Hurricane Sandy and East Coast - anyone preparing yet?

[CandyMandy]

Downtown is still really bad. DH was supposed to be in NY on Monday/Tuesday this week for meetings (which got cancelled TG). They are trying to reschedule but they have no power yet at the offices (Madison Square area). Anything below 34th street is going to be difficult.

Bingo - you don't take a subway capacity of over 8 million riders a day and replace it seamlessly with a bus system designed to carry 2.5 million. The well-intentioned but stop-gap "'replacement transit" plan created chaos yesterday in Manhattan:

Mob in Brooklyn fighting to get on Manhattan bound bus:

Traffic that by mid morning was moving at less than 2mph:

Tedious, car-by-car, police state style checking of inbound autos in HOV lanes to make sure they are carrying minimum Bloomberg-mandated passenger loads:

Its no surprise that almost everyone I know who had business trips scheduled into Manhattan this week is now scrambling to postpone and re-schedule.

 

[cornflake]

"Police state style checking [sic]" of HOV rules? I don't know of anyplace that violation of an HOV lane isn't a first-stop offense.

There's traffic in New York, this is not a surprise. Yay if people don't drive in. We don't want people driving in here, that's the reason the b&t toll from Jersey is $12 on a regular day.

There wasn't "chaos".

There are a bunch of people downtown running extension cords out to the street with power strips so passerby can charge their electronics. A bunch of restaurants and bakeries were giving away and cooking and selling their stock for almost nothing, volunteers fanned out to make thousands of extra deliveries to elderly and homebound people - especially those in high-rise buildings without power, which meant volunteers were climbing dozens and dozens of flights of stairs - to be sure they have food and water.

And above the power outage, it's been normal.

Some areas of Queens are devastated, some areas of B'klyn are a mess, it's all being worked on, this happened like 72 hours ago.

 

[CandyMandy]

Yes, everything is rapidly returning to normalcy in New York as we speak.

Ignore the fact one of the largest hospitals in the city is being evacuated because the fuel pumps in a flooded basement that support the backup generators are failing.

Ignore the fact the runways at LaGuardia airport are underwater.

Ignore the fact that according to local radio people trying to drive into the city are giving up after moving only a mile in three hours.

Ignore the fact a huge percentage of the workforce in the suburbs (most of whom don't have power) who rely on Metro North and New Jersey transit to get them into the city are now stuck, because service is severely limited or non-existent.

Ignore the fact core artery tunnels are flooded.

And as previously mentioned, ignore the fact the mass transit into lower Manhattan is a mess and will stay that was for a long, long time to come.

Yes, according to a certain someone Sandy was just a minor distraction, the sun is coming out and happy days will soon be here again.

Move along now.

 

[JaneBanks]

Well, we were just told via our towns Patch on Facebook that our water may not be safe to drink.

 

[OceanStateKelly]

We Just got the power back - yesss

 

[bas71873]

unfortunately, for the critical lines that serve lower manhattan (the heart of the u.s. Financial sector), it will take a lot more than hope to get them back up in any timely fashion. As shown below, the flooding in that part of the system is horrific; fixing it wil involve a lot more than just pumping the millions of gallons of water out. You are talking major, major damage to the power and signal systems that will take a significant amount of time to repair.

wow!

 

[LisaR]

Yeah hopefully power will be back before the weekend is out and bldgs can get cleanup crews starting. Was only meaning the trains weren't completely gone. It's certainly all collectively still causing havoc. The stupid crane delayed me yesterday for like a half hour.

"Police state style checking [sic]" of HOV rules? I don't know of anyplace that violation of an HOV lane isn't a first-stop offense.

There's traffic in New York, this is not a surprise. Yay if people don't drive in. We don't want people driving in here, that's the reason the b&t toll from Jersey is $12 on a regular day.

There wasn't "chaos".

There are a bunch of people downtown running extension cords out to the street with power strips so passerby can charge their electronics. A bunch of restaurants and bakeries were giving away and cooking and selling their stock for almost nothing, volunteers fanned out to make thousands of extra deliveries to elderly and homebound people - especially those in high-rise buildings without power, which meant volunteers were climbing dozens and dozens of flights of stairs - to be sure they have food and water.

And above the power outage, it's been normal.

Some areas of Queens are devastated, some areas of B'klyn are a mess, it's all being worked on, this happened like 72 hours ago.

You must live in some special little pocket of NY if your only inconvenience was a 30 minute delay from a crane.

All of the business contacts my DH has have taken HOURS to get to work. Like another poster, most have needed to walk 5 - 6 miles in a couple hours just to get to their workplace. We had a friend send us a picture they took of the bus situation and it replicates all the pictures we have seen on the news.

Are you suggesting everyone is grossly exaggerating the conditions in NY? By your post, you make it sound like it is close to being business as usual already. If the vast majority of NY'ers only had an extra 30 minute delay getting to work/school today, I'm guessing they would be pretty thankful.

 

[punkin]

You must live in some special little pocket of NY if your only inconvenience was a 30 minute delay from a crane.

All of the business contacts my DH has have taken HOURS to get to work. Like another poster, most have needed to walk 5 - 6 miles in a couple hours just to get to their workplace. We had a friend send us a picture they took of the bus situation and it replicates all the pictures we have seen on the news.

Are you suggesting everyone is grossly exaggerating the conditions in NY? By your post, you make it sound like it is close to being business as usual already. If the vast majority of NY'ers only had an extra 30 minute delay getting to work/school today, I'm guessing they would be pretty thankful.

