Well said, and thanks for saying it.

Thanks for the kind words, and thinking of me.
Im up in Malta, just south of Saratoga.
About 3 hours from NYC up I-87.
It was a moderate wind event for me, very few branches fell, we only got about a tenth of an inch of rain.

I live in a forest, so all sides are a windbreak.

My thoughts go out to those on the New Jersey coast and NYC. I have co-workers who still dont have power and one of my neighbors has his main home on Long Island which was inundated with 5 feet of water.

Where I am:

{{gwi:125387}}

-Eric
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Glad to hear you did ok Eric. What a catastrophy.

I think Harvestman lives and/or works on L.I. I hope all were able to take cover as needed. I heard the three airports are open now.

Harvestman isn't on Long Island. He's just a little south of megamav or at least in that area.

Got to think he might not have power?

I think he is in Putnam county. Likely dealing with a power outage and storm surge if hes near the Hudson.
A lot of water backed up the Hudson, we saw about a 5 foot rise in Albany.
Hope he's alright.

-Eric
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Aceofspades is on long island and I think close to the water. I hope he made out ok.

It may be a while before we hear from these guys, I'm in the city, and we managed ok but power is expected to be out well into next for areas of Long Island Westchester and Rockland counties.

Are you OK HVM?.. Let us know what happened.

Thank you so much for concern, but members on Long Island and other areas close to sand are the ones suffering real tragedy or at least hardship. I lost power for a week but we heat with a wood burning stove so we were able to use that for warmth and to cook. I got gouged on dry ice but kept my two freezers frozen.

Oct. last year power went out for a week because of early snow, but my wife happened to be in Boston and couldn't come home for a few days because of all the trees down between there and here. That was harder for me without her help and loving presence. Also it brought down and snapped a lot more fruit trees in my nurseries and some orchards I manage.

I'm fine and back to work, although this is a snow day. I'll be installing orchards again on Mon.

Buying a generator next chance. The weather has gone ga ga and I'm beginning to suspect that the meteorologists were lying after all. The weather seems to be changing quicker than even their worst case scenarios. (That was kindof a dark joke).

Harvestman - just a thought to consider if you are buying a generator. I'm rural and live literally at "the end of the line" for utility power so I've given a lot of thought to back-up power as I get at least a couple of outages per year.

If I had it to do over I'd have purchased a gen that runs on propane. more expensive but it eliminates all the issues which can arise from gasoline going bad which is more and more of an issue due to the EPA mandated adulterants.

Propane is also a lot safer to store and can be stored indefinitely.

I have a generator that runs off my natural gas line. It's already proved its worth in last year's big outage.

Propane, I'd agree, is the next best alternative.

On Long Island there has been and continues to be devastation from storm surge flooding, electric power loss and house fires, clogged sewers, stuck flooded cars everywhere, contaminated water, extreme lack of gasoline supplies. Yesterday my friend waited twelve hours for ten gallons of gas. A man tried to cut in front and a watching cop had to pull his gun. The same day a man was shot dead at another gas line. Many cars are being pushed to the pumps. The Obama administration promised military tankers last Friday, nobody has seen them. With frayed nerves and no heat or electric many old folks have given up and left town. Looting has been reported and many blocks have police check points.Most local and outside volunteer agencies did great work. The enormous garbage clean up is mostly done. Power and services are coming back. Each water soaked house needs to be certified so that the electricity turn on does not cause a fire. I carried a 3" 300 gal/min pump in my truck and began pumping flooded basements as soon as the surge went low enough. Stopped pumping three days later when the seals failed. The new house style is 4 foot of removed sheetrock on the main level and all new appliances and furnace. I will try to post photos this week end.

Harvestman, glad to hear you weathered so well, with the long(relatively) absence of your regular posts I am sure several of us were wondering.

Ace, Thanks for the first hand report, it is sobering. I hope given you were able to make the rounds helping others means you were not personally hit too hard. What you are describing sounds eerily familiar to the valley devastation here in VT last year from Irene. But without the population density there was very little of the social stress/crime and ugliness you reported. Hopefully that is not the norm and folks are able to pull together and help each other in the manner you clearly attempted yourself.
I know that was the only good thing that came from the flooding here. It had an astounding effect at bringing communities and neighbors together that has lasted beyond the crisis. It is a small silver lining but I hope it proves true down there as well.

Ace, you sure about the man shot? I just searched for the story and I think it might be a rumor- couldn't find anything about it in the legitimate press through Google, just people posting that they heard about it.

Sorry for all the hardship you've been enduring.

My wife was in Queens last weekend and saw a line which was more than half a mile long (she originally said a mile, but I plugged the end-points into Google maps and got .6 miles).

The lines seem to drop off pretty quick as you go into CT. On Monday night around 10pm, I saw 20+ cars waiting in line in Greenwich, CT, with police ensuring order. I drove about 15 minutes away (not searching for gas- I wasn't that low) and decided to get it in Norwalk when I passed a place with no wait. I was even able to pull through to the 2nd pump :)

In terms of the storms, last night's snow storm was worse for my trees than Sandy. All sandy did in my yard was damage some fences and remove a lot of the still-green peach leaves. They looked almost plucked after the storm, though I'm guessing it won't hurt them at this stage in the year. The worst part was 5 days with no power and 7 days with no internet at home.

Yesterday's snow snapped a bit off the top of a central leader, just over the top tie, when it weighed down the leaves. Another tree had a couple upper branches badly scraped when the snow weighed them down enough to rub against the support post. It was one of the few trees where I used a green 7' U post, which have some sharp edges. Going forward, I'm using all 10.5' tall 1.375" galvanized posts with no edges to rub against. The one downside is that there are no holes in the post I can tie to.

Here in the wine country most farmers have one or more wind machines in their vineyards to protect the new growth from frost in the last part of April. Each machine has about a two hundred gallon propane tank attached. When the night time temperatures fall the wind machines start by them selves, usually about one am. With propane there is no aging of the fuel and resulting starting problems. The initial cost is probably about $100,but worth it, for your household emergency generators. Al

I see that the cheapest propane generator is $249 at Walmart. Will that be enough to run forced air and a freezer? (Although if it is winter I could always put the freezer outside).

Generator usage is a matter of wattage. You need to figure the wattage you'll need, then pick a generator that will provide it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Wattage estimation guide

A $249 generator is not likely to be adequate as a back-up for winter. Most forced air furnaces I've seen have 220v. blower motors and a $249 generator probably doesn't have a 220v outlet.

when I sized my back up I decided I needed a 5000 watt continuous rating for furnace, refrig, some lighting and a TV. ELec water heater can only run when furnace is not. It's enough. A bigger unit isn't necessarily better since fuel consumption is somewhat proportional to the size of the unit regardless of load.

there are a lot of websites available for sizing a generator.