Hurricane Sandy

It reminds me of the record setting floods we had experienced in the early 1900s

Damn Ale, I'm impressed your mind is still that sharp at 120!

kilroy wrote:

It reminds me of the record setting floods we had experienced in the early 1900s

Damn Ale, I'm impressed your mind is still that sharp at 120!

And Kilroy wins with that hahaha.

I remember like it was yesterday. Some say I don't look a day over 80!

The weekend after we went up to near patterson to sort a large donation delivery that came from somewhere in i believe alabama. The noreaster started coming in and it began to snow as we neared the sorting location, by the time we were done it was dumping snow but none of it was sticking thankfully. On the way back we took a wrong turn and all most headed over the goethals bridge, which at the time had no lights aside from the marine navigation beacons, and there were no lights on the other side of the water either. The entire area on the NJ side was a ghost town, the power was off everywhere, no traffic lights were working, it was probably the eeriest thing i have ever seen, it was like the world was abandoned aside from us. A few miles away and back on i95 there were lights and traffic. We went to New Dorp Beach 2 weeks after to volunteer. The streets were covered in residues of salt water, sand, and sewage, many homes had been condemned and given a 30 minute temporary occupation posting on the main entryways. Several spots had buildings that burned to the ground, every basement was a sand filled mold pit, and there were cars everywhere with insurance company information on it either in spraypaint or what have you. The power was still out in the entire area east of mill road.

The very early morning (4 am) after the storm we went out to survey the damage. At around 9 pm a hurricane force gust took out a 55 foot oak tree, missing our house by only a few feet and crashing down and obliterating another large tree. Along with the tree, a few moments earlier the power went out. Our power went out due to a breaker tripping, not a tree or pole down anywhere near us. Power was on here and there, but mostly out. We went all over the place looking for any open food stores, only to find that one grocery store was running on a rented trailer mounted generator, all the refrigeration was out, and so were most of the lights. The other place open that sold food was dunkin donuts. Everywhere else was closed either due to not enough staff, no power, or waiting for a re-stock of the spoiled food. We saw trees down all over the place, one was leaning on power lines which has since been cut down, the situation was so bad that the lines were left to lay on the tree live for nearly the rest of the day burning the tree (actual flames etc). There were a few national guard and other vehicles on the roads, but not much else. In NJ over 95 crossing the delaware we could see up and down the river and where had power and where didn't. We drove through trenton, most of the power was on, but there were trees down all over the place. A flag in front of a fire house was shredded and blowing in the still constant 10-15 mph wind.

We didn't have electrical for 2 days, and dunkin donuts was all 3 meals for my whole family. I had no idea how bad it was till we went there mid-morning after the storm ,because our cable went out around 6 pm. Used the wifi there to get up to date as well as the large TV they have inside there. Dozens of people were in line waiting for food or drink, and many were charging or plugged in to two outlets, so i brought a power strip for everyone to use. That night we went to see frankenweenie at the theater in toen, the theater staff had set up a charging station for people with devices that needed charging. We went home after the movie to a dark neighborhood with no sounds and no traffic lights at the entrances. Was tre bizarre.

I'm glad we were spared this year, but there's always next year, and the one after that. Tell you one thing, i'll never take food, water, warmth, shelter, or light for granted ever again, and since that night i have not gone anywhere without at least a good keychain flashlight....

Edit: One thing to note, that despite all the storm damage here, which was all from wind, we never lost cell service, and i honestly think that is really amazing and i couldn't imagine not having that on top of no internet or tv or electric to stay connected and informed.

It seems like the forecasters always predict an "above average season" and half the time, get it wrong big time such as 2006 and 2013. That's why I don't read to much into their predictions until there are actual storms.

25Hz - only 2 days before your power was restored, you were fortunate. Mine in NW Hunterdon County was out for about 12 days, but didn't miss it since I have a small (3-1/2 kW) generator to supply the well pump, oil heat, refrigerator and lights in some rooms including the Dishnet receiver and TV and computer. That said, other than 9 or so hours at home each day, for 14 or 15 days the rest of the time I was driving to/from the Central Division and on "lookup" going to specific addresses with outage reports and calling in the exact nature of the electric infrastructure damage so the proper line crews and equipment could be dispatched. Was in a number of municipalities inUnion, Somerset, Morris and Middlesex Counties. Managed to get some incidental railfanning in when sent to near the ex=CNJ E'Port Station and had lunch that same day in the CNJ Elizabeth Station restaurant which was excellent. I had my camera with me but didn't have time to take any photos of the damage, priority was getting the customers restored. By the time all customers were restored and I was back in my regular job in the office in Newark, the Raritan Valley Line was back in service so never had a commute issue. The company had gasoline available for everyone in the storm response so didn't have to deal with that either. Having seen the damage in many locations, and knowing what happened with respect to unexpected and unprecedented flooding in the switching stations and subs, I can at least in part, understand why NJT did not evacuate much of its equipment. I, too, noticed that Dunkin' Donuts seemed to be the first businesses back in operation, that helped.

