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Greetings after a four? five? day absence.. Here outside of Philadelphia in Whitemarsh Township. We got rocked. But our neighbors in Springfield Township and Ambler got hit the worst. Most parts are still without power. There was a very big plus to this. Minor flooding instead of potential Major Flooding here in Whitemarsh. We were without power from about 4PM on Monday till about 2 or 3 hours ago. The house got very cold. But we had natural gas the whole time. So we were able to cook meals, fireplace, and our hot water heater is gas. So HOT WATER!!!! :D I was getting used to no power quick though. But that means no AU. :( I'm interested to see how the NEC has faired for service. I'm outta da loop! :(
 
pennyk said:
My thoughts go out to Dick, who is still in Long Island with his 3 grandchildren. They have no power and and he texted me this morning to say that it is cold. His daughter is due back in town tomorrow, however, he has no power in his New Jersey home and likely will stay at his daughter's house in Long Island a bit longer. Also, he did not take a key to his house with him, and will not be able to get in with his garage door opener until he has power at this New Jersey home. His wife is currently taking care of an ailing elderly father.

As far as I know, all my family members are ok. We are very fortunate. I send my best wishes to those of you that do not have electricity or are otherwise hurting.
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Hello everyone,

I am at my son-in-law's law office on Long Island. We are surviving OK with the hurricane. My daughter and son-in-law

arrived home from Beijing yesterday afternoon and the kids were happy to see them. The dining room is full of dirty clothes

and presents for family.

No power, No phone, No heat but we are surviving. I have not seen anyone from the power company or any vehicles in

the neighborhood. Many of the downed trees are being cut and the streets made drivable. It is going to take a long time

before things are restored. I had filled three cars with gasoline before Sandy came and have only driven to the office

since it got power. My grandson has asmatha and has a nebulizer that requires electricity to operate, so I drive him to

the office each day.

Mrs Shanghai is with her 97 year old father in a hospital in New Jersey. I told her to stay in hospital as long as she can.

Grandpa is in a private room, so she is able to eat and sleep without worrying about power failures and long gas lines.

She did drive to our house yesterday and said the house was fine but we had some trees down in the woods behind

the house. She did leave a key hidden for me if I am able to get home.

I plan to stay with my daughter and grandchildren for a few more days. We are fortunate considering the suffering by

many people on the New Jersey Shore, Staten Island & Brooklyn. I hope Piotr and AlanB are well.

I may not get home by next Tuesday, which is likely to make Penny happy!!
 
I forgot to mention that Prince Archibald is with me. The grandchildren are very good with him and he is good

with them. He sleeps with me. We have had only one "accident" in the house which was minor. My two year old

granddaughter takes Archie's leash and walk him around the house - up the stairs and down the back stairs until

he gets tired and he barks at me!! Someday these will be happy memories.
 
The dining room is full of dirty laundry and presents for the family!
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Come on Dick! Be nice! You call dirty laundry a present? :eek: :p

I'm glad that you're OK! :) Don't forget about the destruction in RI and CT also. Here in RI, some parts of the shoreline and towns look like NY and NJ - without the standing water! :eek: And I was without power from Monday and it was just restored on Friday.

But the important thing is that you, and as far as we know, other AU members are OK! :)
 
:hi: As Dave said, Ditto for me Dick! And Penny and I agree that Gov. Christie and President Obama did a First rate Job during New jersey's crisis, isn't this the way it's supposed to be?? Hope you get home in time to Vote, hope everyone gets too! My Best to everyone in the NE, once again ya'll are proving that you are resiliant folks, "when the going gets tough, the tough get going!" (jis is a perfect example of this with his innovative idea of riding Trains!) ;)
 
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Dick, it so good to hear from you on-line. You were very smart to fill the cars with gas since gas is certainly at a premium right. Hopefully the power will return. My best to you, Anne, grandpa and Elizabeth and her family.

