http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-10-30/sandy-total-loss-estimate-100-billion
Sandy Total Loss Estimate: Up To $100 Billion
In a stunningly accurate prediction of what to expect from a 100-year storm, the following 2011 report assessing the 'risk increase to infrastructure due to a sea level rise' provides everything you did not want to know about just how bad the situation is with recovery from Sandy's damage but were afraid to ask. Based on extrapolations from storm surge heights, the authors see a 'perfect storm' of this magnitude likely creating a total loss between $50 and $100bn. As Atlantic Cities notes, citing the report: The researchers also estimate that... it could take the subway system about 21 days to get working at 90 percent functionality. If all potential damage is considered, ...that timeline could increase to several months, and that "permanent restoration of the system to the full revenue service that was previously available could take more than two years."
Obviously these are only predictions, but the detail and prescience of the report are stunning in their accuracy now that the 'event' has occurred. Of course, the MTA has done whatever possible to prepare - and will do everything to get this vital infrastructure back in service but with thehead of MTA noting this is the worst disaster ever, we suspect the 4-5 day estimate is over-promising.
The vast majority of New York City’s and the MEC region’s basic infrastructure (in its narrow sense of engineered structures and systems) was built and developed between about 100 and 50 years ago. This buildup occurred during the time of largest population influx, primarily driven by immigration. Today, with about 20 Million people living, working and commuting in its 31 counties, the MEC region is home to the largest public transportation system in the US...
...But without a properly functioning regional public infrastructure, private “Wall Street” and other major business sectors of the region could not exist.Infrastructure systems behave like inter-dependent growing organisms. This interdependence poses risks, however. If one system fails or under-performs, others can be severely affected...
Here is the prediction for storm surge areas:
...Note that for worst-case scenario storms stronger than Category 2, Lower Manhattan will be split into two islands, along Canal Street; i.e. the financial district would be entirely cut off from any escape routes. Entrances to subway, road or rail tunnels or ventilation shafts will be at or below flood levels, not to speak of the building stock and other assets that are located in the flooded areas...
and the prediction for the effect on the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel
 ...But regardless of climate change, the increasing potential for storm-related losses due to population and asset growth is already reason enough to address those risks and look for coping and adaptation strategies...
...The Metro East Coast (MEC) infrastructure, like the infrastructure in many other large US cities with an aged inventory, has suffered for many decades from deferred maintenance. This has created a huge demand for infrastructure capital spending to restore and expand the aged systems in the MEC region and elsewhere...
http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/climate-weather/stories/has-hurricane-sandy-forced-diseased-rats-out-of-the-subway ( So , will diseased rats cause massive spread of plague or some other bio-engineered pox - maybe that's why the Zombie Drill is taking place presently in San Diego ? ) Has Hurricane Sandy forced diseased rats out of the subway?Experts say flooded tunnels could displace rats and potentially lead to a rise in cases of leptospirosis, hantavirus, typhus, salmonella and even the plague.
By Melissa BreyerTue, Oct 30 2012 at 11:48 AM EST
3
 Photo: Heiko Kiera/Shutterstock
As New Yorkers woke up to massive power outages, burning homes, the closure of major transportation arteries, downed trees, streets awash with water and an utterly crippled public transit system, there’s still more to worry about.
New York City’s infamous rodent population.
Although nobody has taken an exact count, it’s generally estimated that there are more rats than inhabitants (8.3 million) in the city that never sleeps, with some estimates going as high as 32 million. Horror stories of colossal, teeming rat populations residing deep in the belly of the subway system is a bit of a myth, but many of the tunnels and stations are still pretty packed with rats, earning the city the distinction of Worst Rat City in the World. And with Hurricane Sandy’s deposit of massive amounts of water into the subterranean system, many of the rodents may be flooded out of their underground abodes.
All five subway tubes beneath the East River between Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn and the Steinway tube between Midtown and Queens are filled with water, water that needs to be pumped since it won’t recede on its own. Where will the rats go?
Rick Ostfeld of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Milbrook, N.Y., told theHuffington Post, "Rats are incredibly good swimmers, and they can climb." He adds that they will escape the floods and head for safer ground, such as apartments and other buildings by humans.
According to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service:
Ostfeld notes that the result of a deluge of displaced rats looking for dry shelter could result a rise in infectious diseases carried by urban rats, including leptospirosis,hantavirus, typhus, salmonella and even the plague.
