RANDOM JOTTINGS

A blog about music, sports, theatre and rants

Long time blogger just moved to wordpress. Love music, theatre, movies, sport (tennis and cricket) and cooking. Two great daughters, two great granddaughters.

Hurricane Irene

I do hope that all of Random Regulars who are in the line of Hurricane Irene are all hunkered down, tucked up and good to go (sorry these are some of the phrases in the press) and that all will be well and you will all be safe.   Have been reading on line papers this morning and there seems to be a feeling in certain areas, that the press are hyping Irene up out of all proportions and the emphasis seems to be on New York only.    One Tweeter pointed out that while the world was watching New York, other parts of the East Coast, less high profile were being hit already, and badly.

Hurricane-Irene-panorama--008

Problem is that it is The Big Apple that could be hit and we have all been weaned on movies such as Independence Day, 2012, The Day after Tomorrow et al in which we have seen New York hit with apocalyptic waves/aliens/ice storms – you name it, it has been done and it is rather hard to realise that there is a real possibility that the City could be hit in such a filmic way.

Also, we are deeply aware of 9/11 and the trauma suffered by NY – so perhaps the press can be forgiven for going inter hyperdrive, and let's face it, better to be safe than sorry.

BUT Wherever you are on the East Coast, stay safe and if you have electricity and can get on line, then hope you read this and do drop by and leave a comment.

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12 responses to “Hurricane Irene”

  1. Elaine Simpson-Long Avatar
    Elaine Simpson-Long

    Danya I am so sorry to here how bad it is in Vermont. I visited there many years ago for the fall foliage and thought it was such a beautiful place. And the thought of those wonderful wooden bridges, all gone
    I am so sorry and am thinking of you

    Reply
  2. Dayna Carleton Avatar
    Dayna Carleton

    Well, Irene was very very bad here in Vermont. People hoped for the best and prepared for the worst, but there was simply no way to prepare for a disaster of this magnitude. Homes, bridges, businesses, farms, roads simply disappeared, many leaving no trace of ever having been there. Small rushing mountain streams became enormous rivers, carrying all before them. People are stranded, walking over the mountains to get out, and it could be years before roads can be rebuilt, the land is gone! Winter is very hard here, and it’s been hard for folks to survive anyway, hard to imagine what will happen to many.

    Reply
  3. Bet Avatar
    Bet

    Though we live in upstate NY, we were in South Carolina when the hurricane hit. Our 19 yo daughter was home alone and she said it was no big deal; a bit of wind, lots of rain, and some branches down. We were a day late getting home from SC because of flight delays. Very thankful for the little bit of damage in our immediate area, but heartbroken to see the devastation in nearby Vermont! The old, wooden covered bridges that just floated away… :-/

    Reply
  4. Debbie Rodgers Avatar
    Debbie Rodgers

    I’ve seen of photos and video of some pretty hard hit areas in New England – specifically Vermont, but I know other places are also hurting. On Canada’s East Coast, we were more-or-less prepared, but Irene veered way off north & sort of petered out so we just got a couple of ‘gusty’ days. Some trees down, but nothing major. Season’s just beginning, though…

    Reply
  5. Elaine Simpson-Long Avatar
    Elaine Simpson-Long

    Well the Mayor of NY said best to make preparations and then be happy they were not needed. Though it was downgraded it still sounds pretty horrid.

    Reply
  6. anne Avatar
    anne

    well, mostly folks made it thru — last death count I heard was 21, in 7 states…and heard folks on NPR, in NYC, fussing that they shouldn’t have had to evac, as it was not as bad as was predicted….people are NEVER satisfied — if they’d stayed put, and flooded/drowned, then what? better to leave and come back than to stay and experience the storm surge….
    other bits of the coast have had a worse time, hear there is some “unexpected” flooding in vermont — unexpected by whom? ALL of the coastal states, and their neighbors, were told of possible drenching rains, which would lead to possible flooding of rivers etc………
    sigh

    Reply
  7. Elaine Simpson-Long Avatar
    Elaine Simpson-Long

    Thank you for all your thoughts and experiences and so glad that you are all OK. I agree that a hurricane hitting NY would really be catastrophic and can understand all the publicity and press space, but some people have been on Twitter etc saying It’s not just NY You know!!
    Delighted to hear that you are all well and Rachel what a way to end your year in NY – when willyou be home?

