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'Frankenstorm' Headed to Region

Erod said:
Sure they are. This will pass soon. We'll get the help these folks need and rebuild their properties and lives.

Of course, it could be quicker, but the non-union workers aren't being allowed to help. That's blue-state mentality in its classic form.
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Nobody said this storm was worse than another. That is a delusion.

Local workers should be the ones who benefit from the work that needs to be done as a result of the disaster. PERIOD.
 
While it's probably true that South Florida could wrap up a Cat 1 and have power back within a couple days, the Northeast has far fewer storms. One year, in central Florida, we had 3 hurricanes in a couple months; we only lost power for a few days after the third one. We have a lot more experience and, really, what does one do about water in the subway. And it's cold.

Lack of experience, strange problems that FL doesn't have and nasty cold... it's no surprise that the northeast is taking a bit to organize themselves.
 
ecofarm said:
While it's probably true that South Florida could wrap up a Cat 1 and have power back within a couple days, the Northeast has far fewer storms. One year, in central Florida, we had 3 hurricanes in a couple months; we only lost power for a few days after the third one. We have a lot more experience and, really, what does one do about water in the subway. And it's cold.

Lack of experience, strange problems that FL doesn't have and nasty cold... it's no surprise that the northeast is taking a bit to organize themselves.
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I think it also has a lot to do with differences in everything. The lot of the small coastal towns on the east coast were designed and built back in the 1700s and 1800s and are historical little fishing villages, and that is what they are designed for.

I don't know if people just expect us to tear down all of our historical oceanside communities or what. There is only so much you can do against flooding and storm surges no matter how prepared you might be.
 
ChrisL said:
Nobody said this storm was worse than another. That is a delusion.

Local workers should be the ones who benefit from the work that needs to be done as a result of the disaster. PERIOD.
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You mean, local UNION workers.
 
Erod said:
You mean, local UNION workers.
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Union workers and nonunion workers. As long as they're locals and getting the jobs they desperately need.
 
ChrisL said:
Union workers and nonunion workers. As long as they're locals and getting the jobs they desperately need.
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How about helping the people needing help as FAST as possible? Some of them are eating out of dumpsters right now.

In other states, it's about getting the work done. Not about who gets the contract to get the work done. This is why New York and California are bankrupt.
 
Uzidoesit said:
I wouldn't want non-union workers putting electric wires up on my street, thank you.
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Thanks. Dumbest, and funniest thing I've read here today.

In all seriousness, you wouldn't care who was getting your power back on if it'd been off for 5 days and freezing temperatures were forecast over the next day or two. You'd be damn happy somebody was trying to help.
 
ChrisL said:
As long as they're locals and getting the jobs they desperately need.
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If you restricted this rebuilding work to local workers only it'd take months to get things just back to slightly livable conditions.

After huge natural disasters it's always normal for other states to send help in all kinds of ways.
Especially help that gets basic services like those that get power and water up and running safely.

Local crews would be overwhelmed and stretched too thin to do it alone.
 
Dragonfly said:
If you restricted this rebuilding work to local workers only it'd take months to get things just back to slightly livable conditions.

After huge natural disasters it's always normal for other states to send help in all kinds of ways.
Especially help that gets basic services like those that get power and water up and running safely.

Local crews would be overwhelmed and stretched too thin to do it alone.
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Sure, if all the skilled local labor has been used up, then take the outside help.
 
Erod said:
How about helping the people needing help as FAST as possible? Some of them are eating out of dumpsters right now.

In other states, it's about getting the work done. Not about who gets the contract to get the work done. This is why New York and California are bankrupt.
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I read that the power is supposed to be back in NY before the marathon, and I have not heard of anyone eating out of dumpsters.

Forgive my slow responses, I'm just answering some posts in between doing my work.
 
ChrisL said:
I read that the power is supposed to be back in NY before the marathon, and I have not heard of anyone eating out of dumpsters.

Forgive my slow responses, I'm just answering some posts in between doing my work.
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LOL, you and me both. Shame on us.

Yep, it's been reported that people are hungry, and some have resorted to eating out of dumpsters.
 
Erod said:
LOL, you and me both. Shame on us.

