The Perfect Storm

[Z-man]

Just got power back about half an hour ago. Looks like PSE&G are working as fast as they can to restore everything....

Now the problem is getting gas.

-Z

[Jim Richards]

Good deal, Z.

Any word yet from Vinny?

[Z-man]

Originally Posted by Jim Richards

Good deal, Z.

Any word yet from Vinny?

I suspect he is working long shifts doing rescue / restore. Hope he's ok....

[Divvie]

I survived relatively unscathed, my poor 944 on the other hand took a hit, about a qtr size dent on the hood...The offending branch nearby.



My neighbors didnt do so well.



Feeling pretty lucky right now!

[Buckterrier]

Originally Posted by Z-man

I suspect he is working long shifts doing rescue / restore. Hope he's ok....

I called Vinny this morning and got no answer, not unexpected. Left a messaging saying I knew he'd be busy both professionally & personally but the Pelican brethren was asking about him.

[daepp]

Why does the Daily Mail from London always have the best photos.

Sorry for everyone's pain. We are all pulling for you!

[86 ssinit]

Just got back online. Long Island hit hard 80% people have no electric. Long beach wrecked water crossed to bay. Part of ocean parkway washed away. New York powerless below 23 st. Going to try to get into city tomorrow. All tunnels closed should be interesting getting in.

[jwasbury]

Originally Posted by 86 ssinit

Going to try to get into city tomorrow. All tunnels closed should be interesting getting in.

FYI: Bloomberg announced a carpool rule for tomorrow and Friday between 6am to Midnight. On most crossings, only cars with 3 or more people will be allowed into the city. With everyone trying to drive in, parking is a real issue.

Power restored to my home in Jersey City today. Now the work of cleaning up my garage can begin. I will post photos of that mess, but its dark now and I still have no power on the ground floor (separate meters, and that one was underwater). Still, I was lucky because the living areas of my home start at the first floor above street level. Many ground level and even below ground apartment dwellings in my neighborhood, and these people have been completely wiped out. Its pretty unbelievable. Curfew in effect at 6pm. It seems that looting and such are relatively controlled. I did see a flooded out Honda Accord that had its wheels stolen around the corner from my house today, so there are some shennanigans are going on.

My boat still floating at the Marina...floating docks are destroyed. The powerboat that was my neighbor didn't fare so well.

My home 2nd one from the corner. This photo taken Tuesday AM, when water had receded quite a bit. For perspective, if you look at my front door, the water came up 14" above the bottom of that door at the highest point over Monday night.



Street scene the morning after (Grove St. - Downtown Jersey City)


The water was deep enough here to pick up cars and float them, but somehow this Royal Enfield stayed put throughout the entire thing and was right where the owner left it. Its probably one of the few vehicles that has a chance of running again given how simple it is:


More photos I took from Monday, and Tuesday here:
Hurricane Sandy Photos

[pwd72s]

Originally Posted by 86 ssinit

Just got back online. Long Island hit hard 80% people have no electric. Long beach wrecked water crossed to bay. Part of ocean parkway washed away. New York powerless below 23 st. Going to try to get into city tomorrow. All tunnels closed should be interesting getting in.

Krap! Long Beach is where Ron (RoninLB) and Marianne live. Praying they got out...

[jyl]

I have to think a resourceful and smart guy like RoninLB can cope with being without electricity for a week, indeed with a lot more. (I don't know if there is any special issue there, though.)

[Brillo]

Unfortunately from what I have seen of the coverage, Long Beach got hit very hard. Far more than loss of power. Hoping for the best for RoninLB.

Prayers and good thoughts for everyone affected.

[pwd72s]

Originally Posted by jyl

I have to think a resourceful and smart guy like RoninLB can cope with being without electricity for a week, indeed with a lot more. (I don't know if there is any special issue there, though.)

Get out a road atlas...check it out. Like I said, I hope they got out.

God bless all hit by this!

[jyl]

jwasbury - 14" above your door top, jeez that is high water.

What does it mean, financially - I assume there is no flood insurance there, are there disaster aid programs? Your neighbors who were totally flooded, or you who are faced with (I assume) ripping and replacing the walls, floors, subfloors, maybe wiring, etc of the first floor (? maybe I am all wrong?) - if you dont happen to have the cash sitting around, is there anywhere to turn for help?

[Buckterrier]

Originally Posted by pwd72s

God bless all hit by this!

Thanks Paul and I didn't even get hit hard.
I just spoke with Vinman. He's doing OK, exhausted, tired, and being a hero. His home and family is OK.
His crew rescued a rescue crew from an area. The stuff real hero's are made of. He's been deployed since Sunday night & still working.

And to Johnco... I know you didn't mean any harm with your comments but there is more to a storm than a number that the government lends to it. There are extenuating circumstances like timing, moon phases, high tide, rotation, etc. etc. that go into a storm.

John Tepper Marlin: Hurricane Sandy's Severity - #5, #6 or #8

A snippet...

