Fibromyalgia Support Group

Happy Thursday everyone!

It looks like Hurricane Irene is headed straight for our community (we live in Torrington, CT which is in Litchfield County in the NW corner of CT). We've been told to expect up to a foot of rain, sustained winds of 75 to 110 mph, and power outages that are expected to last for at least several days. You all know what that kind of weather can do to us fibromites! To top it all, our son Michael, and his wife, Carissa, also live directly in the path of the hurricane, our daughter, Jen, lives in New York City (in the Bronx.....by herself), and our daughter, Mindy (her hubby, John, and their two daughters, Lexi and Lizzy) live in the SW area of CT in a beach community only a 5 minute walk to the beach. I'm so worried about storm surge flooding for Mindy and her family and also for Jen, not to mention the high sustained winds and rain. I'm not having any luck getting any of them to evacuate to our home. I'm trying not to let my worries get to me, but they already have a head start and running kind of wild! Please pray for my family that we will all come out of this okay along with our homes, as well. My arms feel like they are going to explode, despite taking my meds. I must get away from this horrid desk. I hope that none of you will be effected by this hurricane.

Gentle hugs,

Donna

Hi, Donna...I am so sorry about Irene heading your way. I don't know why hurricanes love New England around Labor Day, but in my 20 years as an Emergency Manager, it just seems to be the way of it. As an ET, i know you know what to do...so i don't have to give the acpdvice about taping your Duck (FEMA joke about the preparedness kit materials). Let us know how things turn out. We are expecting my daughter who is in school in Norfolk sometime today. I saw the track shifted closer to the shore last night, but you are right, the worst is going to be New England. Hang in there my friend, and let us know if we can do anything to help. If we don't see you posting within a day after it passes your area, we will send in the National Guard to check on you!

Speaking of disasters...our earthquake left a 4 foot 1 inch wide crack in the Washinton Monument and damage to the National Cathedral is concerning with potential high winds from Irene this weekend.

Stay in touch Donna and good luck with Irene!

Post edited by: Kvasconez, at: 08/25/2011 09:36 AM

Donna I do hope that everyone does okay or is okay Keep you safe and let us know what happens when you can!

GOOD LUCK!

Calming hugs and thought are being sent your way my friend!!

Naomi

All I can say is stay as safe as you can. I have been watch the weather channel. I know we have no control of what ever going to be. But I have you on my mind. I also have a lot of family members in the path of this storm.

Blessing.

wow, how scary. here we have tornadoes and little prediction of where and when I will be praying for your family and you. I know little other than what i see about hurricanes, and personally I think i would be getting away as quick as possible. Perhaps they will have a mandatory evacuation and they will be forced to leave. Have they been affected before? How scary!!! I had never thought of how it could affect fibro, and wish I knew an answer for you. Do you take aleve for example? Soetimes I make a schedule of taking it when we have high humidity, or storms to try to keep it from getting wild, sometimes I think it helps, but sometimes is the key word. I agree, plz let us know you and your loved ones are all ok. remembering you in prayer .

Jeannie

{{{Donna and Family}}}

My goodness, I can t even imagine how ""on edge"" you must be !!!

Have you endured a true hurricane before and know all of the precautions to take prior to ?

Of course, I will keep you and your entire family in my thoughts and prayers until hearing from you again that all are safe and the weather has calmed down in your area.

{{{HUGS}}} Marilyn

I'm in Ct. and my arms are killing me too.(and i have fibromyalgia since 2007) i also have tendonitis,bursitis in arms and ankles and hips and disc disease and the list goes on

~I will be Praying for everyone..

Donna~

I am so sorry that Hurricane Irene is coming your way, my son lives in the area also and we just got home from there on Tuesday. I know he won't come home, but I am going to call him and his wife tonight begging him to cone home to Michigan. He is the son that just escaped being in the twin towers on 9/11, I don't want him, or you or anyone caught up in the wrath of Irene. Please stay safe. You are welcome to come to my home in Michigan to be safe. I will watch for updates on your post here.

Love and hugs holding you in angels arms keeping you safe~

Christine

Girl, I know the anxiety that u are having! I live between Galveston and Houston Tx and work in Galveston on the coast. We had Hurricane IKE 3 years ago and the storm serge was the worst. There was 4 feet of water standing in Galveston. I could tell you some stories but I don't want to scare you any more than you are. Your daughter on the coast will probably change her mind and leave as it gets closer. We had rain here today and I stayed home from work hurting. We are in a draught situation here with over 100 degrees temp for 25 days in a row. We are hoping for a little tropical depression here! We need rain, all my plants are dying and I don't have the energy to replant! I will be praying for you and your family.

