kimilseung

Thanks for posting the link. It has been easy for me on the other side of the country to not quite perceive the damage that has been done.

Bob

Online, yeah, a few countries got mullered, but nothing on the mainstage US press.

yellowroom

I saw an article on the guardian website I think about it affecting Haiti, the trouble is the situation is so bad there to start with. It's almost a case of "can you tell the difference"?

yellowroom

I think after this quote its difficult to say anything except it's the right decision.

The humming and hawing and timing around it has not been good though.

Bob

I don't think so. Postponing for a couple of days yes, but cancelling it, that's just political grandstanding.

All those politicians up in arms about the event. They didn't give a shit about Staten Island before Sandy, the marathon wasn't even on their radar, but it gets them on the tele now when nothing else would.

There's a lot of money from the marathon that would have gone to the areas affected by this, that they now won't get.

Sally Redux

Might be nice to at least mention it here.

Pollyana

Humour is a coping mechanism, some people do find it inappropriate, but as a worker on the frontline of disaster response in Australia I can assure you without a sense of humour most of my colleagues would find it hard to keep going during cyclones and hurricanes.

Some desperately sad stories coming out of this; I'm used to seeing cyclone destruction in north Queensland, but to see somewhere like New York, out of the tropics, hit like this should be a wake up call for a lot of urban areas - Brisbane included. Haiti and Cuba have largely been overlooked I think because they are hit every season, they are in a hurricane area, and the devastation while horrific, is almost expected.

On a professional level I'm interested to see how much FEMA have learnt and improved since Katrina.......and with reports from places like Staten island saying that they have had no help offered yet its not looking good.

WEBlue

New York Times today had death totals for the US, Canada, and the Caribbean:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/02/ny..._20121102&_r=0

mandpete

Staying in midtown Manhattan and saw literally hundreds of marathon competitors of all nationalities checking in at our hotel earlier. Walking through the lobby just now, I saw lots of disappointed looking people The reason I am in NYC is pre-Sandy booked weekend away including Theater tickets. Had to queue for petrol last night to get to the ferry port and for DH to get to airport on Monday.

Nutmegger

Breathing sighs of relief -- our power came on just before 8 am this morning! With the forecast for it to get colder, I'm a very happy person! So now I can see the images of what happened on Staten Island and the Jersey Shore -- makes being cold for a few days pale in comparison. Those poor, poor people.

I noted a conversation that has been going on in this thread re generators. This is the third long outage we've had in the space of 12 months, but each time we figure that it won't happen again for a long time, and a generator isn't worth it. If this weird weather is becoming a pattern, perhaps we need to rethink things.

moneypenny20

We don't have that many outages here but we bought a generator from Gumtree for a couple of hundred bucks. The husband put in extra power sockets and lights that only run off the generator, so when the power does go out we have vague lighting, the tv, internet and fridgefreezer work once the plugs have been switched over. The amount we've saved simply by not having to throw out and replace the contents of the FF a few times has paid for the generator. It's a worthwhile expense imo.

WEBlue

Lots of photos from the Washington Post.

Before and after shots:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...rricane-sandy/

Destruction & recovery efforts (annoying short ad first, but then you can click on the images):
http://www.washingtonpost.com/nation...4_gallery.html

paddingtongreen

The best way to stop these outages is to buy the generator and keep it maintained and ready. As long as you do this, you won't need to use it.

Bob

One of those things that might be worth getting, but not when in a bind.

The folks were able to get a decent deal on theirs because they got it on sale, in the summer, during a clearance getting a previous years model and were already building a garage and wood shed, so able to get a discount on it. It still cost a couple grand, getting the gas fed into it from the gas tank/heater system but the rest of the cost was split with wiring up the garage anyway so wasn't a significant extra. It's a back up and kicks in witin a few seconds of a power outtage.

It's a bit over kill tbh, but it's so much better of a generator than what they could have gotten during the winter when they were a huge shortage as everyone was buying one during the storms.

It's pretty much paid for itself on savings of what the folks have had to throw out in food previously after just a few power cuts and now the old dear across the street has moved, the area is no longer a primary priority for power fixes any more.

Nutmegger

LOL -- working on the same principle, the other thing I need to do is stop buying this really expensive fresh refrigerated curry sauce to freeze when it goes on sale. Every time I stock up on it -- ta da! three weeks later the power goes and I either lose the sauces or have to have them every night for a week or so to use them up!

But I never keep that much food in the freezer that the losses would enable a generator to pay for itself in this lifetime.