Stunningly, I didn't lose power. The lights flickered three times, but that was it. Usually, my power goes out if a cloud looks in my neighborhood's direction.

There must not be any more trees left between me and the substation.

Electricity flickered once, here. Our new construction fucking leaked. A couple of substantial sized limbs (think upper arm diameter) fell, but were considerate enough to not fall on anything. Lots of interesting wind. I'm going out for a drive soon, to look at the local creeks.

This is one of my hot points. We are a reactive nation. We'd rather pay over and over for repairs and losses due to outages than to proactively fix something.

Leave it. It adds character to the place.

Is your friend in Falls Church? CNN interviewed a guy there who had a tree fall on his family's house.

No flooding, power outages, building collapses, etc. in my part of town...and all the crap that my neighbors left on their roof next to my windows stayed put. *whew*

The Weather Channel provides 200+ pictures. Most damage is trivial. The usual and expected flooding on barrier islands. Cars flooded (ie in NYC's financial district) because owners foolishly ignored warnings and stayed. Wildwood homes with the usual flooding because they were not built on stilts are that environment requires. Ironically, one homeowner had an air conditioner (picture 57?), properly protected, on stilts.

Worst was a 100 home fire in Breezy Point Queens NY. Probably because some homeowner foolishly did not turn off electricity and gas before leaving. Learn from other's mistakes.

Locations with flooding have serious planning to implement. For example, PATH has been doing planning for flooding that will take 20 years. A picture of their Hoboken Station shows how much work must still be done.

In PA (Cellar region), most remain with electricity despite so many overhead wires threatened by trees. Weather Channel pictures demonstrate how minor this storm really was. Notice damage, while even electric and phone lines remain intact. Because this storm was only a serious storm. And not the disaster hyped by the local gossip TV stations (no TV for two days while local gossip hunts so hard for to report isolated damage). All useful news on this storm could have been reported by a 5 minute report once every hour. But, no. They stopped all TV broadcasting like it was 11 September. Even the network news (far more important information) was not broadcast. View the pictures. Even overhead power lines remain intact.

Learn from other's mistakes. If water is half way up your tires, then you are at serious risk or possible death. Notice how many (and how many 'the world is going to end' news reporters) do not know that. Learn from their mistakes.

If suffering from flooding, then you have a problem that must be solved. Anyone who had flooding should expect future flooding. Fix the house. Move the car. Rebuild or redecorate accordingly.

How out of touch are some? HMS Bounty left port on Thursday headed directly into what everyone knew was coming. The Captain said it was safer to be as sea rather than in port. He foolishly claimed he was going around the hurricane - using sail power. He and one crewman died because he did not use simple intelligence. And that was only a Category one hurricane. Intelligence - not the storm - was the problem. Meanwhile, in London, planes remain grounded because others used brain power to avert problems from a simple serious storm.

Notice that NYC even had plans to cover subway grates. Essential to protect the entire subway system and adjacent buildings.

Had Irene (last year) remained over water, then it would have been a more serious storm. Had Irene struck NYC as threatened, then NYC would have had serious problems. Notice NYC doing things that could only happened with advanced planning.

Among serious storms, Sandy was trivial. Even its wind was not that serious as demonstrated by so many intact utility wires. As demonstrated by maps during landfall in Here they Come Again! A lesson that everyone should learn from. If your house had damage, then you know how much work need be done to prepare for serious storms. Storms that are expected to become more common.

My cow orkers boat got washed into someones back yard. He's beside himself.

And his boat stands beside his neighbor. Even his boat abandoned him.

I hope he did not consider his boat his best friend.

Survived. Power is on at the rehab, still none at home yet.

Sandy's Power Was Deceptive
 

From NASA...

wb wolf

My life is complicated. But when compared to the folks in Sandy's path, I'm doing pretty damn good. I've been avoiding the Internet and cable news because I get so enraged over what I've read and heard re the election. However, I'll probably post a big old rant down in the politics forum since my patience has frayed down to the vanishing point. So be forewarned, Hurricane Sam is gathering strength over in western Colorado! :eek:

:applause:

I LIKE Hurricane Sam! :D

You know, I think Big W00dy might have been the closest Dwellar to the bad stuff.

All right!

Anyone hit hard by Sandy?

I want damage reports! And pictures!

A small branch fell from the neighbors' tree into the end of our driveway, and my feet got a little tangled in it when I got the newspaper in the dark yesterday morning. When I went out a couple hours later and planned to pick it up, it was missing.

On Tuesday morning (day after Sandy), reporters got onto Avalon. A barrier island town located where Sandy's eye hit. A picture of the fallen street light says what really happened. Behind that picture are 1) intact telephone and electric wires, 2) no damage to any home, and 3) no debris or sand in the streets. This is what most towns suffered despite non-stop news (no other television) for two day warning of the end of the earth. The actual reporting could have been 5 minute bulletins every hour.