It is always good to know that in a crisis, lawyers come in handy (even if is only an office with electricity). :giggle:

Jim, my guess is that Dick has already voted (and canceled my vote :giggle: )

Jis, I hope your power is restored soon. At least you are occupying yourself with something entertaining.
 
the_traveler said:
pennyk said:
It is always good to know that in a crisis, lawyers come in handy (even if is only an office with electricity). :giggle:
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My crisis is I've been off a train for more than 2 weeks. Do you know any good lawyers? :blink: :p
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I do not think a lawyer can help with that "crisis." I have been off a train for more than 3 weeks and I know lots of good lawyers (in fact, I just got off the telephone with one), and I do not think a lawyer can help with that situation. I know we are using the term "crisis" very loosely and hopefully will not offend anyone who is in an actual "crisis." I am very fortunate that in my life, my problems are minimal at best. :)
 
NJCoastExp said:
44 above the sea level, kind of tucked behind a hill from the bay, with nearest tree at least 100 ft away. As long I don't get hit by flying debris I should be fine.
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Piotr (NJCoastExp) continues to text me once a day with an update. He lost power early on in the storm and it hasn't come back yet for him. He did manage today to obtain a small generator and after spending several hours on line to get fuel, managed to get it running to provide a bit of power at his place. But other than a light or two and charging phones and such, it doesn't help him get back on line.

But he is otherwise OK, just rather bored with no internet and little else to do without real power.
 
AlanB said:
NJCoastExp said:
44 above the sea level, kind of tucked behind a hill from the bay, with nearest tree at least 100 ft away. As long I don't get hit by flying debris I should be fine.
Click to expand...
Piotr (NJCoastExp) continues to text me once a day with an update. He lost power early on in the storm and it hasn't come back yet for him. He did manage today to obtain a small generator and after spending several hours on line to get fuel, managed to get it running to provide a bit of power at his place. But other than a light or two and charging phones and such, it doesn't help him get back on line.

But he is otherwise OK, just rather bored with no internet and little else to do without real power.
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Aloha
Good to know he is OK.
 
AlanB said:
Piotr (NJCoastExp) continues to text me once a day with an update. He lost power early on in the storm and it hasn't come back yet for him. He did manage today to obtain a small generator and after spending several hours on line to get fuel, managed to get it running to provide a bit of power at his place. But other than a light or two and charging phones and such, it doesn't help him get back on line.

But he is otherwise OK, just rather bored with no internet and little else to do without real power.
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Alan, please give my best to Piotr when you text him next time. If I remember correctly, he is a prolific texter, so I am sure he is keeping you on your toes (or fingers). :giggle:

If he is really bored, maybe he could do a points run like Jis did yesterday.
 
AlanB said:
NJCoastExp said:
44 above the sea level, kind of tucked behind a hill from the bay, with nearest tree at least 100 ft away. As long I don't get hit by flying debris I should be fine.
Click to expand...
Piotr (NJCoastExp) continues to text me once a day with an update. He lost power early on in the storm and it hasn't come back yet for him. He did manage today to obtain a small generator and after spending several hours on line to get fuel, managed to get it running to provide a bit of power at his place. But other than a light or two and charging phones and such, it doesn't help him get back on line.

But he is otherwise OK, just rather bored with no internet and little else to do without real power.
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Jis should have invited him to ride the rails with him yesterday. :)
 
Good Morning,

We have the whole family at the office this morning. There is a Dunkin Donuts shop nearby, so we are having this

stuff for breakfast. It is cold last night and today. We had a fire in the fireplace last night and lit the gas stove in

the kitchen this morning. Brought clean clothes for the kids to the office and dressed them here. Going to church

in a little while where there is power, then to lunch and then back to the office. It is amazing what you can do in a

crisis. Archie is with us at the office too. I have noticed a behavior change in Archie. I think he wants to go home.

I received an e-mail from a friend in Chatham saying that 98% of the power should be restored by Sunday night.

I plan to stay with Elizabeth until her situation improves. We are lucky to have the office with power, heat & phone.

I hope Jis and Piotr get power soon. Jis is in the town next to mine.
 
