"Frankenstorm"

at about 6pm, KBED winds: E 45 G 67

No suprise power went out at about 6:15pm. Took out cable TV (and internet) as well.

Well, I found out that the generator's battery still works. :)
 
AuntPeggy said:
The lights keep going out and then come back on. I jump every time they go. We don't want to go to sleep, don't want to stay up all night. We get periods of calm and periods of really strong wind. Almost no rain.

I stayed home from work because of an early morning email saying all the servers and workstations were to be turned off and stay off until further notice. Hubby went to work and was nearly the only one there. Had to work his way around downed trees to get home.

Nothing on the TV except non-stop weather reports of someone standing next to a beach or bridge breathlessly telling us to stay inside. We're warm and dry and have plenty of food and water. Just want it to stop so we can relax.
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Be safe, AP.
 
ScottK said:
Here in western pa, it's starting to wind up. Heavy rains and solid winds are steady now and winds 30G55 are expected through the night. Not too bad considering what coast got. Have in-laws on Jersey coast, but all is well there for now.

Wind is biggest concern with rain soaked ground. We lost a 50' tree awhile back in these conditions. Hope everyone pulls through tonight. Be safe!
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We're even getting more wind than usual in SE Michigan. Not sure if it's Sandy-related, though...the storm is so geographically huge that it's conceivable.
 
jpower said:
We're even getting more wind than usual in SE Michigan. Not sure if it's Sandy-related, though...the storm is so geographically huge that it's conceivable.
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Yes, it is, there is a jet straight from the north feeding into the west side of the storm, you can see it on some of the satellite images. The nice thing is we had clear and even cool weather here for the last day of boat show.
 
jpower said:
We're even getting more wind than usual in SE Michigan. Not sure if it's Sandy-related, though...the storm is so geographically huge that it's conceivable.
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It's Sandy all right -- look at the satellite picture, the rain we're getting is definitely part of the outer bands. The wind is from the pressure gradient I think -- look at the isobars on a surface analysis chart -- and it should intensify overnight as the storm moves west at its current strength, then start to subside tomorrow as the storm weakens.

METARs around here are reporting 20G30 generally. It's definitely howling outside, and the lights have flickered a couple of times. Fingers crossed that nothing comes down.
 
As of this morning in western PA, there has been some minor flooding and some trees down. Certainly not as bad as everyone thought it would be. The high wind warning has been lifted for the day, so that's a good thing.

Hopefully, this storm moves north quickly and lets everyone dry out.


Hope everyone is safe and sound out there!
 
Near Annapolis, MD just woke and up and we never lost power which is simply beyond belief as we have a very brittle grid here. Don't see any damage near the house but have not gone outside yet. Seems a lot less then we expected.
 
Threefingeredjack said:
Yeah, an 80 boat(Edit: just read another article that listed the length as 180ft. Anyone know the true dimension?? 180 puts this in another realm. has no business out in that stuff. Be interesting to hear what the inquiry, (and there WILL be one), says.
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It was a 180 foot boat and it should have been fine except it had a crew of 16 volunteers. Everyone knows you need about 5x that, pressed into service.

That is nowhere near enough for a tall ship. Handled properly 20 foot seas and 60kt winds should have been fine. Those things routinely sailed around the world, and in the southern ocean in the roaring forties and farther south those conditions could persist for days, and you are dealing with ice etc...

I am guessing they were using their aux power, lost the engine and foundered. They did not have enough crew to sail the boat in those conditions. A sailboat is much more sea worthy under sail than under power.
 
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dell30rb said:
It was a 180 foot boat and it should have been fine except it had a crew of 16 volunteers. Everyone knows you need about 5x that, pressed into service.

That is nowhere near enough for a tall ship. Handled properly 20 foot seas and 60kt winds should have been fine. Those things can be sailed in the southern ocean in much nastier conditions.

I am guessing they were using their aux power, lost the engine and foundered. They did not have enough crew to sail the boat in those conditions. A sailboat is much more sea worthy under sail than under power.
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If properly managed 25 is plenty and IIRC what they normally sail with which means some people stayed on the beach rather than leave into the storm. I would deliver that boat with a crew of as few as 9 sailors and 3 officers, but I pick them and pay them. They could have sailed that vessel as long as they had sea room, they had plenty of crew.
 
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Made it though without incident. Had a few minor brown-outs, but never lost power.

Winds were recorded at 80mph at my home airport, Westerly State (WST). Haven't been there to look and see if there's any damage - might go today after work.

Hope everyone faired as well as we did.
 
