Connecticut DU check in, please.

[lindysalsagal]

It's here. I'm ready. Any nutmeggers on here tonight?

[sellitman]

1. Stratford here!

Just pockets of rain. No winds yet. Beer on ice, battened down and ready.

[KittyWampus]

2. Is that Stratford next to Milford? I'm dreaming of moving into your neighborhood.

[sellitman]

7. Milford is next door.

Dreaming? Its ok but...

[Autumn Colors]

3. Checking in from the Litchfield Hills....

We're all stocked up and battened down.

[chrisa]

4. Hello thar!

[Atman]

5. I'll be here until the Internet goes out.

Unfortunately, I live on a lake at over 500' elevation...we get a lot of wind anyway, so this could be a fun night/tomorrow. It's weird...all the boats are out, sitting in people's yards, and they dropped the water level by about 2', I assume to relieve pressure on the river that flows out of it. But I have lots of batteries, full tanks of gas, propane, and tons of food. Glad I did it early. Stores and gas stations out here (I'm near UConn Storrs) have been super busy. Lady at the 7-Eleven said there have been fights in the gas lines today.

Hurricane party!

[lindysalsagal]

11. I was glad I got out of the retail/gas lines early, too. Stew Leonards

parkinglot was like christmas eve as I drove by. That store is a nightmare 24/7, so, I can't imagine WHY people would wait until today.

Did you tape your glass windows? 500 elevation may make them shake pretty good!

[krispos42]

6. Yo.

House is battened down. Generator on standby. Driveway pumps ready. Ready to give power to the neighbor's pumps. End of driveway is dammed up with a 4x4 and some concrete blocks. Power to freezer and fridge ready. Flashlights and candles ready. Portable DVD player for the kid is ready. Dug a little canal at the end of the street to the little stream nearby in case the storm drains back up. Radio scanner is programmed and charged. Cell phones charged.

No beer, though. :-(


I'm exhausted and so is Dad, but we'll be ready too.

[lindysalsagal]

8. Ok you win the prize!

I thought I was ready early....Wow! Dug a trench to the stream!
I'm in Norwalk, but I'm up on a high bluff so water has to drain right past my house down a 40 foot slope. So it's gonna get real hot and dark, but I'm not going to be flooded.

Got 2 large tubs plus the bathtub full of water. Filled and boiled every pot I own with water.

I brought my propane grill inside the garage just in case. I'm sure I'll be using it tomorrow when the wind dies down.

Anyone go to a store today? My friend says they're already empty.

[Autumn Colors]

10. This morning

We usually do our grocery shopping on Sat. AM anyway. Stop & Shop was mobbed. Lines at the gas pumps all over town, too.

[lindysalsagal]

12. Were the shelves at stop n shop empty today? Did they run out of anything?

[Atman]

13. Couldn't find any small propane cylinders for the camp stove.

But we have a grill, and it had a full tank. Other tha lines, though, things weren't that bad. Add in the fact that students were coming back to UConn and ESCU, it could have been worse.

[krispos42]

28. Well, it's about 12 feet long, a 16 inches wide, and maybe 4 inches deep.

Me and the neighbor did it in about 15 minutes. The road dead-ends, but it's fairly flat. If the storm sewers back up into the street, I wanted to keep the water from getting high enough to flood the neighbor's basement. Their driveway is level with the street and flat. This channel might keep the water from getting high enough to flow down their driveway. The road ends right by the stream, so we basically just removed a few inches of topsoil that would have kept the water from flowing freely into the streambed.


Or so we hope, anyway.

We've got plenty of soda to drink, and I put a few 2-liter soda bottles full of water in the freezer, but we should have enough power to keep the freezer or the fridge running at any one time.

Got the grill with an indeterminate amount of propane, 5 partial 16-ounce bottles of propane for the little grill, and a single-burner Coleman stove with a gallon of fuel. Plus we have a couple of George Foreman grills, a NuWave convection oven, and the microwave.

Plus the generator has a 30-amp, 230-volt plug on it, so I think that in theory we could run the range off of it.... if the cord was long enough. Which it isn't.


I stopped by CVS, Trader Joe's, and a gas station at about 5:30 today. Bread was pretty well wiped out, but they had bottled water if you were so inclined. Not the gallon jugs, though.

