<p>The storm will be gone by Monday afternoon. We just don’t know about power, roads, airports, etc. The have said that they will not open the NYC airports if mass transit is still not running. They would have airports full of people with no way to get to the city. Depends on if there is flooding Monday. Just too many unknowns. This may be a non-event, and it could wreck havoc for days. I am hoping that this turns into much ado about nothing. But one has to be safe, not sorry.</p>
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Jeez, I would hope not. The storm isn’t supposed to hit Baltimore for real until late tomorrow evening, last I heard. We’re planning to leave Boston at 6 in the morning tomorrow and get down to Towson around 3PM. We were figuring by that time it would be a bit wet and windy but nothing too drastic. Are we being crazy? We were planning to take the northern/western route–84 over the Newburgh bridge through Scranton, then 81 down to Harrisburg and 83 to Baltimore.</p>
<p>I will have an update from JFK in 30 minutes.</p>
<p>Remember that when the meteorologist says the storm will “arrive” or “make landfall” at a certain time, s/he means the eye. Problem is, the eye means the storm is already passed the halfway mark. It is very misleading. When you look at the little hurricane figures on a map with times, again that is the eye. And preceding the main compact part of the storm are feeder bands that will bring heavy rains and strong winds, but just for short periods of time. There will be a “blast” of bad weather, then it seems fine until the next band passes.</p>
<p>It is just unpredictable at this point. I am hoping the storm loses strength as the water cools and as it hits land in NC. That may help ramp things down a notch. </p>
<p>Just get a good nights sleep, wake up early, and see what the reports are in the morning. It is a bit worrisome that you want to drive “into” the storm so to speak.</p>
<p>Nightchef, have you looked at the homepage for Towson? It says that move in has been CANCELLED for this weekend. This is timestamped from 3:51p, today. [Towson</a> University](<a href=“http://www.towson.edu/]Towson”>http://www.towson.edu/)</p>
<p>More info: [Emergency</a> Closing Policy - Newsroom - Towson University](<a href=“http://www.towson.edu/main/abouttu/newsroom/emergencyclosing.asp]Emergency”>http://www.towson.edu/main/abouttu/newsroom/emergencyclosing.asp)</p>
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<p>It appears the dorms will not accept students before Monday.</p>
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Our original plan, before Irene entered the picture, was to drive down to northern NJ tomorrow afternoon and stay overnight with a friend there, then drive down to Baltimore Sunday midday. Obviously the second half of that scenario would be flat-out crazy at this point. So we thought we would try to arrive at Baltimore before the storm does. Everything we’ve read so far has said rain beginning Saturday afternoon, but heavy rain and tropical storm winds not starting till 10PM or so. </p>
<p>I guess we’ll check again at the crack of dawn and reassess. If we don’t think it’s safe we’ll just wait till Monday and he’ll miss the first day of classes.</p>
<p>EDIT: sunnyflorida, we’re taking him to Goucher, not Towson. It’s possible Goucher will follow Towson’s lead, but they haven’t yet. </p>
<p>It seems possible that Towson’s cancellation is at least partly because they’re a public U and therefore their staff, as non-essential state employees, are not supposed to be working in a state of emergency. I know that used to happen when I worked at UMass–anytime the Gov. declared a state of emergency, we automatically canceled everything, whether we seemed likely to be severely affected or not.</p>
<p>My son’s plane just took off from JFK to BOS. It had 20 minutes delay status then the delay status was lifted. I worried because my son has to be in BOS for his activities tomorrow.</p>
<p>DH just got texted. Start of closures of highways and bridges delayed due to NY airports noon shutdown. They don’t want anyone to be be stranded at airports and not able to get out of the city to outlying areas. Also, not all highways, bridges and tunnels will close so there will be some access into and out of the city. It will depend on the track of the storm what they will close which they think will be a little further east - somewhere over Nassau County. </p>
<p>If I hear anything else or there are changes to this (they are constantly reevaluating) I’ll posts ASAP. DH will be in the bunker starting tomorrow night but I’ll ask him to text me if anything significant comes up.</p>
<p>Thank you, emilybee!</p>
<p>Bookmarked. D decided to stop in New York on her way back to North Carolina yesterday…</p>
<p>DS was suppposed to move in last Thursady (25th) at Old Dominion University but was told Wednesday afternoon that ALL move-ins have been pushed to Monday. Even that is open for change depending on the damage in Norfolk.</p>
<p>What was supposed to be a rolling move in- Thursday, Friday, Saturday now has everyone on Monday…maybe.</p>
<p>Told DS that if Monday is still a go, plan on leaving extremely early Monday morning in order to get to school by/before 0800 because it’s going to be a cluster.</p>
<p>So far we’re just waiting in Northern VA for this thing to hit. Good thing I’m a pack rat, we have enough supplies (food and books) to last a month without having to go to the store.</p>
<p>Stay safe everyone and don’t do anything stupid. Move in dates are not that important, staying safe and alive is.</p>
<p>Looks like D1 will be home with us for a few more days in the midwest. Her flight was cancelled today (we refused to pay the change fee to move it to yesterday, US Air wanted almost as much as the original ticket to change it). So stupid, it was obvious that her flights would be cancelled – not flying US Air again! Every other major airline eliminated change fees for flights today on the east coast, but not US Air. Not to mention the 4 hours (literally) spent on hold over the past two days waiting to talk to US Air. Just tried to change her reservation online, but the message on her reservation says “Must call reservations to change this itinerary”.</p>
