This mother is a monster. I’ve spent all morning removing every item from my property that could become airborne. The models are still predicting a direct hit on Wildwood NJ. The forecast is for 9.5 inches of rain in Wildwood. There is a full moon. The high tide is at 8:00 pm on Monday night and 8:00 am on Tuesday morning. This is when the storm will be at its worst. Sustained winds of 70 mph and a 15 to 20 feet storm surge is expected. Mandatory evacuation of Wildwood has been ordered as of 8:00 am Sunday. I think this storm is so powerful it could actually lift Chris Christie off the ground.
…COASTAL FLOOD WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM MONDAY MORNING
THROUGH MONDAY EVENING…
* LOCATION…THE ATLANTIC COAST OF NEW JERSEY.
* COASTAL FLOODING…MODERATE TO MAJOR COASTAL FLOODING IS
ANTICIPATED FOR BOTH HIGH TIDE CYCLES ON MONDAY…PRECEDED BY
COMPARATIVELY MINOR FLOOD EPISODES SUNDAY MORNING AND SUNDAY
EVENING. THIS WILL BE LONG DURATION TIDAL FLOODING AND PROBABLE
ROAD CLOSURES AND POTENTIAL FOR DAMAGE WHERE WATER ENCROACHES ON
PARKING LOTS AND BUILDINGS.
* AT…SANDY HOOK THE PRIMARY TIMES OF HIGH TIDE ARE 801 AM
MONDAY AND 822 PM MONDAY EVENING. AT ATLANTIC CITY THE TIME OF
HIGH TIDE ARE 741 AM AND 8 PM MONDAY EVENING. AT CAPE MAY THE
APPROXIMATE TIMES OF HIGH TIDE ARE 849 AM MONDAY AND 909 PM
MONDAY EVENING.
* SEAS…WILL BE 15 TO POSSIBLY 20 FEET. THIS ADDED OVER-WASH
WILL THREATEN CONSIDERABLE DAMAGE TO BEACHFRONT PROPERTIES.
* RAINFALL…4 TO POSSIBLY 8 INCHES OF RAINFALL BY MONDAY EVENING
WILL ADD TO THE TIDAL FLOODING AS RIVERS WILL NOT BE ABLE TO
DISCHARGE EXCESS RUNOFF INTO THE 3 TO 5 FOOT TIDAL SURGE AIDED
BY AN INCOMING WIND GUSTING TO 60 MPH ALONG THE COAST. THIS
INCREASES THE ODDS OF MAJOR FLOODING! SOME OF THE FORECAST
INFORMATION INDICATES SANDY HOOK MAY SEE A COASTAL FLOOD OF
RECORD MONDAY EVENING IF THE STORM CROSSES THE COAST SOUTH OF
SANDY HOOK NEAR THE TIME OF THE MONDAY EVENING HIGH TIDE.
* DURATION…MODERATE OR GREATER TIDAL FLO0DING MAY LAST 3 TO 5
HOURS DURING THE HIGH TIDE CYCLE!
* PRECURSOR FLOOD EPISODE…MINOR COASTAL FLOODING IS LIKELY
DURING THE SUNDAY HIGH TIDES CYCLES BUT THAT WILL BE DWARFED BY
WHAT FOLLOWS MONDAY.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…
A COASTAL FLOOD WATCH MEANS THAT CONDITIONS ARE FAVORABLE FOR THE
DEVELOPMENT OF MODERATE OR MAJOR COASTAL FLOODING. PAY CLOSE
ATTENTION TO UPDATED FORECASTS AND STATEMENTS AND TAKE APPROPRIATE
ACTION TO PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY. FOLLOW THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF
LOCAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT OFFICIALS.
KaD says:
Like I’ve said many times; if you wait until there’s a disaster like a hurricane, civil riot, gas shortage, earthquake, ice storm, etc. to have a stash of food and a way to cook it when the power’s out, bandages, a/many firearms, etc; you’ve waited way too long.
