Hurricane Irene

[Handruin]

This Hurricane looks like it could be an interesting time for those of us who may be located on the eastern coast of the united states.

How rare are Northeast hurricanes?

Going back to 1851, there have been only 5 hurricanes whose centers of circulation have passed within 75 miles of New York City. The last hurricane within that distance from New York City was Hurricane Gloria 26 years ago

I feel old now. I remember Hurricane Gloria.

 

[Mercutio]

Part of me is tempted to suggest that suggest that there's quite a bit of the usual bias toward making things that happen to the East Coast huge news. But hurricanes do suck and there are enough people in that general area that I'm sure it will create misery on some level no matter what.

 

[Handruin]

You're right, the east coast does tend to over-inflate the severity of weather-related events. I can't tell you how many times I've seen postings for severe snow storms and we got almost nothing worth mentioning.

We had a hurricane come close by last year right around this same time, but it missed us. The news made sure we were aware of the dangers. My hope is of course that this one also misses us, but the media and weather folks seem to be implying this is more severe than I remember the last one.

 

[jtr1962]

The buildings here would mostly fare better in a hurricane than the "matchstick" houses I see in places like Florida. The problem is a lot of infrastructure here is underground, so a major hurricane would be an unprecedented disaster. If the subways get flooded, we're talking about rebuilding them, not simply letting them dry out. Same with a lot of the underground utilities.

Funny how we're getting a bunch of natural disasters lately. Last year a tornado hit my area. Earlier this week there was an earthquake. And now this. The only thing missing is an asteroid hit.

 

[jtr1962]

I feel old now. I remember Hurricane Gloria.

Don't feel bad. I remember the one in 1976.

 

[Mercutio]

Funny how we're getting a bunch of natural disasters lately. Last year a tornado hit my area. Earlier this week there was an earthquake. And now this. The only thing missing is an asteroid hit.

Global warming does not mean that the Earth just gets hotter, jtr.

 

[CougTek]

Actually, the Earth itself (the core) is cooling, slowly but surely. Only the surface is getting hotter.

 

[LunarMist]

It does not look good at all. The worst part is that much air travel east of Mississippi will be messed up for sure. I only had 6 flights in the last 3 weeks. Now they are telling me it will be closer to ten in September.

 

[CougTek]

I hope it will curve further North and that the winds will still be of hurricane force when they hit here. I'll park my car next to an old tree, hoping it will fall on it and pass it on my insurances.

 

[LunarMist]

Not likely. That only happens to our Merc.

 

[MaxBurn]

Fuck me, I need to be in Ohio Monday morning, flying out of MHT Sunday late morning. I think I will see if they can move it up a day.

 

[CougTek]

It is now almost as large as Texas, but wind force decreased to 175Km/h (cat 2).

 

[Handruin]

I wonder if this will take down my verizon FIOS fiber line again...

 

[ddrueding]

...and the poles it's attached to

 

[Handruin]

I may be offline for a while come Sunday evening.

 

[ddrueding]

This is why I like earthquakes. None of this suspense or anticipation. By the time you know it, it's over, and it's time to put the books back on the shelves.

 

[Handruin]

We just had a (baby 5.8) earthquake Tuesday. I didn't feel anything though, but some people did.

 

[ddrueding]

Yup. I've slept through bigger than that. Once they get in the 7s (10+ times larger?) it gets the heart rate up a bit.

 

[MaxBurn]

I moved my flights up to today. Tomorrow when I was supposed to be in PHL the storm track had it pretty much right over where I would be.

 

[DrunkenBastard]

Fuck me, I need to be in Ohio Monday morning, flying out of MHT Sunday late morning. I think I will see if they can move it up a day.

At least Southwest have cancelled Sunday flights in/out of MHT, no doubt other carriers will also be doing the same:

"We will temporarily suspend service to/from Manchester (MHT) all day Sunday, August 28, and the resumption of scheduled service will be contingent upon the airport and city infrastructure."

http://www.southwest.com/html/travel_center/IRENE.html

 

[DrunkenBastard]

I moved my flights up to today. Tomorrow when I was supposed to be in PHL the storm track had it pretty much right over where I would be.

Nice.

 

[Stereodude]

I can't help but think this is media boredom hyping a story out of something that really isn't one. They've been promising that hurricanes were going to kill us all due to global warming since Katrina and then the US didn't even get hit with a Hurricane for like that last 3 years. So now they've finally got a hurricane making landfall on the US and you'd swear the entire country is doomed.

