Glad to hear your local watering hole is back in business!
We just got back home after losing power at 9 PM on Monday.Woke up to trees down all over.One block away there are at least 5 trees through houses.Down the shore it looks like we did OK but no-one is permitted on the Island.The Mayor said there are some gas leaks.The first time we got to see any video was last night when my daughter got her electric back.Winds must have been strong here cause the branches that came off were like missiles and are standing up strait on the lawn.Took the day off from work.
I have to disagree on two points. I think the surge will cause very significant damage along much of the Jersey Shore and Western Long Island. With NYC, the wild card is whether the subways get flooded. If that happens, it becomes a major disaster for NYC.
The most far-reaching impact will be power outages - upwards of ten million people if not more, along with all the associated economic losses from such. And there will be social unrest in some areas as well when the potable water and food runs out.
Regarding wind damage, I agree. Not significant structural wind damage except spotty tree and limb falls.
OK, let's compare notes. I think I got it pretty close to what happened. I underestimated the wind damage. Slightly overestimated the power outages, but not by much. And we are starting to see some unrest in flooded areas such as Hoboken.
Sandy points out some of the inherent problems with the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale, especially in the Northeast. Sandy hit as a Cat 1 post-tropical system. Irene hit as a tropical storm. Agnes hit as a tropical storm. All three caused massive damage, but I think Sandy will end up dwarfing the other two. And Sandy's damage was of a very different pattern than Agnes and Irene - those two were inland flooding events. Sandy's main impact was surge.