ot: Batten down the hatches East Coasters - hybrid sandy winter storm

124»

Comments

  • RomancefantasyRomancefantasy Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Hello Sandy Survivors,

    Before the storm I was joking about buying ramen noodles and seltzer water. Well it was true that I did buy it but I didn't think I'd even need it. I figured Sandy would be no worse than Irene. Well I can say I've learned my lesson abut hurricanes. This storm was horrifying. My electricity went out during the storm and stayed off until yesterday afternoon. Cell phones were out for days and cable service is only back today. Luckily I had candles, flashlights with batteries, and a little transistor radio that I used to keep on my desk at work which was a lifeline in the darkness. There are still people without power, hot water, and heat. So it may be a while before people are able to be back on the forums.

    Nobody was expecting this to be so bad. I don't know anybody who took the new reports seriously. I had no cash, no water, no non perishable foods. My power has never been out before except for the great blackout of 2003 and even then they fixed it quickly. All my candles were christmas scented which got annoying quickly. What few stores that were open after the storm only took cash. Then there was the gas shortage. Never did I think I'd see gas lines in my lifetime.

    I totally respect mother nature and what she can do. To see large old trees uprooted and destroyed is a testament to what the wind can do. During the storm I was so afraid of the wind, my house was shaking, telephone pole right in front of my window was swaying and I was sitting in the dark watching flashes of light outside as transformers exploded in the distance. It was crazy. But beside losing all food in the freezer and fridge I didn't suffer any damage. I know some people lost everything. When the power finally came back on I was dancing and celebrating and then a few minutes later they reported a huge fire a block away from me, they think started by faulty wiring when the power came back on. Whatever it was, it was sobering because someone lost their life. This whole storm and aftermath was very bad. I think the people who live on the east coast have to be prepared for super storms from now on and learn from super storm Sandy.

    Now I gotta go try to vote!

  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675
    edited December 1969

    got the Power

    deh deh deh

    i took a shower

    yeah yeah

    'lectricity back on!!!

    omg, 6 days with no electricity. lost power Monday around 4:00, came back on Sunday night.

    no internet at home. but i'm grateful for hot food and hot coffee. i'll never under appreciate a cup of hot oatmeal again.

    lamest Halloween ever. wahhhh

    no trees hit the house. house up the block, tree crashed into her son's bedroom. everyone is okay. she has a for sale sign up on her house already. think they were shook up.

    made it to work, haz to have hope the bus home is gonna show up.

  • JaderailJaderail Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    YEA! So glad to hear from you two. Two less to worry over, still a couple but it's getting better every day now.

  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675
    edited December 1969

    here's a picture from my cellphone camera, day after Sandy.

    power line caught this tree before it could block the street.

    celph-tree.jpg
    615 x 475 - 85K
  • McGyverMcGyver Posts: 6,995
    edited November 2012

    Good to hear from both of you!!
    I'm very glad neither of you were harmed or had to resort to cannibalism (I'm right about that, I hope...)... (let me tell you- cannibalism is a hard road to come back from.... or... so I hear).... (Really).
    I was just reading back over the earlier posts (before I realized there was a 7th page to this thread) and I noticed that romancefantasy never checked back... (for some reason I thought you had)... I was just about to mention it here when I found the 7th page and saw that the two "missing" forumites (that I'm aware of) have returned... Thats great news!
    Stay safe and warm and if you can, you might want to stock up on some more supplies (and non-holiday scented candles) today, just in case Thursday's storm makes things worse and power goes out again... the utility companies in the tristate area are not sounding too confident in their grids... LIPA is even saying to expect more delays and additional outages.
    So far the outlook is a coastal flood watch for NY,NJ and Conn... Storm surge of 3-5 ft and waves around 8-12 ft.... with a high wind watch in effect for the tristate area with expected sustained winds of 30-45 mph and gusts up to 60+ mph. A Rampaging Radioactive Giant Prehistoric Reptile Awakened From The Ocean's Depths By The Recent Storms warning has been issued for Long Island City- Queens, Flatbush- Brooklyn and Lake Ronkonkoma- Long Island.
    I'm not sure if I interpreted that last one correctly, but I just went with it anyway... I chose to leave out the Venomous Mutated Flying Horseshoe Crab Alert that I'm pretty sure FOX News mentioned... Gretchen Carlson sometimes says strange things, so I figured I'd leave it out for now.
    Okay I made the last one up... but I'm pretty sure if I did call FOX up and report it, Gretchen would definitely believe it.
    Well, anyway... Stay safe everyone...
    Bye!

