HURRICANE SUPERSTORM SANDY THREATENING EASTCOAST

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/28/hurricane-sandy-superstorm-new-jersey-photos_n_2036358.html

I think we have perhaps two OTF members from around the New York area. LF, aren't you from NY? Please take care.

Members and guests of OTF and everyone in the danger zones please stay safe.

I am curious to see whether this storm is as big as they say it is. Media like to scare us.

Feedback from LF and SB welcome.

Its really bad,New York looks set to be flooded

I wish safety for all living in and around the affected area.

Oops

SANDY UPDATE:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/29/superstorm-sandy-live-updates-photos_n_2041963.html

TLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Superstorm Sandy slammed into the New
Jersey coastline with 80 mph winds Monday night and hurled an
unprecedented 13-foot surge of seawater at New York City, flooding its
tunnels, subway stations and the electrical system that powers Wall
Street. At least 13 U.S. deaths were blamed on the storm, which brought
the presidential campaign to a halt a week before Election Day.

For New York City at least, Sandy was not the dayslong onslaught many
had feared, and the wind and rain that sent water sloshing into
Manhattan from three sides began dying down within hours.


(SCROLL DOWN FOR LIVE UPDATES)


Still, the power was out for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers and
an estimated 5.2 million people altogether across the East. And the
full extent of the storm's damage across the region was unclear, and
unlikely to be known until daybreak.


In addition, heavy rain and further flooding remain major threats
over the next couple of days as the storm makes its way into
Pennsylvania and up into New York State. Near midnight, the center of
the storm was just outside Philadelphia, and its winds were down to 75
mph, just barely hurricane strength.


"It was nerve-racking for a while, before the storm hit. Everything
was rattling," said Don Schweikert, who owns a bed-and-breakfast in Cape
May, N.J., near where Sandy roared ashore. "I don't see anything wrong,
but I won't see everything until morning."


As the storm closed in, it converged with a cold-weather system that
turned it into a superstorm, a monstrous hybrid consisting not only of
rain and high wind but snow in West Virginia and other mountainous areas
inland.


It smacked the boarded-up big cities of the Northeast corridor –
Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston – with stinging
rain and gusts of more than 85 mph.


Just before Sandy reached land, forecasters stripped it of hurricane
status, but the distinction was purely technical, based on its shape and
internal temperature. It still packed hurricane-force wind, and
forecasters were careful to say it was still dangerous to the tens of
millions in its path.


Sandy made landfall at 8 p.m. near Atlantic City, which was already
mostly under water and saw an old, 50-foot piece of its world-famous
Boardwalk washed away earlier in the day.


Authorities reported a record surge 13 feet high at the Battery at
the southern tip of Manhattan, from the storm and high tide combined.


In an attempt to lessen damage from saltwater to the subway system
and the electrical network beneath the city's financial district, New
York City's main utility cut power to about 6,500 customers in lower
Manhattan. But a far wider swath of the city was hit with blackouts
caused by flooding and transformer explosions.

Veejay wrote:Its really bad,New York looks set to be flooded

Pretty bad elsewhere, NYC is not the worse hit, phew!

I've many relatives living in NY. New Yorkers are my favorite people. They render the funniest, most original and energetic thoughts. On a 5 min bus ride you'll hear a total stranger tell his/her live story. Who they married and how they got divorced etc etc.
But New YOrkers are also the most neurotic. You put them in their own homes for 1 day like now bc of the hurricane and they whine about getting "cabin fever!,

Btw vj, I'm good,thanks. I won't complain about the wet but mild and harmless English weather anymore. At least the rain makes the most beautiful gardens. The geraniums used to bloom all winter long in the south-facing room of my london flat...

Tenez wrote:I am curious to see whether this storm is as big as they say it is. Media like to scare us.

I thought so too. New Yorkers, oh, I love them, especially are prone to paranoia. But prevention is better than cure. This time it seems the press is justified. A historic storm. This may be the worse in East-coast history. I just hope it passes soon.