My cameras made it through the hurricane

[shockwave199 0]

I have a number of assests I'm still biting my nails over as hurricane Irene passes overhead now, the least of which is my cameras out there taking it all on. Four of them are flat out exposed and I was worried how they'd make it through. Not a glitch. It was amazing watching the storm all night from the cameras all around my house. Twenty six years ago I had nothing to watch for updates on hurricane gloria but a tv with rabbit ears on a stool- and a transistor radio. Now, from my laptop I monitored live radar, two cctv systems, and hung on gmail chat to keep in touch with family. Amazing what a couple decades or so makes! It's not quite over, but most of the worst has passed. Cameras still goin strong. But I'm wiped out. Almost 24 hrs awake. The cams are seeing better than my eyes. Hope all who have dealt with Irene are ok.

 

Dan

[rory 0]

Going by NY CBS and the weather channel, the storm hasnt hit you guys yet?

Although doesnt look like it will be much more than it is now.

But still be careful, never know how these things go.

 

Oh yeah say hello to Freeport, Wantagh, and Oceanside .. spent a few of my best years there .. hope you all come out unscathed.

[SDM Group 0]

Going by NY CBS and the weather channel, the storm hasnt hit you guys yet?

Although doesnt look like it will be much more than it is now.

But still be careful, never know how these things go.

 

Oh yeah say hello to Freeport, Wantagh, and Oceanside .. spent a few of my best years there .. hope you all come out unscathed.

 

How did you guys in the Bahamas fare, CAT3 when it went through there.

[rory 0]

How did you guys in the Bahamas fare, CAT3 when it went through there.

 

Cat 2 or 3 on some islands, we were far from the eye .. Storm started for us from early evening (actually winds started midday) with power off for 1 hour at 6pm then coming back on (some areas stayed off and are still off), then 3am it started full force could not go outside (I was installing a camera at 2am with branches flying over my head, trying to get a better shot). We got maybe 30mph sustained winds, 50-60mph gusts .. even still alot of trees were knocked down from the gusts, i had to machete my way out of my driveway, still have to squeeze under a fallen tree to get out, still alot of cleanup to do, and the heat doesnt make it any easier. Power was off from 5am-9pm for me and most of the island, but there is still 10% of the island without power - that also means no running water for those such as myself who only have a well - i basically tried to sleep that entire time but it was like being in a coma it was so hot.

 

If the winds were stronger it would have been alot worse though, I underestimated what 20 hours of 20-40mph winds can do, in addition to the gusts. A couple of the other islands got wiped out though. I figure thats the reason the British chose this island as the capital, its surrounded by other islands and always dodges the bullet.

 

I spent all friday raking the front yard ... took a day off on saturday LOL ... still piles of trees, branches, and leaves I have to figure out what to do with.

 

videos listed here:

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=26844&p=164275#p164275

[tomcctv 190]

lots of cameras going down in NY.

http://www.trafficland.com/city/NYC/camera/12864/index.html

[shockwave199 0]

I conked out for about an hour and woke up to conditions being the worst yet. This is not quite over. Everytime radar shows a clearing, it fills back in. The storm is scheduled to pass over the city by 9:30. Long Island is getting whipped right now. Just wish this beast would finally get the frig outa here. It's been a long haul- and it's a cat 1. Feel bad for all who endured worse.

 

Dan

[rory 0]

I conked out for about an hour and woke up to conditions being the worst yet. This is not quite over. Everytime radar shows a clearing, it fills back in. The storm is scheduled to pass over the city by 9:30. Long Island is getting whipped right now. Just wish this beast would finally get the frig outa here. It's been a long haul- and it's a cat 1. Feel bad for all who endured worse.

 

Dan

Its a cat1 on the far east side ... a cat1 is a cat3 to NY city .. would wipe it out

For example I was on the west side of the hurricane, it was a cat3 on the far east side.

Long Island will likely see the strongest winds in this case. eg, Jones beach.

[shockwave199 0]

Oh yeah, we're on the wind side for sure out here in suffolk county around port jeff area- a bit south of there. Hardly any rain the whole time, but wind big time.

 

Dan

[rory 0]

I cant deal with the same hurricane in the same week ...

im gone to sleep now .. hope you make it through okay and dont forget the video

 

ps. they say its tropical storm irene now .. still need to kick it out already .. its been going on too long

[Birdman Adam 0]

Yea, don't forget to post some video!

 

Hope everyone's doing OK up there!

[rory 0]

storm should be gone by now ...

i see there is another storm off in the ocean to the right of NY

TS Jose ... but its heading away

[shockwave199 0]

Lost power at around 9:30 am, just when I was gonna look through my files for video from the cams. I stopped recording along the way. Not much to see of trees overnight and the files were piling up on my hd. No need for that. I'll look through and see if there's anything good, but most of the good stuff after daybreak wasn't recorded. I was just about to record some of it and bloop- off went the power. I'll have to clean all my camera glass, but other than that they held up well. At one point a branch got tangled up in one and was putting on a freak show, but that blew off before long. Guess I hung 'em good. Even my cheap coax stayed strong. In the end, the power failed me, not the cams. Can't wait to get back on line....and get some lights too. I'm flicking lights on by force of habit like crazy- only it does nothing.

 

Btw- my UPS did a nice job too. With cable/router down, there was nothing doing, but it was nice to power down the dvr to standby/shutdown- the correct way. And that's the best case scenario with a UPS- allowing you to power down properly. Next would be keeping you afloat till power comes back on but this time- that ain't happening. I'm smelling multiple days without power. We'll see.

 

Dan

[rory 0]

Dan is the UPS still on? If it is I want one of those

Hope you get power soon. I know its hell without it.

Do you have running water? Least that would help some.

 

I know what you mean about the cameras, power went off for me right when I was going to upload some more video .. it sucked

 

edit, this is what i captured in the early morning during the storm, the camera sucks for night though, so can barely see anything, plus the beach area was pitch dark anyway. Turn volume up high.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKy9DT7xtZA

[shockwave199 0]

Dan is the UPS still on? If it is I want one of those

Yeah it's still on....NOT!

 

I remembered about 15 minutes in to shut it down.

 

You know I didn't even think to point my regular video cam and get some footage. I think I was too scared to look in person. It was much easier to take the massively swaying trees from remote view cctv cams. Something about 20fps made the horrible sight much easier to take. Kinda like a ballet instead of WAR! Pissed though- didn't get regular video. Oh well. I wasn't in my right mind after the 24th hour.

 

Edited August 29, 2011 by Guest

[rory 0]

Yeah I just wish I had a decent camera, I hardly use regular cameras though.

The batteries on them died right about daylight, and neither of the 2 I had could see anything at night.

Besides I was so tired from being up all through the storm, i had to lay down and try to sleep, swamped my bed cause it was soooo hot ... anyway ... hey I left the wood on parts of the windows and my AC works even better now .. makes a huge difference, got so cold last night I had to turn it down and grab a blanket

 

My UPS sucks, with my desktop and 22" LCD on it dies in minutes ...

Instead I turned those off and used the netbook until the UPS died, as the cable internet still worked - the cable node battery lasted until that night then eventually died .. if I had a laptop with a longer battery and a better UPS i could have at least stayed on for alot longer ... next time then .. hurricane season isnt over yet!