THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)
Fun Stuff => CHATTER => Topic started by: jwhouk on 29 Oct 2012, 20:30
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Sandy just hit NYC, and BOY is she being a biatch.
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Stay safe everyone!
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Apparently the storm is getting pretty bad where my family lives... my sister posted a picture of the snow outside the house and they've got 6 inches on the ground at the moment (in addition to all the rain they got earlier). She also said that there was a mudslide that's blocking U.S. Route 40 a short distance down the hill from the house.
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Some of the radar images I've seen have most of the state of West Virgina as a sheet of white.
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Yeah, West Virginia is supposed to get the worst of the snow (24" or more in some locations). My family lives just across the state line in Maryland.
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People on FB said it was snowing here earlier, but I was asleep and it's all gone now.
Michael has a lot of family in NYC and the ones living on the Rockaways didn't want to leave, but luckily they got the hint and evacuated to Brooklyn. Hopefully they're all ok, I haven't heard anything. :-(
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We were out of power for 14 hours, had winds upwards of 50mph...but we're ok and so are my parents!! I feel terrible for everyone who has been hit by this but I'm so grateful that my parents got spared because Irene really kicked the shit out of them (right after they finished cleaning up after the flood they got a few years prior).
Nick and I live in a basement apartment so I was a little worried about taking in water, but not too much since we're quite a bit higher in elevation than the rest of our town. Even though the Hudson reached a record flood stage of 9.5 feet, the worst we witnessed was a transformer blowing a few hundred feet from our place
I was definitely more worried about my folks than myself and they have made out pretty well so far. A tree fell in their backyard and got stuck between two others so it didn't actually cause any damage and other than that, they are just without cable/phone/internet. My brother got about 12 calls in a half hour at the fire house last night, but they've managed to clean everything up the best they could. I have a lot of family in Jersey but so far, everyone is just in the dark but ok.
We're still under a flood warning and a wind advisory but I think we've seen the worst it's gonna get in our area. Stay safe everyone!!
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Seen those pictures of the torn up Atlantic City Boardwalk? The world's largest pipe organ is in Boardwalk Hall alongside that, and part of its mechanism is below sea level. Last year the doors held and the pumps kept up; this year they can't even get there to see what's doing.
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Hi! Here in the foothills of the Alleghenies, we had some serious winds. All the deciduous trees were already leafless, but many large pines blew over. Power went out here and there all over - we lost it at about 8 last night for roughly 24 hours. Some parts of town still have no power. No snow, but lots of rain.
There's lots of minor damage around town, siding blown off, lost shingles, and so on. There were also a few commercial buildings that suffered partial collapses - losing a wall or part of a roof. Most of them were older buildings.
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May I give a shout out to backwards compatibility? It was in the 30's last night, and only in the 40's today. With no power, our gas furnace won't run. But the guy who had the house before us (William "Bud" Malone) insisted, when they installed the gas furnace in '65, that they leave the old coal burner (now 112 years old) in the system.
So we had no heat, but this morning I built a fire in the old furnace. Got the flue open, and the draft vents, used some of the scrap wood that had been collected in the old coal room. Got the water up to 100 degrees in the radiator system, which quickly took the house up from below 50 to over 65 degrees. Kept it burning through the day, and when the power came on this evening, we were still toasty!
Many of the neighbors have fireplaces (we don't), and were able to heat a room or two, but we had hot radiators throughout the house.
Oh, and I will never complain about all the jar candles my wife leaves around the house...
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:-D Yeahhh, Nick was pretty appreciative of my candles when we lost power too- they gave off more light than the crappy flashlights we had :-P
Glad to hear that you're safe!
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Carl - That's awesome. I'm glad you had a way to keep warm!
So Michael's family is ok. His grandmother's brother and wife evacuated the Rockaways, but apparently one of his cousins (and maybe his family?) stayed. His house was very close to where a fire (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57542785/breezy-point-queens-looks-forward-after-devastating-fire-following-superstorm-sandy/) was, but luckily as far as I know, his house wasn't damaged. I'm sure it scared the shit out of him, though, and maybe next time he'll evacuate.
