Batten Down the Hatches! (Alright, If You Say So)

For those of you who have been living (or hiding) under a rock for the past few days, Hurricane Irene is on her way up the East Coast as we speak. For New York City, this means the following:

- Mayor Bloomberg held an emergency press conference last night, announcing that the city’s transit system would be shut down as of noon on Saturday, effective (at least) through Sunday.

- President Obama declared the state of New York in a federal state of emergency. F-E-D-E-R-A-L, my friends.

- 300,000 New Yorkers have already been evacuated, and hourly updates will ask more to leave their homes or move inland from the water that surrounds the 23-square mile island of Manhattan.

- Flashlights, bottled water, and candles are now relics of the past, to undoubtedly be auctioned off at Christie’s for exorbitant amounts in the coming weeks.

Oh, and perhaps the most egregious of all:

- All transportation is suspended this weekend to and from the Hamptons.

Now, it’s not that I’m not taking this seriously. 90mph winds are a kick to the face – literally – and 15” of rainfall…well, that’s more than a foot, which can’t be good. But, as a Mainer, I can’t help but look on as the increasing panic ensues and think…”So what?”

But it's so nice out!

Back home, preparing for storms is part of every family’s routine. “Look’s like a Nor’easter,” the lady at the grocery store checkout will say. So you buy a few more batteries (to go inside the 17 Maglites you undoubtedly already have at home) and a few jugs of water. And maybe a six-pack of Shipyard, too, to make those hours spent reading fireside by candlelight bearable. If by bearable, I mean, downright enjoyable.

I could get used to this.

We lose power at home all the time. In fact, I think that one of my roommates was starting to wonder when we didn’t live without power, until she finally made the trip to Maine with me this summer and witnessed our (working) lightswitches for herself. Because nearly every time I called home from New York my parents were sitting in the dark, sipping nice wine by a huge fire and…loving every minute of it.

“Omg, ew, I thought they meant you all had to bathe in there,” one of my friends said with relief when I explained to her that, no, filling the bathtub with water before a storm is NOT for taking communal baths, but for flushing the toilet (manually), brushing your teeth and using for drinking water should the power go out and faucet’s not work. No. Big. Deal.

It’s funny, but to see uptight, jaded New Yorkers in panic-mode is honestly a little refreshing. After all, beneath those stern, too-cool-for-school exteriors are real human beings. Human beings that would rather not get carried away from their townhouse apartments in a flash flood.

Or, maybe, I just have more salty Mainer in me than I realized.

I hope it’s the latter.

Spotted: Mainers in their natural habitat.