And if plague isn’t troubling enough, there have been endless citizen reports of flooded streets slicked with gas and diesel, possible sewage from blocked sewer systems, and other assorted toxins paving the roads of the city.
Of particular note is the Gowanus Canal in the trendy neighborhood of Gowanus, Brooklyn. The Superfund site has long been home to extensive industrial activity and is known for its profusion of toxic sludge and pollutants. The Environmental Protection Agency describes the canal as “one of the nation’s most extensively contaminated water bodies.” And much like most of the waterways experiencing the unprecedented storm surge of Sandy, the Gowanus escaped its boundaries and spilled forth through the streets. (See before and after images here.)
In the meantime, if you are a city resident, keep your eye out for rodents making themselves at home in your house, and follow these tips for controlling pests without hurting yourself and your family.
and Gowanus canal did flow during the storm........
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20121030/DA2839L80.html ( Election postponement trial balloon floated ? ? ) Q&A: Could Sandy postpone the election?  Email this StoryOct 30, 4:13 PM (ET)By JOSH LEDERMAN
WASHINGTON (AP) - One week before a close election, superstorm Sandy has confounded the presidential race, halted early voting in many areas and led some to ponder whether the election might even be postponed.
It could take days to restore electricity to more than 8 million homes and businesses that lost power when the storm pummeled the East Coast. That means it's possible power could still be out in parts of some states on Election Day next Tuesday - a major problem for precincts that rely on electronic voting machines.
But as the storm breached the coast, even some of those intimately involved in the election seemed in the dark about what options are available to cope with the storm. Asked Monday whether President Barack Obama had the power to reschedule the election, White House press secretary Jay Carney said he wasn't sure.
Some questions and answers about what's possible and not when it comes to reworking Election Day.
A. Yes, but it's highly unlikely, and it's not up to the president. Congress sets the date for the presidential election - the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, every fourth year. Congress could act within the next week to change the date, but that would be tough because lawmakers are on recess and back home in their districts campaigning for re-election. Plus, it's likely that would mean changing the date for the entire country, not just those affected by the storm. What's more, Congress only selects the date for federal races, so changing the date would wreak havoc for state and local elections also scheduled for Nov. 6. States might have to hold two separate days of voting, which could bust state budgets.
Q. What about pushing back the election just in some states?
A. It's possible, but the legal issues get tricky. States, by and large, are in charge of their own elections. Each state has its own laws dealing with what to do if an emergency jeopardizes voting and who can make the call. Federal law says that if a state fails to conduct an election for federal races on the day Congress chooses, the state legislature can pick a later date. But state and federal laws don't always jive perfectly. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has said his state's laws don't grant him authority to reschedule the presidential election.
Q. Have elections ever been postponed before?
Q. Other than rescheduling the election, can anything else be done?
A. Voting hours could be extended at various locations. In places where electronic voting machines are in use, paper ballots could be used instead. Some areas also might choose to move polling locations if existing ones are damaged, inaccessible or won't have power on Election Day.
Q. Would those options create any other problems?
A. Lots. If poll hours are extended, under a 2002 law passed by Congress in response to the disputed 2000 presidential election, any voters who show up outside of regular hours must use provisional ballots, which are counted later and could be challenged. Sandy's impact was felt in some of the most competitive states in the presidential race, including Virginia and Ohio. The more provisional ballots that are cast, the greater the chances are that the winner won't be known until days or even weeks after the election.
There's another issue if poll hours are extended in some areas - such as counties with the worst storm damage - and not in others. That could prompt lawsuits under the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause, said Edward Foley, an election law expert at The Ohio State University.
Relocating polling places is also risky because it could drive down turnout, said Neil Malhotra, a political economist at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. "If you disrupt their routine and the polling place they've always been going to, even if you don't move it very far, they vote less," he said.
Q. What is the federal government doing to help?
A. The Federal Emergency Management Agency's administrator, Craig Fugate, said Monday he anticipated the storm's impact could linger into next week and affect the election. He said FEMA would look at what support it could provide to states before the election. "This will be led by the states," he said.
and.......
