Storm warning
<p>By now you&#8217;ve doubtless heard about Hurricane Sandy; the record-breaking superstorm hype has been pretty hard to miss.  Well, I just got a look at the latest NOAA track projection, and it looks like the storm center is going to pass <a href="http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/storm_graphics/AT18/AL1812W5.gif">directly over my house</a> sometime Tuesday night.  The center track on that map couldn&#8217;t hit me more accurately if it had been aimed.</p>
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<p>The good news is Sandy will have dissipated over about 60 miles of land by the time it gets here; NOAA is projecting only severe (39-73mph) winds rather than hurricane force.  The bad news is&#8230;73mph winds and torrential rain aren&#8217;t anything to sneeze at.  We&#8217;re on high ground and won&#8217;t be flooded out, but tree-fall damage is a distinct possibility and we&#8217;re pretty much expecting a power outage &#8211; the main question is whether it will last hours or days.</p>
<p>We&#8217;re battening down the hatches.  Emergency food and water have been laid in, and we&#8217;ve arranged mutual retreat options with friends who live a couple of miles away on a different power subnet. We&#8217;re about as prepared as we can be short of boarding up the windows. I keep meaning to install a generator&#8230;</p>
<p>Wish us luck.  This is probably going to be no more than inconvenient, but the potential for significant physical danger is definitely present.  In particular, if the freak synergy with that cold air mass over the Appalachians pulls Sandy over land fast enough, it could still be a true hurricane-force storm when it gets here. That would seriously suck.</p>
<p>UPDATE: I&#8217;ve posted followup storm bulletins on G+.</p>
