What Are You Doing For Excitement Today?

[Fire Elk]

Stay safe Diane. I know you have trained those first responders well, but I hope you don't need them yourself. Praying for my friends, family, and those in the path of "Sandy".

Fire Elk

[Diane Amberg]

Thanks all. Right here, so far so good. Sadly, there have been some assorted trees falling into houses and such, but nothing really tragic here yet. Most who can are staying home and are off the roads, which can't be trusted and are under water for the most part.
The coverage on many channels has been very good. I've been flipping around, but watching the Weather Channel mostly.
 Delaware is taking a direct hit right now and everything that can flood is doing so.  Our younger crowd, (yes, they all were my students,) is handling all the emergencies, so we are able to stay tucked in at home. We'll probably see the eye soon and then it all whips around from the other direction for many more hours yet. For many that will be an even worse time. We'll see what tomorrow brings. It is a terrible storm on so many levels for so many people. Thanks for all the encouraging thoughts.

[larryJ]

Stay safe, Diane.  How is the power holding out?  Any major flooding around you?  I am also watching this, alternating between CNN and the Weather Channel.  I am curious though.  Did the price of gasoline go up in the week/s before the storm hit?  A lot of people would be wanting to go farther inland and if this was happening in California, the price of gas would skyrocket! 

Just be safe.......all of us care about your well being.

Larryj

[Diane Amberg]

So far Newark still has power but many surrounding areas do not. Yes, there is major flooding a few miles away, but our local creeks are just reaching flood stage now, with much more to come down the water sheds. Many homes will be affected soon. So far our sump pump is still working.There are many springs in the hills above us and it does start to come in as the ground water rises.  Our gas prices did not go up. Still around $3.49 to $3.69.
  I'm as interested as what is going on as everyone else. It was amazing to watch NYC's battery park get swallowed up.This thing is one for the record books. Again thanks for the kind thoughts. It's got a long way to go and a lot could still happen, none of it good.

[Diane Amberg]

We're alright! Lots of little branches down, but no major tree or limb losses. We got a little water in the basement, but it could have been so much worse.
 The City of Newark managed to keep the power on in my neighborhood. Others weren't so lucky.The schools are still closed today, many roads are still impassable and cut through very deeply. Big black clouds are still scudding around and the rain didn't stop for good until late last night. So far we've had no deaths in Delaware, but a lot of beach and beach home damage and losses and many large trees down all over the state.
 Rehoboth Beach fared quite well as they had done some major work a few years ago that held. A little further down, Dewey Beach and several other ocean beaches  had severe damage. Further north, on the east side, we had record flooding along the Delaware Bay and Delaware River, with a lot of homes flooded, including two of the fire stations.(They had already moved their equipment to higher ground.) On our west side, the Chesapeake Bay flooded all the way up to where it turns into Elk Creek but could have been much worse, even though it was record flooding. It will take some time to recover, but compared to NJ and NY we were very lucky.
  DEMA and the other agencies and all the emergency services are to be commended for getting the shelters opened and supplied without any fuss. For the first time ever, the ambulances were allowed to take people to shelters if they wanted to go early on but didn't have transportation.That was great!

[patyrn]

So happy you're okay............but our prayers go out to everyone in the area who was affected in any way.  What a ferocious storm that left so much damage in its path. 

[Wilma]

My treat this morning was a flock of robins at my bird bath.  I counted 12 at one time and I am sure that was only part of them.  I am seeing the little winter sparrows and juncos, too.

Yesterday, we found a lime green caterpillar coming down the trunk of a tree.  Of course I couldn't identify it.  It resembled the horned tomato worm without the horns and a much prettier green, almost translucent.  We let it continue it's journey as I am sure it knew where it was going.

Small pleasures make a full day.

[Diane Amberg]

We still have a few robins too, but with the cold snap today they'll be moving deep into the big woods across the street soon for the winter.. We got our first junco yesterday and have a nut hatch, a Carolina wren and a bunch of pine siskins that are here often now haunting the bird feeders. We still have big black clouds and showers coming in waves left over from Sandy,even after all this time.
   Many of us here have friends and family who are FDNY or are members of volunteer fire companies in NJ and NY state. It was sad to see the photos on face book of the drowned apparatus and fire houses that were lost to the storm. They are going to be a very long time getting back to normal. School finally got restarted here today.

[jarhead]

This is kinda strange. All the hype on Sandy, and yes I know it was devastating in some states, but got word from two buddies that live in Gastonia and Lincolnton, N.C.. They had 15-25 hour winds and rain---no damage. My beloved platoon commander from Bloomsburg, Pa got an inch of rain , but then my buddy from Lorain , Ohio had 2 days of sustained winds of 55-60 MPH. According to the Coast Guard Lake Eerie had 22 ft. waves. Lake shore winds were stronger there than NY. Ski was without electricity for one day but his folks are still in the dark . Guess most linemen headed east and now got very few to fix downed lines. Who would of thought that , that far inland would get hammered as bad as the coast. Still no word from Lt. Ken that lives in NJ so he must not have electricity yet. If you want to help Brother Ski, please send all CASH donations to ol Ron and I will see that he gets it !!! 

[Diane Amberg]

That is typical for hurricanes and nor'easters. If one is on the western side of the path there is more rain and the east side gets more wind because of the counter clock wise flow.Then as it moves across, the people near the center will see the winds calm and then change to the opposite direction. Less rain, but terrible winds.
  Sandy was a once in a life time event because it was both a hurricane and a nor'easter. They get their energy from two different sources. Once the hurricane part moved on shore near here, it was swallowed up by the nor'easter part and away it went again.
  This monster was so big, it moved much farther northwest than either separately could ever do because of a huge blocking high way north of here that kept it from moving on up the coast, as it should have, and into Canada.  It was forced to take that sharp turn northwest across us. It has made planning for recovery really tough.