Yep, it's been reported that people are hungry, and some have resorted to eating out of dumpsters.
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I live in the Northeast and have been watching the news and have heard nothing about that. Got a link to that story?
 
Dragonfly said:
Thanks. Dumbest, and funniest thing I've read here today.

In all seriousness, you wouldn't care who was getting your power back on if it'd been off for 5 days and freezing temperatures were forecast over the next day or two. You'd be damn happy somebody was trying to help.
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Sure, sure....help me by burning my house down after I'd been freezing? I'll wait until qualified and certified help make it. Electricians are unionized for a reason and they have high standards, or the whole ****house will burn down.
 
Uzidoesit said:
Sure, sure....help me by burning my house down after I'd been freezing? I'll wait until qualified and certified help make it. Electricians are unionized for a reason and they have high standards, or the whole ****house will burn down.
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To my understanding all electricians in the US are required to comply to licensing requirements linked to the National electric code, union membership is not a factor except in which jobs you can work.
Some type of jobs are union only.
I think the Texas line crews are union.
 
Uzidoesit said:
Sure, sure....help me by burning my house down after I'd been freezing? I'll wait until qualified and certified help make it. Electricians are unionized for a reason and they have high standards, or the whole ****house will burn down.
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It'd sure help your argument if you knew what you were talking about.
 
stonewall50 said:
You can be as prepared as possible. Evacuation routes. Of course the city government was pilfering off money left and right. So there was no chance a quality levee that had half a prayer would EVER be built on that alone. Not to mention the 1977 Environmental lawsuit preventing construction of levees. New Orleans was a cesspool of corrupt government, and LA state government prevented aid from being passed out to the super dome (pre levee break).

Basically the moral of the story is...have a plan. Evacuations and have PROPER building codes that take into account...hurricane force winds for coastal areas. Houses alone coastal areas prone to storm surge should build first floor homes elevated ABOVE the storm surge heights. I mean building codes are GREAT things. Not to mention proper drainage.

I understand that at the TIME of Katrina's known position and damage potential nothing could be done, but that isn't really the issue I am addressing. It is that not enough is done in prevention of such storms. Hurricane Charley struck Florida and hade winds up to 147mph. It was fast moving and it DID do a lot of damage. But thanks to proper building codes and luck...it was not that devastating.
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I live in Manhattan and I happened to be in South Florida back in 1992 for Hurricane Andrew and the results of both were similiar - incredible destruction that was unforeseen despite lots of preparation.

For some reason some of you don't understand that this was the WORST storm in the history of NY / NJ - worst EVER. In my 50+ years there's NEVER been flooding in Manhattan and the power has never been off for 5+ days and counting. To categorize this event as the same as other storms in other parts of the country shows a true lack of understanding of this event. I also think some of you seem to leave out or ignore that this part of the country is the most densely populated in the country which does make it different than other storms in other parts of the country.

No one that I know of here in the City is comparing this storm to other storms at other times. They're comparing it to all other storms ever in the NY tri-state area. Snow storms are nothing around here - we get them every year and we know how to handle them quite well.

We don't know how to handle when our tunnels and subways are flooded 20 feet deep (never happened before, ever) and when an entire sea coast is wiped out.

One last thing - preparations like closing the subways saved the system and who knows how much money.
The lack of compassion or the phony compassion that some of you are exhibiting is shameful.
 
Erod said:
Yep, that's what hurricanes do. Pretty much all of them. Every time, everywhere.

Liberals, especially New York liberals, seem to think that history started the day they were born, and that the world begins and ends with what happens to them. They are always the stars of their own reality TV show. Drama runs thick with them.
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What a bunch of selfish BS. Now it's NY Liberals who you believe are to fault and overreacting? Wow one's political hate should never interfere with one's compassion - what a damn shame you have to live with yourself this way, for you.
 
Erod said:
Of course, it could be quicker, but the non-union workers aren't being allowed to help. That's blue-state mentality in its classic form.
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Totally and completely untrue - a falsehood. Once again political bias interferes with intelligent thought. Storms like this have nothing to do with "blue state mentality" and anyone who thinks what you wrote is living in a bubble in an alternative universe.
 
ChrisL said:
Nobody said this storm was worse than another. That is a delusion.

