The Sandy Thread: Weather Models are predicting a big event

Don't mess w/ Lionel.  He's like a weather God!!  

Staten Island looks to be ground zero.  The death toll is rising really quickly in NY and a lot of it is Staten Island.

The water rose several feet in just a few minutes and people were drowned in their homes.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/staten-island-residents-plead-article-1.1195599

http://vimeo.com/52668147  WVa stoke....

The Rockaways. Unreal.

Take a look at the video we just added to Ml's post on Hurricane Sandy. It's at the bottom:

http://nyskiblog.com/hurricane-sandy/

We just got back from Neve's skating lesson.  We missed it last week due to the unavailability of gas.

It's the first time I've really left town heading north since Sandy.  The route was STILL a war zone.  Huge trees down everywhere. Snapped telephone poles.

And now the amazing, inspiring part, to me. We saw at least 30 bucket trucks along a 5 mile stretch of road. Crews with chain saws and traffic control and electricians. Working after dark. On a Sunday night.

ALL the vehicles were from Independence Power and Light. As in Independence MISSOURI.  I'm blown away by that kind of effort and coordination.  I wanted to stop and thank those guys, but with traffic funneling into one lane and the sun setting, it didn't seem smart.

Thank you Independence Power and Light.

I took my kids skating today too, and saw tons of utility trucks on the way to the rink. It was nice to get out and do something fun for a change.  My brother had a crew from Oklahoma at his house on Friday.  All of the poles on his block were at a 45 degree angle, and he had a transformer lying in his backyard.  I think he finally had his power restored today.

Harvey44 wrote

Thank you Independence Power and Light.

There are some Hinterlandian crews down there as well, say hi if you see them, eh.

I will.  I kinda want to drive back up and say thanks to the crews I passed.

Who's paying for all that overtime, fuel etc. FEMA?

I heard some discussion of the "NYC Seawall."  Get ready for a fight on that one.

I've seen crews from Georgia, Virginia, Alabama, Texas, Arizona, California & Pennsylvania.

I was driving up to Newburgh (and New Paltz too) to get gas the Friday after the storm. Saw convoys of utility crews being escorted down the Thruway by NYS Police after they had been flown into Stewart Air Base on C-130's. When I was getting back on the Thruway in Newburgh, a C-130 was coming in to land and flew right over my head ... damn those things are big!!!