Hurricane Sandy

[PeteC]

This has turned into a big deal for those with family/friends living in the northeast USA.

http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tr ... _5day.html

NEW YORK (AP) — From Washington to Boston, big cities and small towns were buttoned up Monday against the onslaught of a superstorm that threatened 50 million people in the most heavily populated corridor in the nation, with forecasters warning that the New York area could get the worst of it — an 11-foot wall of water.

"The time for preparing and talking is about over," Federal Emergency Management Administrator Craig Fugate said Sunday as Hurricane Sandy made its way up the Atlantic on a collision course with two other weather systems that could turn it into one of the most fearsome storms on record in the U.S. "People need to be acting now."

Forecasters said the hurricane could blow ashore Monday night or early Tuesday along the New Jersey coast, then cut across into Pennsylvania and travel up through New York State on Wednesday.

Airlines canceled more than 7,200 flights and Amtrak began suspending train service across the Northeast. New York, Philadelphia, Washington and Baltimore moved to shut down their subways, buses and trains, and said schools would be closed on Monday. Boston also called off school. And all non-essential government offices closed in the nation's capital.

The New York Stock Exchange said it will be shut down Monday, including electronic trading. Nasdaq is shutting the Nasdaq Stock Market and other U.S. exchanges and markets it owns, although its exchanges outside the U.S. will operate as scheduled.

As rain from the leading edges of the monster hurricane began to fall over the Northeast, hundreds of thousands of people from Maryland to Connecticut were ordered to evacuate low-lying coastal areas, including 375,000 in lower Manhattan and other parts of New York City, 50,000 in Delaware and 30,000 in Atlantic City, N.J., where the city's 12 casinos were forced to shut down for only the fourth time ever.

"We were told to get the heck out. I was going to stay, but it's better to be safe than sorry," said Hugh Phillips, who was one of the first in line when a Red Cross shelter in Lewes, Del., opened at noon.

"I think this one's going to do us in," said Mark Palazzolo, who boarded up his bait-and-tackle shop in Point Pleasant Beach, N.J., with the same wood he used in past storms, crossing out the names of Hurricanes Isaac and Irene and spray-painting "Sandy" next to them. "I got a call from a friend of mine from Florida last night who said, 'Mark, get out! If it's not the storm, it'll be the aftermath. People are going to be fighting in the streets over gasoline and food.'"

Authorities warned that the nation's biggest city could get hit with a surge of seawater that could swamp parts of lower Manhattan, flood subway tunnels and cripple the network of electrical and communications lines that are vital to the nation's financial center.

Sandy, a Category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 75 mph as of Sunday evening, was blamed for 65 deaths in the Caribbean before it began traveling northward, parallel to the Eastern Seaboard. As of 11 p.m., it was centered about 470 miles southeast of New York City, moving at 14 mph, with hurricane-force winds extending an incredible 175 miles from its center.

It was expected to hook inland during the day Monday, colliding with a wintry storm moving in from the west and cold air streaming down from the Arctic.

Forecasters said the combination could bring close to a foot of rain in places, a potentially lethal storm surge of 4 to 11 feet across much of the region, and punishing winds that could cause widespread power outages that last for days. The storm could also dump up to 2 feet of snow in Kentucky, North Carolina and West Virginia.

Louis Uccellini, environmental prediction chief for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told The Associated Press that given Sandy's east-to-west track into New Jersey, the worst of the storm surge could be just to the north, in New York City, on Long Island and in northern New Jersey.

Forecasters said that because of giant waves and high tides made worse by a full moon, the metropolitan area of about 20 million people could get hit with an 11-foot wall of water.

"This is the worst-case scenario," Uccellini said.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned: "If you don't evacuate, you are not only endangering your life, you are also endangering the lives of the first responders who are going in to rescue you. This is a serious and dangerous storm."

New Jersey's famously blunt Gov. Chris Christie was less polite: "Don't be stupid. Get out."

New York called off school Monday for the city's 1.1 million students and shut down all train, bus and subway service Sunday night. More than 5 million riders a day depend on the transit system.

Officials also postponed Monday's reopening of the Statue of Liberty, which had been closed for a year for $30 million in renovations. The United Nations said it would close Monday and canceled all meetings at its headquarters.

In Washington, President Barack Obama promised the government would "respond big and respond fast" after the storm hits.

"My message to the governors as well as to the mayors is anything they need, we will be there, and we will cut through red tape. We are not going to get bogged down with a lot of rules," he said.

He also pleaded for neighborliness: "In times like this, one of the things that Americans do is we pull together and we help out one another And so, there may be elderly populations in your area. Check on your neighbor, check on your friend. Make sure that they are prepared. If we do, then we're going to get through this storm just fine."

The storm forced the president and Mitt Romney to rearrange their campaign schedules in the crucial closing days of the presidential race. And early voting on Monday in Maryland and the District of Columbia was canceled.

Despite the dire warnings, some souls were refusing to budge.

Jonas Clark of Manchester Township, N.J. — right in the area where Sandy was projected to come ashore — stood outside a convenience store, calmly sipping a coffee and wondering why people were working themselves "into a tizzy."

