# Hurricane Irene - Up the East Coast **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 25, 2011, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-irene-up-the-east-coast/594044 "2011-08-25T15:31:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![VunderBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@VunderBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VunderBob)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-irene-up-the-east-coast/594044/201 "2011-08-28T16:06:43Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I don’t suppose that anyone wants to know that tropical storm Jose just formed in the Atlantic? So we could go through this again in a few days. Jose is not supposed to last more than a day or two, and only will affect Bermuda. ---
**Author:** ![DoperChic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9a28c/32.png) [@DoperChic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoperChic)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-irene-up-the-east-coast/594044/202 "2011-08-28T16:06:57Z")
Holding steady here in southeastern Pennsylvania. My yard is a mess but nothing we can’t handle. The basement is flooded but just a series of puddles thanks to our hard-working sump pump. Other than that the house is fine. Power still on. It’s still really windy - 20 - 40 mph according to [weather.com](http://weather.com). Now my nerves are another thing! Last night was my first ever real tornado warning. There were a ton of them in succession at one point. I was so scared I couldn’t stop shaking. So I took to carrying around a bottle of rum. Chugged it at one point just to calm down a bit. It helped. Didn’t get to sleep until around 5am when I just crashed from shear exhaustion. I spent a good bit of the night terrified that a tornado was going to hit or one of our many trees was going to fall. ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-irene-up-the-east-coast/594044/203 "2011-08-28T16:50:28Z")
Wind really starting to pick up now, generator still going strong though I’m a little worried about one of our 75 foot pine trees near the road, if it falls, it could block the driveway…and horror of horrors, that means I wouldn’t be able to go into work tomorrow I’d estimate wind is blowing steady at around 30-40 MPH, gusts to 60-70 MPH, and to quote Blacu-Weather meteorologist Ollie Williams… [It’s Raining Sideways!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6z88ur-8bY) ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-irene-up-the-east-coast/594044/204 "2011-08-28T17:05:46Z")
Glad people are coming through ok. A few comments for those who have power, but are near people who don’t. If your water supply is safe, keep making ice. Give it away to people who want cold drinks, or want help keeping their food safe. Make coffee. Give it away to people who want to wake up. If you know people with kids and no power, and especially if you are a kid person, invite them over to watch TV or something to entertain them. After Wilma, there was one house on my cul-de-sac that had a generator. All the kids were there watching DVDs, while the adults were going house to house boarding up windows and such. -D/a ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-irene-up-the-east-coast/594044/205 "2011-08-28T17:47:10Z")
> [@ryan](#): > > I’ve got about 1 1/2" of water in my ground floor apartment. I think most came in through the foundation, there must be a crack somewhere. The rest came in via the laundry room adjacent to my kitchen. > Some drain/sewage back up in the tub that had to be scrubbed clean. > Every towel I own has been used, washed and is now in the dryer. Another load is washing now. A pile of clothes dumped outside in the yard to be dealt with later. 3 large garbage bags and a trash barrel full of ruined crap. The living room rug is sopping wet for about 6’ from the edge. I pulled my pile of DVDs off the floor in time, so I don’t think any cases are ruined. All my electronics are safe. A couple of broken laptops that I was going to throw out anyway were the only casualties there. > > My bedroom has a 1" step up, so it’s bone dry. > > I’ve done what I can for now. I’ve got the windows and the screen door open to try and lower the humidity and temp in here. I squeegeed a lot of water out the door One of my friends is going to bring over his wet-vac as soon as he’s done dealing with the 4" of water in his basement and another friend is bringing over a large floor fan to help circulate the air in here. > It’s hard to do much more for now. Also I’m a fat asthmatic who’s coming down with bronchitis, so exerting myself causes me to start gasping for air. > > No tree branches or other damage to my car, some trim ripped off the house, but that’s the landlord’s problem. No trees down in the yard or out front, but a lot of broken branches, some of them around 4" dia. > > All the flooding was due to poor drainage on my street. I live near the highest point on Staten Island, which is the highest point on the eastern seaboard south of Maine. Staten island is higher thanMt. Washington??? ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-irene-up-the-east-coast/594044/206 "2011-08-28T18:41:57Z")
Saw Mill River Parkway is currently the Saw Mill River. As traditional. Bout it. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-irene-up-the-east-coast/594044/207 "2011-08-28T19:05:27Z")
