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Preparing for Isabel?
Bonker asks: "Hurricane Isabel has been categorized as a Class 4 hurricane by the the National Hurricane Center. It's expected to grind somewhere into the U.S. East Coast sometime this evening. The Carolinas, Virginias, and even Maryland are in states of high tension. If you live in an area threatened by Isabel, what are you doing to protect your own or your company's data and computer hardware from Isabel?"
Somehow I kind of doubt that west virginia is really all that concerned.
There are three easy steps to protect all your data and hardware. 1. move computers into a bunker. 2. ??? 3. profit!
Make sure your offsite backup is up to date...
"I'll have a Guinness, no wait, make that a Coors Light" -Grad student I work with, who shall remain anonymous...
RUN AWAY!!!!!!
Any remember Hurricane Floyd?
... One, it's a cat3. Two, it won't hit the east coast till Thursday. So, I guess what I'm doing to prepare is taking an extra two days to get everything done right.
Protect yourself! Dead sysadmins can't fix anything.
Probably not have time to log in to /. and read and post messages about it if I'm someplace that's really gonna get blasted.
Other than that, if I'm in a decent, sturdy building that's not low-lying and could get flooded - check my backups. And then make one more set just in case.
Oh yeah, and make a set of backups and check that they're good.
Arrange for somebody to shut everything down if it gets really bad or the power or connectivity goes ( which it probably will ).
Oh and while I'm thinking about it, make a set of backups and verify them.
Take backup twice a day and send out to remote location if you are in the path:
Projected Path
Location: Virginia Beach
Backups: Check
Backup Server: Check
Natural Gas Generator: Check
Backup Network paths to PA office: Check
Private Company plane fueled and ready to go to PA office: Check
And while this may sound tounge in cheek, I'm 100% serious.
West Virginia might be inland, but the projected storm track puts the eye of the storm as far west as Charleston, WV.
Category 3 over the ocean, Category 2 over North Carolina, Category 1 over Virginia, Tropical Depression (and tornados) over West Virginia.
Chivalry is not dead, it's just frequently misspelt. - M. Langley
I am making plans for the safety of my family and home. The systems under my resposibility will be of little importance if this hurricane comes withing 200 miles of my home.
Backup and contingency plans need to be made well in advance of a natural disaster. If you haven't made such plans already, it is likely too late for them now, at least for this event.
But, the things you may come to realize, should you ever experience a major disaster, might surprise you. The first and most shocking thing is that there is no amount of planning or preparation that will withstand the likes of a major hurricane. The next not so surprising thing is that after such an event, people are generally more interested in the tangible aspects of life, internet and network type resources are of little or no importance for several days after such a catastrophy. Food, water, shelter suddenly become much more important and much harder to find. And the least surprising thing of all, that most people don't realize until after such a disaster is that people come first. Family and friends are of the greatest importance.
So, if you don't already have backup and contingency plans in place for your network, you're too late for this one. If you do, then consider this a test of your plan and hope for the best. But, most importantly, forget the network. Get yourself and your family well out of the way of this beast and you will live to rebuild your home and the network another day.
It's expected to grind somewhere into the U.S. East Coast sometime this evening.
Uh, no? Every single report I've read says it won't strike the US until Thursday. Today is Monday. You do the math.
-Julius X
remove "-whatkindofspamdoyoutakemefor-" from email to send
But after you make double copies of backups of your system, verify the UPS and backup generators work,
[Back in `86 when Gloria rode up the east coast, I stayed at work, mainly because it was one of those concrete edifices that would stand through winds a lot higher than my apartment building.
Bring plenty of bottled water, battery-powered radios, cell phone, books to read, munchies, blankets and a pillow.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
I'm preparing by watching movies and coding my butt off.
Help pay for my wedding! Go to my kickass website
...and other areas that usually don't get hurricanes.
As it stands, Isabel stands a good chance of blowing through to that far off the coast.
Unlike most places that may get hit by Isabel, they won't be used to preparing for hurricanes, as Ontario has (supposedly) only ever had one hurricane ever.
Dark Nexus
"Sanity is calming, but madness is more interesting."
Yeah, kinda dorky, but...
What if the USA were to detonate one of their biggest nuclear bombs in the eye of this hurricane (or in its wall)?
What are the comparative energies here? Would a nuclear blast have any effect on a hurricane?
Then again, could it make it worse? I remember reading about a theory that large meteorite impacts in the ocean could trigger "hypercanes" (think really brutal hurricane) due to the superheating that would occur.