    Post edited by McGyver on
  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675
    edited December 1969

    waves to lordvi

    7th post of the 7th page? tee hee. oh, i think it's only 6th post.

    more stormy weathers? nooo! i'm barely used to hot food again, the decadence - my stomach shrunk.

    did someone release the Krakken?

  • Miss BMiss B Posts: 3,071
    edited December 1969

    waves to lordvi

    7th post of the 7th page? tee hee. oh, i think it's only 6th post.

    more stormy weathers? nooo! i'm barely used to hot food again, the decadence - my stomach shrunk.

    did someone release the Krakken?


    YAY!!! Good to see you posting again Misty, and you too romancefantasy. I got lucky with Sandy, and just hoping that this Nor'easter coming tomorrow turns out a lot weaker than they're forecasting. Stay safe everyone!!
  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675
    edited December 1969

    Miss B said:
    waves to lordvi

    7th post of the 7th page? tee hee. oh, i think it's only 6th post.

    more stormy weathers? nooo! i'm barely used to hot food again, the decadence - my stomach shrunk.

    did someone release the Krakken?


    YAY!!! Good to see you posting again Misty, and you too romancefantasy. I got lucky with Sandy, and just hoping that this Nor'easter coming tomorrow turns out a lot weaker than they're forecasting. Stay safe everyone!!


    Thanks!

    it's raining sideways outside right now. news is saying it's weakening. :)

  • McGyverMcGyver Posts: 6,995
    edited December 1969

    Yeah, snow-raining sideways in Bayshore... snaining? raiowing? Its nasty either way. Someone we know who just got power back the other day just told my wife that they lost it again. Pfft! My wife's parents who have been living here since last monday STILL don't have power... Every time a big gust blows I half expect the lights to go out.... it's like walking on thin ice... I keep waiting for the CRACK!!

  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675
    edited December 1969

    you're in Bayshore? I'm in Bohemia at the moment. Johnson Ave.

  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001
    edited December 1969

    Yeah, snow-raining sideways in Bayshore... snaining? raiowing? Its nasty either way.

    I call that 'slushing'...because if it accumulates, then that's what you get, several inches of ready-made slush.

  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604
    edited December 1969

    In the UK we call it sleet.

  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675
    edited December 1969

    mjc1016 said:
    Yeah, snow-raining sideways in Bayshore... snaining? raiowing? Its nasty either way.

    I call that 'slushing'...because if it accumulates, then that's what you get, several inches of ready-made slush.


    snow cones!

    it's sleeting out nao.

    yayy, someone at work is gonna drive me home so i don't have to wait at the bus stop.

    i was looking out the door and feeling ready to cry just thinkin about it.

  • SockrateaseSockratease Posts: 813
    edited December 1969

    chohole said:
    In the UK we call it sleet.

    I just call it Sheep Fish-Poop (Ewe Bass-Turd!).

  • McGyverMcGyver Posts: 6,995
    edited December 1969

    chohole said:
    In the UK we call it sleet.

    I just call it Sheep Fish-Poop (Ewe Bass-Turd!). You know, I think you are the only other person I've heard use the bass-turd reference... For years every time someone says "What a bastard"(usually pronounced bass-turd), I'll say something like "I dunno, he seems like more of a trout turd to me..." nobody ever gets that.

  • RomancefantasyRomancefantasy Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    >:( This is enough already. Now it's snowing?! It's freezing here and I worry for the people I know are out there hunkering down in what's left of their homes. I just talked to a family friend who only got their phone and power back today. Mother nature is really sticking it to us big time. It's a mess in NJ.

