A snippet of the conversation I had with my mother yesterday —
Me: The governor has declared a state of emergency and we’re in a potential flood zone. But don’t worry, we’re stocking up on bottled water, food, and batteries.
My Mother: (horrified) Does that mean I can’t see Claire this weekend?
Geez, thanks for being concerned for our safety, mom. 🙄
J and I aren’t too concerned about Hurricane Irene. We feel that the media is probably blowing it out of proportion, and we’re hoping that the damage it leaves in its wake will not be too severe.
If it weren’t for Claire, we would probably have just gotten a couple of gallons of bottled water and called it a day. But as parents, we decided that it’s better to be safer than sorry…
All the stores in our area have been sold out of bottled water and batteries since the middle of the week. Luckily, J arrived at our local grocery store right after it received an extra shipment of bottled water:
I THINK we’ll be safe on the water front.
Our neighbors have been complaining that they could not find batteries anywhere, but with an infant in the house — one whose toys and equipment require tons of batteries — we always have a crapload of batteries on hand and so we didn’t need to worry about that.
We were also relieved to remember that we have a portable stove with extra cans of butane (thanks to our love for hotpot), as well as a portable generator we purchased last year when our car battery died. (It can be charged via an electric plug, and has other emergency features like a floodlight, emergency siren, and even an USB adapter!)
Additionally, we are currently doing laundry, charging all electronics that can be charged, and will be filling the bathtubs and sinks with water before we go to bed.
And for once we are happy for our condo’s lack of a view — no trees, just the adjacent apartment building that is less than 20 feet away — because we will not need to board/tape up our windows.
I am not too worried about flooding either, since our building is well above sea level. Once again, we feel very fortunate, because practically the entire city of Hoboken, which is literally just 5 minutes away, is in danger of severe flooding.
So I think we’re in pretty good shape…at least for now.
Are you, or will you be affected by Irene? If so, how are you preparing for the hurricane?
(And isn’t it crazy how the northeastern U.S. is getting an earthquake and a hurricane within just days of each other?)
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Haha, even though I agree the media is causing the frenzy, we pulled the hotpot burner and the extra butane cans out too. Hope you and your family stays safe and dry!
Hotpot FTW! 😀 I hope you guys stay safe too!
We’re in Westchester County- in a house. So we’ve stowed all our lawn furniture and trash cans, got batteries, foods stuffs, and all of that.
I refuse to pay money for stuff that is free at home, so we haven’t purchased any water. Instead we’ve filled our pots and pans, as well as half a dozen empty 2 liter soda bottles with water (they are all in the fridge/freezer to help it stay cold if the power goes out.
Also, my father is basically MacGyver- so we also have an old generator of his and several gallons of gas- so we can run our sump pump, fridge, and whatever else we need if the power is out for days.
I too am hoping that the storm is being blown out of proportion, but my mother in law is in North Carolina (the Inner Banks) and when we were finally able to get through to her (since they are without power) she said not to underestimate the storm. They lost shingles from their house and their shed is damaged.
So, we’re not going crazy with preparations, but we’re also not being reckless.
Possibly the most annoying aspect of this isn’t the weather or the preparations, but that my daughter’s name is Irene- and if I hear one more stupid joke/comment/pun about her name and the name of the hurricane, I’m going to reach through my computer and punch somebody in the face.
We do not have many pots or containers (nor do we trust our tap water and while we have a filter it would take FORVER), so we decided to go with the bottled kind instead. 🙂
I have a friend named Irene who’s getting pretty annoyed with the jokes and puns regarding her name too!
This might be a silly question, but why do you fill the sinks and tubs with water? And good luck with Irene! We’re sending love and hope your way.
incase the running water goes, you still have water to wash or flush your toilet. If you pour a bucket of water down your toilet, it’ll flush.
Exactly what Rachel said above! (Thanks, Rachel!)
Also, if we would prefer not to use bottled water to wash ourselves or other things (if need be). We figure that even if we have extra bottled water leftover (which we probably would), we can slowly use it in the upcoming months when preparing the baby’s bottles, to take along on trips or for exercising, etc.
Oh, okay. I was thinking it had to do with pressure or something more complicated. That’s a good idea though. I’d have never thought of that.
I tried posting a comment earlier but I think I failed miserably (we’re in the process of switching to time warner and our internet has not been reliable since. :/ )
anyway i hope you are staying safe!! i hope the hurricane doesn’t do too much harm
Thanks for the well wishes! I’m assuming that you’re not in the hurricane’s path, but if you are, I hope you stay safe too!
Glad to hear everyone’s okay and you were prepared. Thankfully, Irene has downgraded. 🙂
I’m glad you are ok! You were in my thoughts this weekend.