Hurricane Sandy - Page 18

On November 03 2012 01:33 Praetorial wrote:
Damage=economic gain theory never works.

Although jobs are gained, people who are harmed by the disaster must pay themselves and thus suffer economically.

On November 03 2012 12:22 Inertiaddict wrote:
I'm a New Yorker, on Long Island. I live in a town called Ronkonkoma and we traveled to Deer Park and back (In the prime time of the storm, 7:30pm Monday night). It's a 20 minute ride down the Long Island Expressway. Feel free to Google Map it. Just for the sake of adding to the discussion I'll say a couple things, since I experienced it a bit, first-hand.

I was out in the hurricane. I was driving with my girlfriend. The lights were out, entirely, traffic, stores, etc. The first night there was nothing, no cops, or anything. There wasn't that much rain either, actually. It was a lot of wind. A lot. The thing you had to worry about was a tree falling on you.

I saw sparks coming down from telephone poles. Trees lay across the entire street wrapped in live electrical wiring dancing on the street causing sparks on the road and small fires in the shrubbery. People were on the side of the roads with hazards on and flares (just being hazards, themselves).

While I was reversing down the block because of a fallen tree a power line became entangled on my drivers side mirror. I thought I was going to get electrocuted. It was scary. Luckily, I was able to free the cable (not with my hand, but with the motion of the car as I opened my door at the same time, phew -.-; )

+ Show Spoiler +
It's all a bit to take in, honestly. Hope this helps and educates. Thanks guys, any questions, I'll try to come back and check for 'em.

On November 03 2012 09:42 Darkhoarse wrote:

Hey thought I would reply. I live on the New Jersey coast and I have to say the disaster relief crews are actually doing a great job. Barrier Islands are still closed to non-residents, which is a bummer because I wanted to go down and volunteer today, but it seems like the help efforts are going really well all things considered.

On November 03 2012 13:33 FabledIntegral wrote:


Funnily enough, a lot of people will be praying their houses caught fire or had a tree smash their house, if they were caught in a flood zone. Homeowners policies will cover wind damage (including dmg from fallen trees) and fire damage, but excludes flood damage, which you have to buy separately and isn't as commonly purchased (also high deductible, limited coverage, generally run by gov't and less efficient).

On the West Coast you pray for the same thing during an earthquake if you don't have earthquake insurance and your house gets fucked. A funny joke I even heard today was one insurance agent we know who doesn't purchase his own Earthquake insurance has a set of matches with the words "Earthquake Insurance" written on it. House gets fucked in an earthquake? "Oh... the earthquake somehow caused a gas leak, and caused a fire causing my house to burn down completely, thanks for the insurance coverage!"

While a joke, he actually had the matches with that written on it >_<. Haha.

On November 03 2012 15:51 semantics wrote:

SF 1906? earthquake fires were in part caused by people who didn't have earthquake insurance so they set their house on fire hoping to collect off that, hopefully people don't get those kind of ideas. Flood insurance is too risky for avg insurers which is why they normally don't cover it and is often offered as another plan which gets subsided by the government in order to get plans out there.

On November 03 2012 12:22 Inertiaddict wrote:
I'm a New Yorker, on Long Island. I live in a town called Ronkonkoma and we traveled to Deer Park and back (In the prime time of the storm, 7:30pm Monday night). It's a 20 minute ride down the Long Island Expressway. Feel free to Google Map it. Just for the sake of adding to the discussion I'll say a couple things, since I experienced it a bit, first-hand.

I was out in the hurricane. I was driving with my girlfriend. The lights were out, entirely, traffic, stores, etc. The first night there was nothing, no cops, or anything. There wasn't that much rain either, actually. It was a lot of wind. A lot. The thing you had to worry about was a tree falling on you.

I saw sparks coming down from telephone poles. Trees lay across the entire street wrapped in live electrical wiring dancing on the street causing sparks on the road and small fires in the shrubbery. People were on the side of the roads with hazards on and flares (just being hazards, themselves).

While I was reversing down the block because of a fallen tree a power line became entangled on my drivers side mirror. I thought I was going to get electrocuted. It was scary. Luckily, I was able to free the cable (not with my hand, but with the motion of the car as I opened my door at the same time, phew -.-; )

Trees are down everywhere and that would seem to be the biggest problem. It's very common to see this now as the lawn for every house:
+ Show Spoiler +

The flooding happened too, but that's basically Lindenhurst and Rockaway Beach, beach areas near the coast. The whole island isn't flooded, but where is was flooded was horrible. There it looks more like:
+ Show Spoiler +

I hear the City is bad too, maybe even worse in a different way. Multiple layers of subway tunnels are completely flooded. I have no idea where they will pump all the water to. I mean, i'm sure thay haqve a plan, but I don't know what it is.

I was lucky. I have power and I never lost it. I did lose cable and internet, though, and they are still not back. I cannot play Starcraft 2 right now. Somewhere around 90% of L.I. lost power. Some of my friends have said it could take 2 or 3 weeks for LIPA to restore the power. That's nuts. houses are getting cold and food is spoiling. School's cancelled all week. Next week too, for Election Day. The kids are having a blast.

I guess that's all there is to say, without glorifying anything. I haven't heard a death toll, and I kind of don't want to, though, I'm sure Katrina was much worse in that regard, anyway.

The scary part now is the gasoline shortage. He's a pic from my friend Facebook wall as he sits on a 3 HOUR LINE for gasoline for his car. Not kidding. People are waiting on lines that stretch down the road passed two other closed gas stations to get to the one that still has.
+ Show Spoiler +
It's all a bit to take in, honestly. Hope this helps and educates. Thanks guys, any questions, I'll try to come back and check for 'em.

On November 05 2012 04:40 BlackPaladin wrote:
It won't change anything in NYC or NJ.