Here they Come Again!

[glatt]

You sound disappointed. I'll be very pleased if this storm wimps out.

[xoxoxoBruce]

No he's pleased as punch it didn't live up to a week's worth of hype.
Glatt, the Philly NBC, ABC, CBS, and FOX, stations have had nothing but storm coverage. I mean nothing, as tw mentioned, not even national network news.

[Cyber Wolf]

Turns out the triviality of this storm totally depended on where you were. In the NoVA suburbs of DC, lots of 'meh' and 'well that was interesting!' and some flooding, downed trees and power outages, not unlike the aftermath of a rough batch of summer thunderstorms.

In downtown and midtown NY, Apocalyptic. No other words.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Cyber Wolf

Turns out the triviality of this storm totally depended on where you were. In the NoVA suburbs of DC, lots of 'meh' and 'well that was interesting!' and some flooding, downed trees and power outages, not unlike the aftermath of a rough batch of summer thunderstorms.

The Derecho of 2012 was far far worse for NoVA than this hurricane was.

[Cyber Wolf]

Originally Posted by glatt

The Derecho of 2012 was far far worse for NoVA than this hurricane was.

Yeah but we were in its rather large bulls-eye. We weren't for this one, we got a glancing blow on the weaker side of the system. That's what I'm saying, the seriousness of the impact totally depends on where you were.

[tw]

Originally Posted by Cyber Wolf

In downtown and midtown NY, Apocalyptic.

Midtown is fine. Downtown - evacuated part of Manhatttan - is suffering.

Damage is also greater in other places where people refused to evacuate. Staten lsland alone may account for half of all deaths. Because people ignored informed advise. Converting what should only have been flooding into maybe 40 deaths. (Philly local gossip never reported this.)

[Cyber Wolf]

Originally Posted by tw

Midtown is fine. Downtown - evacuated part of Manhatttan - is suffering.

Damage is also greater in other places where people refused to evacuate. Staten lsland alone may account for half of all deaths. Because people ignored informed advise. Converting what should only have been flooding into maybe 40 deaths. (Philly local gossip never reported this.)

Downtown then. They still got boned whether or not there were people there when it hit. Even if there were 0 people in NY and immediate environs when the thing hit, the public and private property damage was horrendous.

[glatt]

The Capital Weather Gang did a thing about what would have happened if the storm surge was in DC instead of NYC.

Even included a graphic.



The panel in the lower right corner is a 5 meter storm surge, which I think is what NYC got. So that's what we would have seen if Sandy steered a little south.
Apparently most of the Smithsonian museums and several Federal Buildings would be flooded to some extent.

I recently remembered reading about a levee system they were building down on the mall, and at the time it seemed unnecessary. But I guess it really is a good idea. So I went down there at lunch, and this it what they just built.


It's about 8 feet tall. Apparently there is a gate they can drop into place across the street when a storm is getting close.

It goes right here:


I wonder if it will be high enough. I also wonder if there are other levees being built that I just haven't seen. I get the feeling there are a few other low paths into that part of the city.

[tw]

Just returned from 'disaster area' cleanup. No buildings seriously damaged. Found a 3 inch by 3 inch piece from a nearby roof. Piles of swamp hay, carried in by flooding water, are massive. Most homes are only vacation homes. People emptying garages to hose it out. A few homes, built defectively, have soaked furniture and rugs. This was ground zero for the local gossip's 'end of the earth' reporting.

Most damage occurred elsewhere. Noted early on were so many trees still with leaves. Areas suffering, because of no electricity, may be without power for two weeks. Large trees felled by winds are far from where local gossip was reporting.

A friend just returned to her lower Manhattan apartment after sleeping on other's floors for four day. And walking to work. Flooding apparently drove rats upstairs. She found 'mouse' dropping everywhere. She is unhappy. Local gossip did not report that disaster.