Rita, Do you have Koi or any kind of fish in your ponds? I can't remember. I was wondering what would happen to the fish in peoples ponds if it is real windy and rainy. I sooooo hope everyone remembers their pets and takes extra care in keeping them safe also. I am getting so nervous for all our friends on here. I hope you all get all the supplies you need and stay safe, safe, safe!!! Good luck to all of you and I will be praying for you all. Take care, Judy

Julie C, thanks. If I leave I would be taking my purse and wallet and drivers license.

Judy, I have one fancy goldfish in there and a batch of rosey red minnows. Not terribly upsetting if I loose them. The other two small ponds just have a batch of feeder fish.

I heard on the news a few minutes ago that it probably will hit Long Island. Be causious Rita! Ellie

To Rita and all of our garden friends on the East Coast, thoughts and prayers are with you to stay safe, secure, and un-flooded....check in afterwards when you can so we all know you are safe and if you need any help.

Debra

Looks like it has weaken a bit and moved east-better for us in my part of Virginia (Williamsburg) but not the coast and points north-very dry here so rain will be nice-but not 8 inches!!!!

Judy, When the Barometer drops with these hurricanes, fish will go to the bottom and stay there,so I would think Rita's fish or any one else that has goldfish In a little pond, will be ok.I just pray for all our forum friends will be ok,and safe. and get back to us soon as you can.

Jean

Stay safe. I saw this morning that it was downgraded a bit, so that is good, but yet people were staying due to that, so not so sure it is a good thing afterall. It was so crazy, but people were actually surfing, even though they were told to go. I would think the losing power would be a major problem. I have never really been through anything like this, once I lost power for two days, and had a lot of wind from the remnants of a hurricane that came up from the south, but that has been it. I think northeast ohio is a pretty safe place to be right now. It is good that you have gas to cook with Rita. And jean I did not know that about the fish, that is interesting, just wish people were as smart and would lay low!!
cindy

That is interesting Jean. I didn't know that either. I worry about all living things, two or four legged and no legged I suppose. Like Cindy said, hopefully people will be as smart as the fish. Ok, check in everybody when its over.

I guess I am as ready as I will get. All my porch and patio furnature and mats and stuff I brought inside or put in the garage. Hanging baskets and stoop plants dragged inside also. Pump turned off in pond.

I put many of my glass storm windows down like I do for the winter hopefully give more steangth to the windows from the wind.

Cars parked away from possible falling trees. Car gas tanks are full. Flashlights got new batteries so they all work. Refridgerator turned to high to get as cold as possible. Extra water in pots and bathtub.

I do know were the nearest emergency shelter here is here in town (our local high school).

I have had the TV on since I got up this morning listening to all the news. I must say I am a nervious wreck.

Storm surge areas with mandatory evecuations all over Long Island and NYC and NJ. Mandatory evuations unheard of here in NYC and most of Long Island. I am really thankful that I live on high ground. Much of the areas in the ritzy areas of beachfront in town under mandatory evac orders. I know what those houses look like. Directly on LI sound with just a low bulkhead to stop the sea. Never gonna work this time, they will flood for sure. Sure am glad not to live in the ritzy areas of town!

Sounds like you have all your bases covered Rita. So sorry you are having to go thru this. We have watched it on the weather channel off and on all day. Glad you don't live in the ritzy areas too! Hopefully you won't lose power and everything will fare good, plants and all. Check in with us from time to time if you can. Good luck and take care, Judy

I will loose power for sure. Don't take much for us to loose power here, lots of trees up and down the streets. The only question is how long will the power stay on and how long until it comes back on. Could be a long time.

Cracking, are you around today? How are you doing?

Hey, I'm around, but trying to stay busy so I don't worry. :)
I have Noah's plant ark in my basement, not so.much to save every plant, but because I have 20-30 containers that are small with daylily seedlings and I don't want them hitting other people's windows.
Then I got to thinking, hey if I can't sleep, I can start repotting seedlings that need more room. Lol
I pushed or bungeed all the rest of the containers against walls and fences.

How's it going down there so far? I've been out in the garden all day and only caught glimpses on the weather channel. Not good glimpses. :(

Rita,
Fill zipper top sandwich bags about 3/4 full with water and pack them in your freezer. If you lose power, the ice formed will help keep your food there cool.

kay

Thanks, Kay. Too late. Don't have any zippy bags.

