A bit off topic I guess, but since I have seen some refer to this as a community, I suppose it might be interesting and even helpful to note if any among us has been effected (or is it affected) by Super Storm Sandy. Since I live in the Pacific Northwest, it hasn't really hit me in any significant way.

However, having said that, it has affected me in one way. I have been watching all those news stories of people standing in line for hours with gas cans or driving to gas stations in other states to get gas for their generators or SUVs. This kind of brought home a point that seems like a good thing. I decided to take the necessary steps toward preparing for a disaster so that I am not one of those people when the "big one" hits my area. We do get occasional snow storm that knocks power out for a day or two where I live, which has been nothing more than an inconvenience for us but we do live in a very earthquake prone area.

So I have purchased a generator and bought 7 five gallon gas cans which I will rotate into my car periodically and I am going today to the Home Depot to buy some 5 gallon water bottles and then perhaps to Costco to buy some non perishable food staples for storage, and extra dog food which may be hard to get in a total shut down.

I live on an island in Washington State, so it is very conceivable that we could be entirely cut off from critical services for an extended period.

So, I am wondering if any of you are doing anything different or anything at all because of what happened in the Northeastern U.S.

At the very least, all my knives will be sharp and ready for survival mode.

Nice post. I know lots of people that are affected, stuck without power etc... though they seem to be making out okay so far. Thankfully we've been spared any direct effects in the Southwest. We've had a lot of shipping delays and minor inconveniences, but nothing to complain about. I am traveling to NYC next week for the custom knife show there and am very curious as to how things will be. I'm sure a lot of my favorite ethnic restaurants were fully submerged and I wonder how they're coping. I also wonder if the PATH and subways will be up and running by then.

i'm on long island. not hit too bad. i was only with out power for about 10 hours. my friend 10 minutes down the road is still out. further west got hit pretty bad. one of the ladies from work has a friend with about 2 feet of mud in his kitchen. not water, thick mud. on the south shore there are big boats just in the middle of the road. i was very lucky with it all.

kmm

Here in PA I was without power for about 24 hours, which is a miraculous turnaround in this area where storms causing week long outages is commonplace. We did suffer some storm damage on the property, but luckily not the house or garage. We have two canopy structures to store our winter firewood, and one was trashed pretty bad so the insurance guy will be out next week to check it.

All in all, we made out okay and the power crews did an absolutely amazing job in this area. I really have to hand it to them for that, especially given the circumstances.

I'm glad you fared okay. I hope life gets back to normal for folks there soon!