I am new to the right coast- I am wondering what to expect. I like dramatic weather, but am probably too far north for most of the hurricane activity. (Northern Virginia.)
I am looking forward to a good storm- if I am still in this awful apartment I'll open the sliding glass door to the patio and the door to the hallway at the same time and maybe finally be rid of the funky smell that this place has always had. For a while, anyway...
LoL. Can't help you. I'm in Tx on the Gulf side. We did have a minor TS last summer. It got windy. You can't air out though because you better have your glass covered by then.
You might get more than you expect. Last season many folks were without power for over a week after the Hurricane. My younger sister had to paddle a canoe to get to her house near the Potomac River just South of Old Town Alexandria.
"I like dramatic weather,..."
If you had to go thru Isabel last year you may change your mind. I live in the Outer Banks of NC and stayed when Isabel hit. We only had 100 mph winds but it was bordering on horrific.
You're likely to miss this storm in N. Va.: figure it to 'bounce' off the Carolina coast near the Wilmington-to-Hatteras region and then head out to sea sometime Monday or early Tuesday.
Come on down here (Daulphin Island), we'll fix you right up.
No, you aren't. I'm in Hampton Roads so we get hit dead-on, but Northern VA gets its share of pounding rain, floods and high wind.
My advice is get a good generator, lots of C and D batteries, a battery run tv and radio, food for at least a week or longer and water equal to 5 gallons a day for 5 days per person for all activities. That one gallon rule is not useful when you have to wash, use it for food prep and clean up too. A good outdoor gas grill helps. And a camp pot for coffee. Baby wipes and sanitary hand wipes are helpful. As are 5 gallon lidded cans lined with garbage bags and filled with kitty litter. Yes, a latrine!
Make sure you have nylon rope, bungee cords, a few tarps, and medications on hand. If you know how to handle one, a chainsaw. If you don't know how to use one, don't. Those injuries are nasty.
It is also a life saver to have a simple carpet sweeper like they used in the 50's to keep the debris off the carpet as people walk in and out. No power for vacuums.
We lost our power for six days last year during Isabel and a week during a hurricane prior to that. Plus, living where I do, power outages are the rule.
On the plus side: Hampton Roads had the Mother of all BBQ's last year. Had to use up the stuff in the freezer and all the neighbors had dinner. On the minus side: 1.5 million people who in the best of times CAN'T DRIVE negotiating Hampton Roads without stoplights.
I know you are in an apartment, so just glean through and use what you can. And btw, keep the door shut.