Hurricane

[Boyd]

Yes, well Trenton/Mercer County is not the same as coastal or southern parts of the state and the forecast is also different. You are under a tropical storm watch, I and others are under a hurricane watch. Who knows, it could amount to nothing. But I think it would be very foolish to just ignore this one. Even in your location the NWS is forecasting very high winds and 6 to 12 inches of rain. That usually means trouble...

Here's a link the the National Weather Service forecast for Trenton. They don't have a lot of motivation to hype this stuff like your local TV station does. http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClic...521850586&site=phi&unit=0&lg=en&FcstType=text

 

[Boyd]

Wow, I can't remember many times when they've suspended tolls before, and I've never seen two way roads turned into one way roads. Evacuating Atlantic City is gonna be crazy! My daughter has rented a car and getting her family out of the NYC area early Saturday morning.

From http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/08/25/hurricane.irene.state.by.state/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

NEW JERSEY
Gov. Chris Christie declared a state of emergency. In an afternoon news conference, he also urged people to leave New Jersey shore points before the hurricane arrives.

If the hurricane continues on its current track, then "from a flooding perspective, this could be a hundred-year event," Christie said.

Starting at 8 a.m. Friday, tolls will be suspended temporarily on the Garden State Parkway south of the Raritan River and the Atlantic City Expressway.

There will be no eastbound traffic on routes 47 and 347 in Cape May County, with all those lanes instead being used for westward-bound traffic starting at 6 p.m. Friday.

The state's emergency preparedness website warned of the danger of a hurricane storm surge: "The storm surge is a dome of ocean water the hurricane pushes ahead of itself. At its peak a storm surge can be 25 feet high and 50-100 miles wide. The storm surge can devastate coastal communities as it sweeps ashore."

Atlantic City and the surrounding barrier islands will have a mandatory evacuation in place at 6 a.m. Friday morning, according to Linda Gilmore, Atlantic County Public Information Officer. The evacuation will extend from Seaville, New Jersey, to as far north as Galloway Township, NJ and only include areas east of Route 9.

 

[46er]

I've seen RT 37 turned into a one way west bound with one lane east for emergency vehicles a couple of times for bad nor'easters. For those that live near tidal areas, the link is to the state storm surge map. Its surprising how far inland it goes in some places following rivers and creeks.

http://www.state.nj.us/njoem/plan/pdf/maps/ocean_slosh.pdf

 

[dogg57]

Well reverse 911 calls have started in the southern part of NJ last nite.Places like Carneys Point.
-- Hurricane Irene is expected to barrel into Cape May County on Sunday, potentially as a Category 2 storm packing sustained winds of 75 mph, as much as 16 inches of rain and a record high tide of 14 feet, county officials said.

The Office of Emergency Management at 3 p.m. today ordered a mandatory evacuation of the entire county beginning 8 a.m. Friday for all 750,000 to 850,000 residents, business owners, visitors and summer workers. The order covers all 16 municipalities.

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/...cle_cfe46e88-cf52-11e0-a5f0-001cc4c03286.html

 

[Boyd]

What is a reverse 911 call? Does an automated system call you and tell you to get out of town?

 

[dogg57]

Yes Boyd A recorded message with orders of what to do. Sorry should have said that.

 

[Boyd]

For those that live near tidal areas, the link is to the state storm surge map. Its surprising how far inland it goes in some places following rivers and creeks.

Atlantic County map here: http://www.state.nj.us/njoem/plan/pdf/maps/atlantic_slosh.pdf

Looks like I should be OK, but it could be bad for the town of Mays Landing.

 

[skip3]

I sure wish yall luck with this one. They are one of those things that you can never be to prepared for, lots of food, water, batteries,cash and fuel. two weeks with no electric sucks. Remember it's not the 100 mph wind,it is the 2x4 flying at 100mph through your wall that is the problem. GOOD LUCK

ps. Do they even sell wind storm insurance up there

 

[MarkBNJ]

Irene has the potential to be very bad for the shore and coastal areas. It doesn't look like the category 4-5 screamer that relocates Barnegat Inlet, but there are going to be 100+ mph winds and a significant flood surge. If I had a house in those areas all the crap I care about would be on the second floor by now.

If the track holds then I think those of us in the NW of the state are looking at tropical storm force winds and probably flooding and long power outages. Floyd in... 95 I think... washed out a lot of bridges up here. I'm most worried about rainfall amounts and top wind speeds. We are surrounded by huge old trees here.

 

[Gibby]

Garden State Parkway will be closing from south exit 98 as of 8 PM tonight. More can be read here-

http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/garden-state-parkway-to-close-20110825-lgf

I just saw that this was posted earlier.

 

[Boyd]

Looking at the tracker that 46er posted earlier, the Accuweather and NHC tracks are in pretty good agreement that Irene will now be just offshore as it passes NJ instead of making landfall. The closest shore point to the track appears to be Barnegat Light. The BAMM computer model shows it going way to the East, out in the ocean. But the CGUN model show it heading right up the Maurice River . No idea what these models mean or how probable they are. I like the BAMM however.

Where it says "select a basin", choose Atlantic. For "select a storm", choose Irene. Then tick the boxes next to the data you want to see - Accuweather, NHC, CGUN or BAMM. The other options don't seem to work so maybe the models are no longer valid?

http://hurricane.accuweather.com/hurricane/interactive-tracker.asp?partner=accuweather

 

[46er]

The regular NOAA weather forecast is looking pretty good compared to what the fornecasters are spouting. Winds 40-60 with gusts of possible hurricane force, rain 4-6 inches. It just may be our Martha Stewart moment.

 

[dogg57]

 

[Boyd]

The regular NOAA weather forecast is looking pretty good compared to what the fornecasters are spouting.

Just heard Alan Kasper on NJ101.5 and he said the same thing, that it was starting to look better for us and heavy rain may be the big issue instead of hurricane force winds. Hope they're right!

 

[46er]

The govt is going all out to keep folks from taking a ride down here. The GSP is being closed southbound at Exit 98 at 8 tonight. RT 72 is now one way west. I passed over the GSP in Toms River and it is like a parking lot northbound, worse than a Sunday afternoon.

 

[Boyd]

They have been reporting 3 to 5 mile backups at the Egg Harbor Toll Plaza on the AC Expressway all day, even though tolls are not being collected. Lots of delays elsewhere too including Rt 73 and many of the "back roads" near Atlantic City. The govt is kind of screwed no matter how this plays out. If it isn't serious then everyone will be mad about the evacuations, if it is serious then people will say they didn't do enough.

 

[rjb]

Wall Township mandatory evacuation, Belmar optional? Belmar is right on the ocean, Wall isn't.

 

[46er]

If it isn't serious then everyone will be mad about the evacuations, if it is serious then people will say they didn't do enough.

As someone once said, 'Common sense is a very rare commodity nowadays'. Or something to that effect.

And then there is Madman Margusity

http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/me...video-about-irene-and-the-damage-is-ready.asp

He was very accurate with the past winters forecasts, lets hope he lost the ability.

 

[joc]

Wall Township mandatory evacuation, Belmar optional? Belmar is right on the ocean, Wall isn't.

Good point , As i understand it , Wall is evacuating along the Shark River as well as certain trailer parks ,The info is on the Wall TWP website :http://www.wallnj.com/
Joe

 

[dragoncjo]

Just got home from the pines, I could really get use to eastbound 72 being closed, along with southeast bound 563. Of course the closures didn't effect me because I know all the sand roads around. It was dead out there today and I enjoyed it.