Patterico's Pontifications

FRANKENSTORM!!!!!11!!1!

Patterico (8b3905) — 10/29/2012 @ 6:41 pm

Mother Nature is treacherous bltch.

JD (318f81) — 10/29/2012 @ 6:43 pm

south of boston..missing a cat..lots o wind…
refuse to put on local idiot tv except at 10 when super hot maria st..something is on..i really hope she wears those boots!

pdbuttons (631b6d) — 10/29/2012 @ 6:45 pm

Something seem to be ms to be owrong occasionally with the electricty here.

I noticed a flickering or apparent on and off of a florescent kitchen light,..

And other lights too.

A television went off for a fraction of a second.

And this computer – an iMac3 – shut down.

Two other computers did not. They are on different circuits (if the power had been cut off and then came back on, they would have started rebooting)

I don’t know what can explain this. Voltage drops?

Outside (this was around 8:12 pm) I heard a crash. It sounded like a flowerpot falling off and breaking. Or something. And later another. And an ambulance in the background.

Sammy Finkelman (52d790) — 10/29/2012 @ 6:51 pm

I blame George Bush.

The Emperor (1f983c) — 10/29/2012 @ 6:52 pm

Earlier the television said the storm had affected Lake Michigan. They showed a picture of some clouds in a clear blue sky. That’s Milwakee, Wisconsin, they said. That’s how big it was.

Sammy Finkelman (52d790) — 10/29/2012 @ 6:54 pm

From CBS News

* Hurricane Sandy swallows presidential campaign

Sammy Finkelman (52d790) — 10/29/2012 @ 6:56 pm

this is historic I know cause they said so on the tv

happyfeet (6a0a22) — 10/29/2012 @ 6:58 pm

There’s been nothing but local news coverage on all television stations. We did not see the network evening news.

Sammy Finkelman (52d790) — 10/29/2012 @ 6:58 pm

I hope you find your cat

happyfeet (6a0a22) — 10/29/2012 @ 6:59 pm

Sammy & Happyfeet,

Where are each of you at now?

Dana (292dcf) — 10/29/2012 @ 7:01 pm

I’ve been watching NOAA radar since B4 noon. The eye reached a point SE of Dover and basically slowed to a crawl about 2PM local time.

Might be twenty five miles west of that position now.

gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 10/29/2012 @ 7:01 pm

Sammy–from the Chicago Tribune tonight:

Officials had a simple warning as the Chicago area braced for high winds and waves from a massive storm along the East Coast.

“Stay off the lake folks,” said Gary Schenkel, executive director of Office of Emergency Management and Communication. “Lake winds are going to be 50 to 60 mph. Waves could exceed the 24-foot mark. So please stay off the lake … This could be a very dangerous situation.”

The National Weather Service has issued a lakeshore flood warning for the Chicago area from 1 a.m. Tuesday until 4 p.m. Wednesday and a high wind warning from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday for Lake and Porter counties in Indiana because of the storm on the East Coast, where Hurricane Sandy is on track to collide with a wintry storm moving in from the west and cold air streaming down from the Arctic

elissa (6b23b9) — 10/29/2012 @ 7:02 pm

Bloomberg: High tide was at about 8:15. It is now 10 O’Clock. Worst of the storm is over. Rain will pass to our west.

Screen shows East River subway tunnels flooded.Five dead in New York State.

Sammy Finkelman (52d790) — 10/29/2012 @ 7:04 pm

it ain’t my cat! im house sitting! but-as a human who deals w cats-Sherman will be mighty righty ok

pdbuttons (631b6d) — 10/29/2012 @ 7:05 pm

A greeting from powerless NJ. Thank God for smartphones and mobile chargers

NJRob (ffd70a) — 10/29/2012 @ 7:05 pm

Shermans dos and donts
do fend for ur cat self
Do kill anybody in ur way-with extreme pawjudice
dont-get in a car with Teddy Kennedy

pdbuttons (631b6d) — 10/29/2012 @ 7:10 pm

Earlier they said that some water had breached Battery Oark. If it went into Manhattan power might be shut off below 36 Street in Manhattan. Later I heard some power was shut off in some unspecifoed area of Manhattan..

The storm made landfall in New Jersey, near Atlantic City.

The worst of the weather was supposed to be between 8 and 12 but in the newspapers shows it sort of circling New York City (a half circle) from 8 pm today to 8 am Wednesday.

Sammy Finkelman (52d790) — 10/29/2012 @ 7:11 pm

I’m in Brooklyn, but not that close to the ocean. It was semi-drizzling all day, with gusts up to maybe 10 mph. Maybe more at some other hours.

Sammy Finkelman (52d790) — 10/29/2012 @ 7:15 pm

Light just flickered 2 minutes ago.

Sammy Finkelman (52d790) — 10/29/2012 @ 7:16 pm

I missed the beginning of Fox 25 news at the start u can see her full body-im talking about Marie St. something-lots of vowels-Greek?/ so in the beginning u can see boot level.. then they go NEws and lots of sound /commercials
then back to marie..at the desk /headshot/ but tnight shes wearing blue/ and her hair is lebanese blond? you have to wait 60 min to see her full news body/ then she says..blah blah
I’m as old as her? maybe but i look loike shit! she must eat babies or something
I hate her! [I love Her]

pdbuttons (631b6d) — 10/29/2012 @ 7:22 pm

I hope everybody is safe.

JD (436368) — 10/29/2012 @ 7:26 pm

I remember a big storm. It rained all day, Heavy rain. the day after the 1972 Presidential election. Wednesday, November 8, 1972.

Also, Hurricane Agnes. I think that took place around the time of the primary, which was in June.

It was really further south, but its effects reached here. Same hing with any other hurricane. It creates rain 1,000 miles away.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Agnes

They didn’t do all these evacuations and transit shutdowns then.

Sammy Finkelman (52d790) — 10/29/2012 @ 7:29 pm

I just called Fox 25 news w an update and, I thought, a witty remark about Marie St. something
they blocked my number
I think its the hurricane

pdbuttons (631b6d) — 10/29/2012 @ 7:30 pm

pdbuttons, there are process servers who will serve the restraining order in a storm, you know.

SPQR (768505) — 10/29/2012 @ 7:31 pm

Earlir today,, V showed or told of Long Island power crew fixing downed lines. Reporter talked of rain bands.

Sammy Finkelman (52d790) — 10/29/2012 @ 7:32 pm

On TV tonight they showed it was wet on the east coast. Because of global warming.

JD (436368) — 10/29/2012 @ 7:34 pm

For those who appreciate visuals—Business Insider has seven or eight different threads with pictures of flooding, electrical explosions and gushing water in lower Manhattan, Ground Zero, Brooklyn Jane’s Carousel, subways, etc. Some of the photos are beautiful even as one recognizes the terrible economic and strucrural damage involved. A good part of the skyline seems to be dark as well.

elissa (6b23b9) — 10/29/2012 @ 7:37 pm

Lame lame update
south of boston/foxboro where the pats play
thet got local news peoples out but ALL of them are not rained on/videos[which they were picked to be dramatic]
lame… its like a windy storm here/ on the south of b toewn

pdbuttons (631b6d) — 10/29/2012 @ 7:40 pm

When I went out near 6 pm, a gust of wind maybe 5-10 mph the wind blew my hat off my head. It wasn’t down hard enough. It’s from material like a ski cap. I found it. I think it was because of my umbrella. It amplified the wind. I closed the umbrella. This was a new umbrella I bought at 10:17 am today.

I;d say 40% or more of the stores were open this morning. Mainly small stores (fruit) and big stores.

Sammy Finkelman (52d790) — 10/29/2012 @ 7:40 pm

In Philly there has been much less rain than anticipated (probably less than 2 inches where I am), but winds have been stronger than originally predicted- currently at “40 mph with gusts to 57”, looks like it is supposed to stay at this for another hour or so then start to clam down. Last I listened, lots of traffic problems from downed trees scattered about. My wife is at work and her facility had the power go out earlier.

