» And damages in “the tens of billions”: With the storm largely past U.S. shores, now begins the tallying of damages. You’ve seen some examples of this already. But while it’s too soon to predict exactly what the final tally will be, in New Jersey, Chris Christie is already throwing a price tag on things. ”I’ve got to imagine that the damage estimates are going to be in the billions of dollars, if not in the tens of billions of dollars,” he told “Meet the Press” this morning. These costs will largely be eaten by the federal government. The loss of human life, however, won’t be. Click the source link above. It’s a blow by blow of saddening proportions.
A road broken in five places: ”Officials survey the damage to Route 12 on Hatteras Island, N.C., on Aug. 28. Hurricane Irene swept through the area Saturday cutting the roadway in five locations. Irene caused more than 4.5 million homes and businesses along the East Coast to reportedly lose power over the weekend, and at least 11 deaths were blamed on the storm.” Roughly 2,500 people are stuck on Hatteras Island as a result of this. (thanks kateoplis)
Some good stuff here that builds upon what we posted last night. Great post, Graham Marsden!
Anyone who doubts this was a serious storm is welcome to come on down to eastern North Carolina, where we’re trying to put communities back together. We still have thousands displaced, hundreds of homes damaged or destroyed, thousands without power and, oh by the way, killed two people in the county in which I live. We’ve got a billion-dollar disaster here, even if it didn’t happen in a large American city or the world’s media capital.
So, yeah, come on down. Rent a truck to haul debris. Bring a chainsaw. Or save yourself the travel and send some money to the American Red Cross, which is trying to help those in need. Irene may not have hit New York as forecast, but it was bad enough from where I stand. So lend a hand or shut the hell up.
Pretty much everything he said. Virginia got it pretty bad too.
(Source: shortformblog)
We just spotted a reblog to an Irene post which angered us a little bit. It belittled the storm, piece by piece, because it could. It criticized the post for pointing out the diameter of the storm — you know, the huge slow-moving storm that has flooded areas of the country from North Carolina to New York. Sure, it’s not a powerful storm by hurricane standards, but it is one that caused a lot of damage nonetheless. This guy also made a bunch of other inconsiderate comments (he belittles the fact that people died!), but let’s be clear: While this storm was not as bad as it could’ve been, it did cause damage and wide-scale flooding and inconvenience millions of people not used to storms of this nature. Sometimes, the snark is warranted. In this case, it’s not. People died. Millions of dollars of damage was caused. Millions of people not used to storms like these were affected. As our friend Mark says in “The Room”: Leave your stupid comments in your pocket!
czech-mixx asks: I was wondering if you guys knew which roads in the district are closed? I'm trying to head back to school and ddot isn't being useful...I'm specifically worried about Canal NW and Chain Bridge NW.
» SFB says: We haven’t been watching the traffic closures too closely, but The Washington Post’s Dr. Gridlock has a really good list of traffic-related closings.
Good morning all. Our night was relatively painless as far as hurricanes go. Tucker Barnes, a reporter for FOX affiliate WTTG, had a much tougher go of it. He got covered in raw sewage while reporting on the hurricane in Ocean City, Maryland. Eww. We hope that most of you on the East Coast are having better luck this morning than Mr. Barnes. (On a side note, our post on fact-checking Hurricane Irene photos appears to have gone viral, which warms our hearts because it means people care about fact-checking. Good work, internet!)
1:30 a.m. check-in: Storm strongly over Jersey and NYC, with the eye firmly in the Chesapeake Bay. Winds picking up in the DC area. North Carolina is nearly out of the woods entirely with the storm. The real question: Has anyone considered Halifax? it looks like they’re gonna get a touch of that Irene magic too. Is Nova Scotia nice this time of year?
Watch a timelapse video of Hurricane Irene rolling through Washington D.C.
A little dimmer and darker than this one from Norfolk on Friday. Just lost our power for the fourth fifth time in about two hours. It’s come back every time after about a minute.
(Source: brooklynmutt)
Wrote a thing.
Hat tip to this headline writer.
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That’s right, us: Anyone else in DC having storm-related issues yet? Doesn’t seem too bad yet in our neck of the woods.
*EDIT*: Upper NW over here, near UDC. We have a working phone that we can tether as a connection if we need it. Plus a laptop with a new battery and an iPad.
- Storm now measures 580 miles in diameter;
- At least eight dead;
- 900,000 customers have lost power in those two states;
- All 11 Atlantic City casinos closed — only the third time in history;
- The Schuylkill River is expected to crest at 15 feet on Sunday night — something that has not happened there since 1869;
- SEPTA is shut down;
- 375,000 residents ordered to evacuate from low-lying areas of New York City — only five previous hurricanes have ever tracked within 75 miles of the city since records have been kept;
- Five NYC area airports have been ordered closed: JFK, LaGuardia, Stewart, Newark Liberty, and Teterboro; Philadelphia’s too; 10,000 flights nationwide cancelled;
- Con Edison shut down 10 miles of steam pipes beneath New York City to prevent explosions should they come in contact with cold water;
- MTA shuts down all commuter, bus and subway lines in New York City (comprising more than 6,000 subway cars which normally carry 8.5 million passengers each weekday);
- Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority will do same as of 8 A.M. Sunday morning.
I think anyone who still thinks Irene is overhyped can STFU now.
What he said.
Bloomberg speaking about Irene: The mayor says that if you jerks haven’t evacuated your homes, “the time for that has passed.” Stay inside.
Tweet of the night: Newark Mayor Cory Booker’s dirty joke to cheer up the folks holed up in a city shelter ahead of Hurricane Irene. Only Cory Booker could get away with a joke like this as a cheer-me-up.
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