  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675
    edited December 1969

    the sky was pooping snow

    wahh, my home area lost power again last night. no power no shower this morning

    buses are running, so at least i made it to work, my phone needed charging.

    who needs a shower, naked snow angels - that should be refreshing, lol.

  • McGyverMcGyver Posts: 6,995
    edited December 1969

    Yeah,four inches of wet, sticky, heavy, nasty snow here on the south shore of LI... 5+ in the center and 6+ on the north shore... At least the winds died down quicker than expected.
    I feel bad for every with damage to their homes... our house took no apparent damage, but my property has a few downed trees on it and is dangerously littered with fallen limbs (tree... no human limbs... really)... slightly worse than last year, and it took me (by myself) about a month to cut up the trees and remove all the debris. I don't even want to look at all this now so wet, tangled and compacted.
    Wet snow makes cleaning/removing and repairing storm damage 10X worse... I can't imaging how someone with no power/no tools/no help and a big tree laying on the house is dealing with this.
    The other really sad outcome of this is that by next spring all the tree cutting services will be scaring people into removing ALL the trees on their properties... in many cases this actually makes matters worse by removing natural wind breaks and causes more widespread damage.

  • McGyverMcGyver Posts: 6,995
    edited December 1969

    Sorry to hear that Misty... but... um... NAKED snow angels.... Brrrrr!
    I made a full clothed snow devil this morning, when I slipped on a buried tarp... it wasn't a lot of fun.

  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675
    edited December 1969

    snow devil! what a fantastic concept! can't wait for electricity to power up my poser compy.

  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675
    edited November 2012

    here's the LIPA outages page. but it doesn't let you drill down.

    http://www.lipainfo.com/public/townoutages.cfm


    oh noes! i'm watching the Huntington numbers. outages went from 15,262 to 15,435.

    the number is supposed to go down, not up.
    this means houses are losing power faster than they can restore them.

    Post edited by Mistara on
  • atticanneatticanne Posts: 3,009
    edited December 1969

    Sounds like the problem is getting worse, Misty. I hope it's better tomorrow.

  • Miss BMiss B Posts: 3,071
    edited November 2012

    Yes we got about 2 or so inches here in the city limits as well. I went out after it stopped to walk 1 block to the supermarket, and slush was definitely the way to describe it. Pulling the shopping cart the 1 black to the store wasn't bad, pushing it back to the house wasn't so easy. :-S

    Yesterday the sidewalks and streets were pretty clear, but it was still cold enough to warrant watching where you walked, as it was still icy in spots. It's warmed up some today, so that should all be melted now.

    Post edited by Miss B on
  • McGyverMcGyver Posts: 6,995
    edited November 2012

    I just watched a press conference where a bunch of local officials where talking about having the military come in and oversee LIPA (in case you don't know, LIPA is the Long Island Power Authority). The problem has been taking far too long to fix and there are still too many residents without heat or power, so the request is now being made for the federal government to send in the army corp of engineers as well as other agencies that may be able to assist. The problem here was that despite being warned by New York State after last years hurricane and as far back as 2006, LIPA continued to ignore the warning and neglected the most basic maintenance like tree trimming and replacing rotting utility poles (they actually suspended the program in 2006).
    If you are interested, here is a article from Newsday:
    http://www.newsday.com/long-island/why-lipa-failed-utility-ignored-warnings-it-wasn-t-ready-for-major-storm-1.4203976

    I know many of you may not be affected by this and may think it a bit preachy that I complain about stuff sometimes, but I have found that if one sits by idly and says nothing, most people just continue- business as usual.
    I say this because many other areas of this country (and others) may be in similar situations... find out where your community stands and what your options are in a similar situation. Never simply except "we have it covered" as an answer, with first asking "HOW?".
    Good day.

    Post edited by McGyver on
  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001
    edited November 2012

    I say this because many other areas of this country (and others) may be in similar situations... find out where your community stands and what your options are in a similar situation. Never simply except "we have it covered" as an answer, with first asking "HOW?".
    Good day.

