Hurricane Irene Offshore Miami Beach.. Fears for NYC/NE

I'm less worried on North Carolina as they are used to storms and this is par for the course. I mean it could get worse than expected but NC is in prime "prepare" mode and less worried on NC than I am NYC and New England.

If I am not sure yet what to tell my kids who live in Brooklyn there I am not sure what to write here.

For one.. we are getting more rain from bands in the storm earlier than expected according to the 11 PM local weather. They insisted a few passing bands in the morning and more later in the day. A big red blog came at us earlier, I watched it move south over North Bay Village as we drove to Miami Beach. Rather than passing fast over us like the earlier showers this band hunkered down with copious amounts of rain pounding the car and the sidewalk and it's still raining outside. Less wind than I expected, more rain. At the beach it IS windy...very windy, inland not as much.

Yup, sitting here at my old school at Touro South on a computer waiting for that big red spot in the outer band to move past us so I can go back outside and find a good spot to "enjoy" the next blob of intense rain in a band.

What worries me on that is that this huge system can possibly drown the NE and Mid-Atlantic (IE New Jersey and New York) with RAIN... flooding rains like they haven't seen from a tropical system in a long, long time. Might... may... could...not sure if it will. But, the possibility is here.

She would be moving slower than the 38 Hurricane that she's wrongly being compared to, because the only similarity is really the track. She could get absorbed and join forces with the trof making her a massive extra-tropical storm that could cover a good part of the United States in the NE. Could, might, may...will see.
So... my advice to anyone living in NY... inland or on the island and especially in the city is...

STASH
CASH
GAS

Stash up on the necessities... asthma meds, allergy meds, hydrogen peroxide and twinkies and drinks and canned food. Buy water... juice, tea and coca cola if you are a caffeine addict because warm coca cola is way better than not being able to make coffee when you need it. More so.. buy bottled Starbucks or cheap cans of coffee drinks as any coffee in a storm is a port in the storm. Trust me. After Andrew I was like "the hell with all this water, whey didn't I buy soda?" Mind, you we kept filling up used Publix Soda bottles... 3 days after Andrew I wondered why we didn't keep some Publix Cola Soda along with the water bottles. If you smoke... bite the bullet and buy extra cigarettes. Diapers for the babies, more than you think you will need.

Take CASH out of the bank today as there will be LONG lines filled with people in really crappy moods lining up on Flatbush Avenue and the banks and do you really need to deal with that tomorrow if you can do it today. Do not spend it...you can put it BACK in the bank later IF Irene follows the historically correct tracks out to sea and misses NYC and slides past Long Island. The ATM machines run out of cash and at some point the electric most likely will go out.

Gas up the car today. You are going to use it anyway later this week, don't wait for the gas stations to not have any gas and for people to be having fights at the gas station because they waited and are in a crappy mood.

The truth is IF the storm hits a lot of people will be cheerful and "wow we are having a hurricane" and the rest of the population will be in a really CRAPPY mood.

Knowledge is power, no one had knowledge in 1938 that a storm was coming...

The worst thing that can happen is you have extra food, gas and cash.

Obviously, if the rent is due on the 1st and you don't have money for both..buy what is cheapest and you need and pool together resources and stay with others, get some cash, get some gas... hunker down.

Hopefully... this storm will do what most the other storms always did and become weaker and fall apart and move further east but I would not bet money on it.
It's a hard call right now.

Watch what it does in North Carolina and see where she is tomorrow morning at this time.

As for Miami, we are such a magical, beautiful, lucky city to have dodged this bullet and to be able to sit in a restaurant and watch the outer bands slide over us while sipping cafecito and seeing the palm trees bend is about as good as it gets.
Let's hope she is so kind up north. Remember four days ago, three Miami was in the cone so hoping the same holds true for points to the north.

Just think, millions of people up and down the Eastern Seaboard are all looking at that storm and thinking, "Curve Irene, Curve out to sea"

As for me... I'm at the ocean trying to get a real feel for her. Until I see a storm at the ocean, really hard to be sure who she is and get a feel for her.

So far my feel is she is BIG and WET and even if she winds down and is not a Cat 2 or 3 or even a strong 1 on landfall that rain is not going anywhere fast and it will rain itself out somewhere up along the way wherever she goes.

If you live in an area that floods...do not stay there unless you want to get stuck there and if you do..an inflatable boat might be a real good investment.

Besos Bobbi

PS... the storm seems to have slowed down forward speed according to recent reports from recon... oh...okay....