Blowing like a banshee here, walked through it both days 6 miles. Never saw a hurricane move contrary to the prevailing easterlies. Weird.
 
dell30rb said:
That is nowhere near enough for a tall ship. Handled properly 20 foot seas and 60kt winds should have been fine. Those things can be sailed in the southern ocean in much nastier conditions.

I am guessing they were using their aux power, lost the engine and foundered. They did not have enough crew to sail the boat in those conditions. A sailboat is much more sea worthy under sail than under power.
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Yes that is exactly what they were doing - on aux power and they lost the plant.....and with a crew of 16 people, it is not like you can go rig the sails in that mess. (When those ships were originally built 2-300 years ago they were manned with a couple hundred people to do the job they did without power). Also, keep in mind that back in the day, it would often take whalers and clippers a full month just to get around Cape Horn if they were going west bound.

At the point they lost power, they were at the mercy of the storm....and with no power, they could not dewater....so they abandoned ship.

Latest news is they found one body....Captain still missing.

If they truly felt that it was safer to put to sea than ride it out in port, they should have gone ESE like the rest of us. When the USN is running away at 15 kts from the spot you are driving to at 8 kts......you really have to wonder what in the hell was going through that captain's mind.
 
I don't understand why they just didn't stay in New London for a few more days. While New London/Groton ain't the garden spot of New England, there are worst places, plus Mystic is very close by. Nice restaurants, bars, quaint atmosphere...... Sailors dream.
 
KLGA ...

aguhe2us.jpg
 
Dang that is one rough photo of LGA......FWIW, I have heard that LGA is now open for military/govt helos, but JFK is still completely shut down for anything.
 
denverpilot said:
KLGA ...

aguhe2us.jpg
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So who else is considering how to fit floats on a 737?


But seriously... Can you imagine the scope of the job to bring all of the ground mounted electrical items (lights, ILS, and more) back online and meeting FAA spec?
 
AggieMike88 said:
But seriously... Can you imagine the scope of the job to bring all of the ground mounted electrical items (lights, ILS, and more) back online and meeting FAA spec?
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It is an unbelievable undertaking. From subways, and the PATH, to underground electrical infrastructure. All under SALT water. It will be a lot of $$$, and time before it all works again.
 
WOW... I forgot about NYC's subway system.
 
AggieMike88 said:
WOW... I forgot about NYC's subway system.
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Yeah. They are estimating 4 days to pump out the subways. Imagine what 4 days of salt water immersion will do to electrical switch gear, not to mention the service lighting. On the up side, the restrooms might get the most complete washdown in a generation. :D
 
Yeah, its gonna stink worse. No, that's not possible.
 
Threefingeredjack said:
Yeah. They are estimating 4 days to pump out the subways. Imagine what 4 days of salt water immersion will do to electrical switch gear, not to mention the service lighting. On the up side, the restrooms might get the most complete washdown in a generation. :D
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What restrooms?

-Rich
 
The shutdown of the NYC subway system due to weather actually is not unprecedented -- not by a long shot.

Major portions of the subway have flooded and have necessitated the closing of all or part of the system on quite a few occasions due to ordinary rain. On prior occasions when it has happened, the Governor and the MTA have traditionally made comments to the effect of making changes and improvements to the pumping system to help avoid future shutdowns. (It is the State, not the City, that runs the subway system.)

Whether any such improvements have ever been implemented is doubtful. The MTA is more adept at making staggering amounts of money disappear by way of mind-numbing inefficiency and incomprehensible accounting methods than they are at actually maintaining a transit system.

The last time I remember essentially the whole system shutting down due to weather was in August of 2007, on a day when for lack of a babysitter, I'd taken Kimberly to work with me to a job in Upper Manhattan. (That was before I farmed out my Manhattan accounts to a colleague who lived there.) I found out part way through the job that the subway system had been completely shut down due to heavy rains.

After the obligatory complaining and intensified sarcasm, Kimberly and I wound up taking a bus to the Museum of Natural History and spending the rest of the day there. So it actually turned out to be an okay day for us. I'd been meaning to take her to the AMNH anyway; and she was still little enough that she looked at anything unplanned as an adventure.

The subways were up and running again by the late afternoon (at least, enough for us to get back to the county courthouse parking garage in Queens, where we'd parked that morning). Not horrible, actually -- except for that fact that it had been the third time that year that major chunks of the system had been shut down due to ordinary, albeit heavy rain.

"What that certainly suggests to me is that we have a design issue that we need to think about," observed then-Governor Spitzer, who was never famous for his profound oratory. The MTA, for their part, mailed a free two-ride Metrocard to anyone who asked for one in writing to shut them up express their apologies for the outage. I got two of them: one mailed to me and one to Kimberly. Hey, I'd paid full fare for her, so why not?