2. Millibars -- Barometric Pressure. The Christian Science Monitor has posted a lucid summary of the significance of this measure of hurricane severity. (It also repeats the error cited above about the cost of Hurricane Irene -- I will return to this.) Ordinarily, the barometric pressure is related to wind speed. The normal sea-level barometric pressure is 1013.5. During a hurricane the eye of the storm shows the lowest barometric pressure. The lower the pressure, the higher the winds. During the afternoon before Sandy hit landfall,the barometric pressure at its eye fell from 943 to 940, which is a level associated with Category 3 or Category 4 winds. The lowest barometric pressure that has been measured in a U.S. hurricane is 882 for Hurricane Wilma. Hurricane Carla was the tenth-lowest, 931. The National Hurricane Center list of the most intense Atlantic hurricanes does not follow the Millibars ranking exactly, since Katrina and Wilma are not in the order one would expect. Irene is not among these most intense hurricanes. So the prospective readings are not a definitive measure of impact.

3. Storm Surge Impact. Most of the damage from Hurricane Sandy is caused by the delayed impact of the storm surge (the hurricane equivalent of a post-earthquake tsunami). We needa new indicator of likely flood damage, which would have to take into account the economic value of property in the track of the hurricane, the sea level of the land, and the size of the expected surge. The Storm Surge Impact index could take into account the timing of the tides -- Hurricane Sandy hit landfall near high tide and the full moon added to the height of the tide and therefore to the surge. The geography of the surge was important in the case ofNew York City because the surge came from two directions -- down the Connecticut coastline through the Long Island Sound and northward through the funnel of New York Harbor.

[TimT]

I have my place pretty much cleaned up...... will re-assemble the boiler whe things dry out more in my basement..

I have on hand about 15 gallons of gas, my diesel truck is full, range about 500 miles, 200 gal of heating oil on hand..... and about 1 cord new green firewood thanks to the storm...

Thinking positively... I decided to siphon some gas out my one of my racecars...

There was about 4 gal of 110 in my 914... my generator is very happy now

the fuel cell in my 911 has what looks to be about 5 gallons left as well...

Having said all that I am extremely disappointed with the response from my power company...

After the debacle of not having power for 7 days after Irene, the grid might have been improved, not just patched..

Oops generator is telling me it need more 110

[daepp]

I think this must be a dumb question, but if Manhattan and Long Island have been hit hard, why haven't we heard anything about Brooklyn? It looks (to the unfamiliar eye) to be more in the path than lower Manhattan???

[jyl]

NYC will have to build sea walls to defend against this in future. I read $10BN cost - even if it is 3X that, it will have to be done. Sea level is going up 3-5 feet in the coming decades, and this tragedy will become a too-frequent thing if we don't do a Holland.

[jwasbury]

Originally Posted by jyl

jwasbury - 14" above your door top, jeez that is high water.

What does it mean, financially - I assume there is no flood insurance there, are there disaster aid programs? Your neighbors who were totally flooded, or you who are faced with (I assume) ripping and replacing the walls, floors, subfloors, maybe wiring, etc of the first floor (? maybe I am all wrong?) - if you dont happen to have the cash sitting around, is there anywhere to turn for help?

Actually 14" above the bottom of the door, but it was still high water. My home is in a flood zone according to FEMA maps. This was not the case when I purchased it, but they amended the Flood zone maps post Katrina and my house became part of an "AE" flood zone, a "high risk" designation. After that, my mortgage required flood insurance, which is available at relatively low cost through the FEMA national flood insurance program when you are in a FEMA designated flood zone. The basic insurance does not cover "personal items" only buildings and major appliances, electrical, furnaces, air con, water heaters, etc. Folks who were renting could be SOL if they didn't have specific insurance coverage.

Maybe some disaster relief funds will be made available, but surely it will be hard to come by. For the folks who truly have nothing, the most help will probably come from charitable organizations and neighbors. My wife and I brought a bunch of stuff to a family down the block who were wiped out...coats, blankets, pillows, sweaters, towels, etc...for folks like this who lost everything, even the smallest things make a difference. Lots of folks are going to have real hardship...

[jwasbury]

Originally Posted by daepp

I think this must be a dumb question, but if Manhattan and Long Island have been hit hard, why haven't we heard anything about Brooklyn? It looks (to the unfamiliar eye) to be more in the path than lower Manhattan???

Parts of Brooklyn got hosed for sure. I have heard Red Hook mentioned several times...it's on the waterfront. Hoboken in NJ (neighboring my own Jersey City) has made national news. Daily Mail reported 25k people are trapped in their apartments...roads are still flooded and live power lines everywhere prevent them from wading out. Apparently they were calling for people to bring in small boats to rescue...

Staten Island also hard hit. I heard a 120' freighter was lifted up and deposited on a major road. Heard that Metro north railroad, or maybe it was Long Island railroad has 13 miles of missing or damaged track (not contiguous). The destruction is widespread, so the new outlets can't report on everything...

[jwasbury]

Storm Surge...I was looking at the NOAA Ports website during the height of the storm until I lost power after the flood came in (they have real time stats updated every 5-6 minutes for windspeed, wind direction, water levels, barometric pressure, etc, for many points around NY Harbor) . Water level at the Battery peaked at over 8ft above mean low water level during the 8am high tide Monday. At that level, water was already coming over the bulkhead in a few spots around Jersey City...not enough to flood any areas though. At the next high tide Monday Night, as the hurricane was slamming NJ, the high water at the Battery was over 15ft above mean low water level.