East coast friends (1 Viewer)

[Louis Badolato]

Its a good thing Brad didn't take me up on my offer - I now have my mother in law, sister in law, nephew, and the entire family of my kids' best friends, Ross and Brookie, staying at my house, as none of theirs have power, heat or hot water.:smile2:

 

[Scott]

My wife is STILL in tears about there birthplace. Rumors of looting, stealing gas, and selective restoration of power to effect election day are on Facebook. ASK where these stories came from first rather than spreading them.

 

[marco55]

Somebody told me another big storm is coming next week.Tell me this isn't true.{eek3}
Mark

 

[lancer]

Somebody told me another big storm is coming next week.Tell me this isn't true.{eek3}
Mark

Weather service is tracking a possible Nor'easter for a few days down the line. The European model has the storm hugging the coast, just like Sandy. The US model has the storm tracking further out to sea. Just for the record, it was the European model that called Sandy's track correctly. The US model was wrong. -- Al

 

[Firebat]

All of you fellow East Coast guys...........I am telling you invest in a whole house generator, it is going to be the standard of our future, we have an excellent guy if anyone needs info. Alex

 

[Scott]

All of you fellow East Coast guys...........I am telling you invest in a whole house generator, it is going to be the standard of our future, we have an excellent guy if anyone needs info. Alex

Yep, our infrastructure is made of cobwebs, spun sugar, broken promises.

 

[jazzeum]

All of you fellow East Coast guys...........I am telling you invest in a whole house generator, it is going to be the standard of our future, we have an excellent guy if anyone needs info. Alex

How right you are.

 

[Combat]

The US Government needs some type of mass upgrade of the infrastructure that involves burying the power lines. Maybe use the opportunity to install fiber to many communities for broadband service. It's a national security issue to have millions of people without power for weeks every time one of these storms blows through. If we could send a person to the moon fifty years ago and build the interstate highway system there must be a way to bury the power lines. Particularly in coastal areas that are likely to get hit hardest.

 

[Louis Badolato]

The US Government needs some type of mass upgrade of the infrastructure that involves burying the power lines. Maybe use the opportunity to install fiber to many communities for broadband service. It's a national security issue to have millions of people without power for weeks every time one of these storms blows through. If we could send a person to the moon fifty years ago and build the interstate highway system there must be a way to bury the power lines. Particularly in coastal areas that are likely to get hit hardest.

Plus upgrading the infrastructure would create a bunch of jobs, and help the economy. The problem is that the government is only interested in what the lobbyists pay the elected officials to be interested in. Something that would benefit 100% of voters nationwide, like improved infrastructure, will never get through because the politicians are all more concerned about keeping the money from the special interests flowing in.

 

[Scott]

Plus upgrading the infrastructure would create a bunch of jobs, and help the economy. The problem is that the government is only interested in what the lobbyists pay the elected officials to be interested in. Something that would benefit 100% of voters nationwide, like improved infrastructure, will never get through because the politicians are all more concerned about keeping the money from the special interests flowing in.

Plus there's the "no big gummit" folks that will object. I can't see the states or private industry doing it all or with a single standard of quality when peoples rights aren't protected the same though out the US.

 

[Warrior]

Plus upgrading the infrastructure would create a bunch of jobs, and help the economy. The problem is that the government is only interested in what the lobbyists pay the elected officials to be interested in. Something that would benefit 100% of voters nationwide, like improved infrastructure, will never get through because the politicians are all more concerned about keeping the money from the special interests flowing in.

Agreed one million percent.

Here we are a week after the storm and there are still people without power, water, running low on food, waiting hours and hours in line for gas; if this was 30 years ago, I could somewhat understand, but this is 2012, not 1912, the government needs to do a better job of TAKING CARE OF OUR CITIZENS AND NOT WORRYING ABOUT BEING FIRST IN LINE TO AID WHATEVER COUNTRY GETS HIT WITH A NATURAL DISASTER.

How about taking care of your own first, just unreal, makes my blood boil, the government has once again dropped the ball, Katrina, now this, on and on it goes............

 

[Scott]

George, How did the "government" state or federal, drop the ball on Sandy? ^&confuse

 

[Combat]

George, How did the "government" state or federal, drop the ball on Sandy? ^&confuse

The major failures begin long before these storms hit. The coast lines (along with earthquake and fire zones) have been allowed to be overbuilt for decades. As a result, many foreseeable natural disasters result in maximum loss of life and property damage. There are limits on what can be done to address this now. But it all has to be paid for by someone. Compound that with the inability to take the most obvious actions like burying the power lines or requiring some type of backup power source in high risk areas on water pumps that will at least allow people to get water when the power is out. Attempting to address these events only after the fact is the most cost intensive and inefficient way to go about it. I would say it's even impossible. Once millions are without power you have an untenable situation that no one can fix in short order. There is no way to stop an earthquake or hurricane from occurring but there are some common sense and, in the long run, less expensive steps that could be taken to mitigate the overall impact. Our government is reactive though. They wait for a disaster to occur and then try to fix it by spending lots of money. It takes years or decades to sort out and much of the money is wasted or goes to no good purpose. The damage has been done and people either die or figure out something on their own before they get any real help. And we repeat the process again and again. I haven't seen a single news story or politician discuss the fact that the power lines could be buried. The focus is entirely on fixing the problem after the fact.