Of course, Sandy poured unprecedented amounts of water into the system -- more, even, than did Hurricane Frances in 2004, which said storm also completely shut down the system. I don't think there's any pumping system that can handle that much water in that period of time. But the subway system has a hard time handling even ordinary rainstorms which are on the heavy side. This is something that needs to be remembered if, by chance, any improvements in the pumping system actually are implemented as a result of this storm.

-Rich
 
Power went off at 9:00 pm on Monday. Still off. No heat because the oil burner is attached to the electrical thermostat. Along with that, cable, internet, telephone are all off.

No damage. No flooding. Overall, Tuesday was a quiet day and today, Wednesday, I'm back at work, hoping that power will be restored when I get home.

Airplane is reported ok. "Even the pitot cover is intact."
 
I got a message from my son in Brooklyn yesterday and it said, "I'm fine. Storm over. Can't charge. Going to shut off phone. Talk to you later." Then a few minutes later I got a second one that said they were out of wine and beer and to FedEx some overnight, with the smiley face thing.
 
AuntPeggy said:
Power went off at 9:00 pm on Monday. Still off. No heat because the oil burner is attached to the electrical thermostat. Along with that, cable, internet, telephone are all off.

No damage. No flooding. Overall, Tuesday was a quiet day and today, Wednesday, I'm back at work, hoping that power will be restored when I get home.

Airplane is reported ok. "Even the pitot cover is intact."
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Good to hear that your airplane is OK. The rest you can live without for a while.
 
EppyGA said:
Should be interesting when they fire up the turnstyles and other electrical devices. :D
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Yup... and the insidious thing about salt water intrusion into electrical cables/ circuits and all the related components is they might work initially but will eventually fail because of corrosion...

I say......... Good luck flushing out the entire system,,, cause it ain't gonna happen.:no::nonod::no::nonod::eek:
 
AuntPeggy said:
Power went off at 9:00 pm on Monday. Still off. No heat because the oil burner is attached to the electrical thermostat. Along with that, cable, internet, telephone are all off.

No damage. No flooding. Overall, Tuesday was a quiet day and today, Wednesday, I'm back at work, hoping that power will be restored when I get home.

Airplane is reported ok. "Even the pitot cover is intact."
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Glad to see you, and others posting here, are ok. :yes:
 
Can anyone currently in the vicinity comment on how disrupted emergency services are? We just got off the phone with USCG District 1 and they were pretty much wiped out - still having to use personal cell phones to communicate.

Curious about any estimations on how long to get the city back to some kind of order.
 
Not in the vicinity, but was remotely listening to FDNY and NYPD through the usual streaming outlets and their trunked radio systems seemed to be fine at the peak of the storm. I'm sure it was all probably running on generator backup power. Listened to them fighting the fires.
 
Fearless Tower said:
Can anyone currently in the vicinity comment on how disrupted emergency services are? We just got off the phone with USCG District 1 and they were pretty much wiped out - still having to use personal cell phones to communicate.

Curious about any estimations on how long to get the city back to some kind of order.
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If the 1st is wiped out I imagine the 3rd is even worse off, as I haven't heard that New England got the hit that NY/NJ/CT did.
 
Sitrep:

PSE&G tried to restore three of our 13kv high tension feeders last night. The salt water did major damage to our switchgear so we were only able to close one, three-phase breaker! The other two started snap, crackling and popping:hairraise:.

Still no word from Con-Ed so our three NYC feeders are still O/S. We won't be opening for business anytime soon:no:.

The gas stations that are open have lines that rap around several blocks!
Luckily my job supplied emergency generators to one of the local gas stations and it's on lock down for our police, maintenance vehicles, emergency vehicles and employees only.

So glad I don't have to wait three hours in line to fill up. One less thing I need to worry about:wink2:.

Oh I almost forgot. Last night, I was monitoring our police channel and heard them responding to several gas station fights!!! It's crazy out there!

When I got off last night, I got a Port Authority Police escort through the pitch black South Tunnel into downtown Manhattan (that was cool). When I got to the Canal St. area, I was shocked to be driving around in total darkness! That was creepy. I never imagined Manhattan in complete darkness....lights out!
 
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We have five Tunnel Systems Controllers and one new trainee, however, three of my co-workers are stuck at home with no gas.:yikes:

Two of us here in the control room. I made the relief at noon but it looks like we won't be going home anytime soon! We've decided to work two tours back to back (16 hours) then stay in the hotel.

At least we have partial power back up here, so it's not all that bad. And they keep us fed:lol:.
 
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