MT @TheAtlanticWire Breezy Point, New York fire damage. (Credit: Frank Franklin II, AP)twitpic.com/b8rz19 #Sandy
NEW: #Sandy storm reports map, including coastal #flooding, wind #damage, flash flooding, and#snow: wxch.nl/W2HCHy
http://enenews.com/abc-5-nuke-plants-problems-new-jerseys-salem-reactor-shuts-down-water-pumps-available-trouble-both-units-9-mile-point-new-york-addition-limerick-indian-point-oyster-creek
ABC:
>>> Follow-up to: Reuters: Just 6 more inches of water could submerge NJ nuclear plant's pump to cool spent fuel pool -- 25 hours to boiling without more coolant -- New footage of flooding nearby (VIDEO) <<<
Title: UPDATE 3-Sandy slows US nuclear plants, oldest declares alert
Source: Reuters Author: By Scott DiSavino Date: Oct 30, 2012 9:14am EDT Emphasis Added Oyster Creek may use fire system to cool spent fuel rods
Reuters, 2:53a ET:
AP, 4:26a ET:
and..... http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-10-30/east-coast-pictures-morning-after The East Coast In Pictures: The Morning After
Stunning pictures of the devastation the east coast wakes up to the morning after.
First light over Manhattan as New York wakes up on Tuesday. Much of the island is without power and much of the city remains closed. The Goldman building once again boasts the best power generators and is a true beacon of what NYC is all about.
Streets in New York are littered with debris as the floodwaters subside. A record storm surge of more than 13 feet (4m) deluged lower Manhattan.
Residents continue to be evacuated from their homes along the coast. Many had chosen to ignore the mandatory evacuation notices issued on Monday.
Early morning in Cape May, New Jersey, the clear-up begins. Earthmovers clear sand from the coastal road flooded by the storm surge.
Much of New York's public transport network was flooded. Here the waters burst through a lift shaft in a rail station in Hoboken, New Jersey. It could be days before it is fully functioning.
Firefighters were hampered by the floods in their attempts to bring under control a large fire which destroyed more than 50 homes in Queens, New York.
The damage caused by Sandy extended over a huge swathe of the East Coast. In Washington DC, early morning traffic rolls past an uprooted tree.
The replica ship HMS Bounty sinks beneath the waves off the North Carolina coast, photographed by the US Coastguard who rescued 14 people from the ship.
Buildings in Breezy Point, NY have completely burned down.
And...????
Courtesy of BBC, AP, Reuters, AFP and Getty Images
and..... SANDY LEAVES DEATH, DAMP AND DARKNESS IN WAKE | ||||||||||
NEW YORK (AP) -- As Superstorm Sandy marched slowly inland, millions along the East Coast awoke Tuesday without power or mass transit, with huge swaths of the nation's largest city unusually vacant and dark.
New York was among the hardest hit, with its financial heart in Lower Manhattan shuttered for a second day and seawater cascading into the still-gaping construction pit at the World Trade Center. President Barack Obama declared a major disaster in the city and Long Island.
The storm that made landfall in New Jersey on Monday evening with 80 mph sustained winds killed at least 17 people in seven states, cut power to more than 7.4 million homes and businesses from the Carolinas to Ohio, caused scares at two nuclear power plants and stopped the presidential campaign cold.
A levee broke in northern New Jersey and flooded the town of Moonachie, forcing authorities to evacuate as many as 1,000 people early Tuesday, Bergen County official Jeanne Baratta told The Record newspaper. Some people in a trailer park had to climb the roofs of their trailers to await rescue, she said.
The massive storm reached well into the Midwest: Chicago officials warned residents to stay away from the Lake Michigan shore as the city prepares for winds of up to 60 mph and waves exceeding 24 feet well into Wednesday.
"This will be one for the record books," said John Miksad, senior vice president for electric operations at Consolidated Edison, which had more than 670,000 customers without power in and around New York City.
An unprecedented 13-foot surge of seawater - 3 feet above the previous record - gushed into Gotham, inundating tunnels, subway stations and the electrical system that powers Wall Street, and sent hospital patients and tourists scrambling for safety. Skyscrapers swayed and creaked in winds that partially toppled a crane 74 stories above Midtown.
The massive storm caused the worst damage in the 108-year history of New York's extensive subway system, according to Joseph Lhota, the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Right before dawn Tuesday, a handful of taxis were out on the streets, though there was an abundance of emergency and police vehicles.