Local workers should be the ones who benefit from the work that needs to be done as a result of the disaster. PERIOD.
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The people without electrcity should be the ones who bemefit! PERIOD!

There's no time for a pissin' contest!!
 
Uzidoesit said:
Sure, sure....help me by burning my house down after I'd been freezing? I'll wait until qualified and certified help make it. Electricians are unionized for a reason and they have high standards, or the whole ****house will burn down.
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You have no clue how power lines work. Do you?
 
ChrisL said:
You keep talking about being "prepared." What exactly would you want the Northeast to do in order to be prepared? Got suggestions?
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Do you know what Storm Surge is? I assume so? Considering that is usually some of the most damaging portions of a hurricane, it needs to be dealt with. Proper drainage. Homes and buildings along coastal regions taking that into account. There is a WORLD of things that can be done to deal with storm surge. Sea Walls. Storm surge barriers. They build this stuff in Europe. The problem to get past is price tags here. Of course....when tallied next to loss of life and damage costs WITHOUT protection...I think it becomes less of an issue.

Clearly nothing was learned from Katrina. PREPERATION is advancing your cities infrastructure to deal with potential threats. Or having a proper evacuation plan that gets people out. Or incrasing technical knowledge for workers so that they can better respond to an incident like this.

I am fully aware of what exists on the east coast in historic terms. Do you want to price "historic sites and communties" and include loss of life on that tag? I am a history major and a history nut. I love going to historic sites. I won't put the importance of a site over someone's life though.

This storm wasn't really a surprise. It was simply a matter of time. The history channel has been predicting this thing for YEARS with all the disaster shows. It will happen again. The question is...did the North East learn a lesson? I know that may seem heartless, but that is coming from someone who lives in an area in Florida that hasn't. It has been lucky recently, but didn't pay attention when Katrina edged the area. Mobile homes were destroyed, entire tracts of land decimated. It was terrible. There wasn't enough to learn. An island I frequent took 2 direct hits from hurricanes and finally stopped building large asphault roads that get washed away. They also backed a major highway up from the coast after it lost several miles of road.
 
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stonewall50 said:
Do you know what Storm Surge is? I assume so?
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Of course I know what a storm surge is. :roll:

Considering that is usually some of the most damaging portions of a hurricane, it needs to be dealt with. Proper drainage. Homes and buildings along coastal regions taking that into account. There is a WORLD of things that can be done to deal with storm surge. Sea Walls. Storm surge barriers. They build this stuff in Europe. The problem to get past is price tags here. Of course....when tallied next to loss of life and damage costs WITHOUT protection...I think it becomes less of an issue.
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Okay, Rhode Island just happens to have a hurricane barrier, but are you kidding? Okay, proper drainage and perhaps changing the way any new homes and/or businesses on the coast are built, but the rest of your stuff is just a pipe dream. Let's be realistic here.

Clearly nothing was learned from Katrina. PREPERATION is advancing your cities infrastructure to deal with potential threats. Or having a proper evacuation plan that gets people out. Or incrasing technical knowledge for workers so that they can better respond to an incident like this.
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We did have evacuation plans and shelters as well.

I am fully aware of what exists on the east coast in historic terms. Do you want to price "historic sites and communties" and include loss of life on that tag? I am a history major and a history nut. I love going to historic sites. I won't put the importance of a site over someone's life though.
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It doesn't matter what you think. That is never going to happen and is just kind of ridiculous when you think about it. How about we wrap houses in bubble wrap too?

This storm wasn't really a surprise. It was simply a matter of time. The history channel has been predicting this thing for YEARS with all the disaster shows. It will happen again. The question is...did the North East learn a lesson? I know that may seem heartless, but that is coming from someone who lives in an area in Florida that hasn't. It has been lucky recently, but didn't pay attention when Katrina edged the area. Mobile homes were destroyed, entire tracts of land decimated. It was terrible. There wasn't enough to learn. An island I frequent took 2 direct hits from hurricanes and finally stopped building large asphault roads that get washed away. They also backed a major highway up from the coast after it lost several miles of road.
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The point of the matter is that no matter how prepared you are, that is NO guarantee for anything at all.
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