As a guy who lives about 30 miles north northwest of New York City as the cow flies (and no, I didn’t leave out the “r” in crow, I’m thinking of Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton here), I have to say I’m a bit on edge about all this Hurricane Irene business. A couple of the projected paths bring the brunt of this puppy right over my roof and through the treetops of the mature growth forest that cozies up to my house. Heavy trees, saturated soil, high winds, Biblical rain – what could possibly go wrong? 😦
My wife is toying with evacuating, but I don’t want to be out of the loop. We’ll see what happens. In the meantime, I snuck out of work a bit early yesterday to load up on supplies – 12 gallons of fresh water, lots of canned goods, snacks for the kids, and from the looks of the store shelves, the last 24 D-cell batteries in Northern New Jersey. Everything but the beer.
I’m going to stop off today and grab a few brews to have on hand in case I’m stuck at home for a while. I think I’ll go with canned stuff that’s good warm (in case of power outages). I’m leaning towards Oskar Blues Old Chub and maybe 21st Amendment’s Back in Black (hey, if it’s my best choice for the zombie apocalypse, it should do in the aftermath of a hurricane).
Of course I won’t be drinking beer as the storm hits, but I’m guessing there’ll be plenty of time without electricity after the blow is over – a nice time to drink a beer, read a book and (hopefully) count our blessings.
What about you? Are you in Irene’s path? Are you getting out of the way? Are you watching CNN from your Florida home laughing your ass off? Or (like my brother) are you totally unaware of this pending doom?
As always, let us know below, and if you’re in the soup, please be smart and be safe.
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Beer & Whiskey Brothers 
We in Missouri don’t have to worry about hurricanes. But we live in Missouri.
Yes, but you do get tornados, which are pretty nasty as well.
Nope, not in Irene’s path, but I have family living in North Carolina… Our natural disasters in Phoenix include the terrifying monsoons (now called haboobs)…
Yeah, it’s been pretty biblical down there as of late.
I would def. plan for power outages….and it may last several days. So be prepared! If you’re on the West side of the storm, it shouldn’t be as bad. We’ll just have to watch the forecast. Make sure you have a manual can opener (not electric), lanterns, flashlights, and maybe a battery-run cell phone charger. Just a few tips from New Orleans….good luck!
Thanks. I have all of that covered, but having little kids is ruining the sense of adventure and is replacing it with fear. Guess that’s one of the downsides of being a parent!
We’re in Colorado watching CNN and laughing our asses off…
We’ve actually been watching this closely since the wife has friends and family all along the north east path. Where she grew up (Lambertville/New Hope) looks to be in the soup as well.
We do the whole stocking up thing whenever there’s a blizzard in the forecast. I always look for something hoppy enough to make you happy you’re alive, usually something like Ska’s Modus.
Stay safe, it might be a good time to build a bunker.
Thanks, Will. The strategy is a bit different with a hurricane than a blizzard, as one will keep your beer cold and the other makes it damn near impossible to do so. Hoppy and warm don’t really mix in my book…
Then I’d load up on ales, lagers, and pilsners. Nothing worse than a warm stout or porter in my opinion. 🙂
You’re doing it wrong!!!
I guess our definitions of warm are different. I consider warm anything above “room temperature,” which is what most ales and lagers were traditionally served at. Warm stout is cloying. 🙂
I live in the Hudson Valley and have plenty of beer, so I think I’m all set. 🙂
Gonna hunker in the beer bunker then? Excellent plan! Be safe and say hello to any New Yorkers who float by… 😉
Yes, Sunday will definitely be a beer day, and hope we don’t lose power.
Yes, Irene is heading my way. Living in the WDC metro area, the outside band of the storm rolls right over my area of Northern VA. My weekend plans just got dashed….which is ok because it included a chain saw, zero turn mower and weed eater. So the answer is hunker and spend some quality time in the bunker.
Hunker in the Bunker and Inebriate! That’s the plan. I have some nice beers at home (not in the fridge thankfully), but perhaps some high-test stuff is more power outage friendly, i.e. Bourbon, Single Malt, Tequila, etc.. Plenty of that on hand.
Good luck with the storm! We in South Jersey are bracing as well. Let’s hope the weather forecasters are WRONG.
Cheers!
G-LO
That graphic makes it look like Smurf Goatse* is headed towards the eastern seaboard.
*and if you don’t know what “goatse” is, for the sake of all that is holy, do not google it, especially at work
That is all kinds of wrong. But so, so funny.
Hurricane shmurricane…as a friend of mine posted on FB today “You know you’re a native Floridian when people are worried about a Cat 2 hurricane and your subconscious shrugs and says ‘wimps’.” I’m too polite for laughing my ass off, but I’m not terribly concerned either. When Cat 1-3 storms come out way we don’t hunker; we plan hurricane parties. Seriously. Cold pizza for days, everybody’s ice chest packed with ice and beer, and all your friends in one place for a long weekend off? What could be better?
Yes, but your part of the world has been honed by many storms. I have a yard full of 40ft trees that have never been stressed like they’re gonna be.
That said, I love the pizza idea… 🙂
We’re hunkerin’ down here in north-central MD, barely in the foothills of the Blue Ridge. It all depends what path Irene takes. The last bad one for us was all the way back in 1972 w/ Hurricane Agnes.
I’ve got both Schlafly’s Punkin’ Ale and Oskar Blues Old Chub. Our gear includes crank type flashlights and radio, LCD, battery-powered lamps, as well as all the stuff we keep in our emergency kit, and gallons of water. Also just battened down outside–removing anything that might fly away in a high wind as well as cleaning out all the gutters and downspouts. If it looks like we’ll be getting really bad winds, I’ll be duct-taping (aka typhoon tape for the military folks) the windows as well.
As for you guys out west, I’ve weathered droughts, floods, earth quakes, hurricanes, typhoons, water-spouts, tsunamis, cyclones and tornados in my time and the tornados were by far the scariest. So gloat now, but know that your turn will be coming again soon enough.
As for the Goatse thing–yecch!
I agree about the tornados, I’ve experienced them firsthand both here in Colorado and Iowa. Scary stuff. The wife also lived in the Florida Keys for awhile and weathered a number of hurricanes, but the tornados scare her more. Neither one is anything I’d wish on anybody.
Really too bad about the parenting. Couldn’t the kids have some beer too? And I really think you should get at least a bit loose before and during the hurricane. I weathered Ike in Houston (cat 2) and it’s a good idea to respect a storm. No disrespect to Evie, but you can be crushed or drowned in the blink of an eye whether you’re native Floridian or no. Sorry, Jim, guess that’s not what you want to hear. I’ll be pulling for you and the fam as the Big Girl flounces in (and having all sorts of alcohol while I do). Good luck.
JIm, Haven’t seen an update since Friday. Hope all is well….Don, any word from NJ ??