Hurricane sandy stories - what did you experience?

Wire your home with a transfer switch, so you don't need to run extension cords everywhere. The smaller unit will run 4 circuits using a standard extension cord.

If you can live with the bare min' heat, fridge, internet, TV/lights in one room, you can get away with a Honda EU2000i. That unit with an extended fuel tank can run for at least 2 days without refueling (6 gallons); it's also super quiet. Keep in mind the unit is very small so theft could be an issue if you don't have someone home all day or a good place to store it.

The above is assuming that you have natural gas as your source of heat/water heater/stove.

All of the above will cost under $1,500.00! I can't believe people actually don't make this small investment for piece of mind and comfort!

Also go get yourself (4x) 5 gallon gas containers, and makes sure that gets filled along w/ your cars before any storm.

 

Was in NJ and got the hell out on Thursday and went back home to Florida.

Here are pictures of the street that I used to live on.
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Generator / Fuel / Direct TV / and lots of supplies and if your in the evac zone leave but get everything sorted out before you leave and most important shut off the circuit breakers encase of power surge.

 

After the last storm, I bought a generator. I wanted one for quite a while, but we don't lose power too often, that's why it took me so long to actually buy one. I wound up buying the Troy-Bilt XP7000 from Lowes. It's a great unit with plenty of power, it peaks out at 10,500 Surge watts and 7,000 continuous watts. The best part about it, is that it has a power meter to show what % you are using. The thing is such a beast, I ran everything in my house (~5,000 sq/ft) without a problem (except central a/c, I obviously didn't need it). I have it hooked to my panel through the 30a twist lock cable. I never saw over 30% on the meter, and that was with 3 refrigerators (1 is run off of an extension cord to my brothers next door), a lot of lights and a toaster oven all going at once! I was mostly at 8-13% (without toaster oven). I started to get nervous at the fuel situation because I only filled my 5 gallon and 2 1/2 gallon jugs. That's only enough fuel for about 24hrs. I was out about 3 days, so I was borderline of having to siphon gas out of my boat because of the gas situation around here. For security, I put the generator in the back yard behind my fence and locked all the gates with pad locks. I also purchased a shelter, one of those 8'x8' pop up tents to protect the generator from the rain. Since it's a portable unit, I obviously didn't set it up until the weather calmed down. I also used bungee cords to attach the tent to the generator, and I weighed the corners of the tent with 1 gallon jugs filled with water, it worked great!!
For preparation, I went around the house, brought in any moveable objects. Lawn decorations, BBQ grill, lawn furniture etc. We bought some bottled waters, and I cleaned out the fridge from any excess stuff that got old. I also unplugged all my sensitive electronics and the battery tender for the Ferrari, just in case we had power surges as this was all happening. I made sure I had fresh batteries in all the flashlights, and also made sure I had enough spare batteries. I then paid all the bills on line before I lost power, and made sure I had gotten cash. I felt pretty prepared at that point,and just crossed my fingers and hoped for the best!
As far as damage goes, I had very little damage compared to some, so I have to say I am pretty thankful. My shed lost a portion of it's roof shingles and a small Chinese maple tree that I had planted this year, got destroyed.....not a big deal.
The things I would do differently for next time? Probably just make sure that I get more fuel up front and I also need to buy a siphon pump. Other than that, I feel that I was pretty much prepared. For those with generators, don't forget to stock up on oil also. When the generators are run so much, the oil change intervals come up real quickly! I was changing my oil every 25-30 hrs with synthetic oil, even though the book says every 50 hrs. That comes up every day and a half or so!
I attached photos of my roof damage, and the generator that I bought. By the way, the generator was only about $830, I had a 10% off coupon (Hint: ask the post office for a moving packet, and it's in there).
I hope all my Fchat friends did ok with the storm.
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Great advice in all the comments above. Here are my tips (I should say lessons learned) for what they're worth. My cell/cable comments could be regional or situational (YMMV), but I suspect they are generally true. This post is via iPhone, please pardon typos.

Tip 1: If you have a vintage car, fill it with gas. Most (prossibly all) newer cars can't be siphoned because of vapor flaps required for emissions control. The 330 is a 25 gallon gas can for the generator (or it would be if I followed my own advice).

Tip 2: When looking for food, seek out large ethnic megastores if you have one. In our area, Fairway and Shoprite are open but have only dry goods (no meat, fish, fruit, etc). H-mart (huge Korean supermarket) has lots of everything (presumably because not everyone knows about them and there isn't as broad of a mad rush as there is at the regular grocery stores).*

Tip 3: Avoid AT&T for cell phone and use Verizon. Both this outage and last year's outage, AT&T did not work at all (even on the rare occasion that it shows a few bars, it usually doesn't work). Verizon has been reliable in both massive outages (this one and last one)

Tip 4: Avoid Comcast for cable/Internet/phone. In their "we're here for you" email *during the storm, Comcast says they can't even start repairs until after power is restored. Last year we found that to be true - we lost power for 6 days, cable wasn't restored until 7 days after that. I feel certain this will be true again this year and our power is estimated to be back up Nov 9th. Our friends in the same town have Verizon cable, everything was fine with internet/tv/phone when they got power back on Wednesday (same as last year). I suspect because Verizon fiber is under ground.