Somers Point chiming in… Spent the previous 2 days packing away and battening down anything that could be picked up by the wind. Unplugged the tv and computer in case of power surges, and slept through the worst of it. Spent the day raking up fallen leaves and branches. All in all, just a big thunderstorm to us around here. ---
**Author:** ![ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@ryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ryan)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-irene-up-the-east-coast/594044/208 "2011-08-28T20:49:09Z")
> [@Cartooniverse](#): > > Staten island is higher thanMt. Washington??? Per Wikipedia : Todt Hill (pronounced Tote Hill) [elevation 410 ft (125 m)] is a hill formed of serpentine rock on Staten Island, New York. It is the highest natural point in the five boroughs of New York City and the highest elevation on the entire Atlantic Coastal Plain from Florida to Cape Cod. I live maybe 50’ below the summit. Maybe they’re wrong, but I do not live in an area that seems likely to suffer from flooding, except due to poor drainage. ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-irene-up-the-east-coast/594044/209 "2011-08-28T20:51:29Z")
Apparently all of Irene’s fury got used up before she arrived here in MA. The Boston news stations have their reporters out on the street in force…and they’re reduced to reporting tragedies like: “Are there any trees down near you?” “No. But there’s a lot of leaves blown into the street.” and to the reporter stationed on the roof of Channel 5: “It looks like it’s not raining on your right now. How’s the wind?” Reporter: “I have an anemometer right here.” He holds up dingus, studies the gauge. “It looks like it gusting up to 15 miles per hour right now.” Actual news reports, I swear. Yeah, there are scattered trees down, lots of ‘skidded off the roads’ car accidents, and I’m sure some people got hurt and have water damage in their basements or whatever. But I’d say it was not one bit worse that the kind of damage we have after any ordinary line of thunder storms goes through. Not that I’m wishing for more damage, but we went through four/five days of dire warnings for _this_? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-irene-up-the-east-coast/594044/210 "2011-08-28T21:30:07Z")
> [@goldmund](#): > > I know it’s difficult to predict a storm, but it’s pretty irresponsible of the media to whip everyone into a frenzy. I heard things as ominious as “this will be the worst storm since the 19th century”. Really? There wasn’t any indication of that, that I’m aware of. I mean, I understand other places may have been hit much harder than we got it here, but still… statements like that are just uncalled for. I agree that that’s overplaying it, but it’s a difficult line to walk. If you underplay it, then you don’t inform your viewers that it’s a big storm. If you spend all your time on the storm and it doesn’t do that much damage, they say you overhyped it. I would say the TV news I saw spent too much time on the worst that could have happened and could have kept things more in perspective. > [@C3](#): > > Yes. And it’ll cause some people to not take precautions or evacuate next time. People don’t evacuate anyway, which is why this was made mandatory. Even so, there were few people in the NYC shelter system. (Granted, that was not the only evacuation option.) Based just on my friends, preparations were pretty good. I’ll chalk it up as practice for next time. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-irene-up-the-east-coast/594044/211 "2011-08-28T21:35:39Z")
I believe in freedom of the press, and I also believe that people should be prepared for weather events, but I also think that some folks in the media are getting very, very close to yelling “fire” in a crowded theater with this stuff. Ditto for the forced evacuations on the part of state and local officials. I’ve never heard of mandatory evacuation for a Tropical Storm, though I could be wrong there. Part of me wishes this was Singapore and those hyenas would get caned for this. They’re not doing anyone any favors. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-irene-up-the-east-coast/594044/212 "2011-08-28T21:40:48Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > People don’t evacuate anyway, which is why this was made mandatory. In parts of NYC, anyway. > [@An\_Arky](#): > > I’ve never heard of mandatory evacuation for a Tropical Storm This thing was a category 3 hurricane a couple of days ago and it was category 1 as recently as last night. I can understand critiquing the coverage, but particularly as far the evacuations go, elected officials have to assume the worst and act accordingly. Anything else is being underprepared. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-irene-up-the-east-coast/594044/213 "2011-08-28T22:05:11Z")
I think they cost a shitload of people a shitload of money for nothing. I wouldn’t want anyone to be underprepared, but ISTM they might not have given enough thought to the consequences of overreaction and didn’t know enough or consult the right people in making this decision, and instead demagogued an atmosphere of panic in a vainglorious attempt to be all Yeltsin on a tank or something. I’m unimpressed and unsympathetic. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-irene-up-the-east-coast/594044/214 "2011-08-28T22:14:32Z")
