Irene

Wow man, 3M folks without power!:eek This is like our '98 icestorm was. At least it was January, I had a friend bring water and cooked on/in my wood stove and kept my food in the snow.

Most folks don't have that option down there. No hot meal unless they got an alcohol or Sterno heater going, hot Ramen or beans is way better than cold.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3CyBXYURWM

 

Everyone on the coast OK? You probably can't respond right now, with the power outages, but check in when it's over.

 

Hopefully you all are OK. From what I hear now Irene has been downgraded but nevertheless it is bringing a lot of upheaval. Be safe folks!

 

We have a generator, but haven't had to use it. Other than that everything seems to be OK.

 

Hope they rename this Hurricane Bloomberg, as he seems to have done the most damage, shutting down everything for nothing.

40 knot winds and 3" of rain. Call out the Guard!!!! :eek

 

What she said. I've been worried about all the Geeks on the east coast. Hopefully you're all fine.

Thanks to everyone who did check in so far. Good to see you're okay.

 

So Irene was not Katrina. That doesn't make it not bad, people. Not only did people die, it hit places not equipped to handle that kind of weather and the clean up is going to be a mess. Compassion, please.

Hehe, but to be crass... Irene went out to sea, strengthened, made landfall in Jersey... and DIED. No one likes Jersey.

 

i have immense compassion for the people in the carolinas, virginia, etc. but did anyone die from pennsylvania northward?

what bloomberg did was TOTALLY unnecessary. we ALL knew it would fizzle up here and fizzle it did!

on a plus note, maybe the cast of JERSEY SHORE was washed out during that landfall...????

 

I think it caught Jersey shore on TV and was like.. I can't do this, the damage has already been done. Nothing more for me to do here.

 

In Tappahannock, power went out 1:00 pm Saturday not sure when they'll come back. On Sunday - house was fine, but other houses in neighborhood had some siding stipped off and some downed tree. Cypress tress in most of the lots either were leaning over or had some roots exposed - no way to right them up.

In our back yard, one side of our fence was also leaning over 80-85 degress due to very wet ground but also from the high winds pushing on it; I was able to borrow a rope from our next door neighbor and was able to lean and pull to get the fence upright and staked down - calling the fence company and the next action - wait for dry ground or more concrete; one tree one was leaning over - I got some nylon rope from Lowes (running on generator) and was able to lean and pull the tree up some and staked it down. The tree in our front yard had a large branch split off - I was able to read and cut it off and put some tree "tar" on it but will need to get some more. Overall we came out alright - just waiting on electricity. Cold showers .... brrrr.

 

It's called the Katrina Effect, you must remember that little storm? Imagine if Bloomberg had done nothing and the storm hit you full, you'd still be lambasting him but this time for doing nothing. Look at northern NY and Vt. who got heavily flooded, I wouldn't call that fizzling out.

 

NYC is fine. Here, up north, we're in state of Emergency just east of here. Flooding, the thruway is closed, it's a mess.

 

Wife called me about an hour ago and electricity is back on.....:clap

 

Still out on Long Island. Cable/Internet too. Can only communicate vis smart phone.

 

true, but Katrina was a Cat 5 aiming at an underground city.

this was a Cat 1 -- ONE! -- aiming at a fairly LOW city.

i recall wind predictions of 160-180 for Katrina. this time it was more like 60-80, even down around virginia. NYC was talking 40-60, even before it fizzled. and a few inches of rain.

if bloomberg wants to close the subways for the first time in recorded history, it had better be for an event to match.

 

question: is natural gas uncommon in the US? i thought it had like 80% penetration!

i see people here talking about cold showers and people on tv talking about being unable to cook. how so?

we didn't lose power here, but even if we did it wouldn't affect cooking or showers. except insofar as i'd be doing both of them in the dark.

even in those few (20%?) households with electric heating, don't you have BOILERS? just b/c you lose electricity, doesn't mean the hot water is gone right away. i'd think you'd have 24-48 hours worth. especially in the summer.

unless my teenage daughter lives with you....

