Utility repair crews turned back

[Han]

The Daring Dufas wrote in news:k7b5qd $sbb$ [e-mail]:

LOL

[Han]

" [e-mail]" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I am not sure why I should have put my samples in the basement to get flooded. Probably I am misreading things. I was just informed that other medical institutions near the VA were also severely damaged because they had similarly put their emergency generators in areas that got flooded. I simply don't understand that, in view of the flooding experiences from some time ago. Perhaps because of my Dutch heritage and respect for what water can do, I would have thought that a flood of magnitude A would make you take precautions to withstand a flood of at least magnitude A plus 5 feet, if not more.

75 year or even 100 year events do not wait that amount of time to recur, as you know from Floyd and other storms like Irene, the Halloween snowstorm, and now Sandy. Perhaps we should be a little more pro-active (I really hate that phrase, but it fits here).

I bought a generator ... And the help we are getting is remarkable indeed, and we are grateful for it.

We had no personal damage at all. Others weren't so lucky, but I don't know of any real personal injuries other than reported in the news.

I have seen first hand the rather mild devastation around here - mostly trees and wires down, impressive enough for me. I have seen the pictures of the shore, reminding me of the flood of '53 in Holland. Google "watersnood 1953" and click images.

Glad you got off rather well in comparison!

[knuckle-dragger]

innews: [e-mail]:

OK up to here!

Another incredible misunderstanding of statistics. Incredible because you're normally a critical thinker and don't just jump on the bandwagon. Sandy is NOT a 75 year event meaning that it only happens every 75 or even 50 years (you change in mid-thought): we might have another Sandy next year (or week) or it might be 200 or more (like infinity) years in the future. Historically Sandy and similar storms haven't happened sufficiently frequently to be able to accumulate any level of quasi-reliable data points.

Even things that have large numbers of data points (like numbers in lottery wins) are subject to random incidence. IIRC this is called the "roulette" or "Monte Carlo" principle. But amazingly people make statements like "The number ten hasn't come up in 1000 spins of the wheel so it must be due. I'll bet the farm on ten." Goodbye farm.

You also only seem to count the electric rates as a balancing item. How about the loss of life? The enormous costs to the homeowners affected? The spread of those costs via insurance to everyone else. The costs to businesses of days of missed work. The foregone revenue from tourists. The list is endless.

If anything Sandy shows just how stupid the policy of deferred upgrading is. I don't know lots about "big" electricity but there's a sub-station about 3 miles away -- huge, a full city lot, all out in the open, built on a slab, about 30-years old -- which must be rained on every time it rains. It doesn't blow up like the 14th St one. I suspect that the construction of transformers has undergone considerable changes in the intervening time especially in waterproofing but the short-term mentality (justified no doubt by similar erroneous application of statistics) meant that the 14th St sub-station has never been upgraded.

[Vic Smith]

I read somewhere that a Sandy hadn't happened in NY recorded history. About 300 years. It's a shame about those samples, and no easy answer to protecting frozen stuff requiring refrigeration. Could get very costly. I'd want my stuff buried in Antarctic ice, and deny global warming. Companies use services to store data tapes in dry caves in western arid areas. At least that was my understanding when I was in IT. Can't remember the location. But shit happens anyway. Military records lost in St. Louis fire.

[Jim Elbrecht]

Like the Svalbard Global Seed Vault-

Jim

[Smitty Two]

Anyone else remember the cryonics fiasco in which the frozen were quietly allowed to thaw when the funds dried up?

[trader4]

Yes, I'm sure you did read it in some lib rag. Go read up on the hurricane of 38 that tore through Long island and New England, killing scores. Just because man has built one hell of a lot of stuff since then that is subject to tidal surge, doesn't mean similar hurricanes haven't come and gone before.