East Coast role call

[Scott Tichenor]

Hoping for the safety of all our friends on the East coast. I know from reading Facebook that Jamie and Mike (moderators) were getting hit hard even thought they're considerably away from the locations where everyone on TV thinks it's necessary to stand in 3 feet of water when there's solid ground a few feet away (we get it...).

Mandolin Brothers web site is down. If they're hosted locally they could be down awhile. Staten Island has to be a big mess today.

Bradley Klein is in Brooklyn and still has electricity (Facebook, again). We were glued to CNN most of the evening around our house. Amazing to watch this all unfold. Unbelievable.

Seeing things like Andy Statman's gig outside Boston postponed, etc. Can't be much music going on in concert in NYC or elsewhere.

[Wilbur James]

I hope all is well for those of you in the area, many prayers and hopes of well being.

[Bluejay]

Watching the storm in horror from the safety of the Midwest. Hope and pray everyone and their precious instruments are safe.

[Scott Tichenor]

Just called Mandolin Brothers. It's after 10 a.m. there. No answer. No guarantee phones are working though so impossible to tell what's going on. Hope they put the Loars and pre-war Martins in their cases before the storm hit.

[Randi Gormley]

Well, most of the NYC bridges and tunnels are closed (they just re-opened the Tappan Zee Bridge at 9 a.m. today); the commuter trains, subways and buses are suspended today while the MTA assesses damage; got a couple hundred thousand people without power (myself included, but my office is still up and working, which is what you'd expect for a newspaper office) and I think 16 deaths in the tri-state area. There's flooding in the subway tunnels, but they closed down Sunday night before the storm hit so no one appears to have been harmed down there. I think a lot of the islands are closed down (disaster areas because of the storm surge) and without power -- someone else is checking on that -- but a lot of NYC businesses are being told to stay closed to allow emergency vehicles and utility workers to work unimpeded. Lots of trees down and whatnot. We had a half dozen staff members bedding down in our conference rooms because they live in NYC and couldn't get home last night. Our office is in lower Westchester County and Yonkers is part of our coverage area.

They closed the major roads into (and out of) Connecticut yesterday, a travel advisory for essential driving only (being media, I took the option and drove home last night in the storm to come back for a 7:30 a.m. shift today); mostly wind gusts across the freeway bridges and some sheets of water blowing past, but surprisingly little rain. They reopened the major Connecticut roads about 2 hours ago (it's 10:30 a.m. now, give or take) and now we're just keeping tabs on the recovery.

Mandolin-wise, once we lost power, my husband and I spent a good hour playing music in the dark (thank heavens we play ITM, which is mostly from memory), which was a very nice way to spend the evening.

[wildpikr]

Hope everyone is okay. There is nothing fun about going through a hurricane.

[fatt-dad]

all's well in Richmond, Virginia. Photos of Rt. 12 to Hatteras Island (where we go for our beach vacation) are pretty sobering. My daughter at Bucknell University (central Pennsylvania) did not lose power. So, they're doing o.k. in that part of the world. That Metro NYC area is pretty banged up though (at least in the low-lying areas).

What an event!

f-d

[journeybear]

News reports are saying that whether or not roads are closed, people are being asked to stay off them to allow for emergency and utility workers to operate, as well as for their own safety. Phones may well be working, even where power is out. Well-built structures should be all right even with superficial damage. I would assume Mandolin Brothers are OK and just not open for business, even with no direct confirmation. One of the hardest things to do for those not directly affected is not to worry, in the absence of information. When people are allowed back into the storm-hit areas, probably tomorrow, we'll know better. Any earlier word will be welcome, of course.

[Jim Garber]

We caught the edge of the storm -- lots of wind last night and some frightening gusts but not a lot of rain. The sky was amazing at around 10:30 when I took the dogs out but no rain at that time. We lost some branches but one neighbor's big evergreen tree came down close to our car but spared it. A big tree blocked a street about a block from our house.

I made dinner last night and just about when I was finished the electricity went and it has been out since then. I am typing this at work where there is an emergency generator. The whole town is out tho and it might be a few days until we actually have power back.

Not much you can do but be prepared. Last night we read to each other for entertainment. Of course we have our instruments for entertainment. In some way it is nice to be without electronic connections.

I am at work -- no internet access at home. I will see if we can hook up the router and the cable modem but not sure if Optimum is operating either. I just ran home and got the generator hooked up and started so our refrigerator and freezer are now connected. Hopefully we will have enough fuel or will be able to get more. They are talking possibly power outage until maybe the weekend, possibly longer.

[journeybear]

Glad you're mostly OK. A friend in Westchester posted a brief message to facebook from her phone which was dying, then nothing. Been worrying a bit ...

[Jim Garber]

Cell phone service is spotty up here in Westchester. Even texting. I seem to be able to receive calls and texts but not call out or send texts.