Whoever designed level 61 in Frozen Bubble is a sadistic bastard.
I live in Norfolk, VA and it looks like Isabel is going to hit us dead on. The present NOAA trajectory guesses have the eye passing more or less right over my house, a few clicks west of downtown Norfolk.
Checking on Weather.com today I was struck by some ironic use of advertising (note pink arrow).
I've got plywood cut to board the windows unless we get some good news in the next couple of days. My main concern is evacuation... i.e., I don't wanna, but it's probably not in my best interest to refuse in the event of a mandatory evacuation like the one ordered today at Ocracoke Island, NC (there is concern there of the only road to the mainland washing out).
The Great Storm of 1933 tracked very close to Isabel's path, and was a smaller storm. The '33 storm flooded downtown Norfolk quite badly, destroyed lots of buildings and piers on the coast, and destroyed many boats and ships. In my native Mathews, that storm deposited fishing boats in the woods and was responsible for separating New Point Comfort Lighthouse from the mainland (I also believe that it separated the Hole in the Wall Beach from the mainland as well).
Wish us luck, and ask your diety or animistic spirit of choice to spare us from excess wrath.
I live pretty far inland (Raleigh, NC region), though we are in the storm's path. I hear it got pretty bad ten years ago (was that Hugo? I lived in Cleveland/Akron, OH at the time) even in this area though. Bad storms. Power outages. Trees falling on houses and cars, and even big objects getting lifted up and thrown on top of other big objects.
Not much I can do about the heavy objects, but it's always humid so I always do what I can to keep electronics cool and dry.
It's common sense, I think, to keep some food and water in the apartment for any kind of emergency (not just this, Y2K, and Ashcroft's code oranges), so there's really nothing new I feel I can do.
I might do laundry on Thursday though. I was stuck in a five day power outage here last year and, being from the north I thought "this storm's going to be bad" meant that a lot of places were closed because the roads weren't plowed and nobody knew how to drive in snow. So I figured I'd put off doing dishes and laundry and such for when there was no place else to go. But then I was stuck for five days with dirty clothes and no heat. Live and learn.
Here's hoping everyone makes it through this one okay.
Alex.
Wen we got hit by gloria back in 80? something, there was a dog in my neighborhood that died pinned to the side of the house and pelted with crap.
ALso, if youre worried about the wind,cover the windows you can, and criscross the rest with tape. Wont save whe window, but will help stop shards of glass from cutting you into hamburger.
Also, look in your yard, and anything you an pick up and carry, get it inside a structure. If YOU can pick it up, so can the huricane. THink trash can coming at you at 60 miles an hour.
Also, WATER!!. Screw the food, but youll be thirsty in hours if you dont hve fresh water. Fill up the bathtub and all the sinks if you cant get containers of it. Batteris will be worth their weight in gold, as will be small battery radio.
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
stocking up on beer!
1. You should already have your tech disaster plan in place and everyone drilled.
2. If the local authorities advise you to evacuate, do so immediately. If your boss says you have to stay, resign.
3. Before you evacuate, secure anything around your home or business that could fly around - chairs, toys, swings, signs,etc. Also, board your windows if possible.
4. If you get stuck in the hurricane, or once you get to the evacuation location, mix up a blenderful of Pat O'Brien's Hurricanes.
1 oz White rum
1 oz Jamaican Rum
1 oz Bacardi 151 proof rum
3 oz Orange juice with pulp
3 oz unsweetened Pineapple juice
1/2 oz Grenadine
Crushed Ice
Combine all ingredients, mix well (shake or stir). Pour over crushed ice in Hurricane glass. Best enjoyed through small straw. Garnish with fruit wedge if desired. Serves 1.
Make a lot of that - you can do the math to fill a pitcherful. By the time the storm hits, you'll all be three-sheets-to-the-wind and it will be the most exciting and fun weekend you've ever had. At least, that's how we do it down here.
computerlady - a brand new Slash-daughter - alone, but no longer invisible, in the
Generally good ideas, but taping windows is totally useless.
I knew it was time to upgrade to cat5.
Big slug of warm, wet air, lots of rain; that's all Isabel will be if it gets that far inland. While it may flood some basements and ruin some farmers' crops, it's not going to be able to pack the triple whammy of rain, high winds and storm surges that makes a hurricane a threat on and near coastlines.
Time is Nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once... the bitch.
I, for one, am going to pile the DLT backups and the mail server into the Navigator and drive to Cape Hatteras for some surf and turf!
Kriston
1. Bend Over
2. Place Head Between Legs
3. Pucker Up
4. ???????
