glad it moved away from you guys. You had enough with the earthquake this week!

I agree that she's had enough for one week.

You stay safe up there in Mass, too.:)

It seems like we're not going to get much.... I looked at weather.com for Davidsonville and it just looks like rain and 22 mph winds now... hoping that's all we'll get.

This is a good practice at all times, in case of fire or other disaster. Keep things in a fireproof/waterproof box or in a safety deposit box at the bank.


Went through Katrina we evacuated last minute thank goodness but learned safe deposit boxes ARE NOT WATERPROOF ziplock bags are popular down here now! Good luck to everyone you all will be in my prayers!

I am so scared. We are not on the water, but with heavy rains our finished basement will most definately flood. I had my teenagers pull the furniture up and our big screen etc. If the worse that happens is it floods I can live with that. I get panic attacks and I keep thinking our roof will fly off or our home destroyed. NJ just had an earthquake. I cannot remember ever having one in NJ and now this. I feel like doom, like the end of the world is coming. I know it's in my mind, but I'm still so worried. I have a big bag packed with food, water and bowls for the dogs and parrot. I have two large crates that will be a tight fit for three in each, but will have to do if we have to leave quickly and I have a carrier out for the parrot. Seven Yorkies, and a parrot. Trying to figure out too how to get them all in the car with my two boys and hubby. I've worked at Shop Rite three years now and even during the snow storms do not recall it ever being as crazy has it has been the last two days. I worked a 13 hour shift today and yesterday couldn't get out until two hours after closing we were so busy. Suppose to work tomorrow, but I think I will call out. Afraid of being stuck there if the storm hits earlier. They made arrangements for employees to sleep there and be safe, and if I did not have pets or a family that is where I'd be. It's safe, but I'd die with my dogs and parrot before I ever left them. If anything happened to them, I'd be dead anyway. I pray for all and hope we all come out safe. You are all in my prayers. Elaine

I sure pray everyone stays safe. I'll bet you are all already having "hurricane fatigue" and it hasn't even arrived.

Sending my thoughts and prayers for all in the path of this hurricane. Stay safe Yorkie folks.

Thank you Yorkieusa...we are old pro's here!

I've been watching the radar.:eek:

We are supposed to get heavy rain and winds. i'm going out soon to stock up on springwater , just now noticed i was almost out. We will probably lose power, hope its not for too long :(

Elaine, don't panick everything will be fine. We survived Hurricane Bob just fine..some damage, but all repairable. The media gets everyone all worked up before there is an actual 'correct track". We even had a "microburst" in the back yard taking out most of my huge white pines. We all survived just fine, even my schnauzer would go outside and do her thing. Do take precautions...but don't worry so much.

Hoping & praying that you and everyone is safe through the storms

Gosh, I do hope it's a case of the media blowing everything out of proportion.

They do that here in OH all the time - for Tornado warnings. It's ridiculous. Scares me to death; interrupt all of our TV shows for hours on end to blather endlessly; and then . . . . a little rain and maybe some thunder. I reckon I'd rather have the warning than not, though.

BUT, you do have to take precautions if you are in the path; sounds like everyone has a plan. Please stay safe and I'm sure we will all keep checking in!

Oh, they do that here in D/FW area. Call it "STORM WATCH" and go on for hours with choppers in the air and reporters driving through the storm areas and big, black, dire warnings about wall clouds and "circulation", wind shear and all manner of horrible sounding terms and if a tiny tornado should form way up the in the sky - oh, they go on and on about it. All local stations will ALL be on showing the same thing all afternoon or night - whenever the storm comes or is coming.

It sounds like this hurricane is far less intense than they were predicting these last 2 - 3 days.

That's what I mean...you shouldn't ignore it, but my gosh enough already. The forecast has changed a million times around here already. I just donated a few hours to my friends to haul boats out of the water with my truck. I would be more concerned if I had a boat in the water, or if my house was right on the ocean. Enough news people with all the what if's, it just scares the heck out of people. It is not helping anyone get ready.

We have our first tree down and it isn't really that windy or rainy. It was a really, really tall cottonwood. Won't miss it. One cottonwood down, 7 to go. I will be busy with the saw tomorrow or Monday.

I live in southeastern PA and my husband is a lineman for Exelon (Peco), so that basically means the two boys and I are on our own along with the pets. Hubs is already scheduled for 18 hour workdays and they cancelled our vacation plans for next week.

We have a generator, gas, cars fueled, batteries, flashlights, and lots of food and propane for the grill. My boys are both 12, so we have lots of board games and books on hand. With the generator we aren't too inconvenienced by power outages.

Stay safe everyone!

There were about 13 electric company trucks parked on a big parking lot near here yesterday evening and they were gone this morning. I imagine they were staying at a hotel nearby.

Well, I hope so much it is a media hype event but you really can't afford to take a hurricane hitting anywhere near lowlying areas lightly, especially as there has been a lot of rain there recently and the ground is so saturated. And hurricanes drop so much rain! But so far I think once it hit the U.S., this hurricane has had less force and lesser winds than previously feared according to the coverage I am seeing so far and mainly rain. I remember watching the last hurricane that hit Texas live on TV as it hit and signs and parts of roofs and all kinds of things were blowing - zoom -past the camera with great velocity. And the whine of the wind you could hear via the audio feed was loud even coming through TV. There was less rain with that storm as it was moving fast and violent. Maybe this is going on and no reporters are there covering it but it does seem like the rain and storm surge from the saturated ground will be the worst part. Pray God it will stay a Cat I or go to Tropical Storm status and not tear up things AND dump a ton of water.

I wish I was a little poor of the panic-y type- lol! I waited until the last minute and every place was out of flashlights- I was able to borrow one thankfully and I bought a bunch of candles even though I hate having open flames in the house with the dogs. I made sure to have plenty of food and water for the dogs and disposable wee wee pads in case we can't run the wash. So they are all set at least. We will just cuddle on the couch together and ride out the storm.

Keep the fire extinguishers handy. I always do that when we have a storm in Texas - get out all the lanterns, flashlights, cellphone lantern, candles - and due to the candles - the fire extinguishers! If you don't have a fire extinguisher, search online for how to put out a candle fire - just in case. We have more fires here in Texas due to plain old candle burning than almost anything - especially around Christmas.

If you have to use the candles, place them in a jar for safety.

how is everyone doing tonight? everyone ok?

Well it is 5:25 am here and I just came in with the dogs...so far it is breezy. No rain to speak of.

Is it supposed to be there in Ma ? I know Long Island is supposed to get it today.

Oh yes...it is a huge storm..something like 500 miles wide. It is weakening but we will have wind/tide issues.

Good Morning Rosemarie, I will be thinking of you and your family today, praying you stay safe and dry. After taking a closer look at the map yesterday, I was reminded that Falmouth is really on the ocean.

Our winds really kicked up after midnight and made a racket that caused the dogs to bark. The rain is finally coming to an end, but we will probably continue to have 25 mph wind gusts throughout the day. We lost only one tree and we still have all of our roof shingles.