Right now it is raining. Not bad rain, just rain. Going to continue to get worse as the night wears on. They are talking about 8-12 inches of rain for certain areas but exactly were keeps changing. Even the expected "lighter" areas of rain are going to be massive. Then just because the night is over doesn't mean anything. Tomorrow morning to lunch time (sometime in there) comes the eye wall and even more horrid winds.

Ewww! What can I do to help pass the time for you guys? I can send silly pics or tell funny garden stories.....:)

*raises hand* funny garden stories? Lol

Can't think of any off hand but I'm sure I can come up with something. I love telling funny true stories of my late step mother. She was a hoot! Maybe not related to the garden but funny none the less. :)

Crackin, How close are you going to be? It sounds like you are all prepared too. I hope all goes well for you too and anyone else in harms way.

Honalee, I love your idea of funny stories to occupy time.

Prettypetals, I'm in Queens, about 35 mins from.Rita, but on high ground. I'm mostly worried about the winds- I'm in an area that gets very windy anyway and can get a tad scary just in a regular storm, but our apt. has a basement, so we can go there. I wish I could just get to to sleep because I feel like I'm just waiting for something to happen, but my mind is too full.

For those of you not familiar with our layout. There is Manhattan Island. (what most people around the country might think of as all of NYC) Then to the east of Manhatten is Long Island. The first county from west to east is Brooklyn, then Queens, then Nassau (were I am) and then the longest county of Suffolk.

We are both of us on the North Shore of LI while many of the really low lying areas are along the south shore of LI.

11;45 here. I am going to turn off the computer now and try to get some sleep. Whether there will be power to turn it on later is questionable. We will see. They do say power could be off for a long time in various areas.

Oh dear. I can only imagine how that must be for you guys down there. I hope the little ones are not scared. They are so much like little radar detectors that they get worried if we are worried.
When my brother and I were little and we would get scared or an upset stomach my mother used to read from Readers Digest Life's Like That or Laughter Is The Best Medicine and we always felt better. If that didn't work, she would put peanut butter on our toes, get my sister to sit on our legs and get the dog to lick the PB off our toes. That always worked!
I sure hope everyone makes it through the next 36 hours or so unharmed and with minimal damage.

There have been a lot of issues along and near the coast. I'm keeping all of you in my prayers, especially Rita, and CTC since you are still facing the elements and the eye.

kay

I hope everyone is safe, sounds like the storm has weakened a bit more. Still, so many people are without power & predictions that can cause a lot of damage to NYC area. Hope everyone is ok, still a while to go. Maybe it will weaken more, I hope.
I've got a couple of old REaders Digests around somewhere for you. Seems like the peanut butter would work pretty well, but I know Rita doesn't have a dog, can't remember about Crackin'. Maybe the baby would sub for the dog :)
Seems like you are prepared as well as you can. Stay safe!

I think we're just getting out of a half-hour calm band. I woke up and the wind had pretty much stopped, but now it's starting to gust again.
Nope, no dog, Nancy :) okay, I'm tired and have nothing clever to say, so let me go look at color combos. Lol

From the radar, it looks like the center is right on the junction of NYC/NJ/West end of Long Island right now. The good news is there doesn't seem to be any rain following the eye right now, so the next few hours might be dry and windy.

Nate

Check in when you cans.
kay

NPR says that a large portion of Virginia lost power and may not be back on for a week.

Nate

Hi everyone. I am here. Have not lost power, hurray!!!! The worst is over, no more rain and believe it or not trying to clear up. I haven't been outside as it is still quite windy out but nothing really bad going on now.

Lots of cars driving up and down the street as we are near the beach were gawkers come out and look. People already walking (especially with their dogs) up and down the street.

I slept much of the night but woke up afew times and watched TV each time I woke up. It poured and I mean poured rain all night and were not not even in the worst of the expected rain downpour area. New Jersey, which floods with even a moderate amount of rain, is really in bad shape today with all the flooding. Both inland and in the shore areas.

I haven't heard the latest on the expected storm surges in various areas and nothing about the other parts of our town.

I am just so thankful that we are thru the worst of it and that nothing aweful happened here and that my house and garden and our neighborhood is good.

