Thankfully, Irene turned out to be pretty mild. Had it gone the other way and become a Category 3 storm, we'd be hearing "experts" yell at us that it was a harbinger of future doom because we weren't driving Chevy Volts and using Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs. Since it was kind of a dud, there's no linkage between Irene and
Meanwhile, we can all have some fun at the expense of the doom-mongers.
For the television reporter, clad in his red cagoule emblazoned with the CNN logo, it was a dramatic on-air moment, broadcasting live from Long Island, New York during a hurricane that also threatened Manhattan.LOL! Dig this:
“We are in, right, now…the right eye wall, no doubt about that…there you see the surf,” he said breathlessly. “That tells a story right there.”
Stumbling and apparently buffeted by ferocious gusts, he took shelter next to a building. “This is our protection from the wind,” he explained. “It’s been truly remarkable to watch the power of the ocean here.”
The surf may have told a story but so too did the sight behind the reporter of people chatting and ambling along the sea front and just goofing around. There was a man in a t-shirt, a woman waving her arms and then walking backwards. Then someone on a bicycle glided past.
Yes, New York is just too far north to get a real serious hurricane. The water in the surrounding ocean just doesn't get warm enough to support much more than a tropical storm.
ReplyDeleteWhat I've been wondering about is whether a hurricane running straight up Chesapeake Bay could deliver a solid storm surge to Washington, DC. Irene almost did it, but she was just a bit too far to the east.
Hey... what's with the full frontal nudity? ...
ReplyDeleteThat can't be real. Please. Tell me that's not real. If it were real, the Weather Channel would have to shut its doors and fold.
ReplyDeleteBTW, the Mrs and I got a lot of laughs when Jim Cantore made his historic comment about "Vermont's Worst Hurricane Evah" and its 30mph winds.
Good Lord! Wind! Rain! It's Armageddon!
ReplyDeleteActually it was pretty bad if you lived in the Carolinas.
ReplyDeleteWe've got a reporter on the ground! tom's from South Carolina.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it was bad in North Carolina, but once the track shifted off Charleston, we were impressed by the hyperventillation.
ReplyDeleteLots of talk here about the response to Floyd in 1999. Overall the effect is to dull people's reactions so when there is a problem, they don't move. "Yeah, right. Another doomsday hurricane. If I try to evacuate I'm just going to get stuck in traffic while North Carolina takes a hit. No thanks."
The only real physical impact was shoreline erosion. Mark Sanford took a lot of grief for not funding beach replenishment, but events like this show that he was right. Living on a barrier island is a futile thing. Just let it go.
I've heard that the hurricane wasn't much, but the rain has done some pretty big damage outside of the cities.
ReplyDeleteKind of like it's been doing all this year, really...probably made worse by a lot of the ground being waterlogged, and a lot of the emergency prep being moved to the cities instead of to flood control. Always assuming we don't find out that this is yet more brilliant "let's flood farmland and return it to nature" BS.
Foxie, as a total aside, did you know that one of George Washington's bigggest personal business undertakings was an attempt to drain the Great Dismal Swamp?
ReplyDeleteI can only imagine what a terror that was....
ReplyDelete(In an equally far aside: betcha bucks to biskets that the folks who wrote the page you link are big defenders of the "wild (feral, introduced species) horses.")
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