 

[Scott]

........................the focus is entirely on fixing the problem after the fact.

There is THAT! In the case of Sandy we're not talking about a horse show organizer being in charge of rescue management or sunken buses etc. this time.

 

[Toy Soldier Brigade]

George, How did the "government" state or federal, drop the ball on Sandy?

FEMA and NY State can't find their butts with both hands. Parts of Staten Island haven't even seen a Fema truck 7 days after this storm hit. King Bloomberg has concentrated on Lower Manhattan and ignored SI. These people have no power, gas, water, and are digging in garbage cans for food. They are burning whats left of their houses to stay warm. And now we have another potentially bad Nor'easter coming in. This is a disgrace. There are parts of NJ that the only aid people are getting is from local donations.

 

[Warrior]

George, How did the "government" state or federal, drop the ball on Sandy? ^&confuse

Scott,
Doug said a lot of what I was thinking and in addition to that, the mayor of New York was more concerned with the marathon than the people on Staten Island. There were news stories of pallets with boxes of apples sitting near the staging area for the race, hundreds of cases of water earmarked for the runners, not to mention people being asked to leave hotels so the runners could stay.

Those hotel rooms and all the food and water set aside for the runners would be put to better use by giving them to the poor people on Staten Island and elsewhere.

Also, a very good friend of mine in the NJ area still has no power, is eating meals at the local church, getting water at the fire station, taking showers a the YMCA and waiting in huge lines for gas.

The government needs to step in, get gas, food and water to these people, get however many power companies involved so there is round the clock repairs on power lines.

Waiting a week for basic things is not acceptable in my mind. The Government should be stepping in and building tent cities or whatever it takes to give people who've lost their homes a place to have food and shelter, this isn't rocket science.

A friend of my girlfriends has been without power and a place to live for over a week, I told my girlfriend to tell her to come here, her and her husband and young daughter arrived here last night to a warm house with electricity and a refridgerator full of food, I barely know the girl, but I am doing what I can to assist other Americans during this @#$%ing mess..........................

 

[lancer]

It is interesting about the news coverage of the disaster, as well. The night of and the day after, my wife and I wondered about Staten Island and other areas that hadn't been mentioned on the news. We could only assume that by the lack of coverage that these areas hadn't been hit like Manhatten had been. Well, that certainly proved to be wrong but by watching the coverage at the time I think we can be excused our error. The Mayor wasn't the only one concerned with Wall Street.:rolleyes2: -- Al

 

[Combat]

There is THAT! In the case of Sandy we're not talking about a horse show organizer being in charge of rescue management or sunken buses etc. this time.

It doesn't matter much after the fact who is charge. What matters is who is in charge years before the fact and what decisions they make or more often don't make. People are sitting ducks for these events. In the past, the problem was a lack of adequate notice of an approaching storm. Now people get plenty of notice but there are simply too many people in impacted areas and the infrastructure is not built to withstand these events. Relying on FEMA to save them all is a hopeless undertaking. That's never going to work no matter how efficient they are managed. The damage is too extensive and there are simply too many people to be helped by trying to do this on a case by case basis. The best way to help them is not to allow them to live in a flood, earthquake or fire zone. The second best way is to plan ahead to mitigate some of these events. There are plenty of things that could be done in advance but aren't because there is a substantial cost associated with it and no one is clamoring for it because people never believe they will be in that situation until it's too late. That's why they need leaders instead of politicians to make those decisions. And that's where it all breaks down.

 

[Louis Badolato]

Scott,
Doug said a lot of what I was thinking and in addition to that, the mayor of New York was more concerned with the marathon than the people on Staten Island. There were news stories of pallets with boxes of apples sitting near the staging area for the race, hundreds of cases of water earmarked for the runners, not to mention people being asked to leave hotels so the runners could stay.

Those hotel rooms and all the food and water set aside for the runners would be put to better use by giving them to the poor people on Staten Island and elsewhere.

Also, a very good friend of mine in the NJ area still has no power, is eating meals at the local church, getting water at the fire station, taking showers a the YMCA and waiting in huge lines for gas.

The government needs to step in, get gas, food and water to these people, get however many power companies involved so there is round the clock repairs on power lines.

Waiting a week for basic things is not acceptable in my mind. The Government should be stepping in and building tent cities or whatever it takes to give people who've lost their homes a place to have food and shelter, this isn't rocket science.

A friend of my girlfriends has been without power and a place to live for over a week, I told my girlfriend to tell her to come here, her and her husband and young daughter arrived here last night to a warm house with electricity and a refridgerator full of food, I barely know the girl, but I am doing what I can to assist other Americans during this @#$%ing mess..........................

I'm with George 100%. The government officials are way more worried about the imminent election than they are about both addressing the current emergency and doing as much as possible to prevent suffering in future. It is ordinary people that are doing the most to help out their neighbors. I, like George, have taken people into my home to ensure that they ahve heat, hot water, hot food, the basic necessities. Feeding an extra four adults and 3 children has been expensive, but its the right thing to do. Just about everyone I know with power is doing the same.

 

[marco55]

Down in Florida in the old days didn't they use to build house to withstand hurricanes?
Mark