Sounds like parts of Jersey and NYC have experienced or are anticipated to experience record ocean surge levels.

MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 10/29/2012 @ 7:44 pm

i bought a soundtrack to Mary Poppins/two umbrellas
rented a union hall/lined up speakers
but I couldn’t start a movement
Spoonful Of Sugar

pdbuttons (631b6d) — 10/29/2012 @ 7:46 pm

Electric crews from as far away as California are going to the East Coast to help restore electricity. I wish everyone well.

DRJ (a83b8b) — 10/29/2012 @ 7:49 pm

I’m on a hill. There is no flooding here. But the pictures I see of downtown are stunning. And it’s surreal every time I see a picture of a place i’ve been in the last two weeks, under water.

aphrael (ca5099) — 10/29/2012 @ 7:52 pm

> Sounds like parts of Jersey and NYC have experienced or are anticipated to experience record ocean surge levels.

Yes.

In addition, apparently the tunnels have flooded, which is going to hose us for transportation for days.

aphrael (ca5099) — 10/29/2012 @ 7:52 pm

Comment by DRJ — 10/29/2012 @ 7:49 pm

Yes, news here talked about all of the out of state workers being housed throughout NJ.

apparently the tunnels have flooded,
I wonder if this is the first time.
Not making light of it, just mentioning one particular disgusting thought. Lots of sewer rats swimming for their lives. I guess it’s not as bad as alligators and cotton mouths down south, but still.

MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 10/29/2012 @ 8:02 pm

Hurricane Sandy Epic Drift…

http://youtu.be/uGBpWhfDlfo

Colonel Haiku (a5f959) — 10/29/2012 @ 8:03 pm

It’s not caused by global warming, cos we’re on the other side of the globe and it’s…. warm.

AAAAAAAAaaaaaaahhhh!!!!

scrubone (e7e0ea) — 10/29/2012 @ 8:52 pm

As the storm moves up the coast the wind direction changes, now out of the east at 40 mph with gusts to 66.

G’night Chet.

MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 10/29/2012 @ 8:54 pm

The surge was something over 13 feet, breaking a record of something like 10 feet by Hurricane Donna.

The real disruption has been caused by all these emergency responses. Much more than the storm itself would cause. I include in this also the slowness of restoration.

Many radio and TV stations are now operating on generator power. More than 2 million, closer to 3 million (as of 8 p.m) in the New York metropolitan area (Pop 25 million plus – that’s probably New York City, Long Island, northern New Jersey, Westchester, Rockland Connecticut are now without electric power, and many don’t have cell phone service, Internet etc or have it in some special way.

Power was delieberately shut in lower Manhattan because of the possibility of water flooding the power lines (is this less of a disruption and easier to deal with than some local power outages? What,is there a shortage of copper wire?)

Originally, no hospitals, including those in the flood zone – by flood this means the water reaches at least the bottom of your ankles in the middle of the street – I mean really – were scheduled to be evacuated. Or only one a small one near the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. But now New York University Hospital, just below 33rd street on First Avenue in Manhattan, is being evacuated. The power was cut off and their back-up generator didn’t work. Bellevue too, just south of NYU Hosp, because it’s generator may have less than an hour of power left.

People whohave lost power because of downed power lines may have to wait 7-10days to get it back. It didn’t use to be that way before the 1990s. Now they’ve got all kinds of steps to take.

They like broadcasting in the dark (streets)

The Brooklyn Batttery Tunnel (just renamed after former Go. Hugh Carey) may be the only one that had a flood.

Sammy Finkelman (52d790) — 10/29/2012 @ 9:09 pm

The storm will head into Ohio. Not too long ago it was 10 SW of Philadelphia.

Sammy Finkelman (52d790) — 10/29/2012 @ 9:10 pm

One thing not closed was the airports (although most or all flights were canceled) because passengers may be stuck there.

Sammy Finkelman (52d790) — 10/29/2012 @ 9:14 pm

Some pieces of electronic equipment are very sensitive to voltage variations or something because this computer suddenly shut down about an hour ago I guess. (then I put it back on)

Sammy Finkelman (52d790) — 10/29/2012 @ 9:18 pm

.

Gazzer (a98701) — 10/29/2012 @ 9:42 pm

Just kidding! I’m in AZ with full power. Hope you East Coasters are all well and safe.

Gazzer (a98701) — 10/29/2012 @ 9:43 pm

Last night I went out about 9 pm. The subways had been shut down at 7 P.M. and the buses were scheduled for 9 P.M. I saw buses passing.. It wasn’t clear to me if none had passengers. I think the ones going one way did. At least some of them. Of course the route started an hour before. Maybe they were taking passengers but nobody expected them.

There was nothing going on except a small wind. I met Lester Jackson. He writes and sometimes gets some of his work published by web sites. He told me “This is ridiculous!” It was a fine night. When he went college in Wisconsin, snowstorms, and everything. Brooklyn College, where he does writing on their computers, is normally open on a Sunday till 6 p.m. but they closed at 4 p.m.

He told me the media not only lies about politics, they lie about the weather, and they lie about sports. Sports? He said he no longer pays attention to baseball (I didn’t know that they were playing the 4th game of the World Series that night)

He gave me an example. In 1984 they said Martina Navratolova (sp?)won the tennis grand slam. Then in 1988 they said Steffi Graf did for the first time. Because now they said it had to be in the same calendar year . This was a new thing even though she’d won the same tournaments – the Australian one had been moved from December to January. Then Monica Seles (sp?) came along.

In 1993 she was stabbed by a person said to be a Steffi Graf fan. So now afterward they talked about what a great player Steffi Graf won even though this was only because Monica Seles had been stabbed because now she won many of the tournaments Monica Seles would have won. (of course there is the thought what if Monica Seles hadn’t started playing tennis in the first place)

He also said he called up Rite Aid – the Rite id open 24 hours a day, and they were open. So was a fruit store on the corner. He said that was the difference between capitalism and socialism.

(I think this may have to do with central planning. Everybody who got called by the planners caved. This was worse than TARP. Closer to the TSA.)

Also yesterday PATH was scheduled to close at midnight.

This morning I heard John Gambling on WOR radio 710 AM talk about this question of whether they had closed the subways too early. He was rationalizing it by saying they wanted people to stay home. If it was that, they should have it stop at around 5:30 AM.

But really people need help getting around. This was all due to their “worst case” scenario planning. Maybe the buses might need some protection. And you could actually do some erratic sevice. I think they are storing subway cars in the middle of tunnels underground in places that don;t flood. It’ll take them 12 hours to restart – again because of caution. Suddenly they are going to worry their signals are no good.

This morning, all the newspapers were delivered.

As for mail, we didn’t get any, but I heard from someone else that they were delivering mail in some blocks. he talked to a mailman. It seems like they were told to finish work at 12 noon. So what mail as delivered before was delivered.

The Chase bank, normally opening at 8:30, opened sometime after 8:45 AM. I have no idea how it will be tomorrow. Across the street it looked like there was a woman waiting for a bus. There was only a mild drizzle.

But when I went in the park at about 9:35 (or was it later?) I saw a downed tree branch. at the other end of the park was a sign saying the park was “closed”

Sammy Finkelman (52d790) — 10/29/2012 @ 9:50 pm

I think Sammy may be Rainman…and therefore an excellent driver.

Gazzer (a98701) — 10/29/2012 @ 9:58 pm

Sammy, the storm today was pretty nasty. It wasn’t clear when things would get bad; I think the city officials can be forgiven for calling it a few hours too early.

aphrael (ca5099) — 10/29/2012 @ 9:59 pm

Hi dana I’m in Wiggins Mississippi… I was heading toward Ship Island but it’s closed cause of Hurricane Isaac damage…

So next I’ll just kick around biloxi a bit then off to bellingrath gardens or Dauphin Island if the gardens are closed

I love Wiggins btw it’s beautiful here next to a national forest that has some hiking and there’s some neat places to eat and the people are very sweet-natured

happyfeet (6a0a22) — 10/29/2012 @ 9:59 pm

On West 9th Street a tree fell down (or a branch)some time ago (early August I think) and knocked down part of a fence of a house. There was an emergency tree removal, which took a few days, and what they left behind including some things surrounding the tree, is still there.

