H. Sandy

[CharlieJ]

Just a few minutes ago hung up from a friend who lives in NYC, with a view of his marina. Director level of a major financial institute. Trained in crisis management

Boats ALMOST floated off pilings- missed by inches. Boat may have some damage, but is surviving

His building has water in ground floor, and over street outside-lives ON river. JUST lost power.

strongest winds so far- 76 knots in gusts.

No kidding- gonna be bad. Subways are flooded, which will take a long time to clear.  

NYSE is flooded.

His truck is flooded- told him to trade it soon.

So while they may be over hyping, it isn't gonna be pleasant to recover, and is gonna be a MAJOR economic disaster.

Also could have a good bit of bearing on the election. Many many people may be unable, or unwilling, to go vote. COULD have an effect.

Also talked to Graham Byrnes (B and B Yacht design ) on the Bay River, NC, just east of Capt Smollett- zero flooding there, but heavy rains, then. Little real problems though

[SalientAngle]

[CapnK]

Caution: Early AM, first-cuppa-joe philosophizing-of-a-sort below. Raw, rough, and unfinished... Probably not worth reading. :)

------------------

Sitting here listening to the post-storm reports on weather.com stream...

There's a word I need to describe myself, my thoughts, that's missing. The closest thing we have to it that I can think of is "misanthrope", but that's not right, because I don't hate mankind, at all. But I look at all of the devastation and problems caused by this storm, and the only reason they are such is not because of mankind, but because of *too much* mankind. Or too much mankind, all in one place.

We've gone crazy, overrunning our planet, and now when the planet is just doing the sort of things that planets do, have done for billions of years, all of the sudden it's major crisis and problems and tribulation, at least down here at the level of the walking talking monkeys who don't have much regard for anything other than getting the best food and toys and making more walking pink monkeys that will only need more and more from this planet, and it just seems to be some sort of collective madness, as if we are the runaway train of all species, bound for the edge, but so intent on enjoying the party in the dining car that we can't be bothered to look for the brakes...

I don't think we're responsible for the storm having Come Into Being (oh, the hubris!), maybe not even for it being as "big" or as "bad" as it was - it is just weather, after all, and we've only witnessed the smallest slice of what weather is or can do in our short time as a cognizant species here on the planet - but then we do live in a closed system, and if nothing else, the "devastation" is a result of "too much us", because the trees and sand dunes and little critters water- and land-borne all have done what we have to do for a whole lot longer than we can remember having to had do it, and that is to hunker down for a storm and then pick up the pieces afterwards and get back to our livings.

Mmmmm. It's too early to be channeling John D. McDonald, but ol' Travis knows what I'm talking about. He saw it happening 40 years ago, and made a point of calling it what it was back then.

I am wary of a lot of other things, such as plastic credit cards, payroll deductions, insurance programs, retirement benefits, savings accounts, Green Stamps, time clocks, newspapers, mortgages, sermons, miracle fabrics, deodorants, check lists, time payments, political parties, lending libraries, television, actresses, junior chambers of commerce, pageants, progress, and manifest destiny.

I am wary of the whole dreary deadening structured mess we have built into such a glittering top-heavy structure that there is nothing left to see but the glitter, and the brute routines of maintaining it."

"Top-heavy structure" indeed. Such that we are all witnessing it wobble right now. Let's hope for our sakes that it manages to stay upright for a while yet.

[Timbo]

CapnK - One can get very depressed thinking about the madness of the society we live in.  It's nice to raise the sails and leave the insanity for a bit.  The principals of SailFar seem more important than ever.  The last thing us sailors need to do is to compromise our experience with nature and the elements with "Too Much."

[SalientAngle]

I generally follow windmap as a matter of routine, If you would like to see an impressive map this morning, visit this link:
http://hint.fm/wind/

[Tim]

"Top-heavy structure" indeed. Such that we are all witnessing it wobble right now. Let's hope for our sakes that it manages to stay upright for a while yet.

When I look at times like these, I can't but believe that as humankind has grown in intelligence, it has been at the expense of wisdom.

[Captain Smollett]

"Top-heavy structure" indeed. Such that we are all witnessing it wobble right now. Let's hope for our sakes that it manages to stay upright for a while yet.

When I look at times like these, I can't but believe that as humankind has grown in intelligence, it has been at the expense of wisdom.