<p>Have noticed US Air is very chintzy. They give out soft drinks but not peanuts or pretzels. :(</p>
<p>Stay safe, everyone!</p>
<p>I would suggest to anyone in the storm area to make sure they have power outage plans. Make sure cell phones are charged, have flashlights, etc. The discussion on Towson cancelling move-in doesn’t surprise me. Maryland’s power company is notorious for being slow to restore power during outages. If power goes out it could be several days before it’s back on. Those would be my main concerns for coming early and waiting out the storm. There may be many more delays for move-ins in NC, VA, MD, NY, MA due to aftermath issues like flooding and power outages. </p>
<p>Stay safe everyone!</p>
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<p>You might want to check to see if any of those “activities” are actually taking place. Much of what is going on in MA has been either canceled or postponed.</p>
<p>Good luck to everyone! This is so weird!</p>
<p>We drove from WI to NY yesterday - nice weather all the way. We’re in our hotel on Long Island, have our batteries, water, food, flashlight, etc. People here are hunkering down, not an evacuation area, but definitely anticipating the storm. We’ll just see how the next couple of days go, hopefully more just boring than scary. Move-in is still supposed to be Monday, which in this area should be clear and sunny.</p>
<p>The good news is that one of D’s classmates also is in our hotel waiting out the weekend. Se she (and I guess now we) has a friend to hang out with.</p>
<p>I was all set to agree with intparent, but I just had a great experience with USAir! D was scheduled to fly from Ohio to Boston on Monday, but all the “8,000 flights cancelled through Monday” headlines started to worry me. US Air has now relaxed their change fees ([US</a> Airways | Airline tickets, vacations & business flights](<a href=“http://www.usairways.com/TravelCenter/Advisories.aspx]US”>http://www.usairways.com/TravelCenter/Advisories.aspx)) Couldn’t make the free change online, but when I called I got through to a human after a very short wait. Successfully changed her ticket from Monday to Tuesday at no cost.</p>
<p>Just figured I needed to give USAir a shout-out, since I’m usually the first to bash them when things go wrong, as they so often do.</p>
<p>For anyone curious about students who had already moved in before they cancelled move-in (like me), here is what they are doing for the students in dorms at the University of Delaware:</p>
<p>"There will be limited services provided to the students who are remaining in residence halls on campus.</p>
<p>Pencader, Rodney and Russell Dining Halls will be open on Saturday, Aug. 27, for brunch from 11 a.m.–2 p.m. During brunch Saturday, students will be able to pick up “meal selections to go” for dinner Saturday and brunch Sunday. Students are encouraged to bring reusable bags to pack their meals, as well as reusable beverage containers for drinks that are not bottled, such as milk. Trabant, Perkins, the various markets and carts will be closed throughout the weekend. Pencader, Rodney, Russell and Kent Dining Halls will re-open for dinner Sunday, Aug. 28 from 5–7:30 p.m. </p>
<p>Student Health Services will be open 24/7 for patient care assessments beginning at 8 a.m., Saturday. Assessments by registered nurses will continue throughout the weekend with physician/mental health counselors available for phone consultation. Emergencies and severely ill students will be referred to Christiana Hospital with ambulance transportation provided through Public Safety (302-831-2222). Student Health Service will be open for full services at 8 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 29."</p>
<p>I’m in an apartment with no meal plan, so the food stuff doesn’t apply to me. The water aisles of the local Rite Aid (the one walking distance from student housing) was almost empty as of 4pm yesterday. We’ve had to register with Residential Life, and are ready to hunker down for the evening. </p>
<p>As a Californian, I admit to laughing a bit about the earthquake, but this hurricane stuff is crazy. Not how I planned on starting my Masters on Disaster Science and Management!</p>
<p>PRJ, they did relax their change fees for Sunday and Monday. What they didn’t do is relax them for today (Saturday) up the East Coast, and every other major airline did (United, American, Continental, etc.). So they still get no kudos from me… but the total of 6 hours (no exaggeration) I spent on hold over two days waiting to talk to them has really ticked me off as well. It was obvious that today’s flights would be cancelled, but they made us wait until it was actually cancelled (this morning) and then we had to call back to change the flight (would not allow an online ticket change for her itinerary, we did try that). So I still think they are stinkers, at least compared to their competitors (and that is saying something in the airline industry!).</p>
<p>D1 changed her scheduled Sunday flight into Philadelphia to Sat am, arrived to overcast skies & no rain, took a cab to Haverford and picked up her room key just as the first light rain was beginning to fall. Just what the college asked returning students to do: get in before the storm, not after. It was a bit wrenching to bump her departure up a day, but we coped. We feel relieved she arrived safely, and she’s happy to be back with college friends, getting squared away in her apt. Now we’ll just ride out the storm with he via text and Skype. Haverford College says they have enough back-up generators to keep all buildings at full power even if the area is without electricity.</p>
<p>Kudos to Delta for waiving change fees and re-booking D1 on an early Sat am flight.</p>