Fear and Loathing in NJ..

As I write this I'm waiting for the inevitable.. Hurricane Sandy is on her way and this storm promises to make history in NJ, in a very bad way.  We live 1 mile from the water and I don't have good feelings about this. The forecasters say they have never seen a storm like this in history hit NJ like it will.  Hurricanes have always come up the coast parallel to it and never has there been one that has veered sharply left to make a direct hit to our coast.  Add to this that they are predicting the atmospheric pressure to drop to 947 millibars and we could be in for a very bad time over the next 48 hours.  To put this into perspective, the lowest atmospheric pressures ever recorded here has been around 960 millibars.  What this translates to is we're screwed in a big way as far as damaging winds go.  On top of that, they are predicting 6-12 inches of rain.  We lucked out last year with Hurricane Irene.. our half of the development didn't loose power.  The half that did all had flooding in the basements.  This storm will be much worse so I don't think we'll be able to dodge that bullet twice.

I bought the only generator I could get, a small 900 watt one from Harbor Freight.  I bought this Thursday and it was one of the last ones there.  Tonight I find out that a sump pump draws 1200 watts and upwards on start up so basically the generator won't be able to cut it.  So not if, but when we loose power, there's a good chance my basement will get water.

I spent most of yesterday and today getting things off the floor and as high as I can.  I also cut the gaps into the bridge section tracks finally so that I can remove the bridge sections to get to the sump pump.  

The many different computer models of the storm track.  The only common theme is that if you live in NJ, you are F***KED.

I got as many things off the floor as possible and the more valuable items were moved up to the living room.  Also, there was a mandatory evacuation of all beer and scotch from the mini fridge up to the upstairs refrigerator. 

I cut the rails at the bridge section joints so they can be lifted out out.  I had planned to do this at some point.  Sandy forced my hand to do it sooner than later.

Bridge sections removed for easy access to the sump room.  I hope it won't be necessary to get in there.

I hope the forecasters are ultimately wrong and Sandy turns out to sea.  I would like the next pictures I share with you to be more layout progress shots and not disaster cleanup photos.