Frankenstorm!

Okay, folks, it's getting fun now!

Around 5:30pm I decided to take a walk around the neighborhood to get a feel for the storm.  It'll still be an hour or so before Sandy actually makes landfall (probably just north of here, in the DE/NJ region), but the wind has really picked up and I wanted to see it before night fell.  It's a good thing I'd prepped my camera before stepping outside becuase I was instantly pummeled with intense wind and rain!

Sorry about the sound.  Tturns out the iPhone camera doesn't come equipped with hurricane-proof microphone -- I've covered all the key points in my intro above.  Here's a better segment from a few minutes later:

By the time I got back to my apartment my fingers were so cold I could barely move them, and I was as wet as if I'd gone wading in the river.  I literally poured the water out of my shoes and into the bathtub!  I didn't even bother taking off my clothes before turning on the hot shower.

For a sense of how this fits into the overall storm, here's another satellite view:

I'm roughly where the pink pin is.

According to the forecasts (and as you can tell by the satellite shot), it's only going to get worse overnight.  By morning, though, the worst of the wind should be gone; we'll just have trailing rain and flooding.