Mega-storm Sandy

[Flagg]

50 houses are on fire in Queens now.

[Broomstick]

5 million without power in the US.

At least 16 dead.

The Oyster Creek nuclear plant is now threatened by rising waters, mainly the cooling system for the spent fuel pool. The reactor has been shut down since Oct 24, and emergency equipment to pump cooling water is on site, but hey, still not a good thing.

Out of control fire in Queens - high winds and flooded streets making it very difficult to fight and has spread the flames to multiple buildings.

One hospital had to be evacuated, which must have been a nightmare in that storm.

That's just NYC. Blizzard still raging in 14 counties in Appalachia through several states. Overnight pictures quite dramatic, dawn should bring more.

And water, water everywhere.

Rather dramatic view from space, showing just how fuckin' large this storm is:


Jupiter has its red spot, Earth has its white swirly thing.

[Terralthra]

Jupiter has its red spot, Earth has its white swirly thing.

Difference being a) Jupiter's red spot could comfortably hold 3-4 Terras and b) Jupiter has no humans.

The eastern seaboard is in my thoughts.

[Lonestar]

Snow in Shenandoah National Park, which goes to show that even a couple thousand feet above sea level will bring snow instead of rain.

[weemadando]

And just in case people didn't know, due to budget bullshit you're losing polar orbit weather satellite coverage for a few years soon. So the 80+ percent of tracking data used to predict and prepare for these storms? Gone, until the replacement is launched.

Have fun in the meantime.

[PeZook]

And just in case people didn't know, due to budget bullshit you're losing polar orbit weather satellite coverage for a few years soon. So the 80+ percent of tracking data used to predict and prepare for these storms? Gone, until the replacement is launched.

Have fun in the meantime.

Who the fuck needs NASA (Well, NOAA), right? There's so many problem still here on Earth which could be solved with all that money!

Jupiter has its red spot, Earth has its white swirly thing.

The red spot is a storm which has lasted for CENTURIES. I'm guessing you guys probably don't want that

[Broomstick]

And... 7.5 million without power.

80% of Atlantic City, New Jersey is flooded or, as the news media likes to say with breathless horror, "underwater".

Fire in Queens still burning.

And it's not over - this storm may be diminishing but there's still at least 24 hours of crazy weather to go.

[Imperial528]

Well, I got power back some time last night, around 2 I'd judge from the clocks. Still flickering this morning though, but hopefully it's done for my area.

Feel bad for the people in areas that got hit badly, though.

[Dalton]

Long Island got walloped. 90% without power, tons of damage and downed lines and trees are uprooted everywhere. My house escaped damage, but the shed may be a goner.

[Lagmonster]

Is that real? Because Shark Storm sounds like a horribly awesome ScyFy movie.

I haven't been able to verify it. Pulled it off FB, but I figured I might as well repost anyway.

Snopes is reporting is as a photoshop ( http://www.snopes.com/photos/natural/sandy.asp ).

[General Zod]

Well, I got power back some time last night, around 2 I'd judge from the clocks. Still flickering this morning though, but hopefully it's done for my area.

Feel bad for the people in areas that got hit badly, though.

The lights in my building were flickering a bit last night, but everything stayed running. The Bronx got off pretty light overall compared to the rest of the area.

[phongn]

And just in case people didn't know, due to budget bullshit you're losing polar orbit weather satellite coverage for a few years soon. So the 80+ percent of tracking data used to predict and prepare for these storms? Gone, until the replacement is launched.

It's not entirely due to budget cuts. The next-generation polar weather satellite program has been a typical comedy of program mismanagement and budget overruns.

[Flagg]

And the Jersey Shore is in ruins. Unfortunately Snooki escaped alive.

[Broomstick]

Sort of interesting that Le Monde has an article about affected nuclear plants on the East Coast on the front page this morning but the New York Times and CNN seem to have skipped that angle. The Washington Post has an article, but buried in another section and not on the home page. If you go to Google News and search on "Sandy nuclear" you'll get some articles.