Grog for that, Tim. 

We (as a species) seem like little children...happy only when our base needs are met with no view to longer term responsibility.  It's all impulse, nowness, "Feed ME!"  This comes in many many forms....our road systems that lead nowhere, hi-rise buildings, the bigger boat.   Et. Cetera.

Spiritual underpinnings like "I think I'll build a house on the beach because I DESERVE this view, then complain when BEACH WEATHER destroys my house because it's truly all about ME" come into play all around us.

[Captain Smollett]

Intro paragraph sums it up:

QUALITATIVE DISCUSSION OF ATLANTIC BASIN SEASONAL HURRICANE ACTIVITY FOR 2012, Klotzbach and Gray (pdf warning)

[Oldrig]

John,
I come to the problem of sensationalization (and trivialization) of events like Hurricane (now universally called "Superstorm") Sandy from the perspective of somebody who was once proud to call himself a journalist--and my conclusions are pretty much the same as yours as a scientist.

This is a fascinating, and dangerous, natural phenomenon, and modern meteorology has tools that previous generations could only dream of (although budget cuts will soon cost us much of the satellite system). Professionals were wise to warn the public, and the professional sources of information, like NOAA's NHC and the Plymouth State site in New Hampshire, supplied lots of tools to track the storm's progress and help the public prepare for its possibly disastrous effects.

But none of this was helped by having so-called "reporters" stand on beachfronts with the wind whistling into their microphones while they waited for the dreaded "Frankenstorm" to make landfall. The constant harping on the size and anticipated ferocity of this storm did not inform the public. It was just another attempt to feed the beast of the 24-hour news-tainment cycle.

Gone are the days of fact-checking in journalism; gone are the days of sober analysis. The so-called media covered this storm the way they have been covering the presidential campaign -- like a damned video game or a horse race.

Okay, now I've vented, too.

That's why I now write about boating and cruising.

--Joe
P.S. My heart goes out to the folks in the mid-Atlantic region, Long Island Sound and the upper Chesapeake, who suffered such damage. I needlessly worried about  my own boat, which rode out the storm safely on a heavyweight mooring--stripped of everything. Some predictions called for gusts up to 100 mph on the Massachusetts South Coast, but in my area they seem to have topped out at 65 mph. Serious, yes, but also well within the range of protection provided by a heavy mooring and a sheltered cove.

[Tim]

Good to hear you had no problems.

[CharlieJ]

Gone are the days of fact-checking in journalism; gone are the days of sober analysis. The so-called media covered this storm the way they have been covering the presidential campaign -- like a damned video game or a horse race.



P.S. My heart goes out to the folks in the mid-Atlantic region, Long Island Sound and the upper Chesapeake, who suffered such damage.

Amen on the first part. When my son was in 11th grade he had a friend who had just moved over from Germany. This 17 yr old wondered why we didn't have "NEWS Programs" on our TV stations, like Europe did. That was in 1987..

I miss Cronkite, and Edward R. Murrow, and folks of their ilk. And I vividly recall listening to the radio ( during WW II) to Walter Winchell.

Sadly, it's now all "entertainment"

On the second part, mine too for sure. But know that hundreds and hundreds of plain people are en route to assist however they can. We on the southern coasts KNOW what it's like.

[Captain Smollett]

Okay, now I've vented, too.

Grog for the vent...

You've hit upon something I was trying to say in my fog of hatred for the way this stuff gets reported:  The hype does no one any good at all and may well do harm in the long run.

Do these same people that hype up nothing, smaller events then take responsibility when folks don't take the real warnings seriously next time? 

It just seems like too much of a game; there are real stakes at play, but those playing the game don't seem to be the ones staking it.

Another gripe is that it (the reporting) is all so US-Centric in general and "urban center" centric in particular.  Look at the contrast in coverage for Katrina in NO vs Biloxi, or even Opal.  I lived through Opal several HUNDRED miles inland...I helped 'clean up' after that storm.  We had impassable roads and people without power over a month after the storm.

Most people I've met never even heard of Opal.

Or, how about Mitch?  22,000 dead.  Cat 5 at (or just prior to) landfall, and stalled, still hurricane strength, for THIRTY-SIX HOURS.  Imagine if Sandy was Cat 5 and lasted not a few hours but a day and a half.

