Hurricane Sandy

[Plymouth Gull]

Sounds terrible. It's a bit like the apocalypse.

Are our US friends affected?!

[usagullmichigan]

I would imagine happy is getting a hammering. We are getting a bit of a battering all the way over on nw Michigan. It's snowing now.
Sandy certainly is blowing good.

[Wisconsin_gull]

All good 70miles west across Lake Michigan from Traverse city.
Are we ever lucky to have missed out on that...Happytorq must have got nailed in the last 24hrs. Hope he is ok.

[happytorq]

Hey hey, people. I'm ok. got hit on monday night into tuesday morning. Lost power monday at about 6pm, still not back yet. It was a bit scary at the time (Not ashamed to admit I took the cat, a torch and some supplies and hid in the basement).

Tree fell on the house, but fortunately it was apparently quite a small tree as there was no damage; I was even able to climb on to the roof yesterday afternoon and push it off. Just glad it didn't land on my car, which was 30 feet away.

Connecticut (where I live) had a bit of a beating - there are still 400,000 houses without power. But it looks as though Long Island, NYC and New Jersey got hit the hardest; some of the pictures from the City are unreal.

[usagullmichigan]

A friend of mine lives in Long Island. I haven't heard from her yet.

[happytorq]

A friend of mine lives in Long Island. I haven't heard from her yet.

Last I heard, more than 90% of homes on LI still don't have power. It'll be a while for them. Mass transit is pretty much shut down as well.

[Scott Brehaut]

This is not an anti US post - I can't imagine how horrifying it must have been for those affected.

However, why is it just the US getting all the media coverage? What about all the other areas that were decimated by the hurricane? http://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/New ... JGbVcUmTgK

[usagullmichigan]

I believe the storm packed some more power as it hit us, also there is more people affected (population).

[happytorq]

there's always more media coverage when something hits closer to home. Same thing in the UK - when there 4 inches of snow a couple of years ago, all the UK media went nuts. (for 4 inches of snow here, I don't even put on a jumper)

[happytorq]

Still no power Chez Happytorq

[ferrarilover]

Are you posting from work?

Matt.

[stevegull]

Don't complain about the lack of coverage from our UK media on the other countries affected by this storm.

I was in the US when the Tsunami hit those Eastern countries and the coverage was nil. Right up until a few days after when it came up once in their '60 second world news' segment. In short, the media there is VERY inward-looking.

Even the paralympics got NO coverage.

[happytorq]

Are you posting from work?

Matt.

Nothing gets past you

[ferrarilover]

It's alright for you, but as has been mentioned, we know **** all about what's going on over there. So, if I recall correctly, you work around the tri-state borders, meaning that that area has now been returned fully to operational status, but your home in Connecticut has not. I'm having a quick go at plotting what is returned to normal and what is not. Having seen the Top Gear USA roadtrip special, and the state of New Orleans well over 2 years since Katrina, I am somewhat concerned that your hometown may be a shell of its former self for many years to come.

Matt.

[happytorq]

It's alright for you, but as has been mentioned, we know f**k all about what's going on over there. So, if I recall correctly, you work around the tri-state borders, meaning that that area has now been returned fully to operational status, but your home in Connecticut has not. I'm having a quick go at plotting what is returned to normal and what is not. Having seen the Top Gear USA roadtrip special, and the state of New Orleans well over 2 years since Katrina, I am somewhat concerned that your hometown may be a shell of its former self for many years to come.

Matt The n00b.

I live in Connecticut but work in New York. All of the power in CT was restored by Wednesday of last week, and last I heard New Jersey was pretty much finished over the weekend (still nearly 2 weeks without power, though). What seems to have caused the most permanent damage was the storm surge, which completely demolished a lot of buildings in the most exposed areas. (Jersey Shore being one of them). The train services are only back on a normal schedule today.

The thing about Katrina was that it wasn't so much the wind that knocked over power lines, it was the water that flooded everywhere - that kind of damage is more permanent than a temporary power outage; whole neighbourhoods were rendered unsafe by the amount of water that went though there. Still, a lot of people would have you believe that the reason that the NorthEast got so much help so quickly was because there's a perception that it is generally affluent, white people who live here. I don't really think that's true (as anybody who's been to New York can attests) - I just think the people in charge when Katrina happened were orders of magnitude more incompetent.

What I noticed again is that all of the electrical wires are overland - power is transported to houses by overhead wires, which naturally means that a bit of wind causes all sorts of problems (especially in places like the Northeast where there are a shedload of trees).
I've actually been trying to remember how electricity gets to homes in the UK; as I recall, aren't most of the overheard wires for phones, rather than power? I have it in my head that most of the power comes in via underground cables. Hopefully somebody can confirm.

[edit - typo, and added clarification]