OK East Coasters, what are your thoughts on Hurricane Earl, and how are you preparing?

Current forcast cone is coming uncomfortably close to my home:

National Hurricane Center

and the hurricane force wind forcast does not look much better. I'm going to assume that we're going to feel this one, even if we do not get a direct hit.
National Hurricane Center Hurrican Force Wind Projection

I've alerted my family that we may be changing our plans for Labor Day weekend, and substituting staying on the beach with an impromtu trip to the Catskills.

Anyone else making plans?

If you have never been through a hurricane, it is hard to comprehend the amount of rain you get, especially if it stalls... a couple of inches an hour for 6-8hours... wind and storm surge aside.... the damage done from flooding (I would be leery of retreating to a mountain area that could direct run off to the valley)disrupts everything, electric power (A/C and entertainment) transportation avenues,and most of all sewer... ...Florida had an excellent Emergency Management Director under Craig Fugate..and lots of experience and plans to preposition water and ice, EMT, power company vehicles...I doubt that New York has had that much experience...the slogan "hide from the wind, run from the water" is pretty good. If you are not in immediate danger from wind/storm surge I would suggest "hunkering down in place" in familiar surroundings expecially if you have young children.. the practical side of preparations ...check with the large scale, and urban preparedness of this forum...good luck

Hmmm... a couple wispy clouds have popped up (Th-Fri) in our otherwise clear-as-a-bell 10-day forecast. Not going to lose a wink of sleep over it -- unless the storm track were to change dramatically.

Preparedness buys priceless peace of mind. As do the city tree cutters who are coming tomorrow to take out a sick one across the street.

My fuel tank is down a quarter so will top that off today or tomorrow as I normally would, anyway. Have plenty of food already -- refrigerated and non-refrigerated -- water, loads of camping gear that's handy in a power outage. Lanterns, flashlights, headlamps and batteries galore. Portable radios.

I've been at this so long my inventory is packed with plurals.

Reminds me to retrieve a tarp I lent out a couple weeks ago to a neighbor.

Most important: have three boxes of Greenies and just bought a new bag of dog food so Gidget's in good shape.

And DC this week is about as quiet as it gets, people have already evacuated -- to the beaches. Ooops....

And that reminds me I'm part of a group of friends taking care of the dog of another friend who this morning started a two-week trip overseas.

Wouldn't want to be on the other side of the world with no one to prep the house and a hurricane bearing down.

I'll be keeping an eye on Earl. Some of the models are starting to inch to the West, and storms that come up the Chesapeake Bay get messy. I'm pretty well set on supplies, but I may grab a couple extra cases of water on my normal grocery run.

I'll be curious to see if anybody films any cleaning out of stores by unprepared people, as these storms close in on the American coast.

Catching images of people clearing shelves is pretty much a staple of Hurricane Season News even if they run old footage from seasons past.

Stay safe everyone!

Living in earthquake country, in a way I kind of envy those of you in hurricane alley. You have so much advance notice! Use the time wisely...

Cycled the radio batteries today, checked the Genny fuels, gonna work on the weather station tomorrow - the anenometer isn't working right, and I've never installed the rain gage - Wedneday, I'll do my usual midweek shop

Stay safe and good luck this hurricane season.

I'll be in uneventful (in terms of hurricanes) this year. Normally i'd be prepping for the season at this stage but the worst thing weather wise we deal with over here is the freakin' cold (7c this morning)!

Will have the scotch waiting if anyone evac's to this side of the world.

Good luck.

Living in earthquake country I try to stay pretty well stocked up on supplies and food all the time. I’m also in a semi-rural area with potential for fairly long power outages when hit by a wind storm.

So with a storm warning, I’d top gas tanks off, check the generator, make some extra ice in my freezer, rotate any water that was getting close to needing rotating, have coolers cleaned and ready, re-charge some batts that are in my lights and portable radio, then make a trip to the grocery for fresh bread and dairy products as well as making sure that the animal feed and supplies are sufficient for at least one month. Also charge up any batt power tools, as you want those batts pre-charged if you have to make any repairs.

Even with a generator to help with refrigeration, coolers come in very handy to keep stuff you are using frequently, saves opening the fridge door for my half and half, etc that goes in my coffee.

Phones---charge cells and make sure you have at least one old fashion plug in phone as the portable landline phones don’t work if the power is out.