Hurricane Irene

[jmervyn]

When have I ever endorsed that?

Jed was probably confusing you with me. I seem to recall his name as one of those arrogant ultra-Lefties who swallowed Hopeychange and begged for more. Maybe I'm mistaken...

The storm was a resounding "Meh" because of the intense hyping from the media, rather than it <not> being mildly dangerous. I'd pitched a tent in worse as a Boy Scout, and I stopped at Home Depot and Wal-Mart in the midst of the "worst" of this one. We didn't even have a downed tree.

However, there were highway closures, and today there's some roads flooded out. I think I'd heard on the radio something around 100K homes in the area being without power, though that's not much different than we've encountered during severe winters either.

Incidentally, I wonder if Jed's faith in weathermen extends to the way a significant majority of them believe that AGW is a **** & bull story? I haven't heard any of the watermelons try to claim Irene is due to "Climate Change" yet, but I'm sure if it had achieved more than 8 dead it would have been front page.

But don't mind me, ManBearPig says I'm a RAAAAACISSSTTTT

[Luckymofo]

I'm late, i know, but i do want to say something and give some tips just in case this happens again or whatever....

6

Cat 1 isn't too bad. Fallen down trees, storm surge, billboards gone. it's powerful, but it's not a Cat 4 or 5 and that also depends where on the coast you are and where you live. When Ike hit, Bolivar Point on Galveston was completely demolished. 4 years later, a lot of the buildings are still not rebuilt or constructed and Bolivar is no more not because of wind and rain but because of the storm surge GOING BACK to the ocean. Where I was, we got a lot of wind, rain, fallen tree branches and our power was out for three days, awesome compared to some who had it out for three weeks.



thank you.



yes.

and to anyone who cares.... (Lucky/Mal, if you're reading this, it's for you!)

Tips on How to Prepare For a Hurricane!

A few to several days before it hits, here's some helpful tips on how to prepare yourself so you're not TOO ****ed.

1.) Get gasoline. Fill your car/truck up because the day before, the pumps will be empty or there will be long lines... and pumps empty. and don't try driving down the street to the next gas station because more than likely they are out too. trust me, i learned that the hard way and got an earful from my screeching banshee of a mother.

2.) get supplies ahead of time. you don't want to be the guy/chick at Home Depot or the grocery store left with canned **** you've never heard of before... like in that one Simpsons episode where they prepare for the hurricane. Canned squid or something... ? so do yourself a favor and get bottled water, jug water, more bottled and jugged water and food that can last you a while and you don't have to cook it really (can goods, bread, and Pop Tarts are good beginning items). If you have ice chests and an ice maker, awesome! you can store some lunch meat and cheese in it. if you don't have an ice maker (and im sure most of us don't. the only reason i mentioned it was because my great-aunt has one for some reason. >.>), try to get some ice.

3.) not necessary, but if you have a generator, you'll be fine. give it breaks so you don't waste your gas.

4.) before you lose power and water and you know you're going to lose power, fill your bathtubs, sinks, empty jugs around the house with water! that's going to be your supply until you get your power back. that means your bath water, your toilet water, your toothbrush water, your drinking water, everything. and here's another tip from experience: don't flush your toilet every time you wee. as gross as that sounds, if you flush every time you numero uno, you'll run out of water quicker. happened to my neighbors across the street. so save it for numero dos. as for bathing, use a washcloth.

i know, im late to the party and wasting energy, but im hoping someone will find this useful and any other tips anyone else wants to contribute.

>.>

thank you leo. I was very lucky I only had 9 hours power outage saturday night and 2 hours sunday afternoon.

t

[Jedouard]

Jed was probably confusing you with me. I seem to recall his name as one of those arrogant ultra-Lefties who swallowed Hopeychange and begged for more. Maybe I'm mistaken...

The storm was a resounding "Meh" because of the intense hyping from the media, rather than it <not> being mildly dangerous. I'd pitched a tent in worse as a Boy Scout, and I stopped at Home Depot and Wal-Mart in the midst of the "worst" of this one. We didn't even have a downed tree.

However, there were highway closures, and today there's some roads flooded out. I think I'd heard on the radio something around 100K homes in the area being without power, though that's not much different than we've encountered during severe winters either.

