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On the fuel thread. I have rebuilt many a gunked carberautor. I agree with everything said so far on the topic, though I must add that ethanol is the true killer of the carb. On all of my 2-stroke engines, I now use True-Fuel or a similar ethanol free additive. Since switching to ethanol free, I have never had to rebuild a single carb nor do I worry about filling the tank completely before winterizing. On my snowblower, I transfer the fuel to my lawnmower in the Spring. I find the 4-stroke much more foregiving with the ethanol fuel though for my really good 4-stroke equipment (non oil-mixed), I also go ethanol free. I have a weed wacker still running from the early 1980s thanks to true fuel. I really hope they finally ban ethanol. It's really bad for engines. And of course, road salt, which eats up cement medians as well as your tie rods, ends, and the rest of the undercarriage on your car.

Same here in Glen Ridge/Montclair. Very smoky.

I don't have a rain gauge, but I haven't witnessed rain this heavy since Ida. If this kept up for say, 3 hours, we'd be in some serious trouble. I'm on the Glen Ridge, Montclair border.

Here's an oldie but goodie from the Blizzard of 78. This is in East Brunswick, NJ. I'm the one standing on top of our fort.

Back in 2012, about ten days ahead of Hurricane Sandy, already projected to hit our area... I ran out to Lowes to pick up a gas powered generator. For $275, I got a 4000-watt, American made, Champion generator. About the only extra feature was that the generator was on wheels, making it really easy to roll in and out of the garage. Thirteen years later, she is still working perfectly. About every three months, I let her run for five minutes and then turn off the fuel and let the generator burn off whatever is left in the engine until she conks out. It holds five gallons of fuel, and I keep her topped off so moisture (water) does not build up in the gas tank. Finally, I add Sta-Bill fuel additive which keeps the fuel from degrading for about two years. If I haven't used up the fuel due to power outages, I transfer the fuel from the generator to my car every two years. The primary use of the generator is to keep my sump pump going as my basement will flood anytime we receive > .75 inch an hour rain rates or > 3 inches of rain in a 24 hour period. We did flood once during Ida. It was simply too much for the pump to handle. We invested $450 into a high quality pump that tripled the capacity of our current pump and have had no issues since, though our backyard has becomes a similar lake during recent heavy storms. If you are in a flood prone area, I highly recommend you go this route. Below is a picture from the rains two weekends ago. We received 5 inches in our area total. Our home is over 100 years old and is no longer waterproof. I run that yellow cable out to the garage ahead of large storms in anticipation of flooding. Our garage is elevated so I simply trudge out to the garage to pull-start the generator and attach extension cables to the different devices in the house that I want to power if we lose PSE&G. 4000 watts is enough for us to power our pump, our kitchen refrigerator, our basement refrigerator and ice chest, our gas boiler, our router, a few lamps and our charging station for our iPhones, iPads, etc. We have even added a 4000 BTU AC unit, but we could tell that was pushing the limit of the generator as it slowed the generator, but it still was able to pull through an entire night. Five gallons of fuel will power the generator for ten hours on a full load and closer to 20 hours when it's just the refrigerators and the pumps that are on the load. They have the same generator on clearance at Bass Pro Shops right now. https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/champion-power-equipment-3550w-weekender-portable-generator I hope the info I've shared here will help some of you. Trust me, it's much cheaper and easier to prevent a flood than it is to pay for insurance, deal with FEMA and have to rebuild your basement every three years or so. IM me directly if you have any questions. And praise these forums for saving my backside and keeping me up all night when I should have been sleeping.

It’s not like you weren’t warned! .

I don't remember non hurricane based rainstorms like this as a kid. They seem to be on the increase since about 2010. Climate change?

Had to rain about 4" in the Montclair NJ area. Lots of flooded basements in the area. I upgraded the pump in my pit to be three times the capacity when we flooded during Ida. Now the pit doesn't even fill half way. Was the best $500 I ever spent. New pump is all steel and looks built to outlast me.

Moderate flurries in Glen Ridge/Montclair.

If there's anything I've ever learned about my 13 year old portable generator, it's that power will only come back quickly if you fire her up. The longer I leave her in the garage, the longer it will take PSE&G to fix the outage. This honestly happens nearly every time.

Well, there goes the Winter.

Thanks @rclab. I agree. I tend to look at the number of posts by an author before I decide to even read the post. My goal was not to criticize the mods nor punish the newbies. It was simply advice to improve, what in my opinion, is still a very useful service that these forums provide. Shame some people see advice as criticism and consider any critique as a personal attack. Those who know me, know not only do I avoid participating in sophomoric tit-for-tat, but I've also matured to wear I've even learned to love my enemies. Thanks for listening. Going forward, I'll share my stories of building incredible snow forts in 77, that lasted weeks, or bobsled tracks for sledding in 95 as snow was being dumped from dump trucks into the Hudson for there was no other place to put it. Heck, I remember PATH offering anyone $10 an hour to shovel their surface tracks. Just kidding.

What's with all of the banter on the non-banter threads? The last storm had 160+ pages of comments of which maybe 30 wasn't the, "knew it wouldn't jackpot over my house," variety. Or the infamous, "You said it would go east and it went west." Here's a request for the moderators to start moderating again. We all don't care for all of the opinionated posts. Discuss the models and leave it at that. Use the banter thread for your uninteresting conjecture and the memory lane thread for your uninteresting memories. Thanks.

Same here 78. Where it was sticking to hard surfaces, it is now melting on contact.

Already a light dusting of confectioner’s sugar up here in Glen Ridge/Montclair.