Hundreds evacuated after US levee breaks; people on roofs awaiting rescue

AP via Yahoo News ^ | 10/30/12

[Kartographer]

Hundreds of people are being evacuated after a levee broke in a northern New Jersey town early Tuesday. Bergen County executive chief of staff Jeanne Baratta tells The Record newspaper the entire town of Moonachie is under water and as many as 1,000 people could need to be evacuated.

[verum ago]

I am noticing that any serious damage done by this storm is limited to a pretty tight area. NYC had some flooding, a bunch of row houses were burned down by the same fire in Queens, and now this levee. Anything else I’m missing?

Yes, you're missing the great majority of the damage. NYC and environs is photogenic and sells copy, but the damage is widespread. And that's the storm surge and initial storm damage.

What's left of Sandy is still in the process of dumping absolute sh*tloads of rain on land; there's going to be widespread damage from streams flooding next plus the usual power outages, fallen trees etc from what's still a strong storm.

Was this, at a national scale, a non-event? Seems like the Colorado fires were a MUCH worse disaster.

There are far more people in the affected area than the Colorado fires, and there's going to be the additional effect of supply shortages and probably rioting too (sometimes I hate humanity). To be perfectly clear- I'm not saying the Colorado fires weren't/aren't a big deal- but the scale of this storm is simply larger.

One of the problems we face is that the media hypes every large storm there is, so after all the false-alarms, well, it's like the Boy Who Cried Wolf. At the moment, it would appear that the Wolf actually showed up this time.

I hope it didn't; I'd rather be wrong about widespread destruction existing than right about it.

[Old Sarge]

It’s called “disaster porn”. The Media pushes it, the Sheep lap it up, and need a cigarette afterwards...

[GeronL]

Yes, you're missing the great majority of the damage

I think he means extraordinary damage not expected from a Cat 1 hurricane and resultant flooding

[garjog]

The Oceans will begin to recede!

[gnarledmaw]

I have to admit Im a bit surprised by your post. Youve been here all this time and havent learned that the lives and personal belongings of those on the coasts are more valuable than yours? Dont deny it, Ive seen your posts. Youre one of those people who believes in responsibility! How DARE you recognize the ignorance of building a house on an ocean shore! Ill bet youre probably one of those bastards who thinks Californians shouldnt build houses hanging off of cliffs in earthquake prone territory too!

The fact that lemmings continue to pile around various urban centers created by accidents of history driving up the price of land makes the land cost more FRNs and by extention makes them more valuable than you.

We must all stop our lives, comiserate in their unpreparedness and dependence, and lobby our representatives for increased taxes to protect them. Until you learn that lesson you are hereby tossed from the Republican party.

ZZZZzzzotttt!!!

-insert childish picture of flying cat here-

(Total non-event. Dont get angry at the ignorant replies you are getting. Feel pity for them, they really are that clueless)

[verum ago]

I think he means extraordinary damage not expected from a Cat 1 hurricane and resultant flooding

I interpreted what he said as a comment not on extraordinary damage but on a perception of serious damage being in a very limited area:

I am noticing that any serious damage done by this storm is limited to a pretty tight area. NYC had some flooding, a bunch of row houses were burned down by the same fire in Queens, and now this levee. Anything else I’m missing?

[GlockThe Vote]

Yup. Everyone busts my chops for being a prepper, not laughing now are they?

[StAnDeliver]

"Any disaster in non-flyover country (the Northeast and Southern California) is overhyped by the MSM. Hundreds of square miles of Colorado might burn down, but a few dozen homes in Queens will get more coverage. A hurricane can flatten thousands of homes in Florida, and a tornado do similar damage in Missouri, but a few roofs lost in New Jersey will get more coverage. The MSM’s focus on their home regions is as predictable as their liberal bias."

Exactly. Which is why this election is not just ABO, but Pop. The. Bubble.

[the OlLine Rebel]

“Sandy itself was at max a Cat 1 storm.”

So was Agnes. Look it up. You won’t get many storms worse than that. Permanent changes all around.

Cat refers ONLY to “wind speed”. It ain’t all about wind speed.