Incidentally, I wonder if Jed's faith in weathermen extends to the way a significant majority of them believe that AGW is a **** & bull story? I haven't heard any of the watermelons try to claim Irene is due to "Climate Change" yet, but I'm sure if it had achieved more than 8 dead it would have been front page.

But don't mind me, ManBearPig says I'm a RAAAAACISSSTTTT

Jmervyn, I generally pretend you do not exist. Your incapacity for analysis to the point of delirium, your pure fabrications and your profoundly inarticulate diatribes make you not only pointless to read, but also just pointless.

Cases in point: (1) Al Gore discusses parallels between denouncing global-warming deniers and denouncing racists, so you think he calls global-warming deniers racists. (2) Meteorologists are trained to read data collected of a short term and make short-term predictions such that their opinion is worth a grain of salt in comparison to that of climate scientists when it comes to climate change. I don't believe what my podiatrist says about my lungs either. (3) Arrogant would be storming into a forum and calling people "arrogant ultra-lefties who swallowed Hopeychange and begged for more", something, by the way, that you have no grounds for saying. And (4) 25 people are reported dead now, $7 billion in damages and I highly doubt you pitched a tent in a town of 7000 people underwater with winds of 74 mph. (Unless you mean "pitched a tent", and that wouldn't surprise me given your myopic, obtuse, egoistic and inhumane Ayn Rand cast.)

You'll kill yourself off. The stauncher you become, the fewer folks identify with you. You're not worth my time. And convincing you of anything isn't a goal of mine because people of your mindset are dwindling - hence, their remnants consolidating in an effort to make their whelps louder.

[SaroDarksbane]

If you don't believe me, ask the parents who let their kid out to play in this "rain storm" in Spring Valley, New York. The kid is now in the burn unit because he got swept into a flood with electrical wires in it. The man who tried to save him is dead.

A great headline for our mainstream media to use because they love stuff like that (cue Tool's "Vicarious"). Tell me, do they also report on the number of people killed in traffic accidents during the evacuation? Probably not. Wouldn't sell papers.

Perhaps I'm being too snarky with you. Based on past conversations, I associate you with someone who would support having police force people out of their homes if they refused to evacuate, but I could be wrong, and if so, I apologize.

[Jedouard]

A great headline for our mainstream media to use because they love stuff like that (cue Tool's "Vicarious"). Tell me, do they also report on the number of people killed in traffic accidents during the evacuation? Probably not. Wouldn't sell papers.

Perhaps I'm being too snarky with you. Based on past conversations, I associate you with someone who would support having police force people out of their homes if they refused to evacuate, but I could be wrong, and if so, I apologize.

You're definitely being too snarky. I wouldn't support that at all. Assuming that because I support certain regulations on weapons and support certain social programmes does not mean I would support a forced evacuation. Given the type of risk that a hurricane, earthquake, etc. pose, your choice to heed or ignore suggested precautions will mainly impact you alone, and so the decision is yours. The specific set of programmes I support deal with problems that generally have a significant impact on society as whole.

In the particular case of a predicted natural disaster, what I support is shutting down public services in order to protect equipment and give employees a chance to evacuate and prevent the possible danger these public services could represent to their users. In other words, I support saving lives and money. (And by "predicted natural disaster", I mean it is predicted by persons who are educated in the field, subject to peer review and right at least a fair percent of the time.)

But, if you want to stay in your home or drive on the streets or not get provisions or whatever else, that's your business. If you get in an emergency, though, you should be aware that a public service isn't going to put its equipment and employees at risk to come save you out in the middle of the disaster - maybe afterwards, but not in the middle.

[SaroDarksbane]

your choice to heed or ignore suggested precautions will mainly impact you alone, and so the decision is yours.

Do you know how much fuel a rescue helicopter burns? And just think of the cost implications for healthcare!

But if I read this correctly, you don't support seat belt or helmet laws either, right?

[Jedouard]

Do you know how much fuel a rescue helicopter burns? And just think of the cost implications for healthcare!

But if I read this correctly, you don't support seat belt or helmet laws either, right?