What I’m trying to say is that politicians just aren’t terribly skilled in these things. This stuff happens all the time; local governments use half their salt on the first snow event of the year, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-irene-up-the-east-coast/594044/215 "2011-08-28T22:21:57Z")
Who was cost a bunch of money? The people who bought food and water and batteries they can use in the future? The businesses that were closed at a time nobody was going to be shopping anyway? I don’t think I understand. It’s a lot cheaper than having to evacuate a lot of people from a disaster area. This was a large hurricane that passed over the entire Eastern seaboard. The risks of overpreparing are pretty small and the risks of underpreparing were very large. It has nothing to do with heroism or Yeltsin and everything to do with, say, Ray Nagin. I’ll grant that Bloomberg’s poor response to the snowstorm over the winter had something to do with the response in NYC, and the effects here were pretty minimal. I don’t know how much damage the storm did, but I grant on the grand scheme, it probably looks small in comparison to the apocalyptic event some people were expecting. Probably not so much in the places that really got hit. > [@An\_Arky](#): > > What I’m trying to say is that politicians just aren’t terribly skilled in these things. This stuff happens all the time; local governments use half their salt on the first snow event of the year, etc. I’m sure. But I don’t know what else they’re supposed to do in a case like this one, which caused a lot of damage and could have been really huge. They shouldn’t panic people, but they have to overprepare and assume the worst and it is difficult to get people to pay attention. I think they succeeded at that in this case. ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-irene-up-the-east-coast/594044/216 "2011-08-28T22:33:09Z")
> [@PaperBlob](#): > > **Onomatopoeia** , where are you in Burlington County? I’m in Mount Laurel, and my house escaped power failure. Actually, we didn’t seem to have much in the way of wind or heavy rain overnight either. I’m just north of Burlington Township. The power in my entire neighborhood is still out since last night, which sucks. Drive 10 minutes in any direction and there’s power everywhere. (??) I really don’t get what made this storm any different from any other driving rain storm. We had no downed trees. The winds weren’t anything at all like we were led to believe was coming. And the rain was, well, rain. Other than the 8 billion tornado warnings and the weird green lightning we saw a few times, it was pretty typical. Which leads me to the question: Why the heck is my power still out?! And why can’t I get an answer from PSE&G as to when to expect it to be restored? ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-irene-up-the-east-coast/594044/217 "2011-08-28T22:35:10Z")
In Richmond, Va., 75% of homes have no power. My sister-in-law has been told by the power company that their electricity will not be restored for two weeks. She’s pregnant, they have a two-year-old, and they will have no A/C, no fridge, and no hot water. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-irene-up-the-east-coast/594044/218 "2011-08-28T22:43:16Z")
What can I say? I think that they, and a lot of folks that live here and up there are nebbish alarmists and should sack up, shut up, and quit wasting everybody’s time and money. People who have no other skills than electioneering are calling the shots, and doing a shitty job (we get what corps pay for). Erring on the side of caution, while seemingly self-righteous, is still erring, and very costly. I have no appetite for kissing their asses, but to each his own, and bon appetit…no evac orders or shutdowns prevented power outages or trees downed, and a lot of that happened outside of the evacuation zone, anyway. Anyway, I’m not against preparedness or concern, just think panic is not an efficient strategy. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-irene-up-the-east-coast/594044/219 "2011-08-28T22:50:00Z")
I mentioned my family is on LI. Both the trees in front of their house were knocked down - the felled trees are facing in different directions, which is kind of crazy - and they’re not going to have electricity for two to six days. I am not sure if the basement flooded. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-irene-up-the-east-coast/594044/220 "2011-08-28T22:53:21Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I mentioned my family is on LI. Both the trees in front of their house were knocked down - the felled trees are facing in different directions, which is kind of crazy - and they’re not going to have electricity for two to six days. I am not sure if the basement flooded. Yeah (back to original discussion; sorry for my peevishness), the counterclockwise rotation made the wind come from the NE on the frontside, then it came from the SW on the backside. More limbs came down in my yard during the backside than the frontside, for some reason. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-irene-up-the-east-coast/594044.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-irene-up-the-east-coast/594044.md?page=12)