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27th October 2012 at 1:51 pm
AKAnon says:
Stay safe, Admin. Ma Nature can be a bitch.
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27th October 2012 at 2:54 pm
FTL says:
(CNN) — The U.S. East Coast ramped up emergency preparations on Saturday for Hurricane Sandy, a monstrous and deadly storm that forecasters said could severely impact cities and towns with heavy flooding and fierce winds.
Sandy moved slowly off the coast of South Carolina as a Category 1 storm, having left at least 45 dead in its wake in the Caribbean and Central America. It is expected to begin seriously affecting heavily populated coastal areas in the East as early as Sunday.
Residents from North Carolina to New England sandbagged low lying areas, secured and fortified homes and buildings, and packed stores to stock up on bottled water, food, and batteries in anticipation of widespread power outages.
Presidential campaigns adjusted their schedules to account for Sandy’s potential impact. At least one state that could be hit hard, Virginia, is a hotly contested battleground in the November 6 election.
‘Superstorm’ Sandy unpredictable – Newark mayor: Prep now for Sandy
Several states declared emergencies and accelerated storm preparations. New Jersey was the first to announce mandatory evacuations.
“We have to prepare for the worst here,” Gov. Chris Christie said.
The state’s barrier islands from Sandy Hook south to Cape May must be cleared out by Sunday afternoon. Those at Atlantic City casinos also must leave by then.
The biggest threat scenario involves the hurricane colliding with a cold front from the West, creating a “superstorm” that could stall over the Eastern seaboard for days. Residents have been asked to prepare for the possibility of a week or more without power.
CNN Weather estimates that damage from Sandy could reach $3.2 billion. This estimate is based only on wind damage and does not include flooding.
The District of Columbia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia New Jersey, North Carolina and New York have declared states of emergency, while Maine’s governor signed a limited emergency declaration. Delaware’s governor has said the state will issue a mandatory evacuation of its coastline, if the storm stays on path.
Sandy will be studied for years to come, said Louis Uccellini, who is responsible for environmental prediction at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
How is Sandy expected to develop?
Weather forecasters still predict it will push in a large storm surge as it nears land, inundate a broad, highly populated region with rain and impact utility service.
“Forget about the category with this,” said CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano. “When you have trees with leaves on them still, this kind of wind and rain on top of that, you’re talking about trees that are going to come down, power lines are going to be out and the coastal flooding situation is going to be huge.”
Merging with the cold front, as is predicted, “will energize this system, so we’ll actually get an intensification of this system,” Uccellini said.
Heavy snow was possible for the Appalachians.
“Expect it to move very slowly,” said James Franklin of the National Hurricane Center. “The large size of the system and its slow motion will mean a long-lasting event with two to three days of impacts.”
The tropical storm force winds were likely to spread over a vast distance, potentially up to 700 miles from North Carolina to Maine.
Sandy has taken on a lopsided form and its heaviest winds should be in the northern and eastern sections of the storm as it nears land — and be directed inbound toward the coastline.
The surge is likely to hit during a full moon, when tides are the highest, worsening coastal damage.
Computer models predict Delaware, Maryland and Virginia could see up to a foot of rain, according to the CNN Weather Unit. Isolated spots could see the worst rains in 500 years.
At 11 a.m. ET Saturday, the National Weather Service said Sandy was about 355 miles southeast of Charleston, South Carolina. It was a Category 1 hurricane with winds of 75 mph.
The U.S. target area was hard to predict. Some landfall computer models showed the storm striking somewhere between the border of North Carolina and Virginia north to Connecticut. That area includes some of the most densely populated areas of the country.
Keep a hurricane preparation checklist
Sandy is responsible at least 29 deaths in Haiti, Civil Protection spokesman Joseph Edgard Celestin said. Four Haitians remained missing. Another 16 people were reported killed in Cuba, Jamaica, Panama, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico
.
Hurricane Sandy threatens early voting – How will Sandy effect voting and election campaigning?
