Irene, Goodnight Irene, Irene Goodnight

[luckton]

Video link for above mentioned Today clip.  Skip to 3:30 to see Matt start the attack on Al and Jim 'Hey, look'it me!  I'm in a cyclone 'ere!' Cantorri

Whatever...I hope the next storm that uppercuts the coastline actually hits as serious Cat 5 and blows away your kittens, dogs and/or whatever material possession(s) you have that would make the nay-sayers shut the frack up and thank whatever deity they want that they're at least alive.

It won't. They don't work that way. Hell, Hurricanes get close to New York all the time, but they only cause about $100M in damage or more every 20 years. Also a major hurricane at Cat 3 or higher hasn't hit New York since 1938.

Now, the Carolinas and Florida? yeah they know the drill by now.

Frack yeah we know the drill.  We 'invented' the drill, along with the post-Andrew building codes to storm-proof a home as much as possible.  We tried to teach that drill to New Orleans with Katrina, but no...all those free spirits and thoughts of "well we've had our city under the sea level for this long, what's a hurricane gonna do?" turned off actual logic.  And now post Andrew and post Katrina, we get a big hurricane to attack the most amount of people 'ever', and because it wasn't 'as bad as they thought' it would be, the drill gets questioned into obscurity and fuels the GOP's fight to shut down FEMA and other legit things we need for shit like this.

[Paelos]

I think you're reaching. New England folks don't really need to be worried about hurricanes. Like I said, it just doesn't happen often enough to warrent panic every time a tropical storm dumps rain on the area.

[luckton]

I think you're reaching. New England folks don't really need to be worried about hurricanes. Like I said, it just doesn't happen often enough to warrent panic every time a tropical storm dumps rain on the area.

Logic failure...attempting to auto-correct...

New England folks don't really need to be worried about tropical storms, but they should with hurricanes. Like I said, it just doesn't happen often enough to warrent panic every time a tropical storm dumps rain on the area.

I agree, and Florida/Carolinas don't freak out either when a TS/TD is bumping the coast line.  We WELCOME them for the large amounts of rain they bring, esp. with the dry times we've had the last few years.  But up until the 11th hour, Irene was a full-on Cat 2 hurricane.  It's radius quite literally blocked out the sun for miles around.  It's storm intensity and storm density were menacing.  You don't go on national TV, say all of that, and then follow up with "yeah, but it's not a big deal.  Great kite flying weather, actually."

[Lantyssa]

I think you're reaching. New England folks don't really need to be worried about hurricanes. Like I said, it just doesn't happen often enough to warrent panic every time a tropical storm dumps rain on the area.

When it does happen, the damage will be tremendous if it's not taken seriously.  Which it won't with attitudes like that.  People on the Gulf Coast forget this after the first storm that passes near but doesn't do much.  Gods help the East Coast when that happens.

The Storm of the Century is called that because it hits once a century.  Being all "it's no big deal" and having a storm turn out to be that one will ruin a lot of people's day.

[Sky]

Problem is, counties and municipalities are broke.

We just lost all our funding from the county, they didn't even bother sending out the paperwork this year.

So, while it's nice to plan for the storm of the century, there's no money to make it happen.

[Merusk]

Don't worry, FEMA will remain funded... by cutting other programs (like libraries)  to make those payments!

[Hawkbit]

One of my wife's college friends is crying a fucking river because their family cabin, second house in the Adirondacks had a bridge washed out.  "Oh no, our ski trip is off this year it looks like... :("

Fucking shit makes me sick, I had to hide her fat ass on FB.  The poor top .1% of the ultra rich and their woes...

[Paelos]

I think you're reaching. New England folks don't really need to be worried about hurricanes. Like I said, it just doesn't happen often enough to warrent panic every time a tropical storm dumps rain on the area.

When it does happen, the damage will be tremendous if it's not taken seriously.  Which it won't with attitudes like that.  People on the Gulf Coast forget this after the first storm that passes near but doesn't do much.  Gods help the East Coast when that happens.

The Storm of the Century is called that because it hits once a century.  Being all "it's no big deal" and having a storm turn out to be that one will ruin a lot of people's day.

When a Cat 5 hits Carolina, people will freak the hell out as usual. Worrying about a storm every 100 years isn't worth it.

[Ghambit]

"Welcome to Vermont, your Island Paradise!"

[Morat20]

When a Cat 5 hits Carolina, people will freak the hell out as usual. Worrying about a storm every 100 years isn't worth it.

Allison was a tropical storm -- and flooded Houston with 100+ (I think it was 118) year water. Ike was a Cat Three that was roughly the size of Ohio -- and fucked up the country in a directly line from Houston to North Dakota.

It's not the strength of the storm -- it's exactly where and how it hits, how big it is, how much of a surge it's pushing, how fast it's moving. A jiggle of just fifty miles at landfall would have seen NYC fucked several times as hard, for instance.

With hurricanes, it's really difficult to tell exactly how bad it's going to be until just a few hours before landfall. And by then, it's too late to do anything. Much better to treat it like a worst case, every time. Fewer people die that way.

[Lantyssa]

Nah.  Maybe he's right.  Irene was nothing to note.