I guess another thing I'd like to see is some blankety blank blank consistency from these folks.  Do they care about human life and property damage?  Then they should look at the "playing field" as outside their own stinking coverage/ratings area.

[CapnK]

Media bias is obvious. I have seen lots of pics of power boats in the coverage, and relatively few of sailboats.

...especially *cool* sailboats, like Albergs, Rhodes, Westerly's, CD's, etc...

;D

(Maybe that's because us "blowboaters" are smarter about prepping our craft for storms? I'd like to think so...  :D )

Discounting certain square-rigged blowboaters... ::) A real shame, what happened with the Bounty. Can't believe they even tried to do what they did. Makes absolutely no sense, to me...

Saw a news bit though where it was said that the deceased female crew member, Claudene Christian, claimed a distant family tie to the Christian of the *original* Bounty. Spooky, that, if true...

[CharlieJ]

and so sad to lose people unnecessarily.

As I've maintained (on here) for a long time

-getting caught out is one thing- Ya GOTTA deal with it

-going out INTO it is dumb

[maxiSwede]

Hi guys, I am currently back in Sweden with my family for a few days.

I have followed the media here with the 'hype' as discussed and I agree with John and Oldrig.

One thing I find hard to understand, is when it was well known(?) 1-2 days in advance that the sea level would rise some 10+-15 ft and flood car tunnels etc, HOW on EARTH could it still be that this morning the front page of the local newspaper shows a photo ofthe tunnel at Battery Park, S Manhattan completely jammed with cars, stuck in the water????

Could it be that people are so ****-ing stupid that they drive around there knowint too well what was going to happen?

*sighing and rolling my eyes* ???

[SalientAngle]

Maxi, the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts on 10/23/12 warned that sandy would hit the us east coast on 10/29 with incredible accuracy... six days warning... other models at the time had it heading into the atlantic... all the models converged into a very accurate forecast by by 10/26... the European model is widely seen as the best at predicting hurricanes, their prediction is made on more powerful computers and simulations run in higher resolution over a longer time... nobel physics, imho, but, as you state, there was plenty of warning, sigh.....

[SalientAngle]

just as a footnote, maxiswede, in 1996 I had plenty of warning on hurricane fran well inland from the coast just north of raleigh, nc, the eye of the storm passed over my house, I had so much warning, damage was minimized to skylights broken by debris and trees... but, no electricity, again well inland, for two weeks... national guard trucks provided ice and water, a fema center operated on capital blvd in raleigh for more than six months, mountains of debris were ground into chips that turned into mountains, literally, blue tarps on roofs in the area were still being maintained nine months later... granted, it was a wind event on saturated ground inland with trees falling and not a tidal event with that sort of force, but the damage was unreal, I was working with usda at the time, provided disaster communications, et al... hurricane floyd, a flooding event in most part, was also traumatic in 1999, again, as an USDA empoyee with extension responsibilites, I was involved in relief efforts, and, it was traumatic... you would have to understand how many barrels of pesticides and other caustic materials sit on farms in eastern north cackalackey to understand... the non-point source pollution was horrific, along the tar river cattle were dead in the trees, well, i am saddened just reflecting, cheers to you and godspeed to the folks impacted by sandy...

[rorik]

.........There's a word I need to describe myself, my thoughts, that's missing. The closest thing we have to it that I can think of is "misanthrope", but that's not right, because I don't hate mankind, at all. But I look at all of the devastation and problems caused by this storm, and the only reason they are such is not because of mankind, but because of *too much* mankind. Or too much mankind, all in one place.....

For me, "misanthrope" is exactly the right word.
Using the following quote from Alceste in Moliere's play Misanthrope, it clearly defines the feeling that most of humanity is either actively partaking in things which are not right, or remaining willfully ignorant of the wrongs occurring all around them.

"My hate is general, I detest all men;
Some because they are wicked and do evil,
Others because they tolerate the wicked,
Refusing them the active vigorous scorn
Which vice should stimulate in virtuous minds."


Edit by Captain Smollett: Fixed Quote Tag

[Captain Smollett]

Grog to you, Rorik, wonderful stuff.

[maxiSwede]

Sad story, also shows how vulnerable the modern society really is when Mother Nature throws a jab.

All my best to all those people who suffer in the affected area.