Locals Prepare for Hurricane Sandy

10/27/2012 (Updated 10/28/2012 12:00:22 AM)

BINGHAMTON --

Kathleen brown and her family are not taking any chances.  After their Endicott home was heavily damaged by last year's flood, she is making sure she is ready for hurricane sandy.

"We're preparing a little more intensely and with evacuation plans that we didn't have in place at all last time," said Brown.

The Browns weren't the only ones getting ready.  Many people at Lowes in Vestal were stocking up on water, batteries, and kerosene heaters.  Store managers told us that they sold out of generators yesterday within one hour.
But some shoppers told us they are not too worried.

"We're going to probably see some of the same kind of rain we saw as a year ago, but I am not really thinking it's going to be quite as bad as it was last year," said shopper Mario Nunes.

The National Weather Service says that the best way to prepare for Sandy is to monitor their website for rain and wind updates.  The website is: weather.gov/bgm.

"Right now we're anticipating one to three inches of rain fall.  Depending on the final track of the storm, that could change a little bit.  That has us concerned for the potential of some flash flooding and some flooding on the local rivers,"  said Erik Heyden

But Heyden says we can also expect it to be very windy, with sustained winds from 30 to 40 miles per hour and gusts up to 50 miles per hour.

"It's a very large storm so no matter where she ends up tracking, we will see impacts in our area because it's very, very large," said Heyden.

Tomorrow, Broome County Officials are scheduled to hold a briefing to update the media on what plans they have in place for the upcoming storm. 

Samantha McDonald, Fox 40 News.

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