The trustable estimates for getting power back is now the latter half of the coming week. I am moving out to a hotel in Pennsylvania for the week so that I can start working again.

BTW Shanghai, Chatham did not suffer as much damage as Short Hills, and Chatham downtown never really lost power across the board.So it is certainly possible that Chatham will be fully back by tomorrow. In Millburn-Short Hills, all those that do not require any tree removal and transmission line/transformer rebuilding will be back by tomorrow. The property that I am on requires reconstruction of a transmission line and reconnecting of a transformer, hence the delay.

Now that they are accepting electronic ballots for the general election, I have no reason to stick around till Tuesday..

Today, I am on 160 heading to Boston. That is where I am typing this from. Will be returning on the 4pm Acela, and of course getting work donw on my laptop for these 10 or so hours while collecting points and enjoying a ride on a lovely day.

Metropark Parking Structures still do not have power so parking is free, and all elevators are out for the duration. They have an emergency genset keeping all lights on.. Thank god for E-Ticket and Passbook! Looks like the Parking structure and the station might get power by later today or early tomorrow.

The remnants of damage and floods at MMC and at Kearny interlocking were quite visible. The out bound tunnels under the East River were fine and did not flood. We used tunnel 3 to depart Penn Station. I believe Tunnel 2 (inbound) was the worst affected. Will see which tunnel we use to get back into Penn Station this evening.

I am in the last car and there is just one other person in this car with me. So we have super deluxe private car for ourselves!
 
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To all members in the Northeast. I hope that all of you are ok. As someone who deals with hurricanes yearly, my thoughts and prayers are with all of you, and your families.

To those of you on the rails, be safe and be careful.
 
By the way Shanghai, Len Resto who is seeking re-election as Chatham Borough Councilman, happens to be the Treasurer of NJ-ARP and a good friend of mine. Just FYI.

Meanwhile I am pulling into Bridgeport. Not much sign of flooding here.

The rest of the train has slowly filled up and the last car now has a dozen or so folks. There goes my penthouse :)

Traveler, if you happen to be at KIN when I stop by, wave or say hello :)
 
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jis said:
The remnants of damage and floods at MMC and at Kearny interlocking were quite visible. The out bound tunnels under the East River were fine and did not flood. We used tunnel 3 to depart Penn Station. I believe Tunnel 2 (inbound) was the worst affected. Will see which tunnel we use to get back into Penn Station this evening.
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Of the 4 tunnels, the Line 2 tunnel (normal Amtrak inbound) is the only tunnel whose portal lies within the Zone A or 1 flood plain. So it makes sense that tunnel would have suffered from the worst flooding as it would have seen the storm surge for a longer period of time.

The Line 4 tunnel (normal LIRR inbound) is the next tunnel that saw flooding as its portal is just barely within the Zone 2 flood plain. This tunnel also took flooding, but less than the Line 2 tunnel because the storm surge was only near it for a very limited time at the very peak of things.

The Line 1 & Line 3 tunnels suffered no water damage to my knowledge. Last I heard Amtrak was reporting 3 tunnels back in service and I have to assume that it was the Line 4 tunnel that was restored first since again logically it would have seen less flooding than the Line 2 tunnel.

I've not heard that the Line 2 tunnel is back in service, but I've also not heard that it's still out of service.
 
jis said:
BTW Shanghai, Chatham did not suffer as much damage as Short Hills, and Chatham downtown never really lost power across the board.So it is certainly possible that Chatham will be fully back by tomorrow. In Millburn-Short Hills, all those that do not require any tree removal and transmission line/transformer rebuilding will be back by tomorrow. The property that I am on requires reconstruction of a transmission line and reconnecting of a transformer, hence the delay.
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Jis, I have a first cousin (whom I have not seen in years) that lives in Short Hills. His mother, my aunt, who lives near Ft. Lauderdale, FL, informed me that my cousin lost power during the storm and had not been restored as of a couple of days ago, and that a large tree fell across his circular driveway in front of his large house.

Jis, I hope your power is restored soon and that you enjoy your trips up and down the NEC.
 

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