    There are still somewhere between 30,000 and 45,000 people in my and 5 surrounding counties, here in WV, without power. It didn't take that long back in June/early July to return power to everyone. And while we didn't have the wind and flooding (though some area of WV did get the heavy rains/flooding) we got 18" to 48"++ of heavy, wet snow from this...so LI isn't the only place still reeling from this storm.

    I had 24" of snow and almost 5 days without power...or a functioning furnace or well pump. We saved the well for drinking water and hauled water from the spring fed cattle tank for everything else. High temps during that time rarely made it past 45, with lows in the low 30s.

    Post edited by mjc1016 on
  • McGyverMcGyver Posts: 6,995
    edited December 1969

    No, I agree. My point is that in this case probably more that 70% of the damage that occurred to the (LI) system here was avoidable. I am currently reading through a NYS report on LIPA's response to Irene (hurricane)... its an appalling assessment of mismanagement and poor planning. This is not all that different from some of the stories of poor management and planning that came out of New Orleans after Katrina... Basically what I'm saying is the rate payers and politicians let this happen by not questioning the utility's policies and planning, and by not demanding clear explanations of what emergency plans were in place... this can happen to others if they don't stay on top of what is happening in their communities. It's boring to sometimes read through reports and sometimes you may feel a bit uncomfortable standing up at a town meeting and asking questions to which people often reply "we are looking into that"... but sometimes speaking out about it gets it in more people's heads and then when enough people ask "yeah, so what ARE you doing about this"... then, maybe stuff starts getting done.
    I feel too often these days we all just assume there is a plan in place and the other guy is doing his job.... too often that's not the case.

    I'm very sorry you guys in WV are going through some bad times and I hope you all get your power restored soon. Good luck.

  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001
    edited December 1969

    I've had mine back for almost a week...but I'm getting almost daily outages ranging anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours...they are still working on the lines and 'fixing' temporary 'fixes' and such.

    I've got 135 acres and this past summer is the first time in 15 yrs the power company trimmed the right-of-way on the property, so you are actually one up on us, if it's only been ten. What was really ironic...the two weeks leading up to the storm saw a bunch of new utility poles installed...but nothing had been transferred on to them...if it had, several of the breaks would have been avoided.

    One advantage around here...most of the time the amount of 'red tape' to get something done is an order of magnitude lower than in some place like LI.

  • kyoto kidkyoto kid Posts: 40,514
    edited December 1969

    ...just to show how big of an effect Sandy had, this is a vid taken at McKinley Park in Milwaukee WI of high waves stirred up on Lake Michigan by the "superstorm" nearly 1,000 miles away.

    Superstorm Sandy - Lake Michigan Waves

  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675
    edited December 1969

    omg, this is depressing. from what i understand, Disney built a replica of the HMS Bounty for a movie in the 60's.

    the replica sank
    http://weather.yahoo.com/photos/hms-bounty-slideshow/

    This photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard shows the HMS Bounty, a 180-foot sailboat, submerged in the Atlantic Ocean during Hurricane Sandy approximately 90 miles southeast of Hatteras, N.C., Monday, Oct. 29, 2012. The Coast Guard rescued 14 of the 16 crew members by helicopter. Hours later, rescuers found one of the missing crew members, but she was unresponsive. They are still searching for the captain. (AP Photo/U.S. Coast Guard, Petty Officer 2nd Class Tim Kuklewski)


    http://news.yahoo.com/police-bodies-2-missing-nyc-boys-found-185843901.html

  • McGyverMcGyver Posts: 6,995
    edited December 1969

    I found this entry on Wikipedia:

    "The Captain was unfortunately not found and presumed deceased November 2nd 2012. It was later reported that the Coast Guard had recovered one of the missing crew members, Claudene Christian, who was apparently the great-great-great-great-great granddaughter of Fletcher Christian, the sailing master of the original HMS Bounty. Ms. Christian was found to be unresponsive and pronounced dead at Albemarle Hospital in Elizabeth City, NC."

    The part about the young lady being related to Fletcher Christian is pretty eerie.

Sign In or Register to comment.