With early voting underway for the U.S. presidential election already under way in many states, Sandy’s wrath could impact the political situation.
In Virginia Beach, a campaign rally scheduled for Sunday for GOP nominee Mitt Romney was canceled because of the storm. There was no word on the status of other events scheduled later in the week.
“We’re keeping an eye on it,” said a senior Romney campaign adviser.
Similarly, Vice President Joe Biden canceled his visit to Virginia Beach on Saturday, “out of an abundance of caution to ensure that all local law enforcement and emergency management resources can stay focused on ensuring the safety of people who might be impacted by the storm,” the Obama administration said.
Early voting kicked off Monday in Washington and is scheduled to start Saturday in Maryland. On Friday, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley left open the possibility that the vote could be rescheduled, or polling stations relocated inland.
What preparations are being made?
All the Northeast airports will experience delayed and canceled flights.
American, United and Spirit airlines announced late Friday they would waive fees for passengers traveling in and out of many Atlantic coast cities who want to change plans.
Amtrak will deploy preparedness crews and equipment along its tracks in the Northeast to remove debris, make repairs and mend any downed electrical lines, it said in a statement Friday.
Washington’s power company has ordered 2,500 additional linemen, 400 tree cutters and has staffed beefed up call center staff, according to affiliate WJLA. “We’ll open up additional staging areas,” PEPCO executive David Velazquez said.
In New York, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is studying whether it should suspend all or some services ahead of the storm, according to Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
In Maryland, the Baltimore Gas and Electric Company expects that several hundred thousand customers could be affected, as early as Sunday.
Hurricane safety: When the lights go out
Late Friday, shoppers depleted pallets of mineral water stacked up outside a supermarket in Staten Island, New York.
In New York City, workers covered subway ventilation grids to keep potential flood waters out. Bulldozers shored up sand to form barriers in hopes of preventing street flooding in coastal areas of the city’s Burroughs.
‘Superstorm’ meets barnstorm as weather and politics collide
Is Sandy another “Perfect Storm?”
Sandy presents a scenario not unlike the one that led to 1991′s “Perfect Storm,” when moisture flung north by Hurricane Grace combined with a high pressure system and a cold front to produce a tempest in the north Atlantic over Halloween. But Grace never made landfall.
Stay well-fed in any disaster
Are you affected by Hurricane Sandy? Send us your pictures and videos but stay safe.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/27/us/tropical-weather-sandy/index.html
CNN’s Joe Sutton, Brandon Miller and David Alsup contributed to this report
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27th October 2012 at 3:07 pm
Administrator says:
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27th October 2012 at 5:23 pm
Administrator says:
From Bruce Krasting:
My first week on Wall Street was in August of 1973. I was newbie to NYC. My office was on the south side of 100 Wall, on the second floor, looking out over Front Street.
There was a tremendous thunderstorm one afternoon. I looked out the window as the street filled with water. The flood poured into a street gutter and overwhelmed it.
With the gutter flooded, the rats were drowning. They came out of every hole. In twenty minutes, 500 came out of the one gutter I was watching.
The rain stopped and the flooding abated. The rats on the street followed the receding water back into their holes.
A memorable first impression of life in the financial district.
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27th October 2012 at 5:28 pm
AKAnon says:
Jump! You Fuckers.
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27th October 2012 at 5:35 pm
AKAnon says:
Sorry, wrong rats.
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27th October 2012 at 5:36 pm
Administrator says:
I FEEL HONORED. BIG BOY CHRISTIE WENT TO WILDWOOD TO CONDUCT A PRESS CONFERENCE
Christie: take Sandy seriously
By Stacey Burling, Anthony R. Wood and Aubrey Whelan
INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS
We’ve all been through the pre-storm hysteria before, but New Jersey’s Gov. Chris Christie is warning the state’s residents not to be cynical about it this time.
“We should not underestimate this storm,” he said Saturday at a press conference in North Wildwood. He had declared at state of emergency in the morning and a mandatory evacuation of the state’s barrier islands by Sunday afternoon.
