I live in New York City, which is now on almost complete lockdown waiting for the hurricane to arrive.
All traffic has come to a halt. The only people on the street are those walking their dogs.
The mayor and governor halted all mass transit Sunday night at 7 pm. Most stores and restaurants closed by 5 or 6 pm to allow their employees time to get home. Most people don’t work near their place of residence. Last night, supermarkets had been swept clean of water, milk and all essentials. There won’t be any more deliveries until mass transit is restored. Most restaurants and stores will remain closed because their employees can’t get to work.
The storm was predicted to arrive by 4:30 am. When I woke just before 6, it was not yet here. No wind, no rain. By 7, there was some of both.
We were told there would be no garbage pickup all week and advised not to put our garbage bins out. So I dutifully taped the garbage cans shut, so the lids and cans would not blow away. But much to my surprise, the city trucks began collecting and I had to hurry out into the rain to untape the cans and put them onto the street.
Will the newscasters be proven right? Is this the storm of the century? Will it be the worst in our lifetime? That is what they are saying. They say that often. They should say it sparingly. Remember “the boy who cried wolf”?
We shall see. We are prepared for the next few days. Like one of the three little pigs, I am glad to be living in a brick house, in my case, a brick house that is attached on two sides to other brick houses.
Be safe Diane.. This is about to slam into us really hard.
Stay in your brick house…..we need you!
Let’s keep reading, researching and posting as long as we can.
It will be interesting to see if natural disasters will serve as a catalystic launching point for “innovation” (i.e. charters) a la Katrina.
Well, you know what the “reformers” like Rahm Emanuel like to say: Never let a good crisis go to waste!
Stay safe Diane. Here’s a way to monitor what’s happening in NY City: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/10/28/nyregion/nyt-webcam.html.
It’s a view of the city from the 51st floor of the Times Building.
Wind is picking up here. Connecticut Light and Power dropped the ball last year with Tropical Storm Irene and the October blizzard. I figure we’ll be out of power for at least a week if this goes as predicted. Stay safe, all!
I’m in Michigan and we’re supposed to get the wind and rain from Sandy. A friend of mine lives in Estell Manor NJ, and she said that the coast was already losing power early last evening. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that it won’t be as big as all the hype is making it out to be. Everybody hunker down and stay safe,.
My house in South Jersey is already fllooded! This is the big one! Stay safe.
Here in central Jersey, we’ve had wind gusts upwards of 40 mph since last evening. They are beginning to increase. Communities to the south of us have already lost power. We’re bracing ourselves for a very long spell with no power. Watching the trees carefully–there will be plenty down during this, no doubt. Stay safe, Diane et al. Catch you on the other side, if not sooner.
Power went out 2 hrs. ago. Neighbor kind enough to let us use some of his generator feed, but we are limited to the refrigerator (a blessing). I wonder how long it will take to get it back this time.
Stay safe. We’re almost in the thick of it now, and the winds are incredibly deafening. It going to get worse before it gets better.
So… DOE is running Sanitation now?
>>>We were told there would be no garbage pickup all week and advised not to put our garbage bins out. So I dutifully taped the garbage cans shut, so the lids and cans would not blow away. But much to my surprise, the city trucks began collecting and I had to hurry out into the rain to untape the cans and put them onto the street.>>>>>>
“Please disregard all bells.”
When you live in NYC, Mayor Bloomberg runs almost everything. Schools, sanitation, fire department, police department, economic development, etc. etc. The only part that he can’t quite get his hands around is the DOE. He owns it, but can’t make it perform.
Also in CT (inland). People around me are starting to lose power already. I hope Irene and Snowtober took out the weak trees and the ones left are robust. The foliage is gone, which should help a bit. Good luck, everyone. Especially those on the shores.
To his credit, the mayor closed schools with enough time for parents and care givers to make alternate plans. But the brunt of the storm will be tomorrow. Hopefully, he’ll consider the children again.
I wonder if Arne Duncan will declare that Sandy is the best thing to happen for education in the Northeast?
The best thing to happen to education is for Sandy to whisk away: Rhee, Bloomberg, Duncan, Emanuel, Gates, Murdoch, and the whole circus…good riddance!
