East Coast Happenings

proelkco · January 22, 2016, 01:46:56 PM

Good luck and stay safe

frawin · January 22, 2016, 04:27:08 PM

Diane, keep that Nasty Weather up there. We DO NOT need it down here. The Temperature here is 54 and the Sun is shining. We are having 10-15 MPH Winds. We can stand the current weather and then have it start Warming up more each Day.

Diane Amberg · January 22, 2016, 05:58:46 PM

I'll keep it away from you.

It's snowing now. Right here, in Northern New Castle County, we are right in the shute for up to 28+ inches. We're on a blizzard watch to change to blizzard warning later tonight.All the states around here are on emergency status.
We have a little local forum here that includes 12 Newark neighborhoods.I just sent them all texts to please shovel out the fire hydrants tomorrow morning if possible as they will be buried.

Diane Amberg · January 23, 2016, 08:54:04 AM

It's still snowing and the wind is blowing hard too. Pretty stuff as it drifts, but dangerous too. So far we still have power. Al and the neighbors just went out and took the first go around at clearing the snow. I haven't gone out to measure yet, but it's quite deep. We haven't seen the city plows. They have their hands full with the bigger main roads.
The birds are in of course, looking for their food. Al just now cleared a path across the deck and cleared the seed cans so they can eat soon.
I just heard a call for a 65 foot tree down into a house. The family is in the kitchen unharmed. I think that's the way today may go. Delaware emergency services really stepped up to the challenge. We even have a National Guard crew and a Humvee sitting at one of our stations. There are multiple crews for everything 'round the clock. There have been some calls, but not too bad so far.
It feels funny sitting here listening to the younger folks go out. We're just part of the "Old Fogey" gang now, so we wouldn't have to go except in dire straights.
Al just came in.Time to go fix him a big cup of steaming hot tea.

Diane Amberg · January 24, 2016, 10:17:45 AM

We made it.The sun is out beautifully, but the wind is still fierce. Many areas did lose power but we did not.
I tried to get a snow measurement, but flat places that hadn't been affected by the wind are hard to come by. We had at least 15 inches on the back deck table, but there are areas in the yard with much more than that.The fire companies up and down the state did an amazing job under the worst possible circumstances. Equipment got stuck, a number slid off the road into ditches and sadly there were a number or working fires to complicate matters.
The beach towns downstate flooded, some worse than Sandy. Sand bags only help so much. We were very lucky here. We have had worse storms with much more snow, but there are areas just north of us that got more than 30 inches yesterday.
Al just came back in from his second go with the snow blower and he says with the sun out it's not bad at all.
Hope all you good folks have a nice Sunday.

Wilma · January 24, 2016, 12:07:50 PM

So glad that you got through the storm without any problems. So glad that we didn't get what you have. And I will be even more glad when the possibility of winter storms is over for this season. Viva la Spring.

Diane Amberg · January 25, 2016, 11:45:30 AM

Today is cold and beautiful.The sun created some nice Christmasy icicles on the snow covered evergreens, but in general nothing much has melted.The snow plows are still working on neighborhoods and side streets. No school today.The newspaper did come.
In the interests of safety, we did cancel firehouse Bingo for tonight.
A couple of our neighbors,with healthy teenagers, still haven't dug out and their outside cars are buried. I wonder if they think it will just melt and save them the work. HA!

frawin · January 25, 2016, 01:38:58 PM

Our Weather for the next 10 Days looks very good. the Day time Low is Forecasted to be 49 on Tomorrow , our Daytime High is Forecasted to be 74 on next Monday. Our Night time Low is Forecasted to be 32 for Tomorrow, and our Night High is Forecasted to be 50 on next Saturday. We do NOT miss the Cold Weather at all, we get very little Snow down here and we SURE do not Miss the Snow. Diane you can keep your Winter Weather up there, we will keep ours down here. When I went thru Bartlesville, Ok a week or two ago, they still had lots of Snow Piled up everywhere. We have lived in Bartlesville twice and, and we had some really Big Snows several times. We lived in Midland Texas 27 Years and we very Seldom had Snow. If we did it was a very small amount.

Diane Amberg · January 26, 2016, 10:59:59 AM

Looking good right now, and it's finally just above freezing, but there are patches of black ice from refreezing. I found one myself and almost went sprawling, but caught my balance just in time. Schools are still closed, but hope to open tomorrow. Rain showers are due this afternoon and might wash away some of it. We do
have warmer weather in the forecast.
All the birds have come in since the ground is covered. We even had two big vultures come in to check out what we had put out.
Frank, I'd like to say we will have no more snow this year, but I'm not quite that optimistic with the big pacific El Nino still off the west coast. The New Jersey shore and the Delaware beaches have lost almost all their sand....again. Some of the big protective dunes were breached and the towns flooded quite badly.Tomorrow Al has his next three month cancer scoping, so of course we are worried, but hoping (and praying) for the best.

Diane Amberg · January 28, 2016, 09:36:19 AM

Things are starting to get back to normal with most roads and sidewalks passable, but LOTS of snow still on the ground.There was some melting yesterday but it didn't accomplish much.There are huge piles of snow at the end of many shopping centers and fields that may be there until spring, or longer.There was a panicked deer that almost joined us in the family room yesterday afternoon.I don't know what scared it, but it turned at the last second to avoid our big slider and went back around the side of our house. We have a lot of deer here but rarely see them except early morning or near dark. With the snow so deep on everything I suspect they are getting hungry and are ready to paw down in our flower beds to see what they can forage there. I know they like my Day Lilies and Azaleas.
We lost our oldest fire company member on Friday. He was 98 and had been an Aetna member since 1938. He was a delightful person to know and got along with everyone. He was big help to me when I was the first woman to join and helped me avoid many of the pit falls that lie in wait for new members. A number of us took turns bringing him home from kidney dialysis for a year or so, which gave him a chance to tell stories and share the history of Newark and the fire company with us. He was a mail carrier for his long working career. I will miss him.