Residents should be off the islands entirely by 4 p.m. Sunday, he said.
Local police forces could shut down causeways to the barrier islands after that time, officials said. To ease travel, state tolls will be waived starting at 6 a.m. Sunday. State officials planned to monitor traffic and may impose the waiver even earlier Saturday night.
Christie said he can’t force people to evacuate but told Shore residents to take his warnings seriously. Last year’s Hurricane Irene swept in and out, he said. Sandy is expected to linger, blasting the islands with hurricane-force winds for 24 to 36 hours and potentially causing much more serious damage and widespread power outages that could last for days.
Christie said residents across the state can check ready.nj.gov for a checklist of essentials and information on shelters around the state – and told a crowd of excited onlookers at the North Wildwood firehouse where he spoke to make sure their transistor radios have batteries.
“You don’t want to go more than a day without hearing me,” he said to laughter.
The worst of Hurricane Sandy with its high winds and heavy rain is supposed to hit Monday night.
“This has the potential to be a really serious storm,” Christie said.
The biggest dangers, he said, are from flooding and power outages. “Trees are going to come down. Light poles are going to come down,” he said. “Substations are going to be flooded and we’re going to lose power.” Christie, who is pushing for greater ability to fine utilities, said he hopes the outages will not be as prolonged as they were after Irene.
While Sandy was briefly downgraded to a tropical storm Saturday morning, Marshall Moss, vice president of forecasting at AccuWeather, Inc., said it hardly matters what you call her. The size of the storm, its wind – gusts of 60 to 80 mph in this area – and the rain – 4 to 8 inches – will wreak havoc for hundreds of miles.
“It’s going to affect millions and cost billions,” Moss said. The storm, he said, likely will cause downed trees, flooding and power outages that could last for days or weeks and will affect an area from Virginia through New England.
No doubt with that in mind, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie declared the state of emergency. The declaration activates parts of the State Emergency Operations Plan, broadens powers of the New Jersey State Police including traffic control and issuing evacuation orders if needed, the governor’s office said.
A mandatory evacuation order for South Jersey’s barrier islands, including Atlantic City, requires people to leave by 4 p.m. Sunday. “They’re going to close down the bridges,” said Mary Goepfert, a spokeswoman for the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management. “You can’t have people driving on an elevated bridge in 70 mph winds.” People who don’t evacuate, she said, will find it “extraordinarily difficult to get help.”
Christie said he did not like telling people to leave their homes, but felt he had no choice. The state, he said “is looking at hurrican-force winds on the barrier islands sustained for 24 hours or more. It is simply unsafe for people to be there.”
Col. Rich Fuentes, superintendent of the New Jersey State police need to think not only of their own safety, but that of emergency personnel. “They will put themselves at risk to save you,” he said, “but they shouldn’t have to.”
Saturday afternoon, Christie’s office issued a warning to merchants who jack up prices during the storm. “Price gouging is illegal,” the administration said, and violators will face “significant penalities.”
Moss said he is “fairly confident” that the storm will make landfall somewhere between the Delmarva coast and Long Island. In coastal areas, the biggest concern will be five- to 10-foot storm surges.
Anybody who has been told to evacuate, he said, “really needs to be taking precautions.”
“I believe the impacts of this will be worse than Irene last year overall,” Moss said.
While this area will begin feeling the effects of the storm on Sunday night and Monday, the worst of it likely will reach us late Monday evening. It will wind down through Tuesday.
In this area, the storm will be an unusual combination of a tropical weather system with a cold air mass. Moss called it a “truly historic” event that will act more like a Nor’easter than a hurricane. “We’re talking about the potential for heavy wet snow in West Virginia,” he said. “You don’t see snow concerns out of a hurricane usually.” We’re not likely to get snow here.
The heavy rain could extend into western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio. Even central Pennsylvania will see wind gusts of 50 to 60 mph.