I don't see that from her posts. Obviously, it is not business as usual in NYC. However, NYers are doing the best they can, making the best of a horrible situation, and yes, things will be back to normal just as soon as it is humanly possible.

 

[NotUrsula]

As my other thread keeps sinking, I'm going to link into this thread with some info I posted yesterday. Please pass on the link if you know anyone who can use the information.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune did a series of articles on household cleanup and recovery information after Katrina. They have now re-posted and updated that information on their website for interested folks who have been affected by Sandy. This is good practical information about what to expect in the aftermath and how to start cleaning up. Some of the information re: the effects of heat may not be too relevant, but just about everything else is:

http://www.nola.com/homegarden/index.ssf/2012/10/for_hurricane_sandy_flood_vict.html

 

[JaneBanks]

Fellow Long Islanders - if you can.

My hometown.

PLEASE HELP!! Collecting donations of clothing, toiletries, and non-perishables starting later today. There will be two drop off boxes at each location by the entrances. Please place all donations in plastic bags.
Drop off:
Waldbaums Lindenhurst, 50 E. Hoffman Ave
LA Fitness Lindenhurst, 455 Park Ave
Please help! These people lost everything!!!!

 

[LisaR]

I don't see that from her posts. Obviously, it is not business as usual in NYC. However, NYers are doing the best they can, making the best of a horrible situation, and yes, things will be back to normal just as soon as it is humanly possible.

I took, "There wasn't chaos" and "Above the power outage, it's been normal" to mean that things were pretty much being exaggerated and were almost back to normal. I'm not sure how else to read into that.

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

I got off the bus and razor scootered over the 59th street bridge and then down Lexiton Ave on wednesday. The only fun I had since sunday. Kids were super jealous. I lied and told them it wasn't really that much fun.

 

[CandyMandy]

From the Daily Mail in the UK (which has been doing a much better job than most U.S. media in covering the reality of the impact of Sandy):

Chaos in Manhattan as millions of New Yorkers battle to return to work on gridlocked roads, packed buses and limited subway network
Limited subway service resumed at 6am this morning
No coverage below 34th Street and only one train per hour per line
Transit system suffering massive delays as MTA tries to recover from storm
However, no fares being collected today or tomorrow in Sandy's wake
Buses in areas with no subway coverage massively crowded
Morning commute racked with delays

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2226283/Superstorm-Sandy-2012-Chaos-Manhattan-millions-battle-return-work.html

Article includes the useful new official lower Manhattan subway map:

 

[mdsoccermom]

"Police state style checking [sic]" of HOV rules? I don't know of anyplace that violation of an HOV lane isn't a first-stop offense.

There's traffic in New York, this is not a surprise. Yay if people don't drive in. We don't want people driving in here, that's the reason the b&t toll from Jersey is $12 on a regular day.

Oh good grief. The reason tolls are expensive is because of the sheer cost of maintaining such a large infrastructure, not because they are trying to prohibit people from driving into the city.

Also, people that drive a toll road regularly in NY/NJ have EZ pass which give reduced rates - drastically reduced if you have 3 or more in the car - to commuters. So, people commuting into the city aren't even paying that $12.00 cash toll.

 

[punkin]

I took, "There wasn't chaos" and "Above the power outage, it's been normal" to mean that things were pretty much being exaggerated and were almost back to normal. I'm not sure how else to read into that.

Upper Manhattan has not been affected to nearly the same degree as anything below 34th street. I have friends on the upper west side who never even lost power. They are fairly "normal." However, I have a friend in Brooklyn with a flooded basement, no heat, no hot water and 3 children - she is not "normal." I also have friends and old neighbors in Long Beach/Lido Beach (Long Island, not Jersey). They have nothing; not even drinking water. Maybe to her, where she is, things look pretty normal. I guarantee you nothing looks normal in Breezy Point!

I don't see the point of this argument.

 

[pooh2001]

My DH has been working from home all week - no electricity in his Putnam County,NY office

 

[punkin]

I just got off the phone with DD20's friend who needed directions on how to get to Brooklyn from Penn Station. I told her to stay home. There are no trains currently from Manhattan to Brooklyn. None. There is a shuttle bus, but I hear that's crazy crowded, so I told her if she must go, she will have to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge (with luggage, no less). I hope she was adequately dissuaded.

 

[cornflake]

I meant it as punkin interpreted it, not as it's pretty much back to normal all over (thanks punkin). Though, as I and punkin noted, in some areas (the majority of the island), it has never not been normal. Above the 39thish line, no one lost power and there hasn't been any issue except the transportation (though cabs were plentiful) one originally.

As I said, in some areas, there's a huge mess. However, we're working on it. New York City is really not a dystopian nightmare, heh.

The Daily Mail is a joke of a tabloid.

The high price of the tolls is absolutely intended to dissuade people from driving into the City - that's why the NJ toll only runs one way. Sure, tolls help pay for infrastructure, and do other things.

 

[RedSox68]

the pictures of the subway stations are shocking! Where would they pump all that water? Good luck, everyone!

 

[CandyMandy]

the pictures of the subway stations are shocking! Where would they pump all that water?

Good question. I can't wait for the reaction from the environmental crowd when the plans are announced to pump all that PCB/gasoline/oil/asbestos/e-coli (and a bunch of other stuff that isn't proper to mention here) laden subway effluent into the East River.