Janet


Also, it could have been precisely because of Katrina that so many precautions were taken.  No one wants to see that tragedy re-enacted. 

Ahh, yes I was suspecting that was the case to some extent.  It seems we cross posted.

And yes I agree that news channels can fill up on what's happening locally to them much easier.

Jonbouy

It was a comedy of errors and the inability of the infrastructure to handle the amount of people to be evacuated.

That is basically what I'm trying to say.

So how was it possible to handle the people to be evacuated from New York State, but not Louisiana?

Is it because lessons were learned from Katrina or is it perhaps down to other reasons?

And sure I'm not suggesting that US reporters were afraid or being censored I'm just saying the news channel's concerns appeared to visibly end at the Canadian border.

Sure the cost of the storm in human terms is still being tallied and any loss of life is disasterous but the amount of concern being shown here seems to me to be disproportionate to the greater tragedy that happened in New Orleans which didn't seem to register on the Worlds media anywhere near to the same degree even though it's likely a third of its original population were never able to return.

Much of that could be down to improved communications since 2005, but I still feel there'd be more concern if half of New Yorkers had been displaced during this storm and a third were still unable to return home after 5 years.

I don't think either you or I will be looking at a tally that comes anywhere near close to that when this blows over.  Thank God.

The infrastructure is the precise reason (amongst others) that New York was able to evacuate (along with other states) in this case. More bridges and roads out, as well as in some cases like here in NJ the roads into what they call the barrier islands were closed to inbound traffic and changed over into outbound traffic. Also tolls on a lot of these bridges and roadways were lifted, especially in NJ.

I never implied the US reporters were censored but that those of other countries may be afraid or censored. News organizations in the US tend to be a bit more gregarious than those of other countries. The reason Canada wasn't elaborately covered is it's not of immediate concern to those in the US. Not being callous, just reality. The prime concern of news organizations here in the US when it comes to things like this is to that of the American people - they have no mandate to provide news explicitly to anyone else. Also remember that international news organizations carried this (CNN amongst others) so the dissemination of coverage wasn't just to the USA.

Katrina easily had as much coverage as Hurricane Irene, it's just that there are more outlets for news now than there were a few years ago.

Once again you say something I don't understand:
"Much of that could be down to improved communications since 2005, but I still feel there'd be more concern if half of New Yorkers had been displaced during this storm and a third were still unable to return home after 5 years."
And that is concern for whom or what? Concern for those displaced by Katrina? Believe me when I say there is concern for those poor souls who can't return to their previous places of living. Just because it doesn't make it to the lame stream media doesn't mean it doesn't exist. The grassroots organizations that are helping people rebuild in New Orleans are doing a bang-up job with what little they have. It's just that money is spread so thin between recovery from Katrina and the oil spill in the Gulf it's difficult.

I don't think the human cost will be anywheres near what happened with Katrina but the monetary cost will be as great or greater for Irene recovery, even adjusted for inflation.

Here in Vermont we were hit hard. I don't think a lot of people really took it that serious here but managed to keep themselves from getting killed. Roads washed out, cars in the river, houses floating down streets, something we are not used to and really did not expect. Lots of our old covered bridges are gone. One I know well was hit by a propane tank. It smashed right through one side and out the other. My brother in law works for EMS and while they thought we would have damage I don't think they expected this. I live on top of a big hill and slept most of the day away only to find out that most of down town was under water. It will be interesting to find out what tomorrow brings.

Here are a few pics from the town I live in. As a matter of fact 2 of them are in locations that are no more than a 3 minute walk from my house.

The sad part is most people will likely not have flood insurance as we live in the mountains and must people assume (I fear) that it would never flood. The issue is that we got 9 inches of rain today and with the run off from the mountains it has gathered at all the low points in the county. Typically that means where people live and where there are roads that have been cut out of the mountains. A couple of towns over someone said that the water was at least 3 feet higher than the record flood level set in 1938.

Unreal pictures!  I hope everyone was smart and got out when they were supposed to!

Sounds like one woman was swept away and is presumed dead. She was from a couple of towns west of us.

That's what happened a few years back when Floyd hit NC.   We had a loss of 52 lives here in the state (IIRC) from the flooding AFTER the storm.  

People were not expecting it, and places that had never flooded in known history found themselves under water. 

Just here in our town.... we had over 850 houses flooded out that had never been in fear of a flood before. And of course, they did not have flood insurance.  The entire town of Princeville was devastated. They sat next to the Tar River in a low lying area. 

Most of the deaths from hurricanes do occur inland due to the flooding. People are simply not prepared and the further north one goes, the mindset is that hurricanes are problems for people in the south, along the Atlantic & Gulf coasts. 

A look back in history will show that hurricanes can and do hit the New England areas as well as NY and do so with great power, and lives are lost as a result. 

By calling this a non-event, I meant no disrespect to those affected..... because it is by no means a non event to those affected by it directly. Thank God it was less of a storm when it hit land than what the media was calling for. They called for a 120mph storm to hit us in NC, and when it came ashore it was a 90 mph storm. I'm glad they were wrong. We didn't need this type of disaster, especially considering how many people are out of work and the general state of the economy. 