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter on Friday urged residents of flood-prone areas, including Eastwick and parts of Cobbs Creek, Main Street Manayunk, Delaware Avenue, river road, areas around Pennypack Creek and Kelly, Martin Luther King and Lincoln drives, to go somewhere else by 2 p.m. on Sunday.
Some Manayunk residents Saturday said they thought they lived far enough up the hill that they would be safe.
Eighty-four-year-old John Antoniolo, lives a block up from Main Street. “I’ve got a lot of emergency lights in my house. I was an electrician by trade,” he said. “I’m lucky to live in an area that has more than adequate sewage. We don’t get much flooding on this side of the street. I’m staying here for the weekend.”
Brandon McDonald and Charlie Greene, college students who live in a house a few blocks up, also felt confident they could ride out the storm.
“I’m definitely going to pick up a flashlight and some other supplies. I think we’re a bit unprepared but we’ve been OK in the past,” McDonald said Saturday morning.
Greene said they cleaned their gutters yesterday. “We had no flooding during Hurricane Irene last year or power outage, but our neighbor had some flooding issues in his basement,” he said. “We’ll see what happens.”
Emergency managers are bracing for the storm as though readying for an enemy invastion.
Utilities, stung by complaints about their responses to the outages caused by Irene last summer and the freak derecho wind storm in June, advised customers throughout the region to anticipate widespread power outages that could last beyond Election Day.
At the Shore, the boards went up on beachfront homes and boardwalk businesses. Boats were pulled from the water or secured at docks in marinas from Sea Bright to Cape May.
Camden County Saturday released a detailed list of what it had been doing to prepare for the storm, including cleaning thousands of inlets and storm water dreams, cleaning 400 miles of roads, revoking all employees vacation and personal time until the storm is over, gassing up all county vehicles and testing all generators at critical county locations.
In a press release, freeholder Ian Leonard, who was overseeing emergency efforts, also urged residents to look in on elderly neighbors. “We need to watch out for neighbors and help each other out during the hurricane,” he said.
On the Pennsylvania mainland, Gov. Corbett declared a disaster emergency, as did Chester County, and emergency centers were activated in Harrisburg and Trenton.
What AccuWeather is labeling “the Storm of the Century” already has been blamed for killing more than 40 people in the Caribbean before heading north for an encounter with one of the nation’s densest population corridors.
The hurricane is on a northerly course that would take it parallel to the Carolinas, and tropical-storm warnings were posted as far north as Duck, N.C., on Friday night. Eventually, Sandy is expected to jog west, interact with another storm, and mutate into a dangerous rain-maker.
The final destination of Sandy’s center is still uncertain, but the storm almost surely will end up being a multi-billion-dollar event, one of the costliest on record. It has caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage in Cuba and Jamaica, according to the AIR Worldwide insurance service.
With widespread flooding probable in the Midatlantic and Northeast, that price is likely to skyrocket.
To lower the risk of flooding along the lower Delaware, water was being released from the Neversink Reservoir in upstate New York. In Burlington County, gates were opened on dams on both the north and southwest branches of the Rancocas Creek to lower the water level.
Gov. Christie ordered four North Jersey reservoirs drawn down beginning Friday evening in anticipation of rising water levels.
Given the relatively low river and stream levels, the major flood threats should hold off until later Monday or Tuesday. But nuisance road-ponding could begin with the first rains Sunday as leaf-clogged storm drains allow water to back up.
On Friday, crews were out trying to clear those drains, and transportation officials were planning for bus detours, tardy trains, and reduced speed limits.
SEPTA expects to keep its Market-Frankford and Broad Street subways operating, even if many bus routes and rail lines are halted. Some commuters may want to switch to the subways, SEPTA spokeswoman Jerri Williams said.
SEPTA will not repeat last year’s mistake and leave trains parked on flood-prone tracks in Trenton, Williams said. Last year, 12 rail cars were extensively damaged by Hurricane Irene floodwaters after being left on tracks along Assunpink Creek at the Trenton station.