Thanks for checking in, Rita and Cracking. That's great news that you are ok, and didn't lose power! Hope people in Virginia will have their power restored soon, and that there's no major flooding.

Hey Rita.I am so glad that you are alright and still have power, too.You could still lose it, but, hope you wont.I turned my tv on as soon as I got up to see if there was any news about LI,and heard it was downgraded to a tropical storm before hitting there,and the wind was still at 65mph.And they said was torrential rain,and streets are flooded every where.Well,I am just very happy that you are ok,and hope every one else in the storms path is alright, too.This post is getting mighty long,and I hope I can pull it up next time.

Jean

Thanks! I am amazed at the mess as I watch our news which is never off the air since yesterday. NJ has record flooding. Parts of south shore Nassau county (my county) flooded from the rising seawater.

I have put back all my porch furnature and potted plants plus much of my patio stuff. I need to sweep up but it is too wet. I will wait till tomorrow. Still quite breezy out there.

They are saying on the news that at LEAST 500,000 people (yes, I put the right amount of zeros) of people in Nassau and Suffolk without power.

Rita - I'm so glad you didn't lose power and all is well with your house, garden and neighborhood.

Cracking - Glad to hear you are OK as well.

Debra

That is super, Rita. I am so glad everything is okay at your house.
kay

Glad things are OK for you, Rita & Crackin. So blessed that you still have power. I just read that 4 million people are w/o power across several states. One power company estimated 2 weeks before they could get everyone back online.

Debra

If I remember correctly for Queens county it is 13,000 power outages and I know they just reported for Nassau and Suffolk which is LIPA (our power company) it is 470,000 outages. So when I said before 500,000 people out of power that number is low estamate. It really must be more. I mean some households have lots of people and kids.

Catching up on the posts and I thought this was an old post and then realized it was about Irene.
I was most concerned with my daughter going back but she had to. She is in Manhattan and she has power and says she can see the East River and its not flooded by her nor did it rise above the walkway. Not much, if any damage to trees either.She said the winds were not as bad as they predicted either which is a good thing. Probably has alot to do with the wind direction.
Glad to read fellow New Yorkers came through okay.
Julia

Yaaa, So glad you guys are OK!!! Hopefully everyone who has lost power will get it restored quickly. Glad you guys checked in and let us know you are good. Judy

So glad you are ok, & that it is over. A lot of people without power, it could have been much worse.

Good to hear everyone is safe! :)

Glad to hear that everyone seems to be safe. Around here, we are far enough inland that we didn't expect to be hard hit, but it ended up being pretty mild. Lots of rain, but that was about it. Our power stayed on. Some stuff I intended to bring in off the deck, but forgot, didn't move an inch. We decided to go out and run some errands this afternoon. The storm was past and the skies were sunny and clear. The only damage I saw was the next door neighbor's FOR SALE sign on her house was hanging from only one of the 2 hooks that holds it up, and a rather large tree branch was down. I know in harder hit areas there are some deaths, lots of flooding, and millions without power. I'm just glad it wasn't worse.
Casey

Natanya,I know you are in Fair Lawn N.J. not sure where that is but hope all is well with you please report in when you can.
Rita,glad everything is OK with you.
Pat

Did the flowers make it through alright? :)

Nate

In spite of the fact that Irene was only a tropical storm when she hit and the winds were only about 50mph there were a lot of power outages here on Cape Cod and we were among them. We lost power early Sunday morning and it came back on early Tuesday for part of our street (including our house thank goodness), but our neighbors across the street just got power back tonight. We had no damage though other than branches down--a couple of big ones. I think one pine tree will have to come down since the branch that came down was almost half the tree. I still have a little bloom, but haven't taken any pictures yet--too busy cleaning up. Nice to finally get back to the forum.
Val

I bet you sure are glad to get your power back. Glad to hear that everything is ok!

Yes, glad to hear everything is Ok Val and that your power is back on. Judy

we got our power back!!!! Still 100,000 no power in Virginia!!!!

Rita and Judy, it's nice to have the power back. The good thing was that the weather has been perfect since after the storm so it wasn't too hot or cold and we did have water--both hot and cold.
Val

Hurray for folks getting their power back on. Here a very big part of town still has no power. I am one of the lucky ones that power stayed on here.