:shrug:

I figure that if we have to, we can just fill up bottles in the stream, filter them, and boil them before we drink them.

[lindysalsagal]

35. Wow. I hope your neighbor appreciates all of your hard work.

That's MY kind of neighbor! :loveya:

I hear it. It's here!

[krispos42]

38. They're pretty good neighbors.

We're not close, but we're friendly and we cooperate on this sort of thing. I had to dig them out after the post-Christmas blizzard last year, for example, because their snowblower was broken. They gave me a $50 gift card for my efforts. :-)

We really have to paint the house and take care of the yard a bit better... we look a bit shabby compared to them.

[Ruby the Liberal]

9. Whoa - you just drove halfway across the country and then did all that?

I feel guilty for being pissed about the wait to check out of the grocery store.

:blush:

[krispos42]

29. Yeah, a fatigue factor was a bit of a help, actually.

Being tired enough means you simply stop giving a damn and just keep working until your done.

We bought the extension cords in Illinois before we left, figuring that the local stores might be out of such items. And the gas stations were a mess, I guess, so we just filled up the generator from the 6-gallon can, then siphoned the gas out of the Corvette to re-fill it.

Move a lot of stuff into the garage, and I'm thankful that I cleaned out the garage about 2 weeks ago!

[CTyankee]

14. Here we are in New Haven.

I went to the movies today because I was nervous and needed a distraction. It was good.

Now we will have the storm coming up on us over night. We're pretty much expecting power outages tomorrow morning.

We have city gas lines and city water so no real worries there...

If we lose power I have a plan to strategically use frozen food to cook...

I'm praying my red maple (which my husband planted 13 years ago) doesn't topple on my car which is in the driveway. We have an only one car garage and mine ain't in it...

I'm expecting heavy rain, basement flooding, and perhaps power outages. Ready for all...

[lindysalsagal]

15. I've got a 4 year old lilac I'm worried about. I figure it's better off on its own:

whatever I try to do will probably cause damage, too.

Anyone know how the lilacs will do in 70 mh winds?

[pscot]

21. Lilacs are hard to kill

It'll be fine. You take care.

[lindysalsagal]

33. I'm holding you to that!

:loveya:

[Ruby the Liberal]

16. You may want to turn off your ice maker before the storm rolls in

(if you have one in your freezer, that is)

If your city water becomes contaminated, you won't know which ice is good and which isn't and if your power is out for any length of time, ice is a huge commodity. It helps keep the rest of the freezer frozen as well as cooling off room temperature liquids.

[lindysalsagal]

19. Wow I never though of that. Thanks. I don't have one, but, that's the

first time I've heard that tip. I've got 4 huge pots of water on my stove that I boiled today, so they could just sit there all week. You're right: Just because you're getting water doesn't mean you should drink it or cook with it. A Million people are already out of power and it hasn't hit us yet. No telling when they'll get to us.

[Ruby the Liberal]

26. If you can, cover those pots with cling wrap

to keep them from evaporating.

As far as water, you don't want to clean with it either if the systems become compromised. Why they say to fill a bathtub for toilet flushing.

Stay safe - you are among 65 million friends who are all going through this together!

[lindysalsagal]

34. I've got all the pots coverred with lids, so, should be ok.

If this takes more than 3 days I can always drive inland for water if need be.

[Little Star]

18. Well, what did you see at the movies??????

[CTyankee]

24. Here is my review

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1827787

[bigwillq]

17. New Haven County here.

:hi:

[lindysalsagal]

20. Going out to dinner: Last chance for a while. I'll be back later.

Carry on. It's our turn!

[Larkspur]

22. Killingly here! Northeast corner of CT

It's starting to rain now. I noticed on the radar that a large band of rain from Irene is moving in.
I put my ribs on the grill around 7. Have to leave in a few minutes to finish cooking them.

[Sisaruus]

31. I grew up in the northeast corner

Still have lots of family out there.

[dtotire]

23. Forestville here n/t

[WhollyHeretic]

25. East Granby here.

Just made a nice pasta dinner for the family and having some wine right now. I'm figuring we'll be out of power for a while. In the 10 months we've lived here there have been 3 power outages.

[NutmegYankee]

27. Montville (just south of Norwich) Checking in nt

[Sisaruus]

30. Simsbury

My son who lives on the south shore of long island drove here very late last night to ride out the storm with me (and help me bring in the deck furniture).

