Mega-storm Sandy

[fgalkin]

Also, unconfirmed reports from several volunteers who claim they saw body bags taken away from the complex today. It seems that people HAVE died of neglect due to the city's incompetence.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[GuppyShark]

fgalkin:

"This video is private.
Sorry about that."

I'm following closely all your updates, you're providing a window into something that the media I consume isn't covering.

[fgalkin]

fgalkin:

"This video is private.
Sorry about that."

I'm following closely all your updates, you're providing a window into something that the media I consume isn't covering.

Sorry, the owner set it to private, not much I can do about that.

Was in the Far Rockaways today. Much of it still looks like a disaster area, even two weeks after. Pics are coming shortly, in the A&P thread a usual. But, because Bloomberg declared today to be a day of service, the area was literally flooded with volunteers, with the National Guard, Army, even the Air Force helping out, tons of city volunteers, the Red Cross, and pretty much every charity in the city. There was a distribution center and a line of people at every church, every mall, on the street, etc.

Naturally, coordination was atrocious. I've spent the vast majority of my time simply waiting for things to do.

Also, from 711 Seagirt (which has made the news as a scene of the endless plight of Russian-Jewish seniors that comprise the majority of the population:




Pics are not my own, but it's there.

Antisemitism is dead, you say?

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[fgalkin]

I think that the main problem with the Sandy relief efforts is that they utterly fail at coordination. Each group accepts donations on its own, sorts them on its own, stores them on its own, then takes them to a point of their choosing, and distributes them on its own. Now, groups even have their own medical teams. There is no coordination whatsoever. When the two groups meet, their cooperation is mostly limited to staying out of each other's way. Unless they're city-affiliated. Then, they totally supplant you.

Effort is needlessly duplicated. Everybody is clogging the pipes. Most of the time and effort is spent waiting. It's massively inefficient and extremely demoralizing.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Sea Skimmer]

That isn't surprising at all, who ever did any planning or preperation for it after all? Civil defense in the US was killed off by decades of demonizing it as nonsensical warmongering preparedness for armageddon because of the strong connection to nuclear war, and nothing has ever replaced that. Modern interest is limited to highly random and irregular anti terrorism drills that don't typically consider the needs of more then a few hundred or thousand of victims.

[fgalkin]

That's the whole point of FEMA, though. The fact that they didn't do is is why that agency is the very definition of fail. There is no mechanism for command and control even now, after two weeks. It's total organizational breakdown.

They didn't even have to prepare for a Hurricane, because this has nothing to do with a hurricane. It has everything to do with logistics and organization. It could have been an asteroid, a plague, a Zombie outbreak, even, and the result would have been the same.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Sea Skimmer]

The yearly operating budget for FEMA for the entire country is around 6.5 billion dollars, of course it can't plan or command anything on a national scale at that level, and being able to spend extra money only when a disaster already happened does not let them make up that lost ground. That's my whole point. This amount of money is a joke, and capability does not exist without costs. In comparison the NYPD alone has a operating budget of around 4 billion. Obama BTW has cut in the past and intends to continue cutting FEMA in his FY2013 budget plan, though not nearly so much as Romney's budget plan called for. They been on a pretty static budget for years.

Spending even .1% of GDP on this would be a 250% increase. IIRC Cold War studies, before it was all swept under the rug, suggested effective civil defense was more like a .5% of GDP issue to sustain, after we spent larger amounts of money establishing the system, but my brain may not be remembering those figures too well.

It figures though, even in WW2 this country was pretty bad just at enforcing an air raid blackout on the coastal cities. We just have no history behind this except people bitching about how its all pointless.

[The Yosemite Bear]

so we should fund FEMA like their original job of dealing with aliens or nuclear attack was emminitn?

[Sea Skimmer]

Even a fraction of that would help. It would also help if the director of FEMA was not appointed anew by each presidency, which nautrally leads to the constant new directors appointing a bunch of people they are comfortable with to subordinate positions.

[fgalkin]

How does this explain things like this, though

At some point FEMA brought their track with canned food and stuff to our streets. They quietly came at night to the pitch black deserted streets and waited for people to come. I learned about this generous event next day from the people who accidentally walked by and saw them. We didn’t even get a chance to know that they existed. And then I would go to work and read on the news officials complaining that they prepared shelters and food for the disaster victims and they did not come to get it. I don’t see why ice-cream tracks could annoy us with their noise all summer long and tracks with vital help in the disaster zone could not honk even once. I dont see why people could not do some research on the topic and find the right way to deliver their help to the right place at the right time. No reason to blame angry and greedy people, they are everywhere and in 99% you will see them at your volunteer’s track first. People who needed help and still do are there and if you fail do deliver that help no reason to cry and feel sorry for yourself. Whoever really wanted to help done it.

Also, been to the Rockaways. I'll be updating the A&P thread, but here's a preview



Two weeks and counting....