Remnants of the former Category 1 hurricane were forecast to head across Pennsylvania before taking another sharp turn into western New York by Wednesday morning. Although weakening as it goes, the massive storm - which caused wind warnings from Florida to Canada - will continue to bring heavy rain and local flooding, said Daniel Brown, warning coordination meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
As Hurricane Sandy closed in on the Northeast, it converged with a cold-weather system that turned it into a monstrous hybrid of rain and high wind - and even snow in West Virginia and other mountainous areas inland.
Just before it made landfall at 8 p.m. near Atlantic City, N.J., forecasters stripped Sandy of hurricane status - but the distinction was purely technical, based on its shape and internal temperature. It still packed hurricane-force wind, and forecasters were careful to say it was still dangerous to the tens of millions in its path.
While the hurricane's 90 mph winds registered as only a Category 1 on a scale of five, it packed "astoundingly low" barometric pressure, giving it terrific energy to push water inland, said Kerry Emanuel, a professor of meteorology at MIT.
Officials blamed at least 16 deaths on the converging storms - five in New York, three each in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, two in Connecticut, and one each in Maryland, North Carolina and West Virginia. Three of the victims were children, one just 8 years old.
Sandy, which killed 69 people in the Caribbean before making its way up the Eastern Seaboard, began to hook left at midday Monday toward the New Jersey coast. Even before it made landfall, crashing waves had claimed an old, 50-foot piece of Atlantic City's world-famous Boardwalk.
"We are looking at the highest storm surges ever recorded" in the Northeast, said Jeff Masters, meteorology director for Weather Underground, a private forecasting service.
Sitting on the dangerous northeast wall of the storm, the New York metropolitan area got the worst of it.
An explosion at a ConEdison substation knocked out power to about 310,000 customers in Manhattan, said Miksad.
"We see a pop. The whole sky lights up," said Dani Hart, 30, who was watching the storm from the roof of her building in the Navy Yards.
"It sounded like the Fourth of July," Stephen Weisbrot said from his 10th-floor apartment.
New York University's Tisch Hospital was forced to evacuate 200 patients after its backup generator failed. NYU Medical Dean Robert Grossman said patients - among them 20 babies from neonatal intensive care that were on battery-powered respirators - had to be carried down staircases and to dozens of waiting ambulances.
Not only was the subway shut down, but the Holland Tunnel connecting New York to New Jersey was closed, as was a tunnel between Brooklyn and Manhattan. The Brooklyn Bridge, the George Washington Bridge, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and several other spans were closed due to high winds.
The three major airports in the New York area - LaGuardia, Newark Liberty and Kennedy - remained shut down Tuesday.
A construction crane atop a $1.5 billion luxury high-rise in midtown Manhattan collapsed in high winds and dangled precariously. Thousands of people were ordered to leave several nearby buildings as a precaution, including 900 guests at the ultramodern Le Parker Meridien hotel.
Alice Goldberg, 15, a tourist from Paris, was watching television in the hotel - whose slogan is "Uptown, Not Uptight" - when a voice came over the loudspeaker and told everyone to leave.
"They said to take only what we needed, and leave the rest, because we'll come back in two or three days," she said as she and hundreds of others gathered in the luggage-strewn marble lobby. "I hope so."
Trading at the New York Stock Exchange was canceled again Tuesday - the first time the exchange suspended operations for two consecutive days due to weather since an 1888 blizzard struck the city.
Fire destroyed at least 50 homes Monday night in a flooded neighborhood in the Breezy Point section of the borough of Queens, where the Rockaway peninsula juts into the Atlantic Ocean. Firefighters told WABC-TV that they had to use a boat to rescue residents because the water was chest high on the street. About 25 people were trapped in one home, with two injuries reported.
Airlines canceled around 12,500 flights because of the storm, a number that was expected to grow.
Off North Carolina, not far from an area known as "the Graveyard of the Atlantic," a replica of the 18th-century sailing ship HMS Bounty that was built for the 1962 Marlon Brando movie "Mutiny on the Bounty" sank when her diesel engine and bilge pumps failed. Coast Guard helicopters plucked 14 crew members from rubber lifeboats bobbing in 18-foot seas.
A 15th crew member who was found unresponsive several hours after the others was later pronounced dead. The Bounty's captain was still missing.
