[Vision2020] 10-31-12 "Spokesman Review" on Hurricane Sandy: "Unthinkable"

[Ted Moffett]

When I first saw the headline in the subject heading, I could not believe
how oblivious the journalists appeared to be to the well known predictions
and warnings regarding the massive impacts of a large hurricane, magnified
by anthropogenic climate change, hitting New York and surrounding areas,
warnings that have been repeated for years by those aware of the growing
dangers posed by global warming.

*In fact Hurricane Sandy was exactly what to expect, was quite "thinkable,"
given the increasing magnitude of climate change; and the headline might
have read "Warnings Unheeded."*

*--------------------------------------------*

Today on "Now" with Alex Wagner on MSNBC, much needed focus on
anthropogenic climate change featured Bill McKibben, the video of which is
at website below:

NOW with Alex Wagner   |  *Aired on October 31, 2012*

*http://video.msnbc.msn.com/now-with-alex-wagner/49624341/#49624341
*
Sandy brings climate change into the spotlight Will the weather make it to
the front burner before 2016? Environmentalist and author Bill McKibben
joins Alex Wagner and says that these staggering events like Hurricane
Sandy “will cause people to think more powerfully about things like climate
change.”

------------------------------------------
‘Unthinkable’

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2012/oct/31/unthinkable/

Oct. 31, 2012
Hardest part yet to come after Sandy pounds East
*Joseph Tanfani* David Zucchino And Scott Gold

BEACH HAVEN, N.J. – Sandy’s departure from the Northeast on Tuesday brought
no hint of relief, revealing instead a tableau of splintered trees, severed
beaches, shuttered businesses, and the harsh reality that the storm will
test even the most hardened resolve in weeks to come.

The U.S. death toll rose to 50, including three children, and estimates of
the property damage soared to $20 billion, which would make Sandy among the
nation’s costliest natural disasters. More than 8 million homes and
businesses in 17 states were without power, half of them in New York and
New Jersey. Some outages could stretch into next week.

In the beach town of Breezy Point, N.Y., more than 80 homes were destroyed
by a ferocious electrical fire that injured three people. All that remained
of many homes were ashen foundations and concrete stoops that once led to
front doors.

Inland, “thundersnow” blizzards buried more than half of West Virginia,
where roofs of some houses began to collapse.

Near Hackensack, N.J., authorities launched a frantic rescue effort after a
flood spilled over a riverbank, rose to the bottom of stop signs in less
than an hour and trapped scores of people. Iconic pieces of the Jersey
Shore, said Gov. Chris Christie, were “washed into the ocean.”

Pockets of New York City, particularly Manhattan, remained crippled. The
subway system was flooded and closed for a second day.

By Tuesday afternoon, there were still only hints of the economic impact of
the storm.

Forecasting firm IHS Global Insight predicted the storm will end up causing
about $20 billion in damages and $10 billion to $30 billion in lost
business. Another firm, AIR Worldwide, estimated losses up to $15 billion –
big numbers probably offset by reconstruction and repairs that will
contribute to longer-term growth.

“The biggest problem is not the first few days but the coming months,” said
Alan Rubin, an expert in natural disaster recovery.

Authorities pledged an unprecedented recovery and relief effort. “No
bureaucracy. No red tape,” said President Barack Obama, who called off a
third day of campaigning for next week’s election.

Obama unlocked federal money for New York, New Jersey and Connecticut with
a major-disaster declaration, skipping post-storm assessments and signing
the paperwork even as the tail end of Sandy remained overhead. Christie
asked Obama to speed up the declaration process “without all the normal
FEMA mumbo-jumbo,” and the president agreed – finding the sufficient damage
threshold self-evident, officials said.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced he had made $13 million
in quick-release emergency funds available to New York and Rhode Island –
the first two states that asked for it – to begin repairing roads, bridges
and tunnels.

Camaraderie was apparent throughout the region. At a hospital in Manhattan,
people formed a human chain to pass fuel up to the 13th floor, the only way
to keep an emergency generator operating.

Power companies were working feverishly and in some cases – in suburban
Pennsylvania, for example – had restored power to residences five days
earlier than feared.

“Nature is an awful lot more powerful than we are,” said New York Mayor
Michael Bloomberg. But he added: “We are on the road to recovery.”

Despite the unified front, some areas bordered on desperation.

Diane Vanderhorn, 46, hiked into Beach Haven, N.J., to learn the state of
her little blue bungalow. Neighbors were coming out, dazed and carrying
shopping bags full of clothes. “You been back yet?” one asked. Vanderhorn
said she had not; the man shook his head and kept walking.

As she got closer, she saw trash cans rolling in the street, a boat
grounded near an intersection. When she stepped inside, the rug squished
under her feet. Sandy had flooded her home with seawater and filled her
boyfriend’s black sedan to the dashboard.

“Oh my God! Oh my God!” Vanderhorn cried. “What am I going to do now?” She
broke down in sobs. “I’ve got three kids. Where are we going to go? There’s
no money.”

Christie, too, was overcome with emotion after viewing the waterfront
damage. He saw submerged homes and boats piled on top of each other like
toys and called the devastation “unthinkable.”

“I was just here walking this place this summer. The fact most of it is
gone is just incredible,” he told the mayor of Belmar, N.J., Matt Doherty.

The misery will be extended by the blow Sandy delivered to the
region’s infrastructure.

In New York, officials said the storm posed the greatest threat in the
subway system’s 108 years. Flooding, they said, might have destroyed
equipment, rail lines and power sources. The subway system, which ferries 5
million people a day, might not be running again until this weekend,
officials said.

Thousands more flights scheduled for Tuesday and today were canceled,
bringing the total to more than 18,000. That surpassed the 15,000 flights
terminated by Hurricane Irene in August 2011. Some airlines had already
begun to cancel Thursday flights.

Sandy began in the Atlantic and knocked around the Caribbean – killing
nearly 70 people – and strengthened into a hurricane as it chugged across
the southeastern coast of the United States. By Tuesday night it had ebbed
in strength but was joining up with another, more wintry storm – an
expected confluence of weather systems that earned it nicknames like
“superstorm” and, on Halloween eve, “Frankenstorm.”

It became, pretty much everyone agreed Tuesday, the weather event of a
lifetime – and one shared vigorously on social media by people in Sandy’s
path who took eye-popping photographs as the storm blew through, then
shared them with the world by the blue light of their smartphones.

On Twitter, Facebook and the photo-sharing service Instagram, people tried
to connect, reassure relatives and make sense of what was happening – and,
in many cases, work to authenticate reports of destruction and storm
surges. They posted and passed around images and real-time updates at a
dizzying rate, wishing each other well and gaping, virtually, at scenes of
calamity moments after they unfolded. Among the top terms on Facebook
through the night and well into Tuesday, according to the social network:
“we are OK,” “made it” and “fine.”

By Tuesday evening, the remnants of Sandy were about 50 miles northeast of
Pittsburgh, pushing westward with winds of 45 mph. It was expected to turn
toward New York state and Canada during the night.

Although weakening as it goes, the storm will continue to bring heavy rain
and flooding, said Daniel Brown of the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

* Associated Press contributed to this report.*

*--------------------------------------------*

*Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
*
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