Given the way the media gets all in a lather over weather events, and how often these storms don’t live up to the hype, I’m guessing that at least a few of you are having a “yeah, whatever” reaction to the news on Hurricane Irene. I’d advise some preparation, however, given that almost every source I check expects some serious effects in Massachusetts, most likely Saturday night and Sunday. As one meteorologist explained yesterday (discussing the Outer Banks in NC), maybe one in ten of these anticipated storms turns out really bad. It is their job to make sure you are prepared for that one storm.
The current forecast has a most likely track with the center of the storm (the “eye”) hugging the coast until coming ashore somewhere near New York City, continuing NNE eventually into western-central MA. However, take two things into consideration: 1) This is a big storm and high winds and rain will be felt far from the center; 2) Landfall (of the eye) anywhere from the Jersey shore to Cape Cod is still in the realm of possibility.
Typically, those to the east of the storm get the worst wind while those to the west get more rain. The winds on the east side of the storm come from the south, so SE MA could have a serious storm surge.
If you don’t want to deal with listening to the TV talking heads, find a web site you like (I use Weather Underground) and check in every few hours so you know the chances of being affected. If you want to plan ahead, there are a lot of checklists of supplies you might want to get, like this one from the National Weather Service. In particular, think about what you’ll do if your electricity is out for a few days. Given that outages will be widespread if the storm pans out as predicted, it may take a while to get your power back on.
Been tracking this bad gal all week because my company has offices in Florida, South Carolina, Maryland and Massachusetts. No sooner would we get the continuity plan squared away for one office than the next forecast would come out showing that the storm track had shifted, and we really needed to worry about our next location up the coast. We’re as ready as we can be; hope it’s enough.
Yes, I’m petrified. The media never exagerates disasters in order to get ratings.
On my way to get bottled water in case the storm knocks out power to the faucets.
I’m glad to hear that the spots where the warehouse roof has leaked during heavy rains are certain not to be a problem in this storm, because you think preparing is a crock. No need to move or cover electronic equipment there with tarps.
And I’ll let our team know to rescind communications advising no parking in the spaces along the waterfront, because even though we’ve had problems with flooding there in the past when a storm surge and high tide coincide, you have kindly let us know that any concerns this time are just media hype.
Ditto for our other preparations.
In fact, I’ll just cancel our Disaster Recovery contracts on Monday. Floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, fires – they never happen in Massachusetts and if they did, undoubtedly no offices would be harmed.