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Between professional and personal responsibilities, it’s been difficult to keep this blog updated. As a matter of fact, my current city of residence was impacted by a bi-polar bitch full of water and wind.
You may know her as Sandy.
Or you may know her as the terrifyingly, ferociously, HUGE Frankenstorm!
Typing this on Tuesday, October the 30th, I am counting my blessings. My parents still have power, and more importantly, there is no property damage to speak of.
As many of my friends are just beginning to assess the damage they have accrued, my heart definitely breaks for them. It’s not often where a storm as unbelievably huge as this one rocks the Northeast. In the tri-state area (namely New York, New Jersey, Connecticut), unprecedented precautions were taken to ensure that people wouldn’t be stranded in the most dangerous of times. I applaud the state governments for doing the best they could, and I even thank President Obama for providing quick and prompt service/feedback during this time of crisis.
That being said, there are people who are reading this thinking why is this such a big deal. Why was there so much media attention to this storm, when bigger catastrophes caused more far-out damage.
First off, let me state that for a better term, New York City and Atlantic City are utterly destroyed. The results of the storm have been absolutely off-the-wall batshit, with surges pummeling NYC, and even heavier rains adding to the chaos in Jersey. As of this writing, over TWO MILLION PEOPLE IN NEW YORK CITY have no power. That’s an epic number, no matter what state it is.
I’m no weather man, but I think I can explain this good enough. This is how Frankenstorm came to be:
1. Hurricane Sandy formed in the tropics. It went over the Caribbean, killing dozens of people in the process. Normally this storm would have went just out to sea, but it hit a few troughs in the process.
2. An early snowstorm pummels its way through.
3. A cold front with a chilly blast of air is also coming in.
Add those ingredients together, and we have a creation Cold Stone Creamery couldn’t create. The barometric pressure (935 or so milli bars) is an all-time historic low for the Northeast portion of the country. The winds upon landfall were 90 miles an hour sustained, with gusts approaching 115! To think, the higher the elevation you are, the heavier the wind is! That means when that crane collapsed in the city yesterday, the gust at that point could very well have been clocked in the higher double digits!
Lonnie Quinn from WCBS in NYC coined this storm the best, “The Storm of the Surge”. For that specific landmass of the event (so I’m only accounting the City in this judgment), the rains and the high winds wouldn’t be what caused the meteoric amounts of damage. As a matter of fact, there were a bunch of levies in and around that region that burst with the exaggerated tides. You know it’s bad when the flood stage for one of them is like 3.5 feet, and the tide went to over 5’! That’s a ton of water!
Before I wrap this up, I’d like to mention that not only was there rain in this scenario, but there was snow for some unlucky chaps right around Virginia and North Carolina. Imagine the two to three inches of flood-fearing rain in my neck of the woods? Try three to four FEET of snow there! That recovery effort will be extensive for sure, and I hope everyone over there can be back on their feet soon too.
In this time where you’ll hear nothing but saddening stories about loss and devastation, at least this blog post proves today proves that there are exceptions to the rule. I’m blessed to be happy, alive, alert, and full of my capacities. I want to thank my parents for preparing endlessly for this event, and taking care of me through this whole ordeal. I pray for everyone who has suffered even a slight power outage, and hope that life can return to normal as quickly as possible.