One of the units at Indian Point, a nuclear power plant about 45 miles north of New York City, was shut down around 10:45 p.m. Monday because of external electrical grid issues, said Entergy Corp., which operates the plant. The company said there was no risk to employees or the public.
And officials declared an "unusual event" at the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey Township, N.J., the nation's oldest, when waters surged to 6 feet above sea level during the evening. Within two hours, the situation at the reactor - which was offline for regular maintenance - was upgraded to an alert, the second-lowest in a four-tiered warning system. Oyster Creek provides 9 percent of the state's electricity.
In Baltimore, fire officials said four unoccupied rowhouses collapsed in the storm, sending debris into the street but causing no injuries. Meanwhile, a blizzard in far western Maryland caused a pileup of tractor-trailers that blocked the westbound lanes of Interstate 68 on slippery Big Savage Mountain near the town of Finzel.
"It's like a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs up here," said Bill Wiltson, a Maryland State Police dispatcher.
Hundreds of miles from the storm's center, gusts topping 60 mph prompted officials to close the port of Portland, Maine, and scaring away several cruise ships. A state of emergency in New Hampshire prompted Vice President Joe Biden to cancel a rally in Keene and Republican nominee Mitt Romney's wife, Ann, to call off her bus tour through the Granite State.
About 360,000 people in 30 Connecticut towns were urged to leave their homes under mandatory and voluntary evacuation orders. Christi McEldowney was among those who fled to a Fairfield shelter. She and other families brought tents for their children to play in.
"There's something about this storm," she said. "I feel it deep inside."
Despite dire warnings and evacuation orders that began Saturday, many stayed put.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie - whose own family had to move to the executive mansion after his home in Mendham, far from the storm's center, lost power - criticized the mayor of Atlantic City for opening shelters there instead of forcing people out.
Eugenia Buono, 77, and her neighbor, Elaine DiCandio, 76, were among several dozen people who took shelter at South Kingstown High School in Narragansett, R.I. They live on Harbor Island, which is connected to the mainland by a causeway.
"I'm not an idiot," said Buono, who survived hurricanes Carol in 1954 and Bob in 1991. "People are very foolish if they don't leave."
---
Hays reported from New York and Breed reported from Raleigh, N.C.; AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein contributed to this report from Washington. Associated Press writers David Dishneau in Delaware City, Del., Katie Zezima in Atlantic City, Emery P. Dalesio in Elizabeth City, N.C., and Erika Niedowski in Cranston, R.I., also contributed.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-10-30/new-york-paralyzed-subways-shut-down-indefinitely-subway-chief-worst-disaster-ever
New York Paralyzed As Subways Shut Down Indefinitely: Subway Chief: "Worst Disaster Ever"
As everyone who has been to New York City knows, without its underground arteries -the subway system - the city is if not dead, than certainly in an indefinite coma. By that logic, New York will not get out of the critical ward for many days, because hours ago the head of the New York City’s transit system just called Hurricane Sandy "the most devastating event to the city’s subway system ever." At last check seven subway tunnels under the East River had flooded, as did the Queens Midtown Tunnel—and Metropolitan Transit Authority chairman Joseph Lhota said there is “no firm timeline” for when the system would be back up and running. According to other MTA employees it would take between 14 hours and 4 days just to pump the water out of the subway system. We'll take the over. And as long as there are no subways, there are no clerical and support workers, there is no Wall Street, there is no beating heart to the city.
via @HeyVeronica
For some stunning footage of what will certainly be an epic struggle to regain control of New York's underground floods watch the clip below:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-10-29/670000-without-power-coned-says-repairs-could-take-week-interactive-status-map
670,000 Without Power, ConEd Says Repairs Could Take A Week - Interactive Status Map
The good news is that no workers are trapped. The bad news is that between the 14th Street transformer explosion and the flooding and damage elsewhere, there are 670,000 people without power and over 230,000 of them are in Manhattan.
- *CON ED SAYS UNDERGROUND SUBSTATIONS COULD BE UP IN 3 TO 4 DAYS
- *CON ED SAYS IT WILL TAKE LONGER TO REPAIR ABOVE GROUND STATIONS
- *CON ED SAYS IT COULD BE UP TO A WEEK FOR POWER RESTORATION
- *LARGEST STORM RELATED OUTAGE IN CON ED HISTORY, MIKSAD SAYS
- Full list of current outages in New York City (hardest hit are Cooper Square, Canal, Jamaica, Chelsea, and Borough Hill):
and interactive map (click image for interactive map)...