 

I thought Irene was a Cat 3? Wasn't it? Maybe not by the end, but when everyone made their emergency contingencies, It was based on that and the fact that it was aiming at a densely populated multiple metropolitan area that rarely, if ever farther up the coast, sees that kind of weather and that the POTENTIAL damage COULD HAVE been catastrophic.

I think the prep work was all based on the worst possible scenario, and it was exactly what should have been done. Luckily that was not what happened. Katrina was a larger storm, but the gulf sees 5-6 hurricanes per season, and NO one expected the levees to break and flood the city. (It wasn't "under ground" it was "below sea level"). Thus no one was prepared and thousands of people died. They were trying to avoid that scenario.

And no, in metropolitan areas they don't use as much Natural Gas as in the suburbs and smaller cities. Some buildings are full electric. NYC has tried to scale back it's use of natural gas after the multiple explosions and deaths while repairing the lines. There is no place in NYC that an explosion will not kill and injure at least half a dozen people, so they eliminated the problem. It's a hassle, but it can't kill you.

 

I guess it's the old adage 'Prepare for the worst and hope for the best' which is what you got. There's still 3M people without power.

I'm lucky. I have land, a manual pump well and wood to burn, besides the BBQ to cook with. I also have a gas guzzling generator but when it runs out in 8 hours and the power is off everywhere then what can I do? Give thanks to your lucky stars. I'm out.

 

[youtube]NwsxSKYh-S8[/youtube]

This is less than 20 miles east continuing clear to the border of the state. No.. Not that bad at ALL rolleyes

 

Really glad to hear that Irene was not as bad as originally thought.
Still at least 19 people died.:cry and huge property losses and flooding.

I live in a Cyclone/Hurricane prone area and it is better to be over prepared instead of under prepared.

Governors/State Officials/Emergency Services can't win. If they implement compulsory evacuation and the event is not as bad as thought, they are branded as scare mongers.

If no evacuation is enforced and the event is worse that predicted, they cop flack from not enforcing safety measures.

Bazza

 

Already over 46,000,000 links on your favourite Search Engine.

Hurricane Irene death toll climbs to 30 as path of destruction continues
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/new...uction-continues/story-e6frg6so-1226125200343

 

again, i would not fault anyone for a storm which did not live up to expectations -- i fault them for misquoting those expectations in the first place.

at the same time they were predicting category 1 up here, anchors were all abuzz about how this was going to be "bigger than katrina". obama himself called it a once-in-a-lifetime event.

here in boston they warned us of "torrential rains...up to 3 inches". 3 inches?! we got more than that last tuesday!

had they predicted a cat 6 hurricane with 140 knot winds and 20 inches of rain, ok, i would not fault anyone for drawing katrina comparisons, evacuating the subway, etc etc. but given the ACTUAL PREDICTIONS they were making -- even the "worst case scenario" -- no one north of philly had any business calling it anything more than "a bit of rain".

 

Yeah, an entire town here just got wiped off the map. I think it pretty much met expectations, just not where expected.

Still not seeing the rage at preparing people for the worst, like it's at all possible to accurately predict hurricane damage. Seems like an invalid argument. A case of, well that turned out much better than we feared instead of a case of panic mongering. Really not seeing the point of continuing to push the argument, since, it is still excessively bad in some places, just not in the places originally thought of.

 

prepare for the "worst" needs to be within reason. when every scientist is stating it will be category 1 -- "2 at worst" -- no anchor/mayor/layman has any business implying "IT MIGHT BE A 6!!!!".

people die from hype. people evacuate TOWARD the problem; emergency services misdeploy; heck, people can't even get to hospitals once you shut all the transportation down!

if a predicted 6 fizzled to a 1, that's one thing, but up here (NY/NE) it was a 1 all along. the "worst case scenario" still wasn't anything warranting shutting everything down.

my sympathies to the mid-atlantic states. they got hit pretty much as predicted, and it was, i agree, devastating.

up here we were pretty much spared. as predicted.