My prayers go out to those who suffered a greater loss than the discomfort and inconvenience I experienced by not being able to have air conditioning for a few hours. 

Wow--that's SO sad. 

Glad to hear some of you from the east coast have checked in. We were hit hard here where I live...insane wind, tornado warnings every 15 minutes, intense rain and flooding. My garage, utility room, basement and studio got it pretty bad. I was doing great until we lost power at about 12:15 am Saturday. I have always had floods here since I moved to this house. I've raised the ground in the back, been through 3 drive-ways, put in a new pitched walk-way last summer, french drains, you name it, I've tried it.

Well, I was as ready as I thought I could be. I knew I forgot something at Home Depot, but for the life of me couldn't remember. I knew I should have made a list, but I'm really good at remembering things. What I forgot...was the most important thing for me...how dumb. I'll get to that. Here's my story for those that care. :)

Pumps strategically in place, all my tools and stuff ready, first aid kits, tape on the windows, extended drain shelving to get this stuff out to the streets. At about 4 pm Saturday, the intense rain started. I had a flood in my garage in about 20 minutes. I started my pumps...one in the garage, (old faithful I've had for years) brand new one out on the sidewalk to keep the water from resting against my house.

I go in and notice a load of water on my basement floor coming from my utility room. I go in, see a large cast iron pipe that runs into the ground from the roof. I'm thinking there is no way this pipe has a hole in it, but if it does, I'm toast. The leak gets worse and appears like it is raining in my utility room. My heater and hot water heater are in this room. Well, I'm pretty upset now and am going ballistic. I go outside to see what I can see...and notice my drains aren't even functioning correctly. Screw it...I am NOT going to let this beat me or my house.

I jump on a ladder which is not high enough for me to get on my roof...so I find a little spot I can climb up on, and then I'll have to jump for the roof. Winds were gusting at about 60 at this time. I know...dumb move to even attempt this, but when I get upset with something, nothing stops me from trying to remedy it. This utility room was going to eventually leak into the entire basement. I make it up on the roof, the rain and wind are hitting me so hard, I crawled on my hands and knees so it wouldn't mess with me. I get to where this pipe is and see the boot that wraps around it is completely hosed. There was nothing I could do with the rain and wind so I wrapped 3 towels around the pipe as tight as I could hoping they would suck up some of the water and at least allow for a drip down the pipe.
 
Next, I gotta clean these drains out. I crawl around the entire house cleaning out each drain the best I can. I see the studio drain in the distance and I decide I should do that one too. I climb all the way over to it and stand up ready to jump over to that roof. I gotta get there because there's a french drain connected to the studio I see it's clogged and a huge puddle is on the ground. Ready to jump, I get hit by a huge gust of wind that almost knocks me down and hear the loudest thunder I ever heard that makes my ears ring....and see lightning right in my face and feel the heat of it all over my entire body. Ok, God just stopped me from doing this....warning accepted...I'm out of here...let the studio flood!

I go back in, water is everywhere in the basement from the utility room. But the good news is the towels worked and now the water was just runing down the pipe. The problem now was there was no way to put anything down to catch the water. It was running down the pipe so perfectly it would run down and hit the floor. I grab some more towels and wrap them around the pipe leaving excess on the ends hoping they would saturate and then run off the ends so I could put something under to catch the water. Success!!!! Ok, what else you got Irene...wench!

Studio flooding fast....I grab my wet/dry vac and do the best I can...but I have to go out and check the garage.

I'm doing great at this point but feeling a bit tired. It's 12:15 am and I've been at this since 4 pm. My dad was supposed to help me out with all this but got bit by a spider (wolf spider...wasn't a brown recluse or a widow thank God) when we were in the shed preparing for this thing. So he was pretty beat up and sleeping on and off and pretty incoherant. So between doing all this stuff, checking on him to see if he was ok I'm going nuts about now but I'm handling it.

I go back out to my garage and notice it's full of water. I'm thinking the pump can't pump it fast enough. I look around, it's coming in through the sides of my foundation and it's leaking like it's ready to burst. I notice the new pump isn't pumping anymore...seized the motor. One pump down...old faithful, don't let me down! I now have to squeegee  the water down to the working pump and open the garage door. The storm is getting pretty bad at this time and my worst fear hits....loss of power at 12:30 am with plenty of storm left. It wouldn't reach land fall here until 4 am. Darn it, that's what I forgot to buy at Home Depot a freakin' generator!! What a dope!

Well my pump is down and the garage is filling up so fast, I don't know what to do. I start grabbing buckets and proceed to carry it out as fast as I can. I can't get to it fast enough...I sure wish Dad was feeling better to help me out here, but maybe it's better he sleeps through this whole thing. I got big shoulders for a lil dude, I'll handle it. :) Now the top of the roof of the garage is leaking too...more coffee cans to catch the water. I knew these would come in handy some day. LOL!