Trees (or branches) seem to fall in every storm. You wonder how there can be anything left to fall.

At 5:30 or so the park had many more fallen trees (I mean branches) than just the one at 9:30. I think in the middle of the day there was a strong wind. (wind is also given as the reason for closing bridges)

But the wind seems never to have been too fast around here, and there never was real rain – just a persistent almost drizzle.

There was a tree (or branches again) on the street too that had fallen and yellow crime scene tape (?)

I heard on the radio the police had asked that people stop calling about fallen trees. It was clogging up the lines.

Sammy Finkelman (52d790) — 10/29/2012 @ 10:01 pm

It’s somewhat bigger drops than a drizzle, with 75% or so of the drops missing, and a wind of 5 mph maybe.

Sammy Finkelman (52d790) — 10/29/2012 @ 10:04 pm

Comment by aphrael — 10/29/2012 @ 9:59 pm

Sammy, the storm today was pretty nasty.

It got a little bit bad, but not worse than we have other times.

It wasn’t clear when things would get bad; I think the city officials can be forgiven for calling it a few hours too early.

They called it aarly because of this idea of evacuation and the idea that you can’t evacuate too late or else you;’ll get caught in the storm. Much of the disruption was their own doing, including the below 39 Stret (approx) Manhttan blackout.

They shut things down about 15 to 17 hours before anything hit.

And for somethings he best thing to do is nothing or almost nothing, and handle emergencies as they arise – don’t try to beat them to the punch.

Sammy Finkelman (52d790) — 10/29/2012 @ 10:10 pm

Or,I should say, pre-empt then, This causes more and worse disruption,

So, some electrical cables in Manhattan will fail. they’ll be replaced. In the meantime, nobody has power and at the worst time.

Sammy Finkelman (52d790) — 10/29/2012 @ 10:19 pm

Well, it could be better….

Mrs. Reff and I have been without power in our house since 4:45 AM on August 29th. Hurricane Issac tore through our east face of the roof, and we lost all three bedrooms, our bath, the main hall, part of the kitchen/dining area. Ceiling fell in, water everywhere, losing furniture, clothing, electronics….

Our 45 year old house had aluminum wiring, so, all power has had to be off until the wiring gets replaced. After the failure of the insurance company to get an adjuster out for the first 9 days, then 10 more waiting for the adjustment to be completed, the 10 more to get another adjustment for the electrical work (the first one had only statements to replace ceiling fans-nothing else electrical), 5 more days to get A/C -Duct work adjustments, we are finally getting walls back up this week.

We had no damage for Katrina, or any of the other storms of the past 40 years. Luckily we were here for this one, and were able to save the important items in our lives, besides ourselves, and there was no real danger…

I bring all this up because sometimes it is funny watching other parts of the country go through what we go through here on an almost annual basis. Sort of like how it seems odd that people in northern cities die from the heat of the summer, when that almost never happens in the south during that same hotter summer we get….we still do not have power in our home, going the last 55 days without it hasn’t made it any better, but, we are ok, and will be back to what passes for normal in a few weeks….we’ve camped out in our living room for the past four weeks, after commuting from the hotel downtown in New Orleans for the first three weeks after the storm…

I hope no one in the endangered area has real problems, or losses…that they all stay safe, secure, dry….

BUT, any idea that they have it bad, or are “suffering” pales to what happens here….

I guess I’ve made a bit of an ass of myself here, but, I’ll leave this up….

reff (4dcda2) — 10/29/2012 @ 10:34 pm

______________________________________________

It got a little bit bad, but not worse than we have other times.

Which reminds me of the fact that the science and statistics revolving around Sandy are far more definitive and accessible — far more obvious and within smaller, well-defined parameters — compared with the very ambiguous and much more complicated matter of (horrors of horrors!) anthropogenic global warming.

And with the dumbness of the left in mind, I just bet (dollars to donuts—whatever the heck that phrase means) that the people (per below) who ruled against the defendants are liberals. I have that sneaking suspicion because in general, whenever common sense is getting battered and bruised, invariably — invariably — liberal sentiment is at the core of the matter.

http://www.independent.co.uk, October 22:

An Italian court has handed down six-year jail sentences to six scientists and a senior government official for failing to properly communicate the risk ahead of the deadly L’Aquila earthquake, in a verdict that will shock and surprise the international scientific community.

In the regional court in L’Aquila, the medieval city levelled by the April 2009 disaster, all seven were found guilty of manslaughter. Two judges decided the experts had downplayed the risk of a massive quake striking the region in the days ahead of the tragedy/i>.

Mark (66bba6) — 10/29/2012 @ 10:37 pm

Not too bothered by the storm here in Patchogue, Long Island. Power went out about 4:30 PM yesterday but was restored by the LIPA crews by 8:00 PM – we get power outages when there is a heavy dew so the LIPA crews have plenty of on-the-job practice. Got some weird people out here – one guy was asked what he would do if there was a power outage – he said “I will watch TV by candlelight.”

Michael M. Keohane (d17171) — 10/29/2012 @ 11:20 pm

Did y’all see the quote from Christie praising our president for his leadership in the offer of help he made to the governor? Fantastic leadership that we would not see, and are not seeing, from the Left.

Romney announced hours and hours ago that the campaign was suspended. He would hold events, but they were to be rallys of support for storm victims. So, what was the headline in the story in the Dayton News? “Romney to hold campaign rally tomorrow.”

If y’all have a chance, YouTube the fallen father of the SEAL Woods’ appearance on Hannity Monday night. Incredible power. The anti-Cindy Sheehan. Also, Dick Morris announced his readership had pledged $350K!!! for the fatherless son of Woods. And Pat Caddell and a Dem pollster were insisting that Romney is beginning to close out BHO electorally. The Rasmussen Ohio poll (LV 52-48 Romney)is horrid for BHO.

Now let’s see what hay the Chicago boys make out of this crisis which will most certainly NOT go to waste.

Ed from SFV (3c1364) — 10/29/2012 @ 11:23 pm

Candlelight dinner with my lovely wife here on Cape
Cod. {Power restored 12 hours later at 5 a.m.}

mg (31009b) — 10/30/2012 @ 3:13 am

I’m in New Hampshire. I welcome the storm. I had to suffer through Obama’s visit last Saturday and the Secret Service routed every singe Obama supporter past my front door.

The rain is cleansing the neighborhood. There won’t be a single Obama sign standing. 🙂

Ned (7f9827) — 10/30/2012 @ 3:59 am

Reff – I, and likely we, had no idea.

JD (436368) — 10/30/2012 @ 4:19 am

JD, thanks for the thoughts….I’m sorry I vented so badly, after the evening on the couch thinking about what I wrote, I should take some of it back…

I truly hope those in the storm’s path are safe, and with the necessities of life still solid….

I don’t wish what we are going through to anyone….

We will, however, recover and be whole again…

reff (4dcda2) — 10/30/2012 @ 6:41 am

Is there anything we can do? Anything you need?

JD (436368) — 10/30/2012 @ 6:51 am

reff I understand your post and see no problem at all with it. Coming from tornadoes in Ohio and winter in Wisconsin I tend to see things the same way overall, but there are some small details to consider

I think when you relatively frequently have tropical storm/hurricane winds things (when they are built well) are built for it. Also, trees that are exposed to such I imagine get weak branches “pruned” by the wind and such. Here in Philly where we see 50+ mph winds rarely, when they do come it’s like 10 years worth of decay coming down all at once.