 

[LunarMist]

It is not a plot, it is news. Perphaps this hurricane is emphasized more than some others because the storm path is on the east coast and potentially affects large numbers of people and the national capital. I'm sure it more interesting than most of the live crap on the TV like politics, finance, guys driving around in circles and smashing into the walls, etc., etc.

 

[Handruin]

It's raining pretty hard here right now with thunderstorms. We had to put a tarp over our outdoor bulkhead since it's wide open. It's been under reconstruction for a while, so we're trying to keep all the water out.

 

[LunarMist]

Wow, are the effects that far north already? It looks like there are a lot of power outages in NC and VA.

 

[MaxBurn]

My travel was a complete non event. I got to the airport early enough that they bumped me to an earlier flight which was delayed a bit but still way sooner than my original. PHL had a ground stop for a little bit. Connection was pretty much on time. I flew US Air and their hub is in PHL. I don't know where southwests hub is on the east coast but it must have been in one of the places getting the storm today, MHT board was indeed full of their cancellations. Think I'll hit the bar downstairs here at the Hilton.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/110013.shtml?3-daynl?large#contents

 

[LunarMist]

I hope it is OK up in NH. I have a major project there that requires a manual activity every 12 hours for two weeks. The diesel generators are all topped up and they found enough people to come in on the weekend to work.

 

[LunarMist]

Millions of people are without power in VA alone. This is not good.

 

[jtr1962]

Heavy downpours now, not much wind yet. The worst of it is going to hit tomorrow afternoon. We might get another foot of rain on top of an existing near record amount of rain for August. No flooding yet downstairs. Only minor flooding when we had about 8 inches in 24 hours 2 weeks ago.

The subway is shut down for the first time ever. There were mandatory evacuation orders for about 300,000 city residents. We'll see in a day or so if this was overhyped or not. I may be offline for a while. Last time we had severe winds here was the tornado last September. It took I think 4 days to get Internet back. Power was back in less than 24 hours. Batteries are all charged in anticipation of a power outage.

 

[ddrueding]

Wow. What a mess. 72F and sunny here, 93F in the valley on the way to San Jose.

 

[LunarMist]

It would be a good time to get all your UPS units in position. The longest power failure over 24 hours I had to endure was in the 1994 Northridge quake, but the damage and lack of water forced me to relocate for some days even after the power was restored. I have tons of LED flashlights, extra batteries etc. to last about one week.

 

[LunarMist]

Wow. What a mess. 72F and sunny here, 93F in the valley on the way to San Jose.

It is hot and unusually humid in the southland this week with high heat indexes.

 

[LunarMist]

The subway is shut down for the first time ever. There were mandatory evacuation orders for about 300,000 city residents. We'll see in a day or so if this was overhyped or not. I may be offline for a while. Last time we had severe winds here was the tornado last September. It took I think 4 days to get Internet back. Power was back in less than 24 hours. Batteries are all charged in anticipation of a power outage.

Why would they close the subways? I thought a primary reason for them being underground was to be unaffected by the weather systems.

 

[ddrueding]

I'm pretty sure they don't have the drainage capacity to handle a hurricane. I also wouldn't be surprised if some of the tunnel walls disintegrated were they to be submerged.

 

[jtr1962]

The reason is basically that the tunnels will flood and stall trains mid-station. In short, the system will shut down, whether voluntarily or through mother nature. A controlled shutdown makes it easier to restart the system after the storm. The equipment is being stored in locations where it won't be damaged by flooding. The high winds will make it impossible to safely operate trains on the outdoor sections of the system (which is actually quite a large percentage of the total route miles).

 

[LunarMist]

Oh my, that would probably smell awful too.

 

[ddrueding]

Slashdot is no longer serving me pages, instead giving me a 503 about their varnish cache server. No idea where they host from, but I know their headquarters is back east somewhere.

 

[Bozo]

Why would they close the subways? I thought a primary reason for them being underground was to be unaffected by the weather systems.

The storm surge could dump tons of water into the subway via the street level stairs leading into the subway.

 

[Howell]

As long as the storm tide doesnt rise above the subway floor the tunnels will drain properly no matter where the water comes from. The water was only supposed to be up 4-8 ft in the chesapeake bay.

 

[Will Rickards]

Reporting in from Exton PA here.
Power out since 10pm last night. Despite diligent effort to try and get the generator working practically all day yesterday, it was non functional. So I tried to bail the water manually from the sump pump and dump it in the sink. This worked for only a couple hours and then it was coming in faster than I could get rid of it. An inch and a half of water in the finished basement. No trees down or tornadoes (there was a warning).
I'm guessing we won't have power till Tuesday. Which means the fridge won't last much longer.