Hurricane Sandy

[shazapple]

Hope most here are mostly beyond its range. Around my area we are supposed to get 20-30mm of rain (about an inch). Last week we got 70mm of rain and my tarp roof held up, so I'm not so worried but I'm not located on the coast either!

Hopefully all goes well for New York area. If power is out for any significant amount of time that will be fairly crazy what with the american election coming up (next Tuesday?)

[nezwick]

Last I heard - here in Western PA, we're supposed to get tons of rain (possibly sleet/snow) and massive widespread power outages. I was up until 11pm last night wiring in a generator backfeed and then fighting with a piece of crap generator I got from my grandpa. Probably pulled it 100 times and never did get it started.

I hate Tecumseh engines with a passion; they always have carb/timing problems. I guess tonight's project is troubleshooting this generator and hope I get it running before we lose power for good.

[CS in Low Hud]

It's windy here in the NYC area, but the rain has not yet started. I've gotten everything pretty well battened down. My one concern is that my sump pumps do not have a battery backup. I've rigged a giant marine battery with an inverter, which hopefully will give me some limited sump pump time if the power goes out. We'll see.

Chris

[nezwick]

Yeah the sump pump is one of my major concerns as well. I have a couple of computer UPS's laying around but none big enough to maintain the sump pump. Definitely need the generator for that and for the furnace.

[csnyder (WavyGlass)]

We're staying at my grandparents' house near Gettysburg, PA (we picked a great time to take a vacation!). Fairly windy here, but nothing bad. A lot of roads have water over them. Stay safe, everyone!

[Neighmond]

http://www.oldtownhome.com/2012/10/29/H ... index.aspx

Here's a blog giving a good accounting of Sandy so far.

[heartwood]

very high winds but so far we haven't lost power...very little rain...i did find a half of a roof shingle on the front porch

be safe everyone....
...jade

[nezwick]

We lost power at about midnight last night. I got the generator running by 1am, and by that time, I had 8-10 inches of water in the basement since the sump pump couldn't run.

My little green "garage-in-a-box" was uprooted and destroyed by the winds and its contents were scattered across the yard (and a bunch of salvaged lumber got wet). Other than that - my family, house, and cars were left unscathed. Hope everyone else stayed safe as well.

[Lakee911 (WavyGlass)]

Sorry to hear that, Alan. They have some backup pumps that are powered by potable water if you're on City water. Technically you'd need a backflow preventer and they're not terribly efficient, but it sounds like you might benefit from it.

[nezwick]

I have seen those water-powered pumps before. I have plans to dig out a second sump in the basement for redundancy during normal conditions anyway - the single pump just can't keep up with the spring and the (unused) well being under the house.

Fortunately I have everything sitting up high enough off the floor that nothing was damaged. Typically I'll get 1-2 inches when it rains, but I've never had as much water as I did last night.