Then you have the issues that while in the south people need to expect hurricanes, they don’t build for a direct hit of a Cat 5. They hedge their bets and think that will happen only once a century and it won’t happen while they’re there. Likewise the NE knows it will get the occ. hurricane or hurricane remnant, but it’s not like people are routinely building and planning for a Cat 2 in mind and just laugh at the small stuff.

I wonder if we’ll hear from aphrael today, I guess parts of Manhattan are a real mess, flooded subways even. Philadelphia is too far up river to suffer that I think unless a hurricane decides to march up Delaware Bay for as close as a direct hit as possible.

MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 10/30/2012 @ 6:53 am

reff,

You’ve had a rough 2 months. I’m glad the end is in sight. I’m also glad you commented.

DRJ (a83b8b) — 10/30/2012 @ 6:56 am

Reff — knowing that such things happen as an abstraction and knowing that one layer more of detail, and that they’ve happened to someone you know, what a difference to my thoughts of disaster. Thank you for putting a face (so to speak) on the woes. Recover and go on, may God bless you and yours, and all of those in storm’s way.

htom (412a17) — 10/30/2012 @ 7:00 am

________________________________________

Power went out about 4:30 PM yesterday but was restored by the LIPA crews by 8:00 PM

In some ways the damage doesn’t seem necessarily as severe as feared, or as viewed from a distance. For instance, it seems that fewer people lost their power and remain without power hours after the fact. I thought that was going to be the biggest issue and inconvenience.

But I do wonder how common or uncommon this experience is throughout the effected areas?

Mark (66bba6) — 10/30/2012 @ 7:12 am

DRJ..htom…JD…MD…. thanks for the kind thoughts….there is a tunnel in the distance, although Mrs. Reff doesn’t agree….putting on make-up by flashlight can do that to you….

We don’t have needs, except the obvious, to get this done….having had so little problems in the past storms made this one seem so much “worse” when it wasn’t, except for those like us who had real damage due to the wind….there was a lot of local complaints about getting power restored (holding my sarc tag close here) and that will happen in the northeast, especially since power is everything in our world….

MD, we do built tough here…my 20 year hurricane roof failed after 7 years, because an “East wind” hit on it for 18 hours…even that is a “fluke” for hurricane winds, which usually go circular and come and go in a 8-10 hour period…..Katrina was the outlier because the levees failed, not the buildings, and the water stayed. Flooding is bad, but if it comes and goes, people can begin to deal with it. I helped several people rebuild in different ways after Katrina when their flooding came and went, but some Katrina flooding came, and stayed, 10-15 days in some cases, so, that made it tough….the Gulf Coast flood came and went, wiping everything out, so, even as bad as that is, you start the rebuilding process immediately. We had no damage after Katrina, but the government kept us out for 21 days, so, that was a headache.

The worst thing in my home is the time everything has taken because of the human process. I’ve been doing some little thing nearly every day but when you have to wait for humans to do their “process” that is when the frustration sets in.

Again, thanks all for the kind words, and again, I hope I haven’t been too hard on the Yankees….may God spare all, and keep them safe….

reff (4dcda2) — 10/30/2012 @ 7:38 am

Sammy: since the storm surge was 3 feet above record, and since multiple subway tunnels flooded, as did the battery tunnel … which didn’t happen after Irene (for example), I find it implausible that the storm was no worse than others that NYC has had in the past.

As for the logistics of whether an early shutdown is better than a late shutdown, I think I’m going to take the word of the professionals on this. What they say *consistently* before just about any storm of this nature is that it’s better to move movable assets out of the way *in advance*, because this reduces damage to them.

I know I’d rather deal with the inconvenience of a shutdown a couple hours early than the inconvenience of a prolonged shutdown due to damage after the fact.

aphrael (f1d203) — 10/30/2012 @ 7:41 am

MD, I live on a bluff overlooking the Hudson and Harlem; I haven’t been out of my house since Sunday afternoon. I might go out today, but since I telecommute to a company in California and have power, I should be working, and my interest in going out will be lower at night (for safety reasons; it’s harder to see hazardous conditions).

The impression I get from the local media is that lower manhattan was badly flooded, as was anything along the east river. And the Rockaways are on fire.

aphrael (f1d203) — 10/30/2012 @ 7:43 am

> Flooding is bad, but if it comes and goes, people can begin to deal with it.

Yeah, that’s the NYC situation. The flood was bad, but the water has mostly receded.

Except for the tunnels, which have to be pumped out … and then the electrical components checked to make sure they didn’t corrode.

aphrael (f1d203) — 10/30/2012 @ 7:44 am

Called the baby on Long Island and got his answering machine. Which means he has power at home and power at work.

nk (875f57) — 10/30/2012 @ 7:49 am

Good luck, reff. I remember you posting and me asking if you were around Tulane.

nk (875f57) — 10/30/2012 @ 7:50 am

ugh…so the New Yorker magazine lauds “Obama’s Sandy Show”…..asks “will the President’s spot-on performance during the hurricane change the election forecast?” Here I thought doofus was firmly in control and would handily whip the guy not like us (mormon). Still, I do wonder wonder just why so many libtard newspapers are endorsing Romney?

Other articles use Sandy to lament the idea that climate change/the green boondoogle is being ignored in the campaigning. So someone tell me, who are the bigger assclowns- the Manhattan elites or the west coast LA Times/Hollywood swells/Berkeley suppositories for barack crowd?

Calypso Louis Farrakhan (e799d8) — 10/30/2012 @ 7:54 am

Politico reports that FEMA is looking at Hurricane Sandy’s impact on the election, including a possible delay in some states.

DRJ (a83b8b) — 10/30/2012 @ 8:06 am

DRJ, it’s a real problem:

how do polling places which use electronic voting machines function when power is out?

aphrael (ca5099) — 10/30/2012 @ 8:08 am

MD, we do built tough here…my 20 year hurricane roof failed after 7 years, because an “East wind” hit on it for 18 hours…even that is a “fluke” for hurricane winds, which usually go circular and come and go in a 8-10 hour period…..

I hope you didn’t think I was suggesting that you didn’t build strong enough, my intended point was that the NE builds for, say, 90% of storms like the south builds for 90% (or so) of its storms, but when a record storm surge or atypical wind pattern happens then things fail even if the NE storm is “not as bad” as a Gulf Coast storm.

Yes, the winds here were originally from the N at gusting over 50, which in one way didn’t worry me too much as where the trees are and where the house is gives room for branches and trees to fall south, but the winds stayed that strength and rotated around to the NE then E, and different aspects of the house and windows etc. started taking it, but we and our local area didn’t suffer much at all.

MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 10/30/2012 @ 8:13 am

I heard that it is entirely possible that some localities could delay the election as long as it is done in time for the results to be known before the electoral college votes, which I don’t know offhand, but I know it’s considerably later than Nov. 6.

MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 10/30/2012 @ 8:15 am

Electronic ballots are not the problem. They’re optional. Lights to read the paper ballots with are the problem. And then the voting counting machines. What does it matter in New York, New Jersey, or Massachussetts, in any case?

nk (875f57) — 10/30/2012 @ 8:16 am

The liberal newspapers are endorsing Romney because of the economy, which has bitten them in the pocketbook. (Probably mostly the real estate ad section, which seems to have almost vanished.)

htom (412a17) — 10/30/2012 @ 8:16 am

MD – i’m curious how exit poll embargos would work in that scenario. Do you delay the entire state? or just certain precincts? And if the latter, can you embargo exit polls in the state until everyone has voted?

aphrael (ca5099) — 10/30/2012 @ 8:18 am

NK: electronic ballots are not optional in all jurisdictions, unfortunately.

———–

Also, while the *presidential* election results may not matter in NY, NJ, or MA, we do have local elections which are competitive.

aphrael (ca5099) — 10/30/2012 @ 8:19 am

I’m in Chicago, BTW. And whoever said Sandy affected us … our weather comes from the west. We get Texas hurricanes. And Lake Michigan is 460 feet above seal level. We get 60 mph winds and 100 mph gusts just about every August from tornadoes.

nk (875f57) — 10/30/2012 @ 8:20 am

HTOM: that’s a pretty silly argument. The real estate ad section is vanishing from the newspapers because real estate advertising – at least in the big cities – moved to Craigslist or other comparable web sites.