 

Wait. Are you implying that news networks should stop doing whatever it takes, including promoting mass hysteria, just to get numbers?

Let's try and be realistic here, shall we?

 

LOL. fair nuff.

i withdraw my "Hurricane Bloomberg" suggestion. Hurricane Geraldo seems much more appropriate.

 

Word. Better to go too far on the safety side then the other way around.

Any storm that kills people is a bad storm in my book.

 

Very true. The way you see some of the media people complain over "overly paranoid precautions that inconvenienced everyone for no good reason", you'd almost think they are disappointed that we don't have another Katrina after-math on our hands. Because that one worked out so well...! rolleyes

 

This is a touchy thread :-D

Honestly though I see both sides of this argument, having said that I sit on Cats side.
While it's good to be prepared, it's also bad to cause panic for no good reason.

When I looked at the weather charts and read the precautions being taken I rolled my eyes, I'm not qualified at this but I could see it wasn't going to do what they said it would.
But as many of you said it did hit hard, just not in the place they thought it would.

So this beckons the question, why did they not prepare the places that were not prepared instead of scaring the crap out of people who were not in danger?

Personally I think this comes from the whole New Orleans thing, they WERE warned about that in plenty of time but chose to do nothing, so now they are freaking at everything as some form of compensation or some such.

It's the same here to a lesser degree, I often see storm warnings where the news is freaking people out, yet in the 6 years I've lived here I've yet to see a storm that even comes close to storms we called "Normal winter storms" back on the English coast.

By the same token Britain was brought to a stand still last winter with a few inches of snow, the same amount of snow I drive to work in frequently. Why was this?... because Britain is not used to it and has no snow ploughs or winter tires etc.

Forecasters/Emergency agencies etc need to learn which places need warnings and which places already know how to handle things.

This Irene storm was never a threat in the North , yet that is where they made most of the warnings and precautions, why were they not concentrating on the more southern places? the places that by some of your own admissions were "Unprepared"

I'll give you the extreme comparison, Kansas, the Tornado state... while Twisters will do what they do, Kansas is well prepared, the people understand what to do and have contingency plans in effect. Then you have the tornado that ripped through London, England a couple of years ago, by Kansas's standards it wasn't that bad, but look at the devestation it caused, why?... because London has never seen a Tornado.

Point being, while preperation is good, over preperation in places that don't need it and under preperation in places that DO need it is seriously detremental to peoples safety.

I realise I kind of rambled a lot of that but just saying, Cat is right and wrong as are many of you, put it in perspective.

 

This is true in theory, but you know as well as I do that people in groups can often be very dangerous too. Causing panic as a "Precaution" can be more dangerous than dumbing it down a bit.

All in all this is why most of us wouldn't want thier job of deciding what action to take and realistically speaking, none of us can acurately predict weather patterns.... nor can we predict human reaction.

6 of 1, half a dozen of the other.... flip a coin, just as effective as human opinion.

 

Yup Ned, flooded NJ and CT, skipped NYC by a hair and went on to devastate northern NY and VT, missed us too thankfully. Damned if you do and damned if don't. I mean how can anyone place a hurricane in a box and say with certainty where's it going?

New Yorkers should count their blessings as this storm was all around them, just not on top. NOLA played with fire many times along with diverting monies for the dikes elsewhere and they got complacent and caught with their pants down along with state and the feds.

When one gets the chills seeing the thing and saying 'I should have left' is obviously too late. Orderly evacuation prevents panic. Look at Florida and at how well they do things when a hurricane comes along.

 

the one thing i have learned is that you can only eat FRENCH TOAST during inclement weather. every tv station in town warned me nonstop to get "eggs, milk, and bread"..."eggs, milk, and bread"....

here i was with a pantry full of canned goods and a fridge which could coast 24-48 hrs sans power, and yet i HAD NO EGGS!!!! oh, the humanity!

damn, i nearly STARVED.

i'll never make THAT mistake again!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpxiCxO5k0g