Tip 5: Have a battery powered am/fm radio available. We are so used to digital everything and being able to do anything on iPhone/android, but none of that is available when network is down.

 

Live on LI N shore. Winds were really bad. I didn't experience any flooding, but lost power at my business and my home early Monday. I have a whole house generator that runs on NG and it kicked right on. My m in law and sis moved in with us. Power at biz cameback Thursday night along with m in law and sis. They left and 2 hrs later the water pump went on the generator leaving us in the cold. My service tech came right over and had a pump sent overnight. The only problem is that UPS and FedEx weren't bringing anything onto LI. Should be here and up and running Monday. Gas has been a nightmare. Had filled all the cars last Sunday as I have experience with this from living in Fla a lot, but biz trucks are now empty and that has really made things suck.

 

Great advice, thanks!

 

Our home is SINY fared well however our beach house on Ocean Beach did not. We are just south of Bay Head and Mantoloking NJ which got hit very hard and is being covered extensively by the news.
We know from aerial shots that the house is still standing however we heard that there was 4-6 feet of water on our street. We are expecting the worst. Every oceanfront home in our community has been destroyed or swept away. It's very sad to see but my family is safe and that's all that matters.
FEMA only covers primary residences so at best we can get. Low rate loan for the SBA.
It's going to be very depressing to go down there once we are let onto the barrier island.

Hope everyone else is safe.

 

Sorry to hear about your monetary losses.
I'm glad to hear that everyone in your family is safe.

 

I have my 365 C4 and 1978 Trans Am with a full tanks. I also have my race car with a full tank of 100 octane. These are my reserves if I cant get gas. It is also peace of mind knowing I have some extra gas.

So far I refuse to wait on line for 3 hours to get gas. I went to get gas at 5:50am today and the lines were crazy long for a closed gas station. Hopefully I can avoid the lines.

I have been running my generator on 112 octane race fuel.

 

The safety of your family depends on it! Hope you are doing well Dave.

Peter

 

No power for a week - just returned yesterday around 4:00pm.

Saw some potential looters trying to steal gas / generators in my darkened neighborhood...cops apprehended them after I called.

Waited on a gas line for nearly 2 hours and watched about 15 people try to cut in front...only to be turned away by the waiting State Trooper keeping order.

As posted in another thread, the sheer destruction was depressing and shocking. The second most depressing thing was the behavior of people in crisis - some people became nearly savage, forgetting all decorum.

 

How many homes are destroyed? I have watched the news but I am trying to get a handle on the number of homes. I know certain areas along the coast have been devastated.

 

No damage to the house/cars/land. Family is safe. Didnt have power for about a week, so was in a motel. Having a 1 month old it was getting too cold at night to keep him at home. The motel wasn't all that great, and the days were getting difficult to pass, but thank God its over.

Work was interesting at the pharmacy. Many stranded people looking for help with their medications. People scrambling for flashlights and D batteries.

The gas lines were insane. Im glad I filled up a day before the storm and was fine.

 

Still no power in Monmouth county NJ. Polls this AM had generators for power. Huge trees down, but no damage thank you. I'm 3 miles from beach so ok from that. Monmouth Park race track has several very large tents set up by FEMA I believe. First time I had access to internet is now. Hi Ferrarichat

 

There were 500 homes in all of Mantoloking- 110 of them are gone, 30 houses in Camp Osborn which is south of it are gone. \


Here are pictures of all homes from south of the ThunderBird Motel, south towards Chadwick Beach. I used to live in Normandy Beach on the ocean and the two houses next to me are gone and so is the one behind it, along with another house that was further down the street and the house twodoors away in the opposite direction. Most of the older homes will need to be torn down. Most of the newer ones were on pilings and had first floor damage. I know that the 2 houses next to where I used to live were built in 1945 and had pilings for the front decks put in in 1963. Ours was one of the first ones built (my great grandfather bought the property in the late 1800's) but when we sold it, the new owner tore it down and built a newer home on pilings and it survived.

If you are on facebook search for Normandy Beach it gives you information about the Bay Head to Seaside area and the latest comments from the police department.

https://picasaweb.google.com/travisblindt/NormandyBeachHurricaneSandy#5806370386271922498

 

Was in the SI ferry term when it hit. Water rose fast.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

In the slip.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Lights went out. Water rose. Got the Hell out of there.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Scary how thin the veneer of civilization is, eh?

 

Just got power back this evening...ending my F-Chat withdrawals!

 

Live in atlantic beach, li. Flooded garage so lost new gtr, range rover, and xke jag. Also lost my car playroom with racing sim and memorabiliaa. No power, heat or hot water. Prob stay that way next month. We were scavaging downed tree limbs to cut and burn in fireplace. Siphoned gas by taking out fuel pumps in my flooded cars to use in car neighbor loaned us Ran away today to hotel in nyc to escape noreaster coming tomorrow. It was living in a mad max apocalypse movie

Most surprising thing was after knowing my wife for close 30 yrs, i learned that she is the best person to be with in a foxhole. Didnt know that side of her existed but it made the horrible experience bareable.

Best wishes to all those effected by storm