It’s not the short-term economy; it’s the long-term trend towards the death of newspapers caused by the breakdown of their economic model.

aphrael (ca5099) — 10/30/2012 @ 8:21 am

Aphrael, only electronic? Can’t be.

nk (875f57) — 10/30/2012 @ 8:22 am

I don’t know, aphrael. In one way I don’t think it matters much for NY as far as the presidential goes. I think everyone thinks NY will go to Obama, and if it doesn’t, then it probably won’t make a difference because it would likely be a Romney landslide.
Unless NY is a state that splits its electoral votes, but I didn’t think it was.

MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 10/30/2012 @ 8:22 am

Yes, I imagine if there are US senate races, for example, maybe it would be best to delay the entire state.

MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 10/30/2012 @ 8:25 am

I love stuff like this: Could oyster beds have provided New York with some protection from Sandy?

DRJ (a83b8b) — 10/30/2012 @ 8:28 am

Never mind, Aphrael. I remember. Voting machines, only.

Long time ago, in a place near, young policeman, assigned to poll watching, walks into the polling place, before it’s open, and sees the Democratic precinct captain voting on the pull lever machines. About a hundred times.

nk (875f57) — 10/30/2012 @ 8:31 am

The Massachusetts Senate race is competitive and could decide which Party controls the Senate. But delaying the election means voters will probably know who the next President will be. It seems to me that could influence voters, especially if Romney wins.

DRJ (a83b8b) — 10/30/2012 @ 8:33 am

MD – the NY State Senate is almost evenly balanced and the election will determine which party controls it.

aphrael (ca5099) — 10/30/2012 @ 8:34 am

Then maybe it’s the local restaurant ads that are down, or the local garages, or the movie ads … they’ve discovered that the bad economy is hurting them, too, regardless of the honeyed words of the politicians.

htom (412a17) — 10/30/2012 @ 8:34 am

Of course, it could also depress the vote because the Presidential election wouldn’t matter.

DRJ (a83b8b) — 10/30/2012 @ 8:35 am

DRJ, right. If, say, Romney wins, and – worse – MA’s election decides the Senate, and it’s been delayed, then the election becomes all about that.

I’d generally prefer not to see the election delayed, but holding an election in places still storm-damaged will be very, very difficult.

aphrael (ca5099) — 10/30/2012 @ 8:38 am

There is no exception in the Constitution for bad weather. Or man-caused disasters. The elections will take place as they take place. The electoral college will be as the respective state legislatures have configured it.

nk (875f57) — 10/30/2012 @ 8:38 am

Incidentally, NYC itself now uses optical scan ballots (which are really the only electronic ballots I can stand).

aphrael (ca5099) — 10/30/2012 @ 8:40 am

NK – the date of the election is set by Congress, not the Constitution. It’s entirely possible for Congress to allow an extension for emergency conditions.

I doubt they will. But they would have the legal authority to do so.

aphrael (ca5099) — 10/30/2012 @ 8:40 am

Bush v. Gore has no precedential value, BTW. It was per curiam. The Supreme Court behaving like “knock it off, idiots”. What really mattered, Constitutionally, was the Florida legislature’s panel of electors.

nk (875f57) — 10/30/2012 @ 8:42 am

HTOM: again, every one of those things – restaurants, garages, movies – I no longer look in newspapers for. I did, 20 years ago; today I use the internet.

The newspaper industry is swimming against a long-term trend which is destroying it; their revenue model no longer works. This is true regardless of who is president and what the larger-scale economy is doing. The smart newspaper guys know this.

aphrael (ca5099) — 10/30/2012 @ 8:42 am

The election is still a week away and my guess is it will go forward, although some polling places may have to be changed. All in all, though, I think it will depress the vote in some communities.

DRJ (a83b8b) — 10/30/2012 @ 8:50 am

DRJ – I think it dramatically increases the odds of a Romney popular vote victory coupled with an Obama electoral vote victory.

aphrael (ca5099) — 10/30/2012 @ 8:51 am

Any way you slice it this massive storm is setting things up for people to be spun and outraged and suspicious regardless of how the national election turns out. Postpone them for the first time in history and many people will forever suspect malicious intent and fraud. Move to paper ballots and manual counting in locations where electric is still out and many people will suspect hi-jinks. A great number of voters may be unable to make it to the polls because they’ve been evacuated and they have no homes to return to–they’ll of course be encouraged by partisans to be angry and feel disenfranchised and believe their vote might have changed the outcome.

I had so hoped that for the sake of our nation this presidential election would end up being an unambiguous and incontestable win/landslide for either Romney or Obama. Damn. Just damn.

The storm and speed of recovery also have the potential to create similar election integrity issues with the critical and tight CT and MA senate races.

elissa (5a96b8) — 10/30/2012 @ 8:53 am

I thought the details of running elections is a “local”, not federal matter.

I just heard that Gov. Christie has said it will be at least 4 days before the trains into NYC will be operating again.

MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 10/30/2012 @ 9:01 am

How bad did MA get hit? Control of the US Senate certainly is in play and the race in MA could affect it.

MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 10/30/2012 @ 9:03 am

MD – it’s a hybrid matter.

The US Constitution says:

“The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but Congress may at any time make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Place of chusing Senators.”

Congress has long since chosen to do so:

2 USC 7 specifies:

The Tuesday next after the 1st Monday in November, in every even numbered year, is established as the day for the election, in each of the States and Territories of the United States, of Representatives and Delegates to the Congress commencing on the 3d day of January next thereafter.

aphrael (ca5099) — 10/30/2012 @ 9:10 am

aphrael,

I don’t see how the aftermath of the storm will increase Obama’s electoral vote. These are blue states and they can’t get any more blue. So I assume you think this will depresss the popular vote in the Northeast, increasing Romney’s share of the national popular vote but not enough to keep Obama from winning the electoral college. Is that your thinking?

DRJ (a83b8b) — 10/30/2012 @ 9:12 am

Thanks, aphrael.

MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 10/30/2012 @ 9:12 am

DRJ, yes, that’s what i’m thinking. It will decrease turnout up here, which won’t effect the EV outcome in the northeastern states but will effect the total popular vote.

Basically, I was predicting a narrow Obama win in the electoral college to begin with; I think he maintains that but his popular vote drops because, really, who can be bothered voting when their home is flooded and they’ve been evacuated?

aphrael (ca5099) — 10/30/2012 @ 9:14 am

elissa,

We are too polarized for the committed on either side to accept the outcome of this election, even with ideal voting conditions. My hope is that some of the Democratic voters will swing back into the independent column for a few years.

DRJ (a83b8b) — 10/30/2012 @ 9:17 am

The date of the elections will not be changed. Period. Guaranteed.

Polling times may be extended. Done before.

We are a people who exterminated a race (the Indians), enslaved another (the Africans), conquered another (the Mexicans), fought a war on two oceans and won. No politicians will dare go beyond fooling us.

nk (875f57) — 10/30/2012 @ 9:18 am

I agree with nk. I think it’s more likely that some polling places will be closed or moved, and others will be adjusted to open for longer hours or add more voting machines. It will be inconvenient and confusing, and may even be used by some to further the narrative of voter suppression. But the main problem is electricity and cleanup, and that can be fixed in a week in most polling locations.

DRJ (a83b8b) — 10/30/2012 @ 9:28 am

I have gone overspeaking once again. I’m sorry.

I meant to say: This is America.

nk (875f57) — 10/30/2012 @ 9:33 am

aphrael,

I’m curious. Do you think an Obama win is likely, possible, or wishful/positive thinking?