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I had to cut my day short on Monday, some of my clients were having...flooding issues. The governor shut down all highways statewide, and we packed it in for the day. Then, at 5:15pm, another customer calls and has the nerve to ask "Are you on your way to fix my TV?" Are you fscking kidding me? Dude, your precious TV can wait.
My support office on Long Island was completely swamped...but they hauled in a generator and a satellite transmitter today, and got things going like a mobile armed command center. So I'm back in business as of tomorrow morning.
I actually didn't lose power at all during the entire ordeal...I have a municipal power station across the street from my house. I'm not on the Northeast Utilities grid at all.
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The governor shut down all highways statewide, and we packed it in for the day. Then, at 5:15pm, another customer calls and has the nerve to ask "Are you on your way to fix my TV?" Are you fscking kidding me?
Maybe with no TV he didn't know about the hurricane...
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That's...a terrible thought. To think that there are people with so little common sense or regular connection to the outside world, that they don't even know when the hurri-pocalypse is upon them. Compared to that, I almost don't mind the folks who "stand firm" in "guarding" their houses against a natural disaster with little regard for their own life.
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That's...a terrible thought. To think that there are people with so little common sense or regular connection to the outside world, that they don't even know when the hurri-pocalypse is upon them. [...]
So, how are the mole people in NY's subway system doing?
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Well I know the rats had to flee, so I am assuming the mole people either drowned or made like a rat and swam the fuck out of there.
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My life rule is - if the rats are fleeing, follow them.
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So, how often has this rule been of use to you?
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I haven't yet died in a flood, at any rate.
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Actually, it's better to beat them out. Following isn't always possible - they tend to use some of the smaller exits.
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It's kinda like running from a bear. You don't necessarily have to be the fastest...just make sure you're not the slowest.
Also, this:
(https://i.chzbgr.com/completestore/12/10/29/-XFIR1MAXEKRTxjilQVsXw2.jpg)
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It's kinda like running from a bear. You don't necessarily have to be the fastest...just make sure you're not the slowest.
No, it's really not. A bear will only maul one person at a time. If the bear was really angry, I suppose it could go up to three, given that it has two arms and one mouth, but a hurricane has no such limitations. Whether there's one or a thousand people behind you, the hurricane will not slow down to ruin the other people's days more than yours.
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God damnit Link, I told you no more Song of Storms! Now look what you did!
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My daughter asked, "What if Gangham Style's actually a rain dance?"
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Someone posted a meme to that effect on facebook the other day.
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I'm pretty sure Korea would be feeling a typhoon right now if that were the case. Even we aren't that obsessed with Gangnam.
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It's kinda like running from a bear. You don't necessarily have to be the fastest...just make sure you're not the slowest.
Also, this:
(https://i.chzbgr.com/completestore/12/10/29/-XFIR1MAXEKRTxjilQVsXw2.jpg)
That one would be for if the hurricane hit Texas...
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Or anywhere that's rural in the midwest, too. And possibly Appalachia.
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Yep. Guns n' flags should do the trick.
And duck tape.
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Duck tape or duct tape?
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Indistinguishable when pronounced as a single word.
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Ductape. Or Duck tape...it depends on whether you're an HVAC technician, or a aviary taxidermist.
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The distinction between duct and duck is pretty moot since the most popular brand of the stuff here is Duck.
(http://img.dooyoo.co.uk/GB_EN/orig/0/7/9/2/7/792735.jpg)
So it is just like using 'Kleenex' or 'Advil' or 'Styrofoam'.
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Duck tape: Not actually useful on ducts.
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Duct tape: Tape with ducts in it.