Water is everywhere in the garage...over 6 inches and spilling into the basement. The studio is flooding out from the center of the room...must be a stress crack somewhere. I can't vac it up anymore...ok Irene, you win...sorry for calling you a wench.

Finally I'm just exhausted...I've been at this a long time. My back, chest, arms legs and feet are killing me all of a sudden. I'm ready to abondon ship...it's just too much for one man. So I say "Lord, I don't ever ask for much, but I need you now...forgive me for my sins and take what you need to take but please allow dad and I to live and save our house because I don't have flood insurance!"

As God is my witness, the rain slows down to a trickle and stayed that way until the storm finally passed. I just got my power back today at 7 am, so I've been doing my best to pump out, clean up and vac out as much as I can. I removed all the important studio gear before hand so it's all safe. I'm installing it all back in right now actually after sucking up water from everywhere. No damage to my house or anything...just loads of water and loss of power for way longer than should have been. (when the trucks rolled around here at 6:50 am this morning, the power was on by 7:00 on the nose....made me wait all this time for a reset button?! Everyone in my town has had power but us.) 

Dad and I are ok and I just thank God for hearing my prayers. I hope those that haven't yet checked in are ok as well.

Jonbuoy: As to why this storm may have gotten a bit more hype than others, it's not something we have to face often here on this side of the East Coast. In all my years, there's never been one that passed right on us. We have always gotten tail ends of these things. Also, and this is important....the shut down of NYC will probably affect the US economy quite a bit as they get things in order there. Though Katrina was a horrible disaster way worse than this, this was bad in different ways just like that little earthquake we felt was something for the news people to broadcast. Those things just don't happen here. I don't know what magnitude the actual quake was that I felt here, but I've felt tremors before in Cali and Bulgaria....this was no tremor regardless of what they say.

Also, this part of the US has been pounded with rain so bad, there was no where for the extra water from this hurricane to go. Our utility poles in my neighborhood are all sideways. They were perfectly straight before the storm. The trees literally fell out of the ground when the wind blew because the ground was so soft. Lots of tree damage and power line/pole damage in my neighborhood and my entire area on the whole. Our streets were literally flooded like mini-rivers all through my town and we made the news because of it. So my thoughts are...this storm was so different for us, it was a bit more newsworthy considering this side of the coast could have paralyzed the US economy more than it is already.

-Danny

@Danny- No, my house sits up on one of the higher points in town. We were high and dry and I had no idea that it was this bad until later in the day. All of my family was safe as well and all in all only 2 deaths have been reported in the state. The first picture with the dumpster was taken almost right across the street from my parents house but they ended up not having to evacuate and no damage to their home.

It is pretty incredible when you look at some of these pictures. I do know a few people who lost their home or have major damage. Fema came rolling in this morning with a huge line of trucks and buses so it looks like the government has finally learned it needs to respond fast. They are now saying that this is the worst flood since 1927 in our area. Now the rebuilding begins!

By the way Danny, incredible story. Sorry you had so much trouble and damage but glad you are safe.

Next, I gotta clean these drains out. I crawl around the entire house cleaning out each drain the best I can. I see the studio drain in the distance and I decide I should do that one too. I climb all the way over to it and stand up ready to jump over to that roof. I gotta get there because there's a french drain connected to the studio I see it's clogged and a huge puddle is on the ground. Ready to jump, I get hit by a huge gust of wind that almost knocks me down and hear the loudest thunder I ever heard that makes my ears ring....and see lightning right in my face and feel the heat of it all over my entire body. Ok, God just stopped me from doing this....warning accepted...I'm out of here...let the studio flood!

wow!!  glad you're OK.  did it give you a new hair style???

Very sad to see all of this.....my heart and prayers go out to all those affected by this storm.

haha!

well - glad you came through relatively unscathed!  at least it's all fixable and you got everything out of the way before the flood!

nice pic - you should change that to your avatar!

Hey Reece, incidentally, and I meant to reply to your thread....but thank you God you didn't have cancer! Hugs bro....I was so relieved to hear that! What a weight off your shoulders. Sorry for not posting in your thread about it sooner...but I'm so glad you're ok. :)

Hahaha figured you'd get a kick out of the pic. I was going to post this one and show ya what the storm really did to me! LOL!



Not trying to make light of the situation here for those that may be offended....I'm truly thankful to be alive and have my dad and my house in tact. Again my heart and prayers go out to all those that may have experienced true catastrophies from this.

-Danny

UbiquitousBubba


Agape and Danny, I'm so glad to hear that you're both okay.  Agape, those pictures are jaw-dropping.  Danny, your story really had me worried for awhile.  I'm praying for all our friends affected by this storm.  Hang in there and let us know how the cleanup/rebuilding goes.  We're with you.

Thanks so much Bubba, much appreciated. Yeah I was a bit worried myself actually...thanks for your concern. After seeing agape's pictures, though what I went through was tough on me...nothing tops those. Just wow. Thanks again and I too, like you, hope all our friends are ok. Clean-up is just about done over here. I did quite a bit during and after the storm. Just tested all the studio gear and all is well as it should be...thank you God. :)
 
-Danny