Ken W2KB wrote:25Hz - only 2 days before your power was restored, you were fortunate. Mine in NW Hunterdon County was out for about 12 days, but didn't miss it since I have a small (3-1/2 kW) generator to supply the well pump, oil heat, refrigerator and lights in some rooms including the Dishnet receiver and TV and computer. That said, other than 9 or so hours at home each day, for 14 or 15 days the rest of the time I was driving to/from the Central Division and on "lookup" going to specific addresses with outage reports and calling in the exact nature of the electric infrastructure damage so the proper line crews and equipment could be dispatched. Was in a number of municipalities inUnion, Somerset, Morris and Middlesex Counties. Managed to get some incidental railfanning in when sent to near the ex=CNJ E'Port Station and had lunch that same day in the CNJ Elizabeth Station restaurant which was excellent. I had my camera with me but didn't have time to take any photos of the damage, priority was getting the customers restored. By the time all customers were restored and I was back in my regular job in the office in Newark, the Raritan Valley Line was back in service so never had a commute issue. The company had gasoline available for everyone in the storm response so didn't have to deal with that either. Having seen the damage in many locations, and knowing what happened with respect to unexpected and unprecedented flooding in the switching stations and subs, I can at least in part, understand why NJT did not evacuate much of its equipment. I, too, noticed that Dunkin' Donuts seemed to be the first businesses back in operation, that helped.

If it had made landfall a bit more to the north, or had been a lil bit stronger, things would have been way worse, at least thats the sense i got after seeing firsthand damage and all the data maps. Glad you had backup power. Ours goes out so infrequently that we have never even considered getting a generator, that and it could get stolen while we were sleeping. It was a bit chilly not having the heat, so some power to run at least the burner and blower fan would have been nice, as would not having to toss everything in the fridge.

The night before i rode my bike over to a 24 hour giant (the same one that had partial power from the trailer generator), and the night shift lady i knew well told me that some woman bought a cart full of ice cream. We tried to figure out why someone would do that at 11 pm right before a massive storm that was expected to take the power out came rolling in.....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/enviro ... tists.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If correct, it would contradict computer forecasts of imminent catastrophic warming. The news comes several years after predictions that the arctic would be ice-free by 2013.

Despite the original forecasts, major climate research centres now accept that there has been a “pause” in global warming since 1997.

The original predictions led to billions being invested in green measures to combat the effects of climate change.

Guess we should be ready for future storms, but not worry too much.

I knew it! Winter gets here earlier and earlier every year!

Oh, by the way, a recent glimpse at both google and apple maps a few weeks ago clearly showed track vehicles at styles st yard. I know this could be anything, but the most recent tiles has the yard looking in better condition than it did around a year ago... Fresh ballast all over the place...

morris&essex4ever wrote:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/enviro ... tists.html

If correct, it would contradict computer forecasts of imminent catastrophic warming. The news comes several years after predictions that the arctic would be ice-free by 2013.

Despite the original forecasts, major climate research centres now accept that there has been a “pause” in global warming since 1997.

The original predictions led to billions being invested in green measures to combat the effects of climate change.

Guess we should be ready for future storms, but not worry too much.

I dunno bout you but from my earliest memories till now up till the last 5-6 years every season was pretty predictable on when it would end temperature/weather wise, now we get 80 in january and 40 in august, everything is getting more severe too... storms that are mild and weak tend to be very much fewer........ i mean let me remind you all of that absolutely nutso light show we had here for 3-4 hours back in the summer... it was lighting up the entire sky like daytime........ very freaky and i have never seen such a thing in my life and i follow weather and do storm spotting... Just one extreme after another... dought, nearly flooding rains, snowmageddon 3 weeks in a row, then no snow at all then this past winter seemed like it snowed several times a week even if it was just a few minutes of furies.... and who remebers that snow we had that had that ice crust on the top? never seen that before either........

I remember when I was a kid the snow was a lot higher than it has been since I grew up.

25Hz wrote:Edit: One thing to note, that despite all the storm damage here, which was all from wind, we never lost cell service, and i honestly think that is really amazing and i couldn't imagine not having that on top of no internet or tv or electric to stay connected and informed.

Cell service may not have been completely knocked out, but it was hard to get service (I had to press my phone against the living room window when I usually have service all around the house). I believe the number of functioning cell towers decreased for a short while after the storm.

25Hz wrote:

morris&essex4ever wrote:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/enviro ... tists.html

If correct, it would contradict computer forecasts of imminent catastrophic warming. The news comes several years after predictions that the arctic would be ice-free by 2013.

Despite the original forecasts, major climate research centres now accept that there has been a “pause” in global warming since 1997.

The original predictions led to billions being invested in green measures to combat the effects of climate change.

Guess we should be ready for future storms, but not worry too much.

I dunno bout you but from my earliest memories till now up till the last 5-6 years every season was pretty predictable on when it would end temperature/weather wise, now we get 80 in january and 40 in august, everything is getting more severe too... storms that are mild and weak tend to be very much fewer........ i mean let me remind you all of that absolutely nutso light show we had here for 3-4 hours back in the summer... it was lighting up the entire sky like daytime........ very freaky and i have never seen such a thing in my life and i follow weather and do storm spotting... Just one extreme after another... dought, nearly flooding rains, snowmageddon 3 weeks in a row, then no snow at all then this past winter seemed like it snowed several times a week even if it was just a few minutes of furies.... and who remebers that snow we had that had that ice crust on the top? never seen that before either........

This describes normal weather patterns for the most part. Not every snow event is a blizzard. Not every storm is severe. We do have meteor showers from time to time. And there are days in winter when it feels like summer and vice versa.

Where I live gets very... Or should I say got very predictable weather due to geography... Up till a few years ago. Went from looking at calendar & out window for what to wear that day to needing to really look at a proper NWS forecast. We had 2 kinds of winters, very cold or very snowy. Now we have winters where one week it snows and next week it's down below zero and next week it's 65-70 and rain. I guess you have to have lived here as long as I have to really appreciate the changes. When my mom was a kid living here the first big storm's snow would often stay on the ground till springtime. Canadian geese used to be a 2x a year phenomenon, now they often stay here year round.

You can see it in tree rings too... It's really amazing.

Anyways, enough ranting from me, I'm going to go have some hot cider and reminisce about the good old days.