[Laird]

Even though the center of the storm is a couple days away from us still, we got the gusts yesterday evening and were without power for a while. River's high today, but at the moment we've got blue sky peeking through the clouds, and unseasonable warmth (sixties), though still windy.

[Michael Eck]

In Albany. We're OK. We're actually, at this very moment, getting heavier wind than last night. Power's on. Kids are at school (college, although all the city schools are closed). We seem to have been lucky. As Gov. Cuomo noted, it's an inverse of Irene -- upstate is relatively unscathed, downstate got whacked hard.

[John Kinn]

Sending best wishes to all Mandolin Cafe members on the East Coast from the West Coast of Norway. We see some heavy weather from time to time, but seldom in this scale.

[journeybear]

Thanks, Jim. I'm assuming her phone just ran out of juice and she can't charge it up.

BTW, the projected path according to http://www.wunderground.com/ has it getting to western PA and then hooking back to the ENE, so northern New England might get hit tomorrow. Sheesh!

[JEStanek]

We only lost the storm door on the front of our house and some branches from a willow tree. We never lost electricity so, we were very fortunate. Avi Ziv in Jersey is OK but without power and trees are blocking his routes out to get fuel for his generator to keep his basement dry.

Social media really is a game changer for keeping abreast with friends locally. Our house is open to freinds who are without power or heat. Remember, just because a nice looking tree is down... leave it alone there may be live wires in it. I have friends in SW Virginia who got some light snow. The satelite photos and the images from the International Space Station are mind benders. Rail cars were washed up onto NJ Turnpike by storm surge!

Jamie

[Larry S Sherman]

Western MA...local power outages but my town was very lucky. We dodged a bullet.

In CT where I work much more power outages, and my friend on the CT coast had 5-6 feet of water in his house.

Larry

[Baboon]

Boston is back to normal. Very warm, almost 70. Lots of people lost power, but I was lucky.

[Willie]

Luckily I came to Fla. a few weeks ago and am missing the storm in Md...I worry more about the peoples safety than I do of their mandolins getting broken...Reports that I have heard say that almost 3 million people out of electricty and will be for up to five days, they are bringing in crews from as far away as Texas to restore power line sand cut up fallen trees....What a time for americans to stick together and help one another in a storm like this, but that remains to be seen....

I wish the best to everyone affected by this storm, I am waiting to hear from my son to see if my home up there has any damage....

Willie

[Scott Tichenor]

Not tragic in the scheme of things but the Punch Brothers are supposed to plan Lunel in southern France Saturday. That'll be difficult getting there I'd think. 15,000 flights out of the area cancelled already meaning tens of thousands waiting for flights before it's over, and then there's the issue of getting planes into the region. Then there's this:

[Update 11:39 a.m. ET] New York's LaGuardia airport is not expected to open tomorrow because of extensive damage, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said during a press conference this morning.

JFK airport likely will be re-opened tomorrow, he said.

[JeffD]

Remember, just because a nice looking tree is down... leave it alone there may be live wires in it.

And assume any wires on the ground are hot. Nomatter what they may look like.

[Alex Orr]

We never even lost power in my neighborhood in DC.

[Bob Clark]

Hello Folks,

I'm in Salem County, NJ, which is in the rural southwestern part of the state. Here's my storm report.

I'm up on high ground, away from the Delaware Bay, so the storm surge was not a problem for us. There was a lot of wind and rain here at the farm (I'm an orchard farmer) but we really didn't take much damage. The eye passed right over us in the night and was pretty dramatic. The wind and rain were coming hard from one direction and over a short period of time, faded to nothing at all. We had no rain or wind for a couple of hours (or there about), and then it began anew from the opposite direction. When it resumed, it did so all at once. Literally dead calm one instant, and then a big gust of wind in the next instant. The back side of the storm was not nearly as bad as the front side though; less rain and less wind. The wind did blow hard, but for not that long.

Here, it still raining, but it has diminished to drizzle and light wind. It's looking brighter, so I figure even that will stop soon. I've been out to the local animal shelter, about ten miles away, where my wife and I volunteer. A tree came down across the roadway and had to be cut up and removed so the volunteers can get in and out. I cut it up and now someone will have a nice pile of firewood. I couldn't help wondering whether that maple would have been good mandolin material as I was cutting it up! Luckily, the cats and dogs at the shelter are all fine and the building took no damage. Getting there, the roads were open, but flooding was apparent. Lots of limbs and some trees are down. I saw one barn that took a bit of damage, too. Anybody who doesn't need to be out should probably stay home for a while.

Anyway, that's my report from beautiful Salem County, NJ. I hope others have made out as well as we did.

Bob

[Willie]

Alex...You never lost power because I worked for the Power company for 35 years and help design a lot of that system...Helped rebuild a lot of it when Metro was being built....Good to hear that my work is still going strong...

Willie

[sunburst]

I have some friends near Salem NJ, Bob. I just sent an email to see how things went for them, waiting to hear back...