Crofton Maryland - Before Hurricane Irene

Crofton residents are feeling relatively secure, compared to our neighbors in low-lying areas of Anne Arundel County and the nearby Eastern Shore of Maryland, as we anticipate Hurricane Irene.

Hopefully everyone is prepared with plenty of glow sticks from the Dollar Tree as well as bottled water, canned food, peanut butter & jelly, toilet paper, batteries and other essentials. But there are a few other things to remember:

• Bring inside your outdoor furniture, lawn ornaments, flags, bird houses and feeders, and other items which could become projectiles in gale-force winds.
• Anticipate that your dog may not be able to go outside when nature calls, so you should have plenty of newspapers handy plus paper towels and plastic bags for clean-up.
• Make sure your laptops, cell phones and cameras are fully charged in advance of the storm (you may need that camera for photographing damage).
• Unplug electronic items which could be damaged in the event of a power surge (when electricity comes back on after an outage). We lost a microwave through a power surge, a few years ago - that's something we never thought to unplug.
• Avoid low-lying nearby roads after the storm passes because there will probably be flooding: Route 450 between Annapolis and Crofton, the main gate of Old Crofton at Rt. 3 and Crawford Blvd., and Patuxent Road between Crofton and Piney Orchard.

Watch for a sequel to this post on Monday or Tuesday, when I expect to post some "after" photos. Let's all hope there are no serious damages or injuries in Crofton!

Online resources to follow for storm updates:

• Justin Berk, Meteorologist, on Facebook
• Anne Arundel County Office of Emergency Management on Facebook
• Crofton Maryland on Facebook (post your own personal updates regarding downed trees and power outages in Crofton)

Originally posted by the author at FocusOnCrofton.com