    Reply
  8. Judystevens Avatar
    Judystevens

    I live outside of Baltimore, MD and here Irene was a lot of rain and a few small branches down. We were very lucky. The Eastern shore really took the brunt of it. I’m sure the city will have to deal with quite a bit of flooding however.
    I think the press does hype this kind of storm which I worry will lead to people becoming complacent so they fail to heed legitimate warnings about coming danger but I’ll just have to accept that people must make their own choices. As for the NYC hype, it’s the largest city in the U.S. and a direct hit by a hurricane would be catastrophic in damage and cost so it’s reasonable to focus on it in this kind of situation. That said, I lived in the Midwest for many years and I can tell you any unusual weather on the East Coast gets 10 times the coverage as weather related disasters/events in other regions.

    Reply
  9. Rachel Avatar
    Rachel

    I am safe – seem to have slept through the worst of it! Manhattan is flooded downtown apparently but there are just a lot of leaves on the ground here and plenty of puddles. The wind was very strong at 7am but now it’s very quiet. I have power but apparently the power company is waiting until high tide to decide whether the river will flood and power needs to be turned off. I live right on the river in Harlem so I am hoping it doesn’t flood – losing power would not be pleasant.
    All in all is seems a bit much ado about nothing, certainly in Manhattan, but like Karen says, there are a lot of people in the boroughs who have been badly affected and New Jersey has had a tough night as well.

    Reply
  10. Karen Avatar
    Karen

    All is well after a very noisy night in which the high wind and rain battered my apartment building. We didn’t lose power, thank God!
    To be fair, I think the reason there was so much emphasis on NY in the media is that hurricanes so rarely venture this far north, and that because of the population density, it is much more difficult to evacuate/police the situation. People forget that “New York City” isn’t just Manhattan (where I live and which is the only borough that most tourists visit); many of the millions of people in the outer boroughs (such as Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island) live in communities right ON the Atlantic Ocean and are very vulnerable. Fortunately, the City imposed mandatory evacuation in those areas and as far as I have heard, there has been no loss of life. And the fact is that a storm hitting New York City does have a greater “ripple effect” than a storm hitting less populated areas; for example, closure of all five of the airports in the metropolitan area in turn affects aviation across the globe. And if lower Manhattan floods/loses power, the stock exchange might not be open tomorrow, thereby impacting financial markets all over the world.
    I feel very grateful indeed to be sitting here safely in my apartment, looking out at the swollen East River and watching the city slowly come back to life.

    Reply
  11. Joan Kyler Avatar
    Joan Kyler

    The storm has passed Philadelphia, too, and was not as bad as predicted. Our electric has stayed on. A tornado warning late last night worried us for a half an hour or so. Flooding of rivers and creeks seems to be the big problem, but should not be for us in Queen Village (south east part of the city).
    My family around the state and in NY are all okay, but I haven’t heard from my nephew-in-law in Lower Manhattan. He and the three cats should be fine (2nd floor and far enough from the East River), but I’ll feel better after the storm has passed NYC and I’ve spoken to him. His wife, my niece, had to fly to LA yesterday for work, the last flight out of the city. I know she didn’t want to leave them alone and will worry until she knows all danger is in the past.
    It looks like our friends in coastal Massachusetts will be spared most of the storm. We were very worried about them, having been through many hurricanes when we lived there.
    Thanks for your concern.

    Reply
  12. Teresa Avatar
    Teresa

    The worst of the storm has passed over the DC area, and things seem OK. It wasn’t expected to be really bad here, but there have been worries about flooding and high winds. A lot of people have lost electricity, but I’ve been lucky on that score. There may also have been some flash floods around, but I haven’t heard of anything very bad.

    Reply

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