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-10-29/nations-oldest-nuclear-power-plant-new-jerseys-oyster-creek-declares-alert-following
Nation's Oldest Nuclear Power Plant, New Jersey's Oyster Creek, Declares Alert Following Water Surge
As a reminder, the biggest catastrophe that resulted from last year's Tohoku earthquake in Japan was not the earthquake itself, nor the infrastructure destruction from the susbequent tsunami, but the impact of the soaring water wall on the nuclear power plants in the coastline, namely Fukushima, and its aftermath, by now known all too well to all. So tonight too, all along the east coast, the biggest threat is not the wind, nor the rain, but the impact of the storm surge on the tens of nuclear power plants located in the vicinity of the rapidly rising tide. Such as Oyster Creek in New Jersey which just went on alert due to the surging water level.
The nation's oldest nuclear power plant is on alert after waters from a colossal storm reached high levels.Oyster Creek in Lacey Township, N.J., was already offline for regular maintenance before Sandy, a superstorm downgraded Monday night from a hurricane, slammed the East Coast.The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says an "unusual event" was declared around 7 p.m. when water reached a high level. The situation was upgraded less than two hours later to an "alert," the second-lowest in a four-tiered warning system.
Federal officials say all nuclear plants are still in safe condition. They say water levels near Oyster Creek, which is along the Atlantic Ocean, will likely recede within a few hours.Oyster Creek went online in 1969 and provides 9 percent of New Jersey's electricity.
And elsewhere, we just saw the following also very disturbing headline from US Emergency Services:
PA | HYNDMAN |**EVACUATION**| - | VOLUNTARY EVAC DUE TO NUCLEAR WARNING IN BEDFORD COUNTY. UEA325 | UEA451 |
We will keep track of any related news and report as soon as we see it.
http://www.businessinsider.com/will-hurricane-sandy-affect-fridays-jobs-report-2012-10
OMG: FRIDAY'S JOBS REPORT COULD BE DELAYED
Courtesy Sotheby's
|
The Labor Department said Monday that it has yet to make a decision on whether to delay Friday’s closely-watched October employment report due to the effects from Hurricane Sandy.
...
“We will assess the situation when the weather emergency is over and notify the press and public of any changes at that time,” said Gary Steinberg, spokesman for the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the data arm of the department.
The storm has already affected financial markets, closing US markets today and likely tomorrow.
http://www.businessinsider.com/gallup-suspends-polling-hurricane-sandy-daily-tracking-obama-romney-2012-10
Gallup Suspends Polling Due To Hurricane Sandy
Gallup
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Here's the statement:
Gallup has suspended polling for its daily tracking as of Monday night and will reassess on a day-to-day basis. The ultimate effect on the overall picture of polling between now and this weekend, including election polling, will depend on what happens as a result of the storm, about which we will have a better understanding of on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.
Republican nominee Mitt Romney had jumped back out to a 5-point lead on President Barack Obama among likely voters in today's poll, which will be Gallup's last until further notice.
IBD/TIPP announced last night that it would also suspend polling.
Jim Williams, an analyst at Public Policy Polling, told Business Insider today that the firm had no plans to stop polling because of Sandy. But he said PPP would likely reassess on Tuesday if there is widespread damage.
"If we wake up tomorrow morning to half the East Coast incurring massive damage, then that would change our thinking," he said.
and......
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2012/10/hurricane-sandy-update-first-100.html
Monday, October 29, 2012 3:16 PM
Hurricane Sandy Update: First $100+ Billion Storm in U.S. History?
Sandy is classified as a Hurricane 1 status, a low-grade hurricane. However, don't let that fool you in terms of impact. It's not the absolute magnitude of the hurricane, but rather the magnitude vs. what the infrastructure can handle that matters.
Barometric pressure is 27.76, the lowest pressure recorded for a storm in the Northeast. Sandy is unprecedented in size as well. The hurricane is likely to reach shore with a full moon high tide raising storm surges several more feet.
Accuweather notes "The storm surge will reach generally 5-10 feet with up to 15 feet possible in a locations along and to the north of where the center makes landfall. When a 2-foot tide this evening is combined with 10- to 20-foot wave action, water will reach more than 30 feet above sea level in places. ... Total damage from Hurricane Sandy may well exceed Katrina's $96 billion. This could be the first $100+ billion storm in U.S. history."
