Sandy Biggest Atlantic Storm Ever

[flintlock]

Re: Sandy Biggest Atlantic Storm Ever

People using generators also need to remember if they want to run a gas furnace or anything else through their house wiring, have a proper transfer switch installed. Damage to your house, the generator, and linemen working on repairs can result if not hooked up properly. Cant tell you how many jury rigged hook ups I run across, like double male ended cords plugged into an outlet.

[don]

Re: Sandy Biggest Atlantic Storm Ever

People using generators also need to remember if they want to run a gas furnace or anything else through their house wiring, have a proper transfer switch installed. Damage to your house, the generator, and linemen working on repairs can result if not hooked up properly. Cant tell you how many jury rigged hook ups I run across, like double male ended cords plugged into an outlet.

The effect on down-the-line repairmen is the 120VAC from the generator, running through the utility transformers, powers up tremendously. A man killing jolt when you're working high on the lines.

[don]

NOAA Before & After Photos

Mantoloking before:




Mantoloking after:







New Jersey coastline before:




New Jersey coastline after:







New Jersey coastline before:




New Jersey coastline after:

[wayiwalk]

Re: A Tremendous Economic Opportunity?

His primary choice is biomedical or biochemical engineering. Possibly as a prelim as pre-med. He has a focus on community service that is real, not just something for the resume/application, and lucky for him, he's smart enough to handle those paths. I like that fact that despite having peers who have their eyes on law or finance, he is choosing a harder road. I guess I managed to raise a contrarian!


Regarding the switched circuit for the furnace - it was something that my wife and I were looking at last spring, but I got innudated on another house project (constructing my 10,000 gal cistern, ahem, I mean my above ground pool, not a small chore when you are rebuilding a used one donated from a family member, with scanty instructions, on the absolutely impossible NJ soil) and I'm kicking myself for not completing the process and getting the electrician on board to complete the work.

Agreed it is a critical safety item that must be done right by an electrican and inspected by the town.

Great comment from my wife this morning, a gas station in town is operating, and she took a look at the very long line of people in mercedes, SUV's and lexus's waiting in line to buy gas, and saw some disconnect and confusion on their faces, a la, "I"m important and became important so that I wouldn't have to wait in line for anything. This is an outrage!"

[BadJuju]

Re: Sandy Biggest Atlantic Storm Ever

I was thinking the same thing. Electricians, plumbers, you name it. Lot of work to do.

That is one reason why I chose Electromechanical Technology. There is always massive demand for people with my skills somewhere and they come with a premium at times like these. Electricians, linemen, etc are making $$$$$ off of Sandy right now. Probably $2,000+ a week.

[cjppjc]

Re: Sandy Biggest Atlantic Storm Ever

Tone deaf Mayor. They are still pulling dead bodies out of Staten Island as I write this, and you want to run through that borough. Emergency personnel are streched to the limit already. There is no fresh water and images of runners discarding drinking water every 10 seconds will not play well.


http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-...-nyc-marathon/

As Mayor Michael Bloomberg defended the decision to run the New York City Marathon in superstorm Sandy's aftermath, a growing number of residents, politicians - and even some marathon runners - blasted the decision and called on the race to be postponed.

[don]

Night the Dune Failed

By MICHAEL WINERIP

LONG BEACH, N.Y. — It is one thing to cover a disaster and it’s another to be the disaster.

I live on this barrier island on the South Shore of Long Island, and Monday night, at about 8, with the electricity out, candles flickering against the pitch black night and Hurricane Sandy bearing down on us, we raised our glasses to the 10-foot-high sand dune at the end of our street.

In beach communities, dunes are held holy, and for the 30 years we’ve lived here, through numerous hurricanes and northeasters, the dune had held back the sea.

“To the dune,” we toasted.

Minutes later, four feet of ocean water came rushing down our street and two of those feet streamed into our first floor.



News.

Within a day — after I’d helped my sons rip out the carpet and pile ruined furniture on the curb — I was running around reporting on the town where I’d raised my four children and made many friends.

First stop was Farrell Street, where seven homes had burned down. Standing out front was Frank Ciccone, an off-duty police officer who lives in the neighborhood. Frank — whose daughter Kristen went to the prom with my son Ben — told me that the fire had started when a car went up in flames. The flood waters reached the car’s battery, which set off sparks that were fanned by the winds, he said. “Fire trucks couldn’t get up the street,” he said. “The water was too high.”

“His house burned down,” he said, pointing to Chris Jones, who worked as a lifeguard with my daughter Annie. Chris had put on a wet suit and paddled a surfboard toward the car, hoping to douse the flames.

Bill Long — a friend of Tom Scully who is a friend of mine — had been planning to go to bed early. “I was just waiting for the high tide at 8:06,” he said. In a beach town, people know the tides even when there’s no hurricane. He saw the locked car ignite, knocked a hole in the roof with a hammer, doused it with sea water and thought he had it under control when embers blew upward and underneath the shingles of the house next door. “We kept pulling off shingles, hoping to stop the embers, but the wind carried them too high and that was it.” Bill also lost his home.

I have been a reporter for 35 years and rarely have people I interviewed on the street during a disaster had the patience to tell me a story in such depth.

Next stop was the police commissioner, Michael Tangney. Mike coached my 24-year-old son Ben in coach-pitch baseball when Ben was 7.

