Ugh, am I gonna need sandbags? The hysteria is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where were guys living when Isabel hit? Cause I was living in Germantown MD and the evening/night it hit was SCARY as hell.

I was living in City of Falls Church. No electricity for 8 days. Luckily, I had a gas water heater and had a nice hot shower every day, had a gas stove and my land line was fine. Next door neighbor and one across the street had electric stoves and no phone and they also had small children and I knocked on their doors to tell them I had a gas stove and they were welcome to cook. Neither took me up on my offer and complained to me later that they had no way to cook and all their frozen food had to be thrown out. I also offered the use of my land line. No takers. Go figure

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're in a similar situation. Instead of sand bags, hubby is just going to get bags of mulch, which I need anyway, and use those as a barrier.

Sand bags absorb water and mulch in plastic bags does not absorb water, so water will go over, under and between plastic bags into your house.

[Anonymous]

Doesn't anybody remember Isabel?

We thought it wasn't going to be a big deal. But when we got our power back on in NoVa 48 hours later, we were watching people line up in DC to get water and blocks of ice out of the back of a truck only to be disappointed when it ran out and they had to come back the next day.

You just never know.

We're not going crazy. We did our regular grocery shopping and bought a 24 pack of bottled water. We have candles and matches, and a couple flashlights if we need them.
Hopefully we'll all be laughing about it on Monday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We've basically done no preparation (just me and my wife, no kids yet though maybe power outages will be a TTC event). We live about 1.5 miles from downtown Bethesda so my assumption is we can just walk there for help/supplies/etc if things really get bad.

Am I being too non-chalant about this?

Guy with no kids----why in the world do you read DCUM?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Guy with no kids----why in the world do you read DCUM?

We're TTC so it's good advice, and also the forum is useful for general info about the DC area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can't I just get in my car and listen to the radio or perhaps drive some distance west to a holiday inn? I don't get it.

Sigh. Natural selection at work. Haven't you seen what happens to people in cars on flooded streets?

I'm willing to bet you PP got up real early today to get to the market to buy six gallons of milk, 12 loads of bread and a Costco size package of toilet paper all of which, besides the toilet paper will go bad if you are withiutbpower for longer than a day. Yes there will be flooding to varying degree and power outages and wind damage but it's not armageddon. Chill out. Oh, and I am in DC proper high up on s hill away from the Potomac and rock creek.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've basically done no preparation (just me and my wife, no kids yet though maybe power outages will be a TTC event). We live about 1.5 miles from downtown Bethesda so my assumption is we can just walk there for help/supplies/etc if things really get bad.

Am I being too non-chalant about this?

Guy with no kids----why in the world do you read DCUM?

Boy, is your face red! Or at least it should be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Doesn't anybody remember Isabel?

We thought it wasn't going to be a big deal. But when we got our power back on in NoVa 48 hours later, we were watching people line up in DC to get water and blocks of ice out of the back of a truck only to be disappointed when it ran out and they had to come back the next day.

You just never know.

We're not going crazy. We did our regular grocery shopping and bought a 24 pack of bottled water. We have candles and matches, and a couple flashlights if we need them.
Hopefully we'll all be laughing about it on Monday.

I do remember Isabel, and that is why I'm not panicking. I lived in DC. We never even lost power. It was business as usual except a day or two of missed work.