5. Profit!!! (If you survive).
We're in the Marion, Mass. and being barely above sea level, we're already preparing. Hell, the storm surge would flood our office if it was 15 feet or greater I'd hazard.
Hurricane Bob came through here years ago, but even at a Category 2, that didn't stop it from taking dozens of large boats out of the harbor and sticking them 500-800 feet away in the field of a private school. Skycranes were rented at over $1000/hr to pull them out, and boatyards were pulling $300/hr for emergency boat rescues during the storm itself.
We're already generating two more sets of offsite backups, and putting them 15 miles and 70 miles away from the office respectively, in bank vaults. Just in case. We also have a backup server and lan equipment ready to go at a remote location... just in case. All the codemonkeys with laptops (like me) will be taking it home. We have all the backup paper forms printed and at the remote location, for that if. All of this has been tested... thoroughly, and nearly everyone (small shop) knows the plan stone cold. In the event the office is a loss, we'll be up and running full force, coding like fiends within 48 hours, tops.
Doesn't hurt to be careful.
----- ----- -----
how more natural distater we need to get rid of americans?
I always thought it was to stop the glas itself from spraying you with shards. Thanks.
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
I wish you and your family the best of luck. Sounds like you're gonna need it. Thank god for insurance, eh?
Time is Nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once... the bitch.
Indeed! Thank you.
...but nevertheless very cool:
Pictures:
GEOS
Space Station: one and two.
Pretty awesome.
S
I live on the East Coast. we are expecting to have it come around thursday. YAY!! But our weather men up here are stupid! They say "its going to rain on the weekends but NOOO! It was as sunny as hell. With all this new technology we have i'm surprised we don't have laser that shoots at it to make it go the other way. Of course not.
If you're just dealing w/ your office data and infrastructure:
make sure you have backups
make sure you have a backup source of power for anything critical
move everything to an enclosed room w/ NO windows
turn off the power before you get hit. When transformers explode, you tend to get power spikes, and in a hurricane, you get lotsa lightning
and let's be honest, you probably won't need extra power, if you get hit hard, no one is probably gonna be at work till the power is back on, and alot of cleanup has happened.
If you have to keep a website up:
Don't fsck around, move it to a "safe" location away from the path of the storm, it's simple, easy, and one quick solution.
--Keeping the flame wars alive, one post at a time
Sounds like the worst of all possible worlds to me.
Do you really believe that God and evolution are both extant?
If so, I'd like to understand how you can believe that.
Respectfully,
Anomaly (tom_cooper at bigfoot dot com)
But Herr Heisenberg, how does the electron know when I'm looking?
Having lived in SC during Hugo, and Florida during Andrew, Here are a couple of other suggested items to have on hand if you need to ride out the storm:
....
1) Gasoline - without power, there won't be any way to buy gas for your car, boat, or
2) Generator - a small one will suffice to keep your fridge running, a fan blowing, and a light on.
3) Solar hot water bag - great for heating water during the day so you can get a warm shower at night. Of course, this assumes you will have...
4) Water. Fill the tub for flushing / shower water. Use sparingly. Store bottled water, or better yet freeze all you can. double purpose - keeps the fridge cool when the power is out, and you can drink it when it melts.
5) Charcoal, lighter fluid, matches, and a grill. Useful for cooking and boiling water.
6) Insect repellent.
7) A complete first aid kit.
As far as battening down the hatches go, put anything you don't want wet in plastic bags - it might be your only source of dry clothes. Anything that can be moved indoors, move. Skip the tape in the windows, it's pointless. Instead, cover them with thick plywood. 1/4 inch won't cut it - 1/2 inch as a minimum, 3/4 inch would be best. Brace with 2x4s.
Last, pull the hard drives out of your machines and put them in your luggage. Then get the hell out of the path of that thing! Trust me on this - you do NOT want to ride out a hurricane. Your house/condo/apartment/office will survive or not - and there's not one thing you can do about it during the storm. So get out of the way, and be sure you're healthy to clean up the mess.
Godspeed, all in her path.
-- "Never underestimate the power of human stupidity." - R.A.H.
I wonder what RedHat is planning on doing differently for this hurricane?
... it looks like buying an umbrella for your notebook computer should be enough.
Category 5? Humph.
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
uhhhhhh. I wish I still knew Morse. What's that say?
While the continued designation of the storm as a hurricane while it was over Ontario could have been an error, I'll grant you the point. (A storm surge alone wouldn't do it; any high wind on a shallow lake would be sufficient to create one.)
Time is Nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once... the bitch.