DRJ (a83b8b) — 10/30/2012 @ 9:35 am

Back to the original storm topic, if you haven’t seen hint.fm/wind, it’s a visualization of surface wind data from the national digital forecast database, which updates hourly.

if this visualization is to be believed, the circulation for (now) tropical storm Sandy dominates wind flow from Maine to Georgia, and from the coast to the Mississippi.

aphrael (ca5099) — 10/30/2012 @ 9:36 am

DRJ: I think a narrow Obama win is the most likely outcome. I think he has Nevada in the bag, and I think he’ll get Ohio. I think Romney will not pull of a surprise in Wisconsin, Michigan, or Pennsylvania. I see Romney’s best case as this:

http://www.270towin.com/2012_election_predictions.php?mapid=XSj

aphrael (ca5099) — 10/30/2012 @ 9:38 am

I have been saying for a while that whether to vote for Romney, for Ryan, or against Obama, people would crawl through broken glass to vote this year.

I just didn’t know they were going to have to swim to the crawlspace.

luagha (5cbe06) — 10/30/2012 @ 10:55 am

115. The only conceivable effect of a week to ten days without power will be to discourage the ambivalent from brushing their teeth, cooking their meals, changing their underwear daily, and voting.

Tough to see Blue states coming in for R&R but badly run gulags like CT, RI and DE are ripe.

I’m thinking my prediction of 337 EV now about a score shy.

gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 10/30/2012 @ 11:09 am

114. Having lived 40-odd in WI I say you know not whereof you speak. R&R by 2+.

gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 10/30/2012 @ 11:13 am

I just got to a place with electricity so I have internet! Wahooo!! Only temporary, though, no power at home (Long Island). I’m hearing 10 days or more to fully restore power with over 85% of Long Island without juice. I lost 4 big trees (2 feet in diameter) in my yard, one took out my gazebo and another my retaining wall, but thankfully nothing hit the house. I live in a seaside town, the water came up over the town docks and part way up Main Street. Trees are down everywhere. It’s a mess. But the one saving grace — NO POLITICAL COMMERCIALS BECAUSE I HAVE NO CABLE!

Sparrow (611000) — 10/30/2012 @ 11:24 am

Occupy Wall Street’s OFFICIAL response to the hurricane. Enjoy:
“No subways. No electricity. No chains. That community you’re experiencing, in the face of crisis? It’s always there. Think about what it is that usually obscures it.”
[Hint: greedy, evil, capitalism!]
“Go outside. Meet your neighbors. Talk. Share a meal. When capitalism retreats, our communities flourish.”
[Told ya!]
“As capitalism halts, we experience ‘an exceptional period of mutual support and common care.'”
[Nothing fosters membership in the collective more than a good natural disaster!]
— That’s right, folks; they are CELEBRATING this devestation and death as being a GOOD thing.
Okay, to be fair, they are ignoring the death part; but the devestation? Totally righteous, dude!

Icy (87c0dc) — 10/30/2012 @ 11:28 am

Maybe if they do away with plastic garbage bags and antibiotics made by evil capitalists they will get to experience even more community in the next week as garbage builds up and illness breaks out.

MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 10/30/2012 @ 11:42 am

Google has a power outage map.

DRJ (a83b8b) — 10/30/2012 @ 11:51 am

Click on the little orange signs to go to each power companies outage page.

DRJ (a83b8b) — 10/30/2012 @ 11:52 am

Re: the Google Map power outages page:

Here’s the Con Ed page. There are massive outages but the estimated restoration time for virtually all of them is the next 2 days, although that may be wishful thinking.

And here’s the page for Long Island Power with almost a million affected customers. Most of the estimates of how long it will take to restore show as “Assessing Condition.”

DRJ (a83b8b) — 10/30/2012 @ 11:58 am

Not surprisingly, the Atlantic City power grid looks to be hardest hit.

DRJ (a83b8b) — 10/30/2012 @ 11:59 am

The various power companies around Philly and South Jersey say this is a record for number of customers without power.

MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 10/30/2012 @ 12:00 pm

The baby is without power on Long Island (Nassau) but he has the old fashioned telephone service, powered by TPC (the telephone company) through the phone jack. He’s an eye surgeon. His office is closed. His hospitals are on generator, emergencies only, no electives.

nk (875f57) — 10/30/2012 @ 2:37 pm

The NYT blog is reporting that Congressman Bob Turner (the Republican who won the special election for Anthony Weiner’s seat, got hosed in redistricting, and then tried and failed in the US Senate primary) lost his house in the fires on Far Rockaway.

:{

aphrael (ca5099) — 10/30/2012 @ 3:20 pm

Chris Christie didn’t get the memo. Praising evil clueless Obama for a job well done and his help in this storm is denounceable beyond words.

The Emperor (dc1df5) — 10/30/2012 @ 3:42 pm

Love, you just can’t get it right, can you?

Icy (e9ce64) — 10/30/2012 @ 4:22 pm

I thought the thing got banned after its horrid comment in the other thread.

nk (875f57) — 10/30/2012 @ 4:31 pm

Icy, are you feeling embarrassed by his comments? Surely you must be. Doesn’t help with the whole Obama is inept narrative, especially 7 days before the election. Yes, I just can’t get it right.

The Emperor (fc6588) — 10/30/2012 @ 4:33 pm

Enjoy the Last Daze of Teh Won, Whimperor. He’ll soon be gone.

Colonel Haiku (3b2b50) — 10/30/2012 @ 4:39 pm

The Pimperor lurvs him somes b-smoove, fo shizzle.

Media Mutters (721840) — 10/30/2012 @ 4:42 pm

120.Maybe if they do away with plastic garbage bags and antibiotics made by evil capitalists they will get to experience even more community in the next week as garbage builds up and illness breaks out.

Didn’t they experience that last summer?

Media Mutters (721840) — 10/30/2012 @ 4:44 pm

World Nut Daily
“COULD ‘FRANKENSTORM’ BE A SIGN FROM GOD?”
http://www.wnd.com/2012/10/could-frankenstorm-be-a-sign-from-god/

The Muslim Brotherhood is saying the same thing.
Religious kooks

sleeeepy (b5f718) — 10/30/2012 @ 4:48 pm

Do they not have the ’38 storm in their records, that was a Cat 3 when it arrived.

narciso (ee31f1) — 10/30/2012 @ 4:53 pm

Nothing quite like slurpy playing SQUIRREL.

I find it shocking that WND did what WND does. Almost as shocking as Bill Clinton or the NY Times trying to use this disaster to advance their political agenda. If you lean forward far enough, slurpy, you can achieve full cranial rectal inversion.

JD (436368) — 10/30/2012 @ 5:02 pm

I give Barcky an A+ in monitoring a natural disaster. He is the bestest mostest awesomest monitor of a storm EVAH!

JD (436368) — 10/30/2012 @ 5:04 pm

Obambi is going to win.

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2012/10/people-who-cant-do-math-are-so-mad-nate-silver/58460/

Mitt Romney In GOP Debate: Shut Down Federal Disaster Agency, Send Responsibility To The States
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/28/mitt-romney-fema_n_2036198.html

I’m not voting this time.
Call it political passivity or just contempt.
I don’t care.

sleeeepy (b5f718) — 10/30/2012 @ 5:05 pm

Slurpy is spamming again. Shocka!

JD (436368) — 10/30/2012 @ 5:13 pm

Especially cute is the link to Elspeth Reeve Beauchamp

JD (436368) — 10/30/2012 @ 5:15 pm

137 – thank you!!

mg (31009b) — 10/30/2012 @ 5:31 pm

Could you give me the number of that website;

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/10/30/Powe-Fail-Obama-Sends-Storm-Victims-to-internet

narciso (ee31f1) — 10/30/2012 @ 5:40 pm

narciso–Sending storm victims with no power to the internet for updates has a real “Stand up Chuck” vibe to it, doesn’t it?

elissa (5a96b8) — 10/30/2012 @ 6:05 pm

Why is it that Democrats always exaggerate FEMA’s responsibilities, pretending its a first response agency – when it plainly is not.