Let me get this straight. You criticise me because you think I would want forced evacuations - something I never said or supported. I respond by saying that if you fail to heed warnings and suggested precautions, then you get to deal with the consequences, or, in other words, the rescue helicopter, ambulance, etc. won't be coming to save you. Your respond to that by telling me, "Look at all these expenses." What are you specifically wanting to discuss? Just put it in a direct question and I will do my best to answer it.

As I see it, it should be up to the individual to heed official warnings and suggestions. That said, whatever political body the citizens charge with issuing warnings and suggestions should make provisions to help all those who want to heed them. That way you don't end up with a Katrina instance where people who didn't have the means to evacuate were stuck there. Preventative costs are almost always cheaper than reparative, and I doubt a hurricane is any different.

Those who choose not to heed the warnings and face an emergency because of it should not count on help from public services during the period of the catastrophe. And if they receive emergency help during or after the catastrophe, then they ought to fork over the dough for the costs.

As for seatbelt and helmet laws, it depends. I'd say minors should always wear seatbelts and helmets. It is the duty of adults to take the proper precautions to protect children given their naiveté and physical reliance on adults. Regarding adults, though, I cannot say. How many accidents that kill or injure other people are caused by a person not wearing a helmet or seatbelt? How many expenses get pushed onto other people because of injuries and deaths that could be prevented by wearing seat belts or helmets? There are a lot of questions. I don't have that information so I cannot say. I would guess that the above-mentioned have a good chance at being significant enough to merit seatbelt and helmet laws. I just don't have the info at this time to say anything conclusive about it.

[BobCox2]

Early estimates put Irene's damage at $7 billion to $10 billion, much smaller than the impact of monster storms such as Hurricane Katrina, which did more than $100 billion in damage. Irene's effects are small compared to the overall U.S. economy, which produces about $14 trillion of goods and services every year.
While hard-hit regions, such as the North Carolina coast, will suffer from lost tourism, rebuilding homes, repairing cars, and fixing streets and bridges should provide a small boost to economy, experts said.

Hurricane Irene is being blamed for at least 29 deaths in nine eastern US states, emergency officials and local media said Monday, as Vermont and other states suffered disastrous flooding. The deaths include six each in New York state, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, four in Virginia, two each in Connecticut and Florida, and one each in Maryland, New Jersey and Vermont, according to an AFP tally.

[Jedouard]

Early estimates put Irene's damage at $7 billion to $10 billion, much smaller than the impact of monster storms such as Hurricane Katrina, which did more than $100 billion in damage. Irene's effects are small compared to the overall U.S. economy, which produces about $14 trillion of goods and services every year.
While hard-hit regions, such as the North Carolina coast, will suffer from lost tourism, rebuilding homes, repairing cars, and fixing streets and bridges should provide a small boost to economy, experts said.

Hurricane Irene is being blamed for at least 29 deaths in nine eastern US states, emergency officials and local media said Monday, as Vermont and other states suffered disastrous flooding. The deaths include six each in New York state, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, four in Virginia, two each in Connecticut and Florida, and one each in Maryland, New Jersey and Vermont, according to an AFP tally.

I think everyone is well aware that the impact was nowhere near as devastating as a category 5 hurricane making landfall. But, how much money is saved because buses are taken out of service and moved to higher grounds or planes are put in hangars instead of the air? The millions of dollars add up, particularly at the state and county level.

[krischan]

If (guessing) 50 million Americans were affected and it produced a damage of 10 billions, it's $200 per affected person.

It's a different question whether all the emergency measures were appropriate, but as usual, the amount of smartasses who tell that they knew it all in advance usually increase a lot after it happened while they stay in their holes if it had become worse than expected. I'm not meaning those who told it in advance here (like Bobcox), as he already told it before Irene hit the US, but you know, if there's something which the "experts" hate, it's the winners of the "which amateur made the right guess in advance?" lottery , just like those noobs who win against pros in fishing contests.

I respond by saying that if you fail to heed warnings and suggested precautions, then you get to deal with the consequences, or, in other words, the rescue helicopter, ambulance, etc. won't be coming to save you.

I hope the helicopter comes to the rescue of everybody, including the idiots, although their insurance might refuse to pay the bill for the rescue or if the helicopter is busy all the time, they might be at the end of the list because of a bad "lives saved per unit of time" ratio.