Linda,
I wish there was a “Like” button because your comments are always spot on 🙂
Don’t forget Chris Christie & his pals!
How could I forget…a huge gust, a very gust will be needed!
One blowhard bully to another..they should be well acquainted.
Well-crafted!
From you, the wordsmith..that is an extreme compliment.
I thank you Sir Alan!
Still some people on the promenade (on NY Harbor) riding bikes & walking. If the rivers flood Battery City (Manhattan) or parts of Brooklyn on the water I will see it from my window.
Someone is blogging pictures of the changes outside a home on the promenade. Sure hope those trees remain standing. That’s the scary part.
The East River & NY Harbor are behind the house in this live blog
http://selfabsorbedboomer.blogspot.com/2012/10/live-blogging-hurricane-sandy-from.html
OH NO — getting very windy & we’re 8 hrs away from peak.
http://earthcam.com/usa/newyork/statueofliberty/?cam=liberty_hd
Unfortunately, things are going to go downhill. NY Harbor webcam: http://www.nyharborwebcam.com/
wow — which shore is that or does it move around? Thanks for linking it.
Wow! I am very impressed with all the webcam possibilities in NYC. I could stand in my front yard with a flip camera and upload. But it would be boring: rustling leaves, a fallen branch and a very nervous chipmunk scampering to safety. Sorry…I can’t top the NYC crowd.
There is one lone duck still paddling around in the pond behind our place. All the rest have bugged out. I hope it stays this uneventful for us.
Lame duck!
Double edged sword for some, Linda. Do you know how many privacy advocates are against NYC webcams?
I like privacy but NYC webcams don’t bother me, at all.
Stay safe all! Our community is on Long Island Sound. They say it will be really bad from noon to midnight.
Wow!!!!! I thought the Great Lakes had some huge waves, especially Lake Superior and Lake Michigan. If this is only the start of Sandy, I can’t even BEGIN to image how much bigger the waves will get. Hunker down and hope your hatches stay battended down.
In Chicago, meteorologists reported today that Sandy was so strong that it could result in very high waves on Lake Michigan and flooding of our city shoreline along Lake Shore Drive. Since weather typically moves from west to east, in my 60 years of living here, I have never heard weather warnings from the Eastern Seaboard effecting us. My hopes and prayers are with all who are in the path of this “Frankenstorm”!
Edmund Fitzgerald???
Yes Duane, I know about Edmund Fitzgerald. That’s why I mentioned Lake Superior. They had some pretty huge waves down by Benton Harbor/St. Joe yesterday. Not like the 30 plus foot ones on the Atlantic, but close. It still amazes me how big the waves in Great Lakes can get, and I’ve lived in Michigan for close to 50 years.
Prof W…We’re getting the tail end of Sandy, or so they say. It is cold, raining, and the wind chill is about 35 or so. Makes me glad I work from home.
Right, the Great Lakes get some very powerful storms and tumultous waves. We often get lake effect snow, but I can’t recall ever being impacted like this by weather conditions from the Atlantic until now.
I really wish they would stop naming these horrendous hurricanes after women. “Sandy” was my Mom’s name and I’ve always loved that name and the fact that hearing it triggers so many warm feelings for me. I really don’t look forward to all the negative connotations that are bound to be associated with it, like the devastation related to hurricane “Katrina” that I think of whenever I hear that name now.
Just went on Etsy and someone from NJ selling blue jeans is having a “Sandy Sale”…
Stay safe! Praying for the best.
All quiet on Morningside Heights! 🙂 Neal
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
Stay safe New York!
For Live Streaming of the approach of the hurricane, it’s quite good, go to http://new.livestream.com/timcast/Frankenstorm.
It’s being done by Tim Pool who was a videographer during the occupation of Wall Street.
Dora
Don’t bash the meteorologists trying to save lives. If the U.S. wants better forecasts, it should invest in more frequent data collection to be put in forecasting. The U.S. is about to lose some of its weather satellites and replacements aren’t going to arrive soon. Long duration rainfall can cause a tremendous amount of damage. The meteorologists are not being alarmist.
Everyone on the East coast. . . stay safe!!!