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Block]

How does this explain things like this, though

At some point FEMA brought their track with canned food and stuff to our streets. They quietly came at night to the pitch black deserted streets and waited for people to come. I learned about this generous event next day from the people who accidentally walked by and saw them. We didn’t even get a chance to know that they existed. And then I would go to work and read on the news officials complaining that they prepared shelters and food for the disaster victims and they did not come to get it. I don’t see why ice-cream tracks could annoy us with their noise all summer long and tracks with vital help in the disaster zone could not honk even once. I dont see why people could not do some research on the topic and find the right way to deliver their help to the right place at the right time. No reason to blame angry and greedy people, they are everywhere and in 99% you will see them at your volunteer’s track first. People who needed help and still do are there and if you fail do deliver that help no reason to cry and feel sorry for yourself. Whoever really wanted to help done it.

Also, been to the Rockaways. I'll be updating the A&P thread, but here's a preview



Two weeks and counting....

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

You do realize it took YEARS to repair the majority of the damage from Katrina right? and that as of '08 there were still entire regions that had to drive 20+ minutes to get to grocery stores. I realize people are suffering and they have my sympathy, but two weeks is nothing, nor is it particularly slow considering the extent of the damage and the Nor'easter that hit and shut down recovery efforts for 2 days. It took my parents a week and a half to get power back and trees cleared from their street after the Derecho, there's only so many people and so many recovery resources.

[fgalkin]

You do realize that NYC is not supposed to be a dysfunctional shithole like New Orleans, but an Alpha++ global city with a metropolitan population and economy larger than most small nations?

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Block]

You do realize that NYC is not supposed to be a dysfunctional shithole like New Orleans, but an Alpha++ global city with a metropolitan population and economy larger than most small nations?

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

and? I'd expect a city like that which is almost never hit by catastrophic weather to respond even worse than it has.

[fgalkin]

You do realize that NYC is not supposed to be a dysfunctional shithole like New Orleans, but an Alpha++ global city with a metropolitan population and economy larger than most small nations?

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

and? I'd expect a city like that which is almost never hit by catastrophic weather to respond even worse than it has.

You mean, catastrophic 80% of the city got flooded and was uninhabitable for months? Which is why everything looks like this?

No, wait, you can't even tell there was a hurricane in most of the city. It's just that work is progressing in places like this.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[fgalkin]

The Red Cross distributing food outside of the Shorefront Y today. Look at how fast they're moving to serve all of those people!

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[madd0ct0r]

I count about 30 people. so ~45min to clear the queue.

Just saying. The guy could clearly be moving faster.

[PeZook]

I'd be wary of passing judgement based on one short movie. For all we know, that guy might not have had any sleep for days, or something like that.

[Broomstick]

You do realize that NYC is not supposed to be a dysfunctional shithole like New Orleans, but an Alpha++ global city with a metropolitan population and economy larger than most small nations?

I am curious - how have other "Alpha++ global cities" handled similar crises?

I think we can all agree that a faster and more effective response is preferable, is it incompetence we are seeing or that the logistics of handling such disasters is such that this is the typical result? I haven't exactly made a study of this, I wonder if anyone has.

Are there examples of similar cities handling disasters of similar scope and affected numbers of people in a more satisfactory manner?

[Channel72]

The truth is that the vast majority of the NYC metropolitan area is back to normal. The only noticeable remnant of Sandy for most people is the fact that the Path trains (trains which connect lower Manhattan and Jersey) are still not running - or running at different schedules. It's only in areas like the Rockaways or Long Beach, and parts of Jersey and Staten Island that were utterly devastated, where continuing relief efforts are necessary.

Also, scattered throughout the north shore of Long Island some people still don't have power and people are pissed at LIPA. But for the most part, life is back to normal.

[fgalkin]

I'd be wary of passing judgement based on one short movie. For all we know, that guy might not have had any sleep for days, or something like that.

There was another truck that served people in a whopping 1:24. I have video of that, too.

Again, this is an organization that has collected something like $200 million in donations. They could pay every school cafeteria lunch lady in the city to show up on the weekends, rather than have four people serve extremely cheap and shitty pasta very slowly.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Sea Skimmer]

Given the crap the Red Cross has pulled before, its likely a fair bit of that money went into new computers and a 'future contingency fund'.

[fgalkin]

They have went on the record to say that a contingency fund is exactly where any unspent money is going.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Zaune]

They have went on the record to say that a contingency fund is exactly where any unspent money is going.

And rightly so. Does anyone but the most hardcore climate change denier honestly think this is a one-off event?

[fgalkin]

They have went on the record to say that a contingency fund is exactly where any unspent money is going.

And rightly so. Does anyone but the most hardcore climate change denier honestly think this is a one-off event?

No, but their contingency fund is not actually being used for disaster response. For example, as of right now, over 2/3s of the money the Red Cross received for Haiti relief has yet to be spent, in Haiti or anywhere else. That's over $200 million, by the way.

The money that IS spent, is being spent on things like luxury hotels and brand new iPads for relief workers.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Flagg]

The problem with contingency funds being the primary beneficiary of the money donated is that people didn't donate to the contingency fund. They donated to help the people of whatever disaster the Red Cross is using to advertise themselves.