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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Author
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Topic: Hurricane Sandy
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Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 10-30-2012 06:08 PM
Yes, it was a bad storm, yes, it was a REALLY bad storm. And every news station immediately went into hysterical hyperbole mode, liken it to The Perfect storm....The MONSTER storm. In NYC they were making it sound like Aramageddon!
Did this weather event require 3 days of round the clock, non-stop TEAM coverage, sending out poor reporters to look look like idiots, standing out in 60mph winds and in water knee deep (one on WCBS actually got blown over & completely submurged in water, microphone and all), just to basically tell me, "It's really raining hard!"? Did we need to see the same video clips over and over day and night? I got it in the first 5 minutes they showed a video of a crane that had detached with the top hanging to the main section in Manhattan; did I need to see that shot for the next three hours and hear a talking head repeat over and over his dire warnings -- pure conjecture of course on his part -- of how extremelly dangerous it was...."If that section detaches and falls, folks, it will be like TORPEDO PLUNGING INTO THE ASPHALT!" Ooooo...that's scary.
Time to turn it off and read a book.
Hype, drama, scare'em to death so they will keep tuned is what it's all about.
BTW, I live on OCEAN Ave in Brooklyn. Yah, it rained, but no more than any rainy day, and even that wasn't particularly heavy -- you wouldn't even call it a down-pour and lasted only a few hours (the crack weather TEAM was saying it would rain for DAYS). Yes, it was windy, but only a bit more than any other windy day in October, and it lasted for only a few hours.
Wonder how the news will cover the end of the world in December?! Ya think they will have TEAM coverage?
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Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 10-30-2012 10:39 PM
Yes, Armageddon is over. And yes, the crane is still hanging there, and so it's still the leading news story on the local channels here, even though there is nothing new to say about it. Hey, when a new director has scary video of a piece of a crain hanging from its top, he goes with the scary video -- that's basic Modern News Broadcasting 101.
What most people seem to miss, and which the news reporters never mentioned, is that NYC has one of the best groups of disaster response services in the country. Does anyone think, as the new reporters seem to imply, that this is the first time water got into the subway tunnels? Or that they don't already have a contingency plan to deal with such an eventuality? Or that there is no emergency procedures in place in the event that water gets into the Brooklyn Batter Tunnel -- the tunnel runs UNDER WATER...it's de facto LOWER than sea level. All night long they were running that "news" video of water gushing into the BBTunnel (long after it had receeded, mind you), yet the babbleing talking head who over and over lamented this horror, never once mentioned that the city and the Bridge and Tunnel Authority and the Port Authority had a plan in place to deal with the situation and workers were already getting the clean up started. They made it seem like no one never thought, "Gee, maybe we need to have a plan in place in case some water gets in the tunnel."
No doubt it was a massive storm, but those tunnels will be cleared and trains back running in a few days. Hell, ever look at the tracks in the subway system on a rainy day? They have water running thru them all the time -- the Flatbush Avenue stop has water constantly running between the track ALL THE TIME, like a little creek because the water table has risen over the years. The track bed is actually designed to funnel water and drain it through an elaborate drainage system.
But then, if the talking head said, they are on it, they are dealing with it and it is not a problem that doesn't have a solution, where would the DRAMA be? So long after the water has been stopped infiltrating and the tunnel is already being drained, there's those scary videos of water cascading over the entrance walls -- 45 hours after it's over.
As Linda Ellerbee used to close her newcast: "And so it goes."
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 11-02-2012 06:24 AM
quote: Mitchell Dvoskin
I live about 40 miles northwest of NYC, and may not get power back for several weeks.
Yikes - very sorry to hear that.
That's one of the many problems with disasters that cause major infrastructure damage. The news crews are there while the event is in progress, but as soon as it subsides they move on very quickly and living with serious damage becomes the new normal. After York flooded in November 2000, a friend was not able to move back in to her house until May 2002, thanks largely to different insurance companies and the council arguing over who should foot the bill for what. But within a week of the sandbags being taken away the TV crews went with them, and so no-one felt under any pressure to get things done. As an even more extreme example, the uncle of a colleague lost his car in the Minneapolis bridge collapse (not that he was complaining - I wouldn't, if I'd survived that fall uninjured!), and it was two years before the insurers finally coughed up.
It's surprising how quickly Sandy has disappeared from the news media, though. On Monday, it was virtually the only story on the front page of this paper's site. Now, it's not even on the front page.
Needless to say, I hope that Mitchell and everyone else without utilities, or worse, don't have to wait that long. The utility companies' engineers and techs have certainly got their work cut out for them in the next few weeks - that's for sure.
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Gerard S. Cohen
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 975
From: Forest Hills, NY, USA
Registered: Sep 2001
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posted 11-03-2012 09:46 PM
The aftermath of the storm revealed the consequences to be much worse than most people knew during it.
More than 80 lives were lost, and yesterday bodies were still being pulled out of the mud. A community at the tip of Rockaway Peninsula (Queens) caught fire and was destroyed, with 80 to 100 homes incinerated or totally destroyed by the surge, which contained waves of 20 feet above the rising tide. Firefighters were helpless--they couldn't get to the conflagration, and the high winds spread the flames across the rooftops.
Cooperation of city, state and federal officials was extraordinary, and frequent press conferences kept online and TV
viewers informed. The Gov. Cuomo called up 2,000 Guard soldiers. The Pentagon sent two warships, an airlift of
generators, food, water, troops and medical supplies, and barges of gasoline and diesel fuel, with priority to first responders, hospital generators, etc. Gas stations were mostly closed, lacking electric power to run their pumps, personnel to run them, and delivery of gas. Long lines of cars and people bearing gas cans at stations, waiting for them to open, erupted in fistfights, requiring police and National Guards people to keep order. Two major hospitals had to be evacuated, and some nursing homes as well, because of flooding, lack of power and
water. People in high rise buildings were without light, heat,
power and water, and of course the elevators could not operate, trapping people, especially the elderly and infirm. To get water to flush the toilets, people lined up at fire hydrants with buckets. As bus and train service slowly began to recover, they were run free of fares.
All the above was in New York City, with the worst in the Borough of Richmond (Staten Island) and lower Manhatten.
New Jersey is another story--barrier islands were reconfigured by the storm with houses swept to sea, boats deposited on main streets and railroad tracks, a Ferris wheel and loop-the-loop swept to sea, and landscapes left looking like the coast of Japan after the big tsunami.
My daughter volunteered her help in a rescue shelter, taking care of children, and my son-in-law with the Department of Sanitation. Many groups were formed, including my Temple, to collect food, clothing, etc. for those left destitute or needy by the storm.
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