Good luck to all during Hurricane Sandy

[Yoc]

Hoping for the best during Hurricane Sandy to all our East Coast USA and Canadian members.

-DCM Staff

[John C]

Same, especially for the folks in southern Jersey that's taking the brunt and don't see that very often.  And from an area that's supposed to get the worst of the wind (and maybe not much else, thankfully), the rest of you enjoy the next couple of days if I lose power or Internet.

[paw broon]

Well said. Hope you all pull through this safely.  It all sounds very worrying.

[Geo (RIP)]

It looks as if the site got hit by a power outage for the storm and was down for a bit. Everything looks good now though.

My thoughts and prayers go out to those affect by hurricane Sandy these past few days.

Geo

[John C]

Quick update, I'm back up and running (obviously), but a lot of the area...isn't.  Short version, the hurricane part wasn't so bad as storms go, but meeting up with another storm got us a "barely" hurricane-force nor'easter.  So, massive power outages as the temperatures are bouncing around in the forties and fifties.

Some spots got hit very hard, though, with basically the storm shoving the ocean into town.  Long Beach is probably about an hour's drive from my place, and the tide pushed through the boardwalk and (if I remember the layout correctly) about a mile inland to the main road, and pushed the cars "safely" parked there into each other.  The people who refused to evacuate are, as you might gather, still there, without running water, let alone power.  That sounds like the worst spot.

If you'd like a better visual, I'm watching a news report right now of Seaford (similar area, but don't tell people who live in either town I said that...), where they have footage of a houseboat collision...in someone's front yard, a few blocks from the water.

We won't talk about the areas where the sewage treatment plant died, or where another...uhm, I hesitate to use terms like "crapped out" or "threw up," but in the reports, they're all very proud that the pumps are now pumping "away from residential areas," which might imply what wasn't going so well.

For those of you looking to help, and now knowing what to do, the people I'm talking to are really just looking to reach out.  So donate, sure, give blood, of course (I live a mile or so from a hospital, and the ambulances were running almost continuously past my house, for a while, so I'm guessing there'll be a need soon), but if you know anybody in the area...give them a call and let them vent for a few minutes.

I think most of the danger is over for the moment, except for the chill (and the disease on the horizon), so mental health will go a long way for a lot of people.  With very few other opportunities for entertainment (power, connectivity, gas), brightening the day of someone you've otherwise lost contact with will help.

Unless you're annoying, I mean, in which case call whoever they owe money to...

[Yoc]

Thanks for letting us know you are ok John.  We were getting a bit worried.
The footage of the Long Island area were scary stuff.  I sure hope you all recover soon.

Keep us in the loop if you can, thanks,
-Yoc

[John C]

There are still people I'm hoping eventually check in who I know are in New Jersey and Connecticut, and I'm sure we have even more members out there who are stranded.

Talking to my coworkers today, though (very annoying--while I was in my house with no heat or way to tell people I was OK, my office was up and running!), I'm mostly feeling better about the area.  Power is still going to take forever, unfortunately, but it's sounding like most of the bad spots were relatively isolated and the worst (like the sewage issues) either is or will be cleaned up shortly.

Not to downplay, of course, just that from the sampling of people I've been talking to, the recovery is largely in sight.  The exceptions in the metropolitan area seem to be in Staten Island.  Like Long Beach, there are many reports of cars totaled by the waves pushing them away from where they were parked.  I know one guy over there who recently reduced his flood insurance, so I hope he'll be OK.

Mind you, the new problem is people being stupid.  Because the gas (petrol, for the Europeans) pumps here are all electric, so there was a day or so of pumping stations that had plenty of fuel, but no way to pump it or take money.  As power comes online, people low on gas have been flooding in to fill up their tanks.  That started a shortage, so now people with half a tank are grabbing what they can, to make sure they don't run out.

So...since the Coast Guard closed New York Harbor, we've now been seeing a real shortage.  Mind you, the ports have been re-opened (with what sounds like an "our bad" from the Coast Guard), so gas will start showing up again tomorrow.  But that's not stopping people from sitting on line for hours, burning gas that could've gotten them through the weekend...

Oh, speaking of gas, generators are still in stock.  I'm pretty amazed.  Usually, they're sold out in hours.  But since they're not, that increases the odds of people being comfortable over a cold weekend.

(Unrelated, I disagree with Bloomberg cancelling the marathon.  His "people need something to cheer about" idea was stupid, but the money and attention would've been a very good thing at a time when it could use both.  I mean, the race starts in Staten Island.)

Do we have anybody else (currently reading, not in the abstract) in the area dealing with this?  I know it was a huge storm and I've only seen a tiny, tiny part of it.  Second-hand reports from down by Philadelphia don't sound so bad.