[01101010]

Nah.  Maybe he's right.  Irene was nothing to note.

I am highly suspicious of the death count. Not to say that some of these aren't tragic (even though I am a heartless bastard and don't care much) and some of these are truly a primary result of the Irene thing. But some of these are a very far stretch...like the ones in FL? A traffic accident at a traffic light that was out? Some guy has a heart attack while boarding up his windows? Trees falling on people, sure... but who the fuck goes camping during a hurricane. I am a storm maniac and even I am not that retarded. I'll give them the flood victims because that is a direct cause. Even the trees... the others, not so much.

However, I think the main shit no one is talking about are all the god damn killer trees out there... 

[Paelos]

Two of the deaths were in Florida from guys surfing out there.

 

Again, Irene was not that bad. Nothing posted about power outages or roads or X dollars of damages even registers on my list as "Bad" considering that: 1 - Four months ago something worse happened in Alabama, and 2 - more people died in the regular act of driving around that day in other parts of the country.

[Trippy]

Paelos: shut up

[luckton]

Paelos: shut up

[Simond]

Nate Siilver brings the stats: http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/how-irene-lived-up-to-the-hype/

So Irene right now ranks as the 10th-deadliest storm since 1980, with some possibility of that number going higher. And it ranks as the 8th most destructive storm economically, give or take. Meanwhile, it received about the 10th-most media coverage.

What’s the problem with that? Actually, I don’t see any problem with it whatsoever. The level of coverage given to Irene received seems quite appropriate given what we know about its impact.

[Khaldun]

I think you're reaching. New England folks don't really need to be worried about hurricanes. Like I said, it just doesn't happen often enough to warrent panic every time a tropical storm dumps rain on the area.

I think Vermont disagrees with you.

But whatever, don't let anything get in the way of being a douche about a storm that was expensive and fatal and was within a butterfly's wing of being a good deal worse.

[Trippy]

Paelos isn't posting in this thread anymore so he's not going to be able to respond to your replies to his posts.

I suggest we just drop that discussion and move onto other things.

[Sky]

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Inn-At-Long-Trail-and-McGraths-Irish-Pub/126409216398

Well sports fans... there will be a convoy leaving Killington tomorrow between 8 and 10 am. This is EAST bound only!!! and ONE WAY ONLY!!! So atleast the vistors will be able to get out and the town can get dealiing with everything else... The West, Rutland side, is going to take a long while...bummer

We've been joking that we should've gone up there last Friday...extended vacation! But to be serious, that's the reality of central VT right now, folks have been stuck up there for days on the mountain. We were going there next week (guess I'm the ultra rich whining now hah).

Scroll down to the video they got of Rt 4 getting washed out, including a house that got washed out completely.

[Khaldun]

More people around here than I guessed are still without power in the Philly suburbs. The local Trader Joe's just got power back yesterday afternoon late, and of course they have no perishables of any kind now. They're getting a full restock sometime late today, according to the manager. A lot of my colleagues had no power for 12-48 hours, we apparently got quite lucky. One colleague has six inches of water in her basement and no sump pump, first time she's ever had water in there.

[MisterNoisy]

Hope that everything returns to normal for those of you that got caught in this one - I remember being without power, etc for 3 weeks with a caved-in ceiling after Ivan, and it was absolutely no fun.

[Hawkbit]

 (guess I'm the ultra rich whining now hah).

I wasn't directing that comment at you, man.  They have partial ownership with three total families for what is basically a small mountain up near Lake Placid area.  It's absurd, the house/cabin thing is a second home and it cost more money than I'll ever make in my life.  Probably my wife, too.  

I just don't have patience for people with the smallest of problems, yet can't see any of the real, true devastated lives in situations like this.  

[Ghambit]

You should advise them to sell because next weekend we could likely be doing this chat all over again with "Katia."  No, I'm not joking or doomcasting.  The issue lies somewhat with the TD in the GOM... basically, it helps create a situation where there's just enough weakness to the west that the prevailing bermuda ridge is allowed to build back in behind this next trough (which is too far out to make Kat a total "fish").  By the time the gap in the ridge reforms it'll be too late.

Not only that, but we're now seeing some possible absorption of the TD remnants by Kat in 5 days... so yes, a hurricane Grace scenario (perfect storm of sorts).  The setup is very very very bad (worse than Irene).  It has a truly major cane off the carolinas threatening the NE again next weekend, only stronger, and not effected by any landmasses before landfall.

NHC is shitting bricks on this one.  Biting their tongues so to speak.  Give em 3 days and they should have it pretty well nailed down what's going to happen.

Weather-nature is a fucked up thing.  Every weather-hobbiest I know had Kat likely a fish till this next system popped up and changed the atmosphere (along with Kats speed slowing down and her strength not improving quick enough to induce more Coriolis poleward) just enough to make things a bit more complex to figure out.  Now we've got a cane that'll have 2 highs to spinup her winds and 1 remnant low to beat away the dry air.

So how many NYers will be bitching next weekend eh? (during the 9/11 anniv. no less)  pfft.  Hey!  Let's defund FEMA tomorrow just before this storm too while we're at it.

[WayAbvPar]

If Katia fucks up the first weekend of NFL football there will be hell to pay.