So... who here is near the storm, or plans to be, and or is likely to go surfing?

I think it's supposed to hit up here in a day or two... hopefully it won't be as bad as Irene. Personally, I prefer the name Sandy over Irene, although it does remind me a bit of a desert, so maybe it's not the best name for a storm? I personally would have chosen Hurricane Peach

i thought i saw a cloud today, but it was just a smudge on my sunglasses...

They canceled school for all my kids already. It's not looking good outside right now. And I'm like 200 miles from the coast. West of Philadelphia.

Gonna be crazy up in here.

I'm expecting to be without power for several days. So not looking forward to this.

Same. Bracing for no power. Hoping these damn trees in the yard stay standing and don't fall onto the house.

For some reason, Delaware has a vehicle restriction in place, but my workplace is "open for business". Hmm...priorities?

Stay safe guys and gals.

By the way, it's amusing if you look at the news, the top three stories appear to be:

1)The Giants won the world series.
2)Kim K. is wearing some costume.
3)The East Coast may be wiped out.

So basically, I'm thinking who gives a rat's ass about (1) and (2)? Then I realize, "oh yeah, most of the US"... and the rest of the world thinks we have our priorities in the wrong places... silly them!

I have to admit, as a native Floridian my first reaction was, "category 1? Suck it up!" Clearly it doesn't need to be any stronger than that to cause chaos where it's landing. Hope everyone manages to stay safe.

I believed that the storm would be bad, but I could not have imagined that the meteorological doomsayers' direst predictions would be spot on.  I hope that everyone made it through okay.

you guys ok?

I got some water damage despite the fact I live in Missouri. Although unrelated to the hurricane, the timing is interesting. An alcoholic lives two floors above me and his washing machine was overflowing. I called my insurance the day it happened and the demolition people have already ripped out the kitchen floor, as well as the drywall above my bathtub. I'm just waiting for construction now. The demolition people told me they're short of workers because a bunch of them were sent to the East coast; they're expected to remain there for at least a month.

do the license plates still say "missouri loves company" on them?

Didn't lose power, thankfully.  The bigger concern for me was that my girlfriend is 36 weeks pregnant, and started having issues about a week ago.  The baby is fine, but she is not doing well.  They almost operated on Monday before discharging her and putting her on bedrest.  She's back in the hospital tonight, though, and I'm glad the storm has passed and that she's able to get the care she needs.

I'm like the only person in NJ who didn't lose power.  Go me?

Actually got pretty lucky. Didn't lose power and only got a tiny bit of water in the basement. Phew.