We are in Northern Va, right next to Dulles airport and 45 minutes outside of DC. No school for the next 2 days. No buses/metro/trains/flights for at least tomorrow. My mom was scheduled to come from NJ here on Tuesday and we were catching a plane to TV on Wed for some fun and R&R. Well, that is not happening. Maybe later in the week. Here the worry is power outages. Hoping for the best. Good luck to everyone.

Wishing you the best. I really feel for you folks in low-lying areas. See you in TV.

anarick - if you are thinking of this event as just a cat 1 hurricane, i don't believe you really understand what is happening. one resource to understand is this website: 5 Reasons Sandy Will Be Epic - weather.com glad you sorta understand that we are not taking this storm lightly in the least! weather people have said a stronger hurricane really would not make much of a difference - it's this storm's complications that are at the heart of the dilemma!

local weather folks have summed it to a short version: cat i hurricane meets strong nor'easter and both combine with awesome cold front - a triple header! not to mention the moon high tides! back bay waters will be meeting the ocean waters!

and this is not like a hurricane just sliding northward along side of a coastline - this storm is tracking north and then making a 90 degree left turn into the coastline and heading west and then north again inland only to exit off the coast of maine/canada!

while thousands have been evacuated from their homes, those of us who live in more inland areas are concerned for the loss of power which will prevent the operation of sump pumps, residential wells, water authorities going off-line, inability for personal medical equipment to operate for home dialysis, nebulizer treastments and the like and even a few 9-month pregnant women are concerned about a need to get to the hospital! coastal fire depts have been "issued" nat'l guard flatbed trucks so that they could mount at least one major pumper on same so that it will be able to navigate into flood waters and draft out of the waters in order to extinguish a fire.

those are not the normal, routine, run-of-the-mill precautions nj usually takes for a hurricane of any proportion or even the last 100 yr storm that went thru! home depots, lowes stores and hardware type stores in new england states [where this storm will head next] have been sold out of generators and have not been able to take delivery of any for the past week because of the deliveries that were directed to their nj stores! they are hoping to get some starting tomorrow!

so glad this will be over soon and so afraid of being out of power and water for the 7 - 14 days they predict is likely! ugh! but we're jersey folks and we will cope and rise above! ;)

Good luck njbchbum. I feel your pain. My neice and her family are in Manhattan's lower east side, one block from Zone A, hunkered down. I am so worried about her and her two adorable boys, ages six and nine. She said they have plenty of food and water, and they live on second floor, but still I worry. My sister is in central PA with a bulls-eye on her, also. Let's all pray that everyone is safe.

From the head of the Chesapeake bay it is rainy with a few good wind gusts but the storm is still far away-at the bottom of the bay the waves are already 15 feet high at ocean city and the flooding in low laying areas has begun-all this and the worst is still a good 24 hrs away!!!! Stay high and stay dry!

thanx, janmcn - prayers for your fam, too! so glad your niece is on the second fl - if they lose power - they can just walk down the stairs! i can't imagine being in nyc in a hi-rise and not having an elevator!!! ;)

jimmemac - have you seen area photos? i have seen the jersey shore ones and cannot believe the flooding already! and the power of those ocean waves - more than awesome! enjoy tonite while we still have power and hope we still do in the morning!

Hello All, We wish all you folks in the MidAtlantic and New England safe passage through the storm. We have family and friends in NJ and VA and we are praying for their safety as well. Like other posters, I was hesitant to move from VA to FL because of the storms. Glad am here and not up north but our day will come here am sure. Just hope not too soon. Praying for you all! Check in and let us all know how you are doing after the storm.

At 2305 in Baltimore we have 57 degrees, light rain & light wind. All schools, universities & governmental offices closed for tomorrow. All public transport has ceased running at least through tomorrow.

Njbchbum--you're right Sandy's force will be unprecedented. I'm in the Bronx close to City Island which is being evacuated. Ive lived here all my life and don't remember ever going through a storm of this magnitude.
May God help us.

AMEN! no evac here - yet - just over a mile from the beach on elevated ground. may god go with you and the others being evacuated.

At this point ocean city has mandated evacuation for those in 17th street on down to the inlet for current flooding. Seems unreal as it has not been that bad so far but tomorrow morning will be bad as well as Tuesday, Here in Havre de grace the low lying areas are already evacuated and nobody is allowed near the water. Very weird storm as it really is a hurricane mixing with a big cold front just energizing both systems into one gigunda storm where even though it is over land it is still intensifying. We are already getting snow in the most western part of the state-really I am not kidding!! I have never seen anything like this. Looks like by tomorrow night the east coast from Washington DC up to NYC may be just plain dark!!!!

We're live in Bucks County and plan to make our second trip to TV in December. We're trying to decide on a model to build, although we won't be able to move for another year and a half. I wish it was now!!!

Starting to get a constant wind here in RI and electrical outages are starting already. They say it won't start getting "bad" until after 2 PM. All schools and most govt offices are closed. My kite is all ready to fly. Hope it doesn't match the hype

Steady 20-30 mph winds this morning driving the hard rain on already saturated land. At this point most people still have power but it won't be long before that starts to change. The one thing that we don't have to worry about are tornadoes. Maryland is not very big so it is amazing that we have a hurricane on the east side and a blizzard warning on the west side!!
No mass transit of any kind at least today and tomorrow-airports will close at 10am. Pictures of the ocean are unreal with waves from 10-18 ft high-looks fantastic but doing big damage to the beaches this morning-this will continue all day long as the storm is still hundreds of miles away. Lower New Jersey to NYC will see the worst of the storm.
JIM