“The other weather events that ties into it produced the more widespread problems.”

No. I am in central MD, and luckily while what I saw coming looked like an Agnes set-up, we have hardly had much problem here. It’s over, unless PA is getting pounded and it runs down here late. Last year’s Irene/Lee was more problem for us than this. However, the most affected areas seem to be ON THE COAST - i.e., the hurricane had the most effect. The “other” event is apparently just now merging with Sandy and producing some problems way out west. Not sure how devastating they are yet. It’s certainly weird.

[StAnDeliver]

"Population is population. More people live in Brooklyn than in North and South Dakota and Montana COMBINED. Shockingly, the more people that live somewhere, the more coverage it gets."

That simplistic naval-gazing sophistry wasn't always the way it was. Until the 90s when the nets pulled their bureaus out of places like Chicago and Houston. F the MSM.

[xone]

No one around here belittled the devastating Colorado fires

You might want to do a little research before making that dumb of a statement. One of the offenders is in Sandy now.

[wideawake]

I repeat, I never heard anyone in my town say that the media coverage of the Colorado fires was overblown. If you have evidence to the contrary, document it.

[Romulus]

No one around here belittled the devastating Colorado fires.

No; they saved their scorn for New Orleans.

People still clinging to their narrative don't get, or do not want to get, the city's unique challenges in Katrina, resulting from unique geographic elements, but mostly from the culpable failure of federal flood control structures.

The eastern seabord is having a rough week and I am very sorry for the deaths and lost homes. I hope we'll be done for a while with nasty queries about why "you people" perversely choose to live in a place so manifestly unfit for human habitation, recklessly ignoring the helpful advice of government, etc.

[xone]

‘Around here’ is your town now? Are you posting to MyTownRepublic.com? Posting around here on FR means FR. Plenty of it went on.

[Clemenza]

Hope you are being sarcastic. New York City has the most expensive housing in the US.

[wideawake]

In my original post, to which your original comment was directed, I was describing what was happening locally. I was not describing FreeRepublic as flooded, as having suffered billions in damages, etc. That should have been quite clear from context.

[dirtboy]

I was.

[coder2]

Just 2 weeks ago, Wyoming and South Dakota had 70+mph winds.

Semis, tractor trailers & all other sort of vehicles tipped over in those winds.

I'm not trying to diminish what-so-ever what is happening on the east coast with Sandy, but you are correct, high winds are "normal" out here and seldom reported anywhere other than locally.

[Moonman62]

I checked a webcam last night and Times Square still had power,

So did most of Manhattan. That's unusual for such an over-hyped storm.

[alancarp]

Maybe because like so many of the ‘experts’ on FR they decided that the storm was fake?

We're good here on FR, but we haven't got the entire internet captured to this site (yet), so of course a lot of folks were uninformed.

No, the National Hurricane Center did not do their jobs this week. I have three reasons why:

1. Extremely slow to embrace the better storm models. Their model of usual choice is the GFS weather model. There are known problems with it that came heavily into play here, and thus its output should have been discounted heavily last week.

2. Continued to report this storm as a Category 1 hurricane. Failed to highlight the significance of the storm size. Failed to highlight the storm surge issues with storm size + angle of approach. Failed to mention the significance of the extremely low pressure readings.

3. Whiffed completely on the acceleration of Sandy to the coast... which reduced "little time to prepare" to "no time to prepare". Especially considering that people tend to ignore news on a weekend.

Loss of life cannot be avoided here, but I would put a lot of these deaths on the NHC for doing a terrible job on Sandy. They MUST recognize the model problems and they MUST develop a different hurricane scaling system for reporting the danger that each storm poses.

Example: Andrew was a high 4/low Cat 5 storm - yet it impacted a VERY narrow area in south Florida... you could almost call it a huge tornado by comparison to Sandy. I was 200 miles up the coast and hardly had more than a stiff breeze out of it. On that scale, Sandy was a moderate Cat 1, but obviously was a lot worse overall.

I submit that a better measure of storm potential (and Joe Bastardi uses such a scale for his own forecasts, btw) would better alert the public... which is ultimately the NHC's job. [/rant]