SPQR (768505) — 10/30/2012 @ 6:07 pm

Because they don’t know any better.

narciso (ee31f1) — 10/30/2012 @ 6:19 pm

Despite my liking every “girl looking” tendencies, elspeth does not strike my match.

nk (875f57) — 10/30/2012 @ 6:39 pm

I’m not voting this time.
Call it political passivity or just contempt.
I don’t care.
Comment by sleeeepy — 10/30/2012 @ 5:05 pm

— And we don’t care that you’re not voting. We’re on the same page at last.

Icy (e9ce64) — 10/30/2012 @ 6:44 pm

Icy, are you feeling embarrassed by his comments? Surely you must be. Doesn’t help with the whole Obama is inept narrative, especially 7 days before the election. Yes, I just can’t get it right.
Comment by The Emperor — 10/30/2012 @ 4:33 pm

— What would you have Christie do, attack the man that just declared his state a disaster area?

Icy (e9ce64) — 10/30/2012 @ 6:53 pm

– And we don’t care that you’re not voting.

In fact, we encourage you not to. You should disenfranchise yourself. Every time.

JD (436368) — 10/30/2012 @ 6:55 pm

Gee whiz, the lefty trolls certainly seem dispirited.

Ag80 (b2c81f) — 10/30/2012 @ 6:58 pm

Too bad we didn’t tell these trolls that they were handing out free birth control and food stamps on the boardwalk in Atlantic City just b4 Miss Sandy arrived. 😆

peedoffamerican (ee1de0) — 10/30/2012 @ 7:23 pm

Icy–
I thought Christie’s very clever public sucking up to the WH was classic and showed what a great politician Gov. Christie really is. Even though CC is a spirited partisan and has been one of Romney’s most effective surrogates, this showed New Jerseyans of all persuasions that he wasn’t playing politics with the disaster (even though he sorta was). Saying that he and the president had talked 5 times yesterday also got him and his state’s plight a lot of air time which suggests Obama will have to bend over backwards to prove deserved that “complement”. This ultimately benefits the citizens of N.J. who were hit hard by Sandy.

IOW, the Emperor is full of malarkey.

elissa (09e02a) — 10/30/2012 @ 7:24 pm

IOW, lovie is what’s left after bananas are digested.

Why do trolls come here, anyway? Nobody takes them into account. To derail threads? I’m already doing that.

nk (875f57) — 10/30/2012 @ 7:35 pm

MD….I did not mean to imply that you were being less than caring in your posts about building in any hurricane alley. I’ve always had problems with people who don’t build tough, but, we’ve had enough over the years that we tend to build tough enough…I’m really pissed at my roofer, who I thought was a friend, who didn’t come through when his roof failed….had my roof not failed, no problems at all….and I’ve never flooded, even though all of my neighbors have (I live on a small ridge, with streets running “down” from me in all directions).

I know that most people build, or buy built, on the idea of weather in an area….it’s often the “rebuilding” that suffers, especially in the hurricane alleys of the south, when you have to repair/rebuild too many times in a couple/ten years….I’ll bet the same is true in the north with winter storm weather, so, yes, hurricanes are probably a problem for them, where winter storms are not…

Part of my beef is that people complain about the services, but won’t pay to have the services “proofed” for weather/storms. We could have underground wiring, but, we won’t pay for it, and yet, we have to pay for the extra costs of repairs every two-three-five years when a storm comes through….same thing will happen in the north with this one…I was amazed at watching the “flood waters empty into the subway stations” only to learn that most subway stations have no pumps to move excess water, cause they don’t expect flood water, until it comes….

reff (4dcda2) — 10/30/2012 @ 7:38 pm

nk….thanks for the kind words and thoughts….the Tulane area was not hit hard by Issac, except the trees, which always have problems….

reff (4dcda2) — 10/30/2012 @ 7:39 pm

Have the fondest memories of New Orleans. What a beautiful dirty city.

The Bayeou! I wish I could have stayed.

nk (875f57) — 10/30/2012 @ 7:49 pm

Thanks Reff, I think we’re good.

I’ve not had the problems that you have had, but I too had a roof job a number of years ago that kind of ignored repairing the flashing…so I’ve been redoing flashing along with tending to old cedar shingles for years. And some of the roofing shingles that were supposed to stand up to 100mph didn’t.

If you ever get to Philly let me know, I’ll treat at the City Tavern.

MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 10/30/2012 @ 7:52 pm

Family had home on LBI (Long Beach Island)- the Jersey barrier island– for 30 years. Sad to see Beach Haven awash on the evening news in video loops. This is the ‘direct hit’ the locals had been fearing since March, ’62. The odds finally caught up with them. Low population off-season but unlike AC or even Seaside Heights, which gets off-season trade, the summer period between Labor Day and Memorial Day is their livlihood there for the rest of the year. The whole place is like that town, ‘Amity,’ in ‘Jaws.’ And there was a big construction boom on the island in the mid 60s and the mid 80s, too. LBI had no boardwalk- (lost it early in the last century due to a storm and never rebuilt it) but it had by far the most beautiful beaches on the Jersey shore– no more.

Army Corp of Engineers will be busy for sure dredging, buldozing and rebuilding the dunes– they’ll need them just for the regular run of winter storms. Large red brick building near the water tower in the video that’s airing is the bank. Next door the old movie theater turned into stores– pizza place down town… barber shop… even a small amusement park there in a tourist mecca called ‘Bay Village.’ BH was very ‘Mayberry.’ No casinos. Family friendly. Totally flooded. Few of those older homes have basements– just rest on cement slabs or cinderblock foundations so their lower floors are shot and in bad floods, they just float off the foundations and become moving projectiles. Others in Beach Haven, Holgate and at the north end in Harvey Cedars and Barnegat Light are old and beautifully built Victorian-styled homes, too. The under-house insulation and electrics are likely wrecked for most of those low rise Cape Cod homes built through the mid 60s and 70s after the ’62 storm as summer bare-boned cottages. They sprung up with 5% 30 year mortgages for under $10,000 for the land and house. It was a good deal then. Newer homes along the beachfront were zoned to be built on pilings after the ’62 storm.

The upside is this didn’t happen on a July weekend when evacuation would have been chaos as it has only one way on and off the island the a causeway bridge. In summber of ’77, Hurricane Bell’s evac was a logistic nightmare- but a learning experience. And it means lots of work for all the mainland contractors over in Manahawkin, Tuckerton and Barnegat. They’re really good craftsmen, too; do quality work and their rates are fair. Most of the island’s powerlines and land lines are strung on poles, too– very 1950s-60s even w/t cell towers of today. And it has only one access a causeway bridge. They used say ‘It’s better in September’ to cajole renters down for weekends after Labor Day… now it’s just ‘Awful in October.’ It’s gonna be a long cold winter there… but it’s a safe bet you’ll be able to hear the workmen hammers echoing for miles in the quiet, from Surf City to Beach Haven West. And they’ll be open for business come Memorial Day, 2013.

DCSCA (9d1bb3) — 10/30/2012 @ 9:20 pm

That was a very nice post, DCSCA, which shows the kind of writing and contribution you are capable of but which we seldom see from you. The aerial views showing the current devastation there have been hard to look at. Your (before Sandy) description of that particular stretch of the Jersey Shore is how I remember it with its beaches and picturesque towns from visits there during the time my family was living in hilly and heavily forested Northern Jersey– which is also beautiful.

elissa (e165fe) — 10/31/2012 @ 5:00 am

As for the logistics of whether an early shutdown is better than a late shutdown, I think I’m going to take the word of the professionals on this. What they say *consistently* before just about any storm of this nature is that it’s better to move movable assets out of the way *in advance*, because this reduces damage to them.

Exactly. Think of those damning pictures from New Orleans after Katrina, of all the school buses that Nagin not only didn’t use for evacuation but didn’t move to a safer place, so they were flooded and useless. That’s what the MTA was trying to avoid, and mostly succeeded. And Con Ed was doing preemptive shutdowns only when water was getting dangerously close to live equipment. There’s a lot less damage if the equipment is off when it gets wet, so it’ll be quicker to come back afterwards.

