Hurricane Sandy

[wberminio]

hope all are ok

[Brady Watson]

I talked to 3 botters in NJ - still waiting to hear back from one of them. Everyone is OK - not all have power.

-B

[Brian Harnett]

No power here but we are used to it going out for days at a time the line is down at the end of the road.

I have to go and cut up a few trees in the road, much less damage than Irene.

[kurt_rose]

Thanks for the call this morning Brady!!! Cape May NJ Checking in here! All is good. The barrier islands took a beating, but where i live just off shore I'm kinda protected and on high ground if there is such a thing in NJ. Just lost power over night. I'm planning on cutting all day! On the Bot that is.:D

[wberminio]

I lost power/ part of my roof lifted up /It was fun trying to repair the roof with 70+ gusts! At least no water

[michael_schwartz]

I hope everybody is all right. These storms are no joke. For those affected, it does get better. The outpouring of volunteer support, and charitable efforts will be of an even larger magnitude than the storm.

We seem to have dodged a bullet here in Vermont. Only 10-15k power outages in the state, and no flooding serious enough to make the news. A few days ago some of the potential tracks would have brought 2x as much rain as Irene.

The flash flooding sustained during Irene affected just about everybody within sight of a creek, river, or stream in south/central Vermont. I know countless people who are still rebuilding their homes and businesses. I still have to replace drywall in my shop. 100 mile sections of road, including much of VT100 were left un-passable, and required major repairs, and entire stretches had to be re-built from scratch. Our road crews got this done in about 3 months. Hopefully they will be heading south.

[khaos]

In southern VA we had wind and rain for 4 days. Water from the river was up about 7 actual feet from normal but My house and shop are about 15' up. Small roof damage to the shop but no power loss so that parts all good.

[dlcw]

If you happen to be a sailboat lover, the HMS Bounty (tall ship) sank off the east coast (I think the Cape Hatteras area). You can still see the masts above the water. I hope they recover it.

The latest report had the Coast Guard rescuing 14 of the 16 crew with 1 confirmed fatality and one missing. I will be praying for the families of the victims of this tragedy.

I hope this is the only crew member lost on ANY boats or ships that went through that hell.

I have not heard reports of fatalities on shore. I sure hope there art none.

[kurt_rose]

While I feel for the crew all I can ask is one question. Why the heck were they out there. We've known about this storm for over a week now. I just don't get it. It's just senseless.

[dlcw]

You're right Kurt. The Captain should have high-tailed it away from the storm in any direction he could go. With the winds from the storm he could have broad reached (wind coming from behind and pushing the boat on its fastest point of sail) right up the US coast into the Canadian Maritime Provinces and taken shelter there. There is no way the storm could have taken him by surprise with all the modern electronics and communications equipment.

My Dad used to sail large square rigged research sailing ships for Marine Shoals Laboratory as the Captain and had to high-tail it from several hurricanes and other bad storms. Never once did he put his boat or crew in jeopardy.

It seems like it was pretty senseless.

[bleeth]

He was trying to sail out from it but that ship is pretty slow. But it seems he waited too long to make the decision. This is all to common when storms are coming by lots of folks. It ported in St. Petersburg when I was a kid after the movie came out and a friend and I snuck up the rigging one time.

Glad to hear you guys there have not been too badly affected. Barrier islands got it bad.

[bcondon]

Massachusetts has a lot of flooding on the "south coast" as would Connecticut and Rhode Island. We are mid state so we have lots of trees
down and power outage but safe.

My wife bet my son and I $10 that we would lose power. Our area
is pretty resilient, had a lot of tree trimming. We won that bet but consider
ourselves lucky.

I tried to contact friends in Hoboken NJ without luck...

I was glad to see Eminio is fine as he is down near the harder hit area!

[srwtlc]

How about the two Bills (Palumbo and Young)?

[Brady Watson]

Bill P is good & accounted for - I'm not sure about Bill Y, but knowing him - he's smart enough to get somewhere safe.

-B

[curtiss]

Shopbots might provide some family safety in earthquakes, high water not so much....

[bill.young]

Things are fine here...thanks for asking. We had 7"+ of rain and steady 40 mph winds, gusting to 55-60 at times. A couple of pretty high tides, but then the wind came around from the west and blew all the water out. All in all we were very fortunate.

[billp]

Bill P. checking in. Just got power back a few minutes ago! Luckily I had a small Honda 2000 generator so I had heat, and refrigeration. I'm about 10 miles inland from Seaside Heights and everything over there is simply toast ! Between here and there a lot of people are still pumping, shoveling,and generally trying to salvage anything they can. One of my friends was chasing her Jeep Cherokee yesterday (as it floated down the road) with an anchor hoping to snag it before the tide washed it back into the Bay...(Ed Lang make a note, place an anchor windless on your Jeep ...)
I was in Miami for "Andrew"back in '93 and while this storm wasn't anywhere near as strong as that one, the density of the population locally has made everything much worse.
It's gonna take a looooong time for this area to get back to anything resembling "normal".

[waterwheelman]

Bill P, good to hear that you survived the storm. I hope you didn't have too much damage in your neighborhood.

[billp]

David,
"Damage" is a relative term around here this week. I lost roof shingles and a few trees, but that's all replaceable in time. As with any major disaster there's a world of hurt going on around here, and it's not gonna get better anytime in the immediate future.
For anyone who has been through these events you know what the next phase is going to involve; lots of cleanup, debris removal, hassles with insurers over whether it was wind or flood damage, etc. I would hope that it wakes everyone up to the fact that we all bear a certain amount of responsibility for our own best interests, and survival, and can not count on the powers that be to bail us out again, and again.
As it has been pointed out in the past, your 'luck' seems to improve proportionally with your level of preparedness...
If there is ANY bright note in all of this it's the fact that there should be a LOT of work in the construction,restoration industries locally for years to come...
Thanks to all who have called or written to check up on those of us who wound up in Sandy's path...

[Brady Watson]

If you want to get an idea of the damage: http://storms.ngs.noaa.gov/storms/sandy/

Change the default base layer to satellite & read the help at the bottom so you get an idea of how to use it. Then slide the appropriate slider to morph between pre & post storm views...Some areas are so devastated that it is almost hard to believe. I used to ride the board walk on my bike in Seaside Park/Heights when I was a kid...A lot of it is missing now. North of Seaside Heights is really decimated. The Manaloking bridge landing is now a new ocean inlet...We're really lucky we didn't get hammered here.

We have family on Long Island, NY and I am waiting for them to post the data for there. Last we were able to talk, they had 4' of sea water in the basement & they pumped it all out...only to find it perked back up thru the floor 3' in a few hours. Washing machine, all their Winter clothes, the furnace and other stuff completely shot. They have a newborn and I can't even imagine being up there with that population density and lack of supplies. Just getting gasoline is a 4hr+ wait - that's if they have some left by the time it is your turn. Our nephew took a run up there to bring them a generator, gas and some other essentials. It's really bad for a lot of people...

-B

[roney c]

Glad to hear that the bot community came through Sandy ok.
All safe as well, Cape May home unscathed and Brooklyn apt untouched however my shop is still w/o electric as of today, (it's located on the 6th floor of a Zone 1 evac area).
Kurt whereabouts in Cape May are you? Maybe we could meet up and chat?

[roney c]

On a sad note, a former student of my wife's was killed along with his friend when they were crushed by a falling tree while taking her dog out to do his business. They will both be missed.