[romantico]

32. West Simsbury

Another one from Simsbury. Went to Starbucks in Avon today and they are closed tomorrow so I picked up a couple large coffees. If we lose power I hope it does not take days or hours for it to be restored.

[lindysalsagal]

36. Way to go! Smart son of yours. Now you don't have to worry about him.

My daughter is somewhere in the mid-west, driving to San Francisco. She may not even know about it.

[handmade34]

37. good vibes to you all

thoughts are with you

[chrisa]

39. bump

[terip64]

40. kick

[krispos42]

41. State of Connecticut hurricane update

http://www.ct.gov/demhs/lib/demhs/weather/current_weather_updates/irene_8-28-11_at_115_am.pdf

HURRICANE IRENE CENTERED NEAR THE DEL-MAR-VA
PENINSULA…HEADING UP THE EAST COAST…
WIND AND RAIN IMPACTING COASTAL CONNECTICUT…
URBAN AND SMALL STREAM FLOOD WARNINGS
ISSUED FOR SOUTHWESTERN CONNECTICUT…

At 1:15 AM the center of Hurricane Irene was located at 37.7
North 75.0 West (Approximately 215 Miles South Southwest
of New York City). Irene has maximum sustained winds of 80
MPH and is moving to the North Northeast at 16 MPH.
Irene is forecast to move up along the New Jersey Coast
overnight and make landfall in the Stamford area around
10:30 AM as a minimal Category I hurricane. At 1:00 AM
winds along the coast were gusting to 35 MPH in New
London. Tropical Storm force wind gusts are expected to
arrive along the coast by 2:00 AM. Hurricane force wind
gusts are forecast to arrive along the coast by 8:00 AM. Very
heavy rain at times (especially in Western Connecticut) is
expected to continue from now through the passage of the
center of Irene around 10:30 AM tomorrow morning and into
the mid-afternoon.

After the passage of Irene a second period of strong West
and Northwest winds is likely this afternoon and early this
evening with wind gusts to 65 MPH at times.
River flooding from Irene is forecast to be major in Western
CT and moderate in Eastern CT. The Housatonic River is
especially vulnerable to major flooding. Moderate to major
coastal flooding is possible with storm surges of 4 to 5.5 feet
possible in Western Long Island Sound during high tide
Sunday morning at 11:00 AM.

Irene is now approximately 10 hours from landfall and
forecast confidence is high. Some small changes to the track
forecast are still possible. The Department of Emergency
Services and Public Protection will issue another update on
Irene at 3:15 AM.

CURRENT WATCHES AND WARNINGS
Hurricane Warning in effect for Northern Connecticut
Tropical Storm Warning in effect for Northern Connecticut
Flood Watch for the Entire State
Tornado Watch for Fairfield County and
Coastal Connecticut until 5:00 AM.

There's a map and stuff, too.

[lindysalsagal]

42. Ok now I can't sleep. 5:29 am and the damn thing isn't even here, yet.

Anyone else from Ct up?

[krispos42]

43. I'm still on guard. Still have power, too.

Kinda surprised about that. Winds are gusting over 50mph now!

[lindysalsagal]

45. This really is frightening. I can't imagine people buying property in florida

after living through one of these.

How's your ditch working? Can you see in the dark?

[krispos42]

46. heh just lost power. well at least it lasted until dawn

The storm sewers aren't flooded yet so we're still flood free. My dad is up now so I think I'll hit the hay. Good luck! Ttyl

[w8liftinglady]

44. I have some very fragile relatives in New Haven...

Sending tons of positive vibes your way!

[krispos42]

47. I forgot to plug in the sump pump.

Having a generator to power the pumps only works if you plug in ALL the pumps.

FUCK

:dunce: :banghead:

[Alexander]

48. Enfield here. No problems at the moment.

The lights flickered twice earlier, that's about it.

There are leaves blown everywhere outside.

Looking at the CL&P map, my hometown has about 62% of residents with no power - so I'm glad I'm in Enfield and not there.

Looks like Eastern and Southern CT show almost everyone without power.

http://www.cl-p.com/outage/OutageMap.aspx

[lindysalsagal]

49. Just got the power back. How are we doing in CT?

2+ days not bad. I hope everyone's back online and healthy and that your homes are ok. I'm on a hill so I'm fine.