For those curious - Oyster Creek, which to be fair was mentioned in the major media last night, did suffer power failure and there was concern about the cooling intake and rising waters. That plant did go on alert, but it was already shut down for refueling, standby systems were available, and back up diesel generators on site have two weeks of fuel on hand and are not in danger so on-site power is available. Indian Point was partially shut down due to electrical grid issues and not a problem at the plant or on site. Hancocks Bridge shut down when four of six were "no longer available", and authorities hastened to add those pumps were for the non-nuclear side of the power plant.

The shut downs apparently reduced capacity by the equivalent of 3 million average homes, but since 7.5 million are currently without power one can only presume adequate power generation remains for the portion of the electrical grid that is still up and active.

I suspect that, once again, when everything works right at a nuclear plant the matter is ignored. The media does prefer to focus on danger and disaster and "power plant copes with superstorm, no one injured or dead, nothing wrecked" just doesn't sell ad time. Nonetheless, I do find it reassuring that even the oldest commercial nuke plant in the US (Oyster Creek) came through the storm just fine.

[Zaune]

The Guardian liveblog touched on Oyster Creek as well. Someone senior at the plant put out a press release to the effect of "everyone chill the fuck out, we got this". And everyone did, which makes a refreshing change.

Is it just me, or is society finally on the road to developing a collective sense of proportion about nuclear power?

[Lagmonster]

If nothing bad happens that involves nuclear-stuff, people will not give a shit. Except greenpeace, but fuck them. If anything bad happens, regardless of scale, everyone will freak out, across several continents, for months.

I think we're a generation out of being okay with anything that has the word 'nuclear' attached to it. People my age and older, ie. people in power, all remember when the scariest word in the universe was 'nuclear', followed by 'war', 'bomb', 'apocalypse', etc.. Once memories of the cold war are purged, I expect people will chill out.

[Tribun]

Even German news, normally very sensitive about nuclear stuff, only has it as one story of many. Most of the news actually is about the destruction, especially in New York. I have to admit, the flooding according to all what I've seen seems to be quite bad, in addition to storm damage and a fire in Queens that burned down at least 50 houses and a widespread loss of power.

[Broomstick]

Well, we knew it was going to be bad and widespread (some shoreline homes in Wisconsin, on the edges of this storm, were evacuated last night due to Sandy stirring up Lake Michigan to dangerous levels. Granted, it's minor compared to NYC but it shows just how damn big this this was) but all things considered we seem to avoided the very worst case scenarios. The power outages were expected and will be dealt with.

Infrastructure damage... that will take longer. They'll have to pump out the subways and tunnels but that's been done before both in NYC and other cities. The scale is larger this time, but how to deal with it is a known thing. It will be awhile before the power grid is fully restored but it will be done. For the scope of this thing the death toll was remarkably low (which is not to minimized the tragedy of those lost, of course. Each death is tragic to family and friends).

[TimothyC]

While those who have lost family or friends, lost their homes, and or lost power have my sympathies the City of New York and the Intrepid Air, Sea, & Space Museum does not:

From Mashable:




From CNN:


Nice Job protecting that priceless artifact Intrepid!

With two events in 6 months, it makes me concerned for the next 5994 months of the planned exhibition life.

[Flagg]

You're whining about a tiny amount of damage sustained to a space shuttle? What were they supposed to do, encase it in titanium in 3 days?

[Terralthra]

Well, they might've at least covered the whole shuttle with tarps, instead of part of it.

[Flagg]

Looks like they did and they ripped in the wind. The orbiter can sustain a fucking reentry, I don't think a hurricane (especially a cat 1) looked like much of a threat.

[Losonti Tokash]

What the fuck is wrong with you?

[Losonti Tokash]

Boy it sure sucks a bunch of people died and millions are in hardship right now. Anyway, let me get to the real tragedy, some damage to a museum piece.

[Broomstick]

Not only that, but a museum piece that likely suffered only superficial damage at worst.

The 30+ dead, billions of dollars in damage, 7 million+ without power, evacuated hospitals, flooding, etc. etc.? Pfft!

Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with peoples' priorities? I mean, I don't want to see the Enterprise damaged, either, but honestly, I'm much more upset about the replica HMS Bounty sinking and that still pales in comparison to a lot of the other shit that's happened in the last 24 hours, like that flooded neighborhood in Queens were they think 80-100 homes were lost to fire that couldn't be fought due to flood.