"I've seen a lot of major storms in my time, and there's nothing you can do but take reasonable precautions and ride out things the best you can," said Clark, 73. "Nature's going to what it's going to do. It's great that there's so much information out there about what you can do to protect yourself and your home, but it all boils down basically to 'use your common sense.'"

In New Jersey, Denise Faulkner and her boyfriend showed up at the Atlantic City Convention Center with her 7-month-old daughter and two sons, ages 3 and 12, thinking there was a shelter there. She was dismayed to learn that it was just a gathering point for buses to somewhere else. Last year, they were out of their home for two days because of Hurricane Irene.

"I'm real overwhelmed," she said as baby Zahiriah, wrapped in a pink blanket with embroidered elephants, slept in a car seat. "We're at it again. Last year we had to do it. This year we have to do it. And you have to be around all sorts of people — strangers. It's a bit much."

Before leaving their home in Atlantic City, John and Robshima Williams of packed their kids' Halloween costumes so they could go bunk-to-bunk trick-or-treating at a shelter. Her 8-year-old twins are going as the Grim Reaper and a zombie, while her 6-year-old plans to dress as a witch.

"We're just trying to make a bad situation good," the mother said. "We're going to make it fun no matter where we are."

[GLCQuantum]

Have been hearing quite a bit about this recently as some of the teachers have family in the area. Seems it's going to be quite damn nasty. Hope it calms down and loses some strength as we have sometimes seen in the past.

[PeteC]

Such a lovely ship. It's gone I'm afraid, as reported sunk after the below story broke with two crew missing. Pete

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Bounty crew abandon ship

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews ... andon-ship

Published: 29/10/2012 at 07:47 PM
Online news:

WASHINGTON -- A monster hurricane off the US coast forced the 17-member crew of the HMS Bounty to abandon the famed three-masted tall ship and lower lifeboats into stormy seas Monday, a Coast Guard statement said.

The crew donned cold water survival suits and life jackets before launching in two 25-man lifeboats with canopies after getting caught up in stormy seas 144 kilometres southeast of Hatteras, North Carolina.

The owner of the vessel, which was built for the 1962 movie "Mutiny on the Bounty" with Marlon Brando and has also featured in "Pirates of the Caribbean" with Johnny Depp, said he lost contact with the crew late Sunday.

The US Coast Guard command centre in Portsmouth subsequently received a distress signal, confirming that the ship was in distress and was locating its position.

"The vessel was reportedly taking on water and was without propulsion," the statement said, noting that weather at the scene consisted of 65 km/h winds and 5 metre waves.

The current HMS Bounty is a replica of the eponymous British vessel known for the mutiny that took place in Tahiti in 1789.

The Coast Guard's latest statement said they were monitoring the situation to "determine the soonest" time that aircraft or boats can be deployed to make a rescue.

[JD]

Been watching this on CBS Online this morning. Amazing footage of this storm hitting New York. Tunnels filling with water, massive storm surge at nearly 14 feet, power going out over some of the city.

[sandman67]

Well, what with all this nonsense about man made climate change being a myth I thought Id swing by their house and point out the folly of not listening to scientists

[PeteC]

Scan down to the section entitled "Photos", click next and it will open a slide show of 100 photos. Pete

http://news.yahoo.com/sandys-death-toll ... nance.html

[dtaai-maai]

EDIT: a silly name for a serious occurrence.

[caller]

Pretty awful event, hope all is well with family and friends of members here.

[MrPlum]

...with all this nonsense about man made climate change being a myth

The 'nonsense' is in asserting a myth as a fact, in the absence of definitive proof.

The Independent points out some other big storms, which had greater loss of life.. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 30777.html

Thankfully, they didn't trot out the silly mantra that, come rain or snow, it's all attributable to 'Climate Change'. A stupid amorphous label that, like other Orwellian labels, cannot be proven but can be milked indefinitely.

Taking a 'scientific' look at the historical trend of Super-Storms. The climate change 'crisis' is over, since Sandy is less powerful than Olga. A clear sign of a reducing problem.

There is bound to be some PC Inspector condemning me for my lack of gravitas but whoever engineered this 'man-made' Storm didn't complete the job.

Wall St. is still standing.

[PeteC]

EDIT: a silly name for a serious occurrence.

It's all set in stone by a bureaucratic structure DTM. Here in Asia they have Asian names, including some Thai names. I think that data is at the "worldwide" link at the bottom of the below site. Pete

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames.shtml

[STEVE G]

"The U.S. can’t afford regular Sandy-size disruptions in economic activity. To limit the costs of climate-related disasters, both politicians and the public need to accept how much they’re helping to cause them."

It's Global Warming, Stupid.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/20 ... -stupid#p1

[MrPlum]

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/11/01/h ... more-73587

'...a single storm, a single data point in the hundreds of hurricanes that have struck the USA during its history, is now apparently “proof” of global warming causing bad weather. It is just another silly example of Tabloid Climatology™.

[sandman67]

MrP

I don't need to refer back to my very wobbly remembrances of chemistry and physics back at the hands of the Salesian brothers who taught me....although even those lessons still rattle about in my addled aged head.