New Jersey, New York, Washington DC, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Vermont, and Connecticut have all declared states of emergency. Parts of New Jersey are under mandatory evacuation. At least 60 million people will be affected.
Barometric pressure is 27.76, the lowest pressure recorded for a storm in the Northeast. Sandy is unprecedented in size as well. The hurricane is likely to reach shore with a full moon high tide raising storm surges several more feet.
Accuweather notes "The storm surge will reach generally 5-10 feet with up to 15 feet possible in a locations along and to the north of where the center makes landfall. When a 2-foot tide this evening is combined with 10- to 20-foot wave action, water will reach more than 30 feet above sea level in places. ... Total damage from Hurricane Sandy may well exceed Katrina's $96 billion. This could be the first $100+ billion storm in U.S. history."
New Jersey, New York, Washington DC, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Vermont, and Connecticut have all declared states of emergency. Parts of New Jersey are under mandatory evacuation. At least 60 million people will be affected.
As Sandy Barrels Toward New Jersey Coast, the hurricane remains on track to become a historic storm for the mid-Atlantic and southern New England.
New Jersey and New York City face for very dangerous conditions and catastrophic damage. As of 2:40 p.m. EDT Monday CNN, nearly 300,000 customers are without power in seven states. New Jersey has the most at 92,000. Over 7,000 flights have been cancelled.
Damaging and life-threatening impact from the giant, powerful storm will reach as far inland as the central Appalachians and will span the coast from North Carolina to southern New England.
The record tide gauge in Atlantic City New Jersey is 9.0 feet. Sandy is at 8.25 feet now, and a near-lock to surpass the previous high, perhaps by many feet. Moderate to major flooding is already occurring in the Chesapeake Bay.
The Chesapeake Bay near Kiptopeke, Va., is at major flood stage of 5.95 feet, less than one foot below the record high of 7.1 feet set on March 7, 1962.
The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, Va., is at 6.71 feet. This is also only 1 foot below the record flood stage of 7.5 feet set on Sept. 18, 2003.
In the Appalachian mountains, blizzard whiteout conditions with as much as two feet of snow are expected.
You can follow the Path of Hurricane Sandy on Accuweather.
You can also follow the life threatening storm on Weather Channel.
The Weather Channel reports peak tide levels may top those from both Hurricane Irene by 2 feet and the the previous record from the Dec. 1992 Nor'easter and Hurricane Donna in 1960.
Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://connecticut.cbslocal.com/2012/10/29/resident-warns-people-will-be-fighting-in-the-streets-for-gas-food-in-sandy-wake/
NEW YORK (AP) — A strengthening Hurricane Sandy churned north Monday, raking ghost-town cities along the Northeast corridor with rain and wind gusts. Subways and schools were closed across the region of 50 million people, the floor of the New York Stock Exchange was deserted, and thousands fled inland to await the storm’s fury.
As the storm closed in on the mid-Atlantic coast, it washed away an old section of the world-famous Atlantic City Boardwalk and left most of the city’s emptied-out streets under water.
The monster hurricane was expected to make a westward lurch and blow ashore in New Jersey on Monday night, combining with two other weather systems — a wintry storm from the west and cold air rushing in from the Arctic — to create an epic superstorm.
Authorities warned that New York City and Long Island could get the worst of the storm surge: an 11-foot onslaught of seawater that could swamp lower Manhattan, flood the subways and cripple the underground network of electrical and communications lines that are vital to the nation’s financial capital.
Because of Sandy’s vast reach, with tropical storm-force winds extending almost 500 miles from its center, other major cities across the Northeast — Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Boston — also prepared for the worst.
“The days ahead are going to be very difficult,” Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley said. “There will be people who die and are killed in this storm.”
By late morning, the storm had strengthened to 90 mph and had already knocked out power to tens of thousands of people. Sandy was about 200 miles southeast of Atlantic City, N.J.
Authorities moved to close the Holland Tunnel, which connects New York and New Jersey, and a tunnel between Manhattan and Brooklyn. Street grates above the New York subway were boarded up, but officials worried that seawater would seep in and damage the electrical switches.