I’m home sick today with the “bug” going around the two elementary schools in which I work. So many little ones with sniffles and sore throats coming to school to see their teachers and visiting school nurse. All news reports of the East Coast have me fearful for you. Yes, memories of Katrina come rushing in not matter how I try to suppress them. I send you hope that the storm (hurricane or North Easter) and storm surge will not harm you. Know my thoughts are with ALL of you. Help each other.
Thoughts & prayers from Illinois for your safety. We’ll get our blizzard some time this year, so we are most sympathetic.
Oh, wait…we are predicted to have a very mild winter (global warming, you know). Guess
that’s why you’re getting all the crazy storms–hurricane season is SUPPOSED to be over.
While you are waiting for the hurricane, read this chicago blog: http://preaprez.wordpress.com/2012/10/29/the-in-box-cps-teachers-letter-to-newark-teachers-on-lessons-learned/#comments
It has been mostly calm, with wind and rain, in my part of Brooklyn, but just a few minutes ago the wind rose up to a booming sound that I don’t remember hearing before in a wind. I remembered Yeats, “To My Heart, Bidding It Have No Fear”:
Be you still, be you still, trembling heart;
Remember the wisdom out of the old days:
Him who trembles before the flame and the flood,
And the winds that blow through the starry ways,
Let the starry winds and the flame and the flood
Cover over and hide, for he has no part
With the proud, majestical multitude.
I do not mean this to be taken literally (I want no one to be covered over); it was just great to hear this poem in the storm.
For me, it has been a great treat to be able to catch up on grading and read an excellent book over the weekend. I am relishing this stretch of time while I’m still warm and dry, with electricity. May it last this way until the storm passes. May no one get hurt.
Correction: the title of the poem should have the following capitalization:
“To my Heart, bidding it have no Fear”
And just think……with all of the tension a storm like this brings you hear a public official proclaim that a city needs a disaster like Sandy to make public schools better like Duncan said of New Orleans and Katrina. Radical, isn’t it?
Good Morning – In the wake of Hurricane Sandy ; I find it ironic that schools will be open in the need of shelter. SHELTER is such a lovely word. I think of shelter as meaning DAFE FROM HARM. Safe from the onslaught of a storm. Yet; those tiny folks that normally “dwell” within those schools are NOT SAFE from the storm of Hurricane School Reform.
I am an elementary school principal and my district is closed today. I am awake and dressed before I normally need to be ready to report for school. Why ?? I promised myself when my nephew was stranded in a hospital in New Orleans with his patients for five days during Hurricane Katrina. I would be ready to be of service in my town if ever there was a need.I am ready to help. Louisiana has been hit so hard. The devastation of Hurricane Katrina . The BP oil spill. Now school reform. Bobby Jindal seemed like such a hero during Hurricane Katrina. Now during the privatization of schools in Louisiana — he seems to be the direct opposite of a hero. Mayor Bloomberg is NOT coming across as prepared and Mayor Juluani was during 9/11. Governor Christie is telling people ” not to be stupid”. Is that what he thinks of the people he was elected TO SERVE?? I have yet to see Governor Cuomo’s reaction and advice. I will EVALUATE it when I do. All of these politicians need to know that I will be developing a RUBRIC with which to evaluate their score on their BEHAVIOR during a crisis. Perhaps other readers of this blog will be willing to work on the RUBRIC with me. Teachers can help me. I have confidence in their ability to do the right thing. We can assign a GROWTH SCORE or VALUE ADDED score to the politicians. Hmmm. Could they lose their jobs over a Growth Score?? THE ANSWER IS — YES!!!! Teachers VOTE. Even though the vast majority of teachers at the ELEMENTARY LEVEL are women— THEY VOTE. In the end of this Hurricane of Educational Reform; teachers will be the real heros. They will do what is RIGHT. So —- if you have the day off and want to collaborate on the creation of a RUBRIC for our politicians — call me.
Be safe.
Marge
A caval donato non si guarda in bocca!
Marge
No power typing on tiny iPhone screen did they greet each citizen. Make them feel welcomed. Individualize each response. Differentiate for learning styles, disabilities, language barriers. Will they conduct a follow up assessment. Survey their customers for satisfaction.
You mean “Hurricane Rheeform”??
I’m hoping that you’re OK. I saw the news this morning. I’ve never seen anything like that in NY. Truly incredible.Again, hoping that you’re OK.