I’d heard a radio report that there was looting but when I asked a police spokesman whom I didn’t know, he denied it. When I asked Mike, he hesitated and — maybe I’m imagining this — decided to trust me. He told me there had been one instance he knew of: Frank the barber had been robbed.

I don’t get my hair cut at Frank’s — I go to Nick at Majestic Barbers — but I go to Frank to get my watches fixed. (Frank Oliviero has many talents.) So I recognized him when he walked out of the police station after filing a report. “How you doing,” he said, giving me a smile.

Frank said he’d been robbed of $300, over 800 batteries and a new shipment of watch bands — and invited me to walk with him to the shop to have a look. Before we could go far, Carmen Concertino stopped the city bus he drives, which was empty, and insisted on giving us a ride.

Carmen lost a car and motorcycle in the flood. “I’ll drive you around town,” he said, “show you what’s going on.”

A private bus tour.

So, I got lots of inside stories.

But it cuts both ways. When you’re trusted, you don’t want to abuse that trust. Having lived in a community so long and feeling part of it and defensive about its shortcomings, I wasn’t as aggressive as I would have been in other places.

Because there had been no water or sewage service for days, FEMA brought in trailer trucks and handed out cases of water and food. I kept thinking how defeated I would feel if I had to take handouts. I couldn’t bring myself to interview the people and ask what it felt like.

I knew what it felt like. Lousy.

There had been TV crews all over town, but I didn’t feel excited. I felt they were gawking at us.

When I approached people, instead of saying, “Can I ask you a few questions,” I’d say, “Can I ask you a few questions or would you rather be left alone.”

“Thank you,” a man said before turning away.

I’ll tell you whom I did interview. John Duffy was struggling to take two cases of water home on his bike, when Louie Boyle stopped his pickup truck and offered him a ride.

It reminded me of my neighbor Kevin Peers, who left his door open for my family so we could make hot food on his gas stove while the electricity was out.

One of the places hardest hit by flooding was Lido Towers, a condominium. The first floor was submerged; sand washed up from the beach, burying cars. Local officials ordered everyone evacuated, including Linda Minerva, my 22-year-old son Sam’s kindergarten teacher.

I walked through the drifts to ask a man parked out front how badly the building was damaged. “We don’t know yet,” he said, tearing up. “Would you mind coming back in a few days?”

“I will,” I said, though I won’t.

Connect with Michael Winerip on Facebook.
You can follow Booming via RSS or visit nytimes.com/booming.

[Ghent12]

Re: Sandy Biggest Atlantic Storm Ever

Let me guess.

C1ue was their consultant - No climate change!

Or..... didn't we fixed climate change with the solar energy??

Or should Michael Bloomberg send China the bill to fix his subway?

Irresponsible city officials will use any excuse to not take necessary precautions against even regular occurrences, leave alone "worst ever" scenarios. I am reminded of some cities not having enough materials to handle regular winter icing due to their official positions that global warming made such icings a thing of the past.

Irresponsible cities get what's coming to them at the expense of their citizens. Very sad, but that's reality.

[flintlock]

Re: Sandy Biggest Atlantic Storm Ever

Tone deaf Mayor. They are still pulling dead bodies out of Staten Island as I write this, and you want to run through that borough. Emergency personnel are streched to the limit already. There is no fresh water and images of runners discarding drinking water every 10 seconds will not play well.


http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-...-nyc-marathon/

As Mayor Michael Bloomberg defended the decision to run the New York City Marathon in superstorm Sandy's aftermath, a growing number of residents, politicians - and even some marathon runners - blasted the decision and called on the race to be postponed.

I Agree. He will regret this decision I'm afraid.

[flintlock]

Re: A Tremendous Economic Opportunity?

For those who just want to power the furnace to ward off the cold, this is a simple and easy to install transfer switch. $99. Maybe a 15 minute install.

http://www.amazon.com/Reliance-TF151...ransfer+switch

You might also be surprised how many illegal hookups done by licensed electricians I see. So if the word transfer switch doesn't come up, keep looking.

[cjppjc]

Re: Sandy Biggest Atlantic Storm Ever

I Agree. He will regret this decision I'm afraid.

Well the Mayor came to his senses. There was no public support for the marathon, and alot of anger in fact.

Btw: Gas rationing in effect in New Jersey starting today.

[doom&gloom]

Re: Sandy Biggest Atlantic Storm Ever

Obama not looking so 'presidential' anymore as this mess unfolds.

Bush had his Katrina, Obama gets his Sandy.

[shiny!]

Re: Sandy Biggest Atlantic Storm Ever

FEMA was so much more effective before it was absorbed into DHS.

[don]

Re: Sandy Biggest Atlantic Storm Ever

FEMA was so much more effective before it was absorbed into DHS.

and so less lucrative for the right people . . .

[cjppjc]

Re: Sandy Biggest Atlantic Storm Ever

Still over 2 million throughout the region without power. Some wont get power for another 15 days or more. Temperature is dropping, and another storm is comming.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012...ice-warns?lite

Updated at 9:45 am ET: A "significant" nor'easter is likely to hit Sandy-battered areas of the Northeast by Thursday, the National Weather Service said in an update Sunday. FEMA and Red Cross officials have ordered more resources ahead of the storm, while New York City is dealing with a shortage of fuel oil and steam to heat buildings as temperatures began dipping into the 20s and power remained out for hundreds of thousands.