Today the buses were running. For free, so I took advantage and went grocery shopping. Tomorrow the subways will run within Brooklyn, and within Manhattan north of 42nd St. There will be shuttle buses linking Brooklyn to Manhattan, for those who need to get between them. But I’m not expecting subway service to Manhattan for some time, because all the tunnels are flooded. I don’t think that’s ever happened before.

Milhouse (15b6fd) — 10/31/2012 @ 11:14 pm

It’s strange, in a way, that the ugliest, meanest people get concentrated in New York and New Jersey, and the prettiest and kookiest in California and Oregon.

nk (875f57) — 10/31/2012 @ 11:21 pm

In one of the more undercovered effects of the strom, theer have been electronics communications problems.

My home DSL coinnection went down sometime Monday night to Tuesday. Earthlink was uninformative on tuesday but on wednesday I learned there has been a big outage.

Various other things went down too.

A Lotto machine in a store, debut cards in anotehr store, a bank ATM was very slow giving a balance.

Brooklyn Public Library was closed till today. Internet was down but went back up in last 15-20 minutes.

Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 11/2/2012 @ 9:37 am

Brooklyn Public Library was closed till today.

Thanks for the info that they’ve reopened. I’ve got a library book that was due back on Tuesday, but they were closed, and my local branch has no after-hours return slot.

Milhouse (15b6fd) — 11/2/2012 @ 11:42 am

Milhouse and other New Yorkers here,

What is your take on Bloomberg pushing on with the NYC Marathon this weekend? Inappropriate? Morale booster?

Dana (292dcf) — 11/2/2012 @ 12:24 pm

This may not be on point, Dana, but here is a thought from New Orleans….

I was skeptical about rebuilding the Mercedes-Benz Superdome here, but, there is a point about “having a reason to return” to the city.

Maybe, and I say “MAYBE” with trepidation, but MAYBE DOOMBERG is saying that New York has to get back to what New York is as quick as possible, and the Marathon is a big deal.

I am not saying he is right (I don’t think he is) but the Marathon, liek a World Series or a NFL or NBA playoff game, is a sign of normalcy that is a good thing….

Canceling the Marathon would be, IMHO, used later to represent a setback to the city.

reff (26cbba) — 11/2/2012 @ 12:35 pm

Utterly inappropriate. Yes, NY needs to get back to what NY is as quickly as possible. You know what NY is? Subways. You know what else it is? People having electricity and water and food. And people helping each other. Not the marathon. Pulling people and trucks from the relief effort to work on the marathon, having three generators for the marathon while people are blacked out, handing out water bottles to the runners while people haven’t got running water in their homes, that’s crass and inappropriate, and frankly Versailles-like. Apres le deluge, moi.

Milhouse (15b6fd) — 11/2/2012 @ 12:52 pm

But, Milhouse, these are their priorities. It isn’t an accident when elites come first with liberals.

DRJ (a83b8b) — 11/2/2012 @ 12:54 pm

If cancelling the marathon would represent a setback to the city, what about cancelling the Halloween parades? Not just the Village one was cancelled, but even the Park Slope one, where there was no damage; and the reason given for that was that the police were needed elsewhere. So how come they can suddenly be called out for the marathon?

Milhouse (15b6fd) — 11/2/2012 @ 12:55 pm

Which bank is sponsoring the marathon? Start pulling the thread.

nk (875f57) — 11/2/2012 @ 1:10 pm

Cancelling Halloween was a good thing. It wasn”t cancelled in New York City but it wa sin New Jersey and Gov purported even to set a new date.

It was much more limited in NYC I did see a few small girls with cosrtunmews.

I egg crate used up in the park.

Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 11/2/2012 @ 1:16 pm

zSome people waited a whole year for this. Still some people hjad to go pick up their number 42st 10th avenue and that was trouble,

Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 11/2/2012 @ 1:17 pm

What’s more important good PR for me, or generators for Staten Island resident chilling in the dark?

Mayor Marathon (721840) — 11/2/2012 @ 1:22 pm

My feelimng about the marathon is the same as about the Knicks/Nets game. There is/was no real reason to cancel it if it can go on without causing trouble to other people.

Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 11/2/2012 @ 1:25 pm

Apparently Bloomberg has seen the light and cancelled the marathon.

“The marathon has always brought our city together and inspired us with stories of courage and determination,” Bloomberg said in a statement. “We would not want a cloud to hang over the race or its participants, so we have decided to cancel it.”

Like he was against having it all along…

Dana (292dcf) — 11/2/2012 @ 3:23 pm

Dana- It would have been nice if he had cancelled the Marathon a couple days ago before people from all over the the country and the world had to change their travel plans due to the storm and have already started to congregate in New York City.

elissa (d23274) — 11/2/2012 @ 3:29 pm

And on NBC evening news they just interviewed some out of town marathoners already checked into midtown Manhattan hotels who are absolutely furious. They understand why the race is canceled, but what they do not understand why it was done at the eleventh hour instead of earlier in the week.

Heck of a job, Bloomie!!!!

elissa (d23274) — 11/2/2012 @ 3:40 pm

Bloomberg has always been a clown. From his ludicrous “health” regs to his criminal actions in illegal strawman gun buys, he’s a nut. Why New Yorkers are so stupid to perennially elect idiot mayors ….

SPQR (7f0329) — 11/2/2012 @ 3:49 pm

Heck of a job, Bloomie!!!!

Just another dilettante playing at being relevant.

AD-Restore the Republic/Obama Sucks! (b8ab92) — 11/2/2012 @ 4:09 pm

Why New Yorkers are so stupid to perennially elect idiot mayors ….

…it must be the water?

AD-Restore the Republic/Obama Sucks! (b8ab92) — 11/2/2012 @ 4:10 pm

So the mayor of Bridgeport CT claimed that the utility company was not priortizing utility crews to Bridgeport … so the residents then pelt the utility crews with eggs etc. thereby delaying the work crews as they retreat and ask for police protection.

Brilliant f’ing work by the usual class warfare rhetoric slinging Democrats. Brilliant.

SPQR (768505) — 11/2/2012 @ 5:31 pm

So, SPQR, are you suggesting that things are in fact not going as swimmingly with the Sandy cleanup and restoration as the Obamamedia would like us to believe?

elissa (d23274) — 11/2/2012 @ 5:37 pm

elissa, of course not. With the many millions affected, it couldn’t. But the f’ups that are Democratic mayors ( and yes, that’s what Bloomberg is in reality ) certainly contribute to the problems.

SPQR (768505) — 11/2/2012 @ 5:39 pm

Insane democrats deserve each other.

mg (31009b) — 11/2/2012 @ 6:15 pm

So the mayor of Bridgeport CT claimed that the utility company was not priortizing utility crews to Bridgeport … so the residents then pelt the utility crews with eggs etc.

SPQR, that’s some of the dumbest leadership I’ve ever read about. He should move to Louisiana.

Dustin (73fead) — 11/2/2012 @ 6:19 pm

Dustin, nah, its brilliant. Now its not the Bridgeport mayor’s fault that his city is f’d up.

In his tiny little mind …

SPQR (768505) — 11/2/2012 @ 6:23 pm

He’s lucky they didn’t simply pull out of his town altogether due to the security issue. I’m sure there are plenty of other areas that need the repairs just as urgently, but aren’t attacking the people doing it.

Actually, more people would he helped faster if they got to Bridgeport last, since the eggs / police escort have to be slowing work down.

I don’t think I’ll ever truly understand politics.

Dustin (73fead) — 11/2/2012 @ 6:30 pm

They had better be union workers.

JD (13299a) — 11/2/2012 @ 7:04 pm

Does the Colin Powell commercial really say Obama saved the oil industry?

JD (13299a) — 11/2/2012 @ 7:16 pm

10/29/2012

Frankenstorm Open Thread

189 Responses to “Frankenstorm Open Thread”

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