Millions of people in the storm’s path stayed home from work. Subways, buses and trains shut down, and more than 7,000 flights in and out of the East were canceled, snarling travel around the globe. Hundreds of thousands of people were under orders to flee the coast, including 375,000 in lower Manhattan and other parts of New York City, but authorities warned that the time to get out was short or already past.
Sheila Gladden evacuated her home in Philadelphia’s flood-prone Eastwick neighborhood and headed to a hotel.
“I’m not going through this again,” said Gladden, who had 5 1/2 feet of water in her home after Hurricane Floyd in 1999.
“I think this one’s going to do us in,” said Mark Palazzolo, who boarded up his bait-and-tackle shop in Point Pleasant Beach, N.J., with the same wood he used in past storms, crossing out the names of Hurricanes Isaac and Irene and spray-painting “Sandy” next to them.
“I got a call from a friend of mine from Florida last night who said, ‘Mark, get out! If it’s not the storm, it’ll be the aftermath. People are going to be fighting in the streets over gasoline and food.’”
President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney called off their campaign events at the very height of the presidential race, with just over a week to go before Election Day. And early voting was canceled Monday in Maryland and Washington, D.C.
At the White House, the president made a direct appeal to those in harm’s way: “Please listen to what your state and local officials are saying. When they tell you to evacuate, you need to evacuate. Don’t delay, don’t pause, don’t question the instructions that are being given, because this is a powerful storm.”
Obama president declared emergencies in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, authorizing federal relief work to begin well ahead of time.
Sandy, a Category 1 hurricane, was blamed for 69 deaths in the Caribbean before it began traveling northward, parallel to the Eastern Seaboard. As of 11 a.m., it was moving at 18 mph, with hurricane-force winds extending an extraordinary 175 miles from its center.
Forecasters said the combined Frankenstorm could bring close to a foot of rain in places, a potentially lethal storm surge of 4 to 11 feet across much of the region, and punishing winds that could cause widespread power outages that last for days. Up to 3 feet of snow was forecast for the West Virginia mountains.
About 90 miles off Cape Hatteras, N.C., the Coast Guard rescued 14 crew members by helicopter from the HMS Bounty, a replica 18th-century sailing ship that sank in the storm. The Coast Guard searched for two other crew members. The ship was built for the 1962 Marlon Brando film “Mutiny on the Bounty.”
The rescued had donned survival suits and life jackets and boarded two lifeboats after the ship began taking on water. They were plucked from 18-foot seas just before sunrise.
O’Malley, the Maryland governor, said a fishing pier in the beach resort of Ocean City, not far from a popular boardwalk and amusement park, was “half-gone.” The area had been ordered evacuated on Sunday.
Water was already a foot deep on the streets of Lindenhurst, N.Y., along the southern edge of Long Island, and the canals around the island’s Great South Bay were bulging two hours before high tide. Gale-force winds blew overnight over coastal North Carolina, southeastern Virginia, the Delmarva Peninsula and coastal New Jersey.
In the morning, water was already splashing over the seawalls at the southern tip of Manhattan and had matched the levels seen during Hurricane Irene in August 2011. Still, people were out jogging, walking their dogs and even taking children out in strollers amid gusts of wind.
“We’re high up enough, so I’m not worried about flooding,” said Mark Vial, who was pushing his 2-year-old daughter, Maziyar, in a stroller outside their building, where they live on the 15th floor. “There’s plenty of food. We’ll be OK.”
The major American stock exchanges closed for the day, the first unplanned shutdown since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001. The floor of the NYSE, typically bustling with traders on a Monday morning, fell within the city’s mandatory evacuation zone. Wall Street expected to remain closed on Tuesday. The United Nations canceled all meetings at its New York headquarters.
New York called off school on both Monday and Tuesday for the city’s 1.1 million students, and the more than 5 million people who depend on its transit network every day were left without a way to get around.
“If you don’t evacuate, you are not only endangering your life, you are also endangering the lives of the first responders who are going in to rescue you,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned. “This is a serious and dangerous storm.”
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was typically blunt: “Don’t be stupid. Get out.”
Craig Fugate, chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said FEMA teams were deployed from North Carolina to Maine and as far inland as West Virginia, bringing generators and basic supplies that will be needed in the storm’s aftermath.
“I have not been around long enough to see a hurricane forecast with a snow advisory in it,” Fugate told NBC’s “Today” show.