As a survivor of both Camille, Katrina and Rita (along with a lot of smaller ones) please if any one out there has any doubts about whether to evacuate or not go now rather than waiting to make a decision at the last minute. If you are in a flood prone area you need to go. Also if your home lies east of low lying area that you would have to cross to get out you need to consider leaving for safety because if something happened help will not be able to get to you for possibly several days. This thing is going to be pushing a lot of water ahead of it and in some places right at high tide. It is also moving very slowly and riding up the coast so it will be dropping a lot of rain but since it is on the coast will be able to pull the water right back up again to drop some more. One thing about hurricanes is that a lot of people do not realize the biggest danger is not the winds but the WATER! I still have nightmares about the people trapped in their attics calling the radio stations begging for help and this after the Civil Defense people had been talking earlier in the evening about how New Orleans had "dodged the Big one". Water is insinuate. It sneaks in on you in a lot of cases after you have relaxed your guard. If you wait to be told whether or not to leave the roads will be jammed. I have had to sit in traffic waiting to run from a storm. Luckily I was not running too far. If you think you may have to run do it now while you can still get out. You need to consider more than just the storm in making a decision to stay. If you cannot stay at least two weeks where you are without electricity then you need to leave. For those two weeks you will have no AC or even a fan, you will have to cook your meals on a grill or a Coleman stove or such. No stores will be open when they do it will be a cash only culture for a while. Food and water and ice will be delivered a a central place by the National Guard of FEMA and you get the same rations the Army gets on maneuvers. No restaurants. Any gas station you find open with gas will have lines that you will wait hours in. No internet, no TV your only entertainment will be the radio and whatever you and do that doesn't require electricity. You may not even have use of you cellphone. It depends on whether the cell towers have backup generators. It took us 3 weeks to contact family after Katrina. My sister had gone in for emergency surgery for an aneurism the day of the storm with on a 50% chance of surviving and it was three weeks later that I found out she had lived from some of my husband's family who had contacted them earlier to see if they had heard from us. When they finally got through to us they told us she was alive. I wasn't able to get hold of her for several more weeks. It was more than a month before I knew where all my family was. Luckily they were all alive but two families lost their homes, one so new they had not moved in yet.

If you decide to stay or get caught in a low lying area put hand tools in your attic so that if you have to get out you can knock a hole in the roof and cut your way out. If you are living in a relatively new house that has not been through a major storm and do not know how to check the tie downs then go to a shelter.

The reason most roofs come off in a major storm or hurricane is that a window gets broken by a limb and then the wind gets in to the structure but has no place to go and when the pressure builds up and if the roof is not properly tied down to the structure then it is the weakest point and once it is gone the rest of the structure is weakened severely and at mercy to the elements.

In a hurricane stay away from windows, fireplaces, and any side of the home with large trees outside. In a storm like Irene that has a lot of water involved wind will not be the only factor in trees going down. If the ground is soaked then you don't have to have a lot of wind to blow a tree over. It doesn't have to be broken off. It is top heavy and will go over leaving the roots sticking up.

Finally when the storm is over do not go sight seeing! In the aftermath of a storm there is just about every danger you can imagine from electrical lines to critters that have been washed out of the swamp. If you have bought a generator for your home to hook into the electrical system make sure you know how to use it. The guy's working on the line do not appreciate being electrocuted by someone who does not know what they are doing and hooking up to the line side instead of the house side. It is a rare major storm where they don't loose at least one worker to some idiot who does not know what he is doing unfortunately.

Whether you know there is a boil water order in effect boil it anyway! Any municipal piping system has some leaks and pressure is what keeps ground water out. If the pumps go down even for a minute some will get into the system and cause bacteria to grow. Do not drink anything out of the faucet that has not been boiled. If you are having to boil water you need to watch children and elders because they will be forgetful and they are at the most risk from the ailments in bad water. Do not buy or accept water in bottles that are unsealed.

If you are leaving I would dump everything in the fridge first. If you don't and it is over a few days without power you will probably have to dump the whole refrigerator if you don't clean it out beforehand. Also if you try to clean it out after a while that smell can get into your carpet and soft furniture and you can lose those also. You are better off using or losing the food in the fridge than all of that. A hint: I used my freezer compartment as an extra ice chest after Katrina. We picked up ice, rations and bottled water every other day and the ice got divided between the ice chest and the freezer compartment and it stayed cool in both till we went for stuff again. I had mayo for sandwiches and cold canned milk the whole time the power was out for 3 weeks.

Lastly try to pick up medications now if you can and take all your meds with you if you evacuate.

Good luck everyone in Irene's path and I'll be praying for you. Please forgive me though if I say that I'm glad it isn't headed this way but there are two more waves off of Africa that could still get us later if they build. I am very much afraid that this is going to be a bad season all around.