Highway officials in Pennsylvania and New Jersey alerted contractors to be ready to remove fallen trees from roads, and additional highway barriers and barrels were ordered for blockading flooded roads.
Philadelphia International Airport said it was preparing for potential disruptions, and some U.S. airlines are giving travelers a way out if they want to scrap their plans. JetBlue, US Airways and Spirit Airlines are offering waivers to customers who wish to reschedule their flights without paying the typical fee of up to $150.
If necessary, the Red Cross said it was ready to open emergency shelters.
Forecasters insisted late Friday it was still impossible to pin down precisely where Sandy would crash into land and who would get the worst of it, but they didn’t like what they were seeing.
Said Smerbeck: “This is the worst-case scenario.”
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27th October 2012 at 6:17 pm
Administrator says:
Forecast for Sunday, October 28, 2012
Hurricane Sandy will transition into a Post-Tropical Cyclone on Monday into Tuesday as it makes landfall between the Long Island and the Delmarva coastline. A strong trough which is accompanied by fresh, cold air will suck up the system and bring Sandy inland. The trough sucking it inland will be aided by a blocking high pressure to the northeast of Sandy. This will allow the system to make a rare, left turn. This left turn will allow Sandy to crash into the Mid-Atlantic in a parallel fashion, likely amplifying many of the associated effects. As it brings Sandy in, it will also allow the structure of the system to change. Several processes will allow the system to actually strengthen for a time as it comes ashore. Not only will it strengthen, but wind field will expand as Sandy loses many of its tropical characteristics.
Sandy will slowly move towards the coastline and crawl as it moves inland. So you have already many factors leading to rare, widespread damaging winds. But the slow movement will allow for these factors to be prolonged only increasing the threat for widespread tree and structural damage. The wind field is already very large to begin with!
How strong will the winds be and where will the heaviest rain axis occur?
If you end up falling to the south of the center of circulation, you will be on the rainiest side…but not necessarily the windiest. However, damaging winds would still be very likely along with at least modest storm surge and moderate to major coastal flooding.
If you end up falling to the north of the center of circulation, you will fall on the windiest side. The winds will also be in a direction more supportive of severe to record storm surge if you are along a coastal waterfront. Major to severe coastal flooding will occur in any coastal or tidal area. There will still be heavy rainfall, but most likely the highest amounts the storm will produce should not be in this area. Still, flash flooding and waterway flooding is possible as the rainfall amounts are nevertheless going to be significant. Also, there would be a threat of isolated, fast moving tornadoes that are brief in nature.
Right on the northeast side of where the center makes landfall, there is a potential for an enhanced corridor of destructive, sustained winds. This corridor could be 50 to 100 miles wide. Without narrowing down the landfall point, where this occurs, if even in our area, is still not known.
Time is running out to prepare for possibly one of the worst storms to ever hit the area. Hurricane or Post-Tropical status will not matter. Electricity, cell phone service, landline phone service, and cable service are susceptible to experiencing long duration outages.
Sunday…winds increase and so will the rain area. You could probably still squeeze in your plans in the morning hours through mid-afternoon without having to worry about impassible roads or trees falling. Sunday Evening, conditions should quickly deteriorate…especially across Southeastern NJ and Delaware.
Early Monday…Rain becomes torrential along with high winds beginning from southeast to northwest. High surf. Increasing tidal/coastal flooding.
Monday Afternoon through Tuesday Afternoon…Coastal flooding, beach erosion, sustained damaging winds with destructive wind gusts, storm surge, flash flooding, and interior waterway flooding likely. Isolated tornadoes are possible. Dangerous surf.
Tuesday Evening and Tuesday Night…Rain becomes showery. The wind will slowly decrease, but high winds are still expected. Lingering flooding.
Wednesday…Some showers remain (wouldn’t be shocked to hear of snowflakes N&W), lots of clouds, and still some strong wind gusts. Lingering flooding.
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27th October 2012 at 8:44 pm
Bob says:
God bless you and keep you all!
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27th October 2012 at 11:15 am