As I am writing this, much of the Восточное побережье США (East Coast of the USA) is getting through ураган “Сэнди” (hurricane Sandy). It is expected to be one of the worst шторм (storm) on record as it plows through крупные города (large cities) of the East Coast, including Вашингтон, Нью-Йорк и Филадельфия. It might even turn into супершторм (super storm) as it moves further inland.

At the moment, it looks like эпицентр (the epicenter) of the hurricane is not weakening and the hurricane will make the landfall somewhere in Нью-Джерси. If you follow the news, you know that закрыты аэропорты (airports are closed) and Уолл Стрит и федеральные ведомства будут закрыты (Wall Street and the offices of Federal government will be shut down) for at least a day.

And if you have родные и близкие (family and friends) in the affected areas, you are anxiously checking in with them every few hours. Hopefully, they or you, if you live on the East Coast, are ready. Вы запаслись водой, консервами, фонариками, батарейками, свечами (you stocked up on water, canned food, flashlights, batteries, candles) and ваши мобильные телефоны заряжены (your cell phones are charged up). You might even have генератор (power generator) hooked up. Hopefully, you won’t be needing any of this. But it’s best ждать лучшего, но быть готовым к худшему (wait for the best, but be prepared for the worst).

So far, “Сэнди” has been described as крупнейший (the largest), мощнейший (the most powerful), and, most troubling of all, смертоносный (deadly) hurricane. So I keep checking my friends and relatives’ Facebook feeds for updates. But updates become fewer and fewer as more people are starting to lose electricity and Internet connection and as those with iPads and smartphones are saving battery juice. Most worrisome, I can’t дозвониться на мобильные телефоны (get through to their mobile phones). I’ll keep trying and when I do, here’s what I am going to ask:

Как вы там? – How are you? The casual Как вы поживаете? (How are you doing?) and Как у вас дела? (How are you?) sound entirely out of place and too wordy in emergencies.
Электричество ещё есть? – Do you still have electricity?
Вас не затопило? – Is your place flooded?
Все в порядке? – Is everyone ok?
Всё в порядке? – Is everything ok? Of course, I know they have no electricity, their basements are flooded and there are tree limbs scattered around their yards. But this question means whether anything unexpected and scary happened.

I will keep it very short, чтобы не разряжать их мобильники (so as not to drain their mobile phone’s batteries). And at the end of the conversation, feeling very powerless, I will tell them ну, держитесь (hang in there) and promise that я позвоню через пару часов (I will call again in a couple of hours).

In the mean time, all I can do is волноваться (to worry) and переживать (to be concerned) and надеяться (to hope) that the storm passes soon without wrecking any more damage.

If you follow the updates about Sandy in the Russian news, you might see find these words useful:

широкомасштабный – wide-scale
густонаселённый – heavily populated
общественный транспорт – public transportation
эвакуация – evacuation
железнодорожное сообщение – railway service
воздушное сообщение – air service
чрезвычайное положение – state of emergency
прибрежный – coastal
наводнение – flooding
стихия – in the given context, this is just another word to describe the hurricane as in основной удар стихии пришёлся по штату Нью-Джерси (the hurricane’s main blow fell on New Jersey).
ослабеть – to weaken
набрать силу – to strengthen
обесточен – left without electricity (literally, без тока – without electrical current)

And if you are in Sandy’s path, then держитесь! (hang in there!)