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Duck tape - good at taping ducks, if you can catch them
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Or as it's known in 'Quick Repair' racing circles, 100mph Tape
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On a weird personal note, I was browsing through some pics of the damage from Sandy on - I think a huff post site? - when I came across this;
(http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/259321/slide_259321_1711547_free.jpg?1351797333579)
I rode that coaster. It stood on the Fun Town Pier, an amusement park in Seaside Heights that my grandparents would take us to when we visited in the summer. It was a part of every summer from the time I was tall enough (8 or so?) until I started high school, and my grandparents moved.
There's nothing like the feeling of going around a curve sideways in an open coaster car with nothing but the ocean under you. No ride's ever compared.
Guys, I've just seen part of my childhood washed away to sea. :cry:
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"Everyone knows it's Windy"
LED lanterns are better than candles. They won't start a fire when they tip over in an aftershock and can last hundreds of hours. More expensive, though.
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And they need power, which not a whole lot of people have at the moment.
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Lanterns of that nature are generally battery-powered, though I'm sure some models would have a crank dynamo built in for such events that batteries may not readily be available.
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I've found when camping that a torch placed on an upturned bottle of water is quite a good method of scattering a directional beam. I'll post pics if anyone is interested and I can find a camera.
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I was wondering, do any devices exist that use batteries to charge mobile devices like phones and laptops? I imagine such a thing would be indispensible to the modern disaster-prepared technophile.
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Yes, they do exist, for phones at least; or you could use a UPS if you were going to be holed up and didn't need to carry it. Of course, a disaster that required their use would probably kill the mobile network too; but I realise that my iPhone has large scale maps of the places I go already downloaded, and also a GPS (satellites would keep going for a while, as they are essentially autonomous) and compass, so would remain possibly useful for a time.
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ThinkGeek (http://www.thinkgeek.com/brain/whereisit.cgi?t=solar+power) has a whole bunch of solar charging thingys for mobile devices, but I don't know how well they would do in weather like the Northeast has experienced.
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My boyfriend's wife has one that uses wood. You build a little fire in it and it charges a cell phone. She bought it for when she goes up to their cabin, which has no power, but where she does get a cell signal.
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I've found when camping that a torch placed on an upturned bottle of water is quite a good method of scattering a directional beam. I'll post pics if anyone is interested and I can find a camera.
Please do: I don't have a clear mental picture. And I'm short on area lighting in my disaster kit.
For recharging devices, a car charger is wonderful, at least if you have a Prius, which minimizes wasteful idling.
One maker of LED emergency lighting hooked one of their products up to a lithium battery, set it on low, and left it. It was still glowing a year later.
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I keep a 25-watt solar panel connected to a deep-cycle battery in the basement for a ham station I haven't touched in too many years. But the battery has been handy during a couple of power failures.
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I've found when camping that a torch placed on an upturned bottle of water is quite a good method of scattering a directional beam. I'll post pics if anyone is interested and I can find a camera.
Please do: I don't have a clear mental picture. And I'm short on area lighting in my disaster kit.
Good to know that actually works. I keep seeing this on Pinterest, but of course trust nothing you see on Pinterest.
(http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b291/bainidhedub/light2.jpg)
But I was able to do this in a brightly lit office with just a 500mL bottle and cheapo giveaway LED flashlight:
(http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b291/bainidhedub/light.jpg) (I don't know why this picture refuses to stay rotated. Arg.)
The slightly white plastic of a milk jug would probably be an even better diffuser.
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My daughter was flipping through xkcd's last night, and found this (http://xkcd.com/453/);
(http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/upcoming_hurricanes.png)
But it was the rollover text that got her...
"I'd like to see more damage assessments for hurricanes hitting New York and flooding Manhattan -- something like the 1938 Long Island Express, but aimed a bit more to the west. It's just a matter of time."
0_0
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XKCD is the harbinger of dooms yet to come...I shudder to think Nostradamically of their other foretellings...
...That's right, Nostradamus. I just adverbed you. Deal with it. 8)
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Don't worry. He probably saw it coming.