Comments on: Good Night Irene https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/08/27/good-night-irene/ Wed, 31 Aug 2011 12:26:46 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.6 By: Rob https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/08/27/good-night-irene/#comment-507377 Wed, 31 Aug 2011 12:26:46 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/08/27/good-night-irene/#comment-507377 I lost power in the Maryland suburbs of DC for almost 48 hours. Tens of thousands more were (are?) without electricity for longer. I had rain for 24 hours, and winds/gusts above 20 mph for at least half that time, mostly from roughly 6 pm on Saturday Aug 27 to 6 am on Sunday.

Monday and Tuesday were gorgeous and today promises to be nice too. The air was clear and the temperatures cooler than average, and certainly much cooler than earlier in the summer. Mornings have been around 60 here, which I am not complaining about.

]]> By: P Smith https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/08/27/good-night-irene/#comment-507376 Mon, 29 Aug 2011 16:55:48 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/08/27/good-night-irene/#comment-507376 Nanmadol turned out to be the big bad chihuahua: all bark and no bite. It huffed but it didn’t puff, and it wouldn’t have knocked down a shoji house in Japan, never mind wood.

For days it got stronger and stronger, building from category 2 to 4 and threatening 5, then as soon as it got to Taiwan, it wimped out. The south got hit by a lot of rain, but there was no damage. The storm did another zigzag, going west toward the mainland and not even reaching Taichung (“middle city”; Taipei means “north city”). I live north of that, and there were clear skies today.

The government closed schools as a precaution, but nothing happened. Cripes, I went bike riding today, and the winds barely qualified as a breeze, never mind dangerous. It was a bigger no-show than Harold Camping.

.

]]> By: Physicalist https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/08/27/good-night-irene/#comment-507375 Mon, 29 Aug 2011 02:17:24 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/08/27/good-night-irene/#comment-507375 Basically a non-event in Boston (which is how I like it).

]]> By: Jesse https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/08/27/good-night-irene/#comment-507374 Sun, 28 Aug 2011 15:05:00 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/08/27/good-night-irene/#comment-507374 Greg: to your point about strong roofs, it’s worth noting that a common design in New England especially is to have the pilings (on those pretty seaside houses in Scituate or Hull, for instance) driven deep into the sand. That is, the ones that were built 100 years ago are actually better built than more recent homes, largely because they didn’t have concrete. The pilings (the under-sand part, anyhow) don’t rot easily and they aren’t going anywhere. They’ve often stood up to massive storms already.

And yeah, if your roof can handle 60 mph+ winds and a foot of snow, a lot of rain and wind is not likely to damage it much.

Someone explain this to me: I lived in Florida for a bit. And people there insist on building houses that are essentially bungalows on a slab of concrete. And then it is this gigantic mystery why they get blown off the foundations in a hurricane — an occurrence that is not a surprise, I would think. They also insist on building their piling-less (either concrete or wood) houses right in front of the water without even putting them up on a dock, or something, anything.

What drives this craziness?

]]> By: hoary puccoon https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/08/27/good-night-irene/#comment-507373 Sun, 28 Aug 2011 10:58:44 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/08/27/good-night-irene/#comment-507373 we’re in France, so completely out of it, but we’re really thinking about you guys on the east coast– old friends in the Carolinas, family in the Boston area– hang in there, everybody.

]]> By: fancyflyer https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/08/27/good-night-irene/#comment-507372 Sun, 28 Aug 2011 06:04:38 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/08/27/good-night-irene/#comment-507372 The winds blow out windows though, and the flying (or falling) glass can be dangerous. Downed power lines are really dangerous, especially with lots of water on the ground. Don’t go out roaming around thinking you’re Batman.

]]> By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/08/27/good-night-irene/#comment-507371 Sun, 28 Aug 2011 05:06:42 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/08/27/good-night-irene/#comment-507371 Jesse: All good points. Another thing is that in the northeast, houses that are not built to handle a couple of feet of snow on the roof don’t last long (and usually don’t get built to begin with). Strong wind is different than strong roof, but there is a connection.

Plus, even if it may not always feel this way, the zoning laws in NY and New England are both real and mostly effective compared to certain other places.

]]> By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/08/27/good-night-irene/#comment-507370 Sun, 28 Aug 2011 04:51:24 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/08/27/good-night-irene/#comment-507370 Edge of Hurricane Reaches NY:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/?wpisrc=al_national

]]> By: Jesse https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/08/27/good-night-irene/#comment-507369 Sun, 28 Aug 2011 04:00:20 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/08/27/good-night-irene/#comment-507369 So far in NYC just raining a lot and some wind. ‘m not all that worried about Manhattan b/c we get our water form upstate and it’s pumped underground; the only way to lose it would be a massive failure that frankly a hurricane isn’t likely to cause.

Power is another story, but we have underground lines here. In Brooklyn and Queens more is above ground, and that is more problematic for people. And if you have that nice house in the Rockaways it might be under threat.

I dunno, to me, the geography of New York City prevents the possibility of a Katrina-scale problem even with a stronger storm; Manhattan is largely pretty high (it’s hilly) and the lower parts of the city are out by the Airport and the beaches. The Bronx is on the mainland and it’s also pretty hilly as these things go. And a 20-story brick building isn’t going to move that much in a 100 mph wind, even.

I don’t mean to sound like I think there’s never anything to worry about. But I have lived in storm-prone areas most of my life. I’ve learned to respect them, but also I like to think developed a realistic assessment of what they are likely to do. Honestly, nor’easters scare me more.

]]> By: Lou Jost https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/08/27/good-night-irene/#comment-507368 Sun, 28 Aug 2011 03:23:03 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/08/27/good-night-irene/#comment-507368 #11, Remember the people who really got smacked don’t have electricity or internet anymore, so there could be a reporting bias here….

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