I can instead resort to my sounder remembrances of GEOLOGY - You see, when there is a major volcanic event you get climatic change.

The most extreme historical example (geological time) was the Siberian Traps eruptions at the end of the Permian period which caused the great Permian extinctions and changed the climate drastically.

Too far back? Ok.... lets try the eruptions in the Krakatoa area in 535/536AD. Same result on a smaller scale. Global climatic effects

Still too far back? Ok.... try Tambora 1816 - "The eruption caused global climate anomalies that included the phenomenon known as "volcanic winter": 1816 became known as the "Year Without a Summer" because of the effect on North American and European weather. Agricultural crops failed and livestock died in much of the Northern Hemisphere, resulting in the worst famine of the 19th century"

Krakatoa 1883AD - "Average global temperatures fell by as much as 1.2 degrees Celsius in the year following the eruption. Weather patterns continued to be chaotic for years and temperatures did not return to normal until 1888"

and my personal favorite, the Icelandic mega eruption of Laki 1783/84AD - "The Laki eruption and its aftermath caused a drop in global temperatures, as sulfur dioxide was spewed into the Northern Hemisphere. This caused crop failures in Europe and may have caused droughts in India. The eruption has been estimated to have killed over six million people globally, making the eruption the deadliest in historical times."

Now, as these are burst events the harm is done in one go, and the atmosphere has a chance to recover. However, we have been pumping pretty much the same bad stuff into the sky on a constant and increasing basis since the Industrial Revolution we have become the equivalent of a constantly erupting volcano.

Thus to deny the fact that mans use of fossil fuels on an industrial basis for 200 years or so has had no effect on the climate is comparative evidential denial on the same scale as pretending the empire of Rome did not really act as the cradle of much of western civilization and only really extended just beyond the borders of Italy by a few miles. Im gonna coin a phrase for such comparative evidence denial..... Im gonna start calling it NELSON SYNDROME, for surely its holding the telescope up to your eyepatched eye and saying "I see no ships". NELSON SYNDROME is the common cognitive dissonance disorder associated with BLACK KNIGHTS.

Climate change science IS extremely complex, and way beyond the ken of most us humble joe shmos. However, when over 94% of scientists with relevant expertise agree on anthropomorphic climate change, and the scale of such a threat, and there are very easy to understand examples like the Krakatoa, Tambora, and Laki eruptions in our own two millennia of recorded history to look at, denying it is just daft.

I am really heartbroken for all the families and people caught up in Sandy, but y know what? Such is the price you pay for becoming a nation of people who regard science with suspicion, celebrate anti-intellectualism, think opinion is the same as evidence, and regard stupidity as a virtue - particularly in politicians. You sow the wind, and literally reap the whirlwind. As a world leader in science and technology they should be leading the way in clean fuels and energy efficiency, but instead they prefer cheap gas and 10mpg SUVs to drive down to the corner shop between bouts of Faux Noodles propaganda, while their politicians scupper any progress on geopolitical moves to get pollution under control so their fat cat polluter donors can make a fast buck today and screw tomorrow.



ADDENDUM



naughty naughty..... that magazine cover does in fact look like this

8144543033_e2989ca739.jpg (126.9 KiB) Viewed 1104 times

here is a quote from the article

Yes, yes, it’s unsophisticated to blame any given storm on climate change. Men and women in white lab coats tell us—and they’re right—that many factors contribute to each severe weather episode. Climate deniers exploit scientific complexity to avoid any discussion at all.

And here is what the editor tweeted when the right wingnut blogosphere exploded

“Our cover story this week may generate controversy, but only among the stupid,” tweeted Bloomberg Businessweek editor Josh Tyrangiel.

[margaretcarnes]

You're right SM that we do stick our heads in the 'sand' when it comes to the man made effects on climate, and that the US in particular continues on it's gas guzzling road to destruction. And yes it IS a difficult thing to understand for many of us.
But without trivialising the devastation of Sandy I think many - if not most - countries really need to get a grip on reality and do more than pay lip service to the need to reduce emissions.
One of the offenders is the UK. Despite all the politically correct talk there are no positive attempts at all to reduce the number of cars on the roads for a start. And why should there be? They are revenue generators - both in direct taxation and fuel tax. We have the anti bus pass brigade condemning free travel for pensioners while the Government taxes bus companies almost to extinction. We have a deplorably ill managed and contracted out rail system whose operators can charge pretty much what they like, and we are still feeling the effects of the Beeching axe.
Even the introduction of wind turbines isn't going as it should - not just because of the Barbour and wellies brigade. Offshore turbines are the way to go IMO but where I live the city is on hold after months of waiting with baited breath for Siemens to arrive with a new turbine plant, while the Government still prevaricates over the terms.
As Mr Mainwaring said ' we are all doooomed' - but it isn't only the fault of the US.

[STEVE G]

....not just because of the Barbour and wellies brigade.

Yes, I was brought up in the Trent Valley which was packed with coal fired power stations and no one ever spent much time worrying about their impact on the view.If you think a wind turbine is ugly try a few cooling towers.