Posted on 11/01/2012 5:10:23 AM PDT by Kartographer
People along the battered U.S. East Coast slowly began reclaiming their daily routines Thursday, even as crews searched for victims and tens of thousands remained without power after superstorm Sandy claimed more than 70 lives.
SNIP-----
Tempers flared. A man screamed at emergency officials in Hoboken about why food and water had not been delivered to residents just a few blocks away. The man, who would not give his name, said he blew up an air mattress to float over to a staging area.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
And what did President Obama do to help the people prepare for this? He took a Joy Ride down to Florida and back just for photo opts!
Are you presuming this is CLEAN water???????
Slogging through toe deep sewage can lead to sepsis if you have a break in the skin.
After just having dealt with a MRSA infection myself, no thanks.
If folks don't want to risk wading through filthy, contaminated, likely disease ridden sewage, I'll cut them some slack.
Thank you, we are good for now - one of the few that have power, but possibly no water soon because of the sewer system for my area.
Here’s how prepping pays off in the real world:
Our daughter goes to college in NJ in an area directly and badly affected by Sandy. After two days of limping along, the University president (who had been doing a great job of keeping parents and students informed) issued a statement that amounted to “get your kids home; we will run out of food and are concerned for their safety as the surrounding community remains un-supplied and unrelieved.” Wow. We live in GA, and she in NJ.
Being “prepped” meant that we had real options.
(1) we (and our daughter) had plenty of cash on hand. The ATMs in the area do not operate.
(2) I was able to book her on a flight home this afternoon, but in case that flight does not go ...
(3) we have the 4X4 vehicle, 300 miles of extra gas in travel safe containers, food, supplies, generator, inverter, ‘defensive measures’, hand tools and paper maps ... and barter items ... ready on the hot deck. If her flight does NOT go out this afternoon, we can launch this evening and be there for dawn tomorrow.
(4) locals friends (prior arrangements) got her out of the danger zone last night to a private residence near the airport. If the SHTF near the University, that’s 15 miles away in the other direction.
(5) A co-worker and former Marine (chinook tail gunner) is ready to be picked up on the way in if we we need to execute an ugly extraction.
Realization has set in with the locals - they know now this is gonna take a while, and supplies ARE running out. People are moving from ‘oh well’ to anger in the surrounding neighborhoods. Next phase is desperation.
Being “prepped” means our Princess will be safe via a variety of means BECAUSE we and she were “prepped”.
May God have mercy on all involved.
Well, how about I pile on and give you even more reason to express your self righteous outrage. I propose that the federal government, instead of distributing funds so that property owners along the beaches and nearby low lying areas can rebuild, buy out these people at fair market value. Then, the government can bull doze all the debris and return the area to its natural state. Btw, I’m not targeting just the northeast corrorider. This goes on (frequently) along the Mississippi River, the Red River in the northern plains, other places. Guess I’m saying that stupid and irresponsible conduct shouldn’t be incentivized. There you go, take your best shot, lol :)
As Adm. James Stockdale put it, after spending several years checked-in at the Hanoi Hilton,
This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the endwhich you can never afford to losewith the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.
Where you only have to worry about ...
Part of the problem was that Sandy was "just" a Cat 1. The Saffir Simpson scale is based on wind speed and wind damage and ignores surge, and in the cases of Katrina, Charley, Ike and Sandy, the surge was a full two categories above what would normally be expected from wind speed alone.
When it comes to surge, size does matter. The wider the storm's windfield, the more water it gets moving. Posters who follow hurricane threads on FR know that by now. There is even a new proposed scale called IKE - Integrated Kinetic Energy - and Sandy had the highest IKE rating in history. As the Jersey Shore, NYC and Long Island found out the hard way.
But I also do agree, there were some folks belittling the NHC forecast strength for a variety of reasons, and even now there are some downplaying how severe this storm was. Pretty pathetic, especially in hindsight.
“And what did President Obama do to help the people prepare for this? He took a Joy Ride down to Florida and back just for photo opts!”
Oh come now! He delivered a pizza!
Thank you for giving an EXCELLENT, real life example of how being prepped can make a difference.
My youngest daughter, by the grace of God, got THROUGH JFK just before the storm hit and the airport shut down completely. She was on one of the very last flights out since she was flying away from the storm, to the north.
If that had not been the case, we also have friends who could have gotten her out of the airport, or we would have driven down there ourselves, as you are planning on doing.
I’m GLAD that you are getting your daughter home, safe and sound. Please let us know how it goes.
And thank God that your daughter’s college president is enough in touch with reality and has enough foresight that he was able to make a very wise decision.
My wife had been a 98% believer in my/our prepping plans ... and expenses. Until now.
This made a True Believer out of her.
When her Mama Bear instincts kicked in with the realization that our youngest was at real risk, she was delighted that I had thought this through AND *WE* could ACT (not react) on *our* terms. Now. To paraphrase a line from “The Hunt for Red October” ... ‘this $h!t just got real’
She had really raised eyebrows in the past about the expenses of it all, and kinda scoffed at the idea of an extraction by force in a SHTF scenario. Not after yesterday’s events.
When “it” happens, the time to prepare is past. Do it now. Do it well.
Tell me where in America you are immune from natural disaster and let’s return that area to its original state. Zero people will be left in America. The rest of the planet, too.
Darlin’, you need to see this.
Pay special heed to posts 30, 36, 42, and 44.
We’ve discussed this. Get some ideas ready for the Tribal Council.
There are 875,000 LIPA customers (Long Island Power Authority - state run utility) without power still as of this morning, there were 925,000 out on Tuesday.
At the rate of 25,000 being restored per day that is 35 days.
Ditto Post # 32. Our son is in Long Beach.
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