NYC subway repair

[Ed Pawlowski]

Last October we had week long+ outages. The local TV stations were touting it can happen again and to stock up, fill gas tanks, etc. Most did, but some just don't have common sense.

[Peter]

And your source of home heating and long term refrigeration is....?

[Kurt Ullman]

Which I have always found interesting since most city and state emergency plans assume the individual is on their own for at least the first 24 hours and that outside help won't be on the ground for 72. The basic disaster supply from ready.gov says you need enough food and water for AT LEAST 3 days. Also FEMA, by law and mission statement, is only there to ADVISE and assist the locals. They can't run things and are required to take their cues from the locals.

[The Daring Dufas]

Them Damn Yankee city dwellers don't know a country boy can survive. I think I heard that in a song. ^_^

TDD

[Stormin Mormon]

My guess, is that a small number of NYC folks are well prepared. Wisely, they are staying totally out of sight. They don't want to be mobbed, looted, and killed to "bring them down to our level".

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

.

Them Damn Yankee city dwellers don't know a country boy can survive. I think I heard that in a song. ^_^

TDD

[gfretwell]

They all tell you to fill your gas tanks here and to stock up on food and water. I have said it before but the best idea I have come up with is to pack your freezer with half liter water bottles long before the storm hits. I guess it all depends on how you understand hurricanes and the damage they cause. We have friends in Punta Gorda who were living an 18th century lifestyle for a couple months after Charley.

I have a dual fuel generator with 150 gallons of propane in the yard and I usually have about 50 gallons of gasoline in the shed. I have a boat so it stays fresh. ;-)

With a well and an R/O water is not really a problem as long as I can run the pump and we usually have plenty of food in the house.

In reality Publix (supermarket) does a great job of getting their stores open pretty fast after a storm. Most have generators to hold the coolers and they have always been well stocked. Most even have dry ice. Being a Florida company, they understand about building on high ground. I can get to mine by boat. Fortunately I live behind barrier islands and 3 miles of pretty much undisturbed mangrove forest so storm surge will be greatly mitigated. This is where the indians used to hide from hurricanes for the last

10,000 years.

[Pete C.]

City dwellers take most everything for granted, rural dwellers not so much. While those in the city run around helpless wondering when the transportation they rely on will be running, where they will get their TP, etc. Rural dwellers are already out cleaning up the mess, cutting up the fallen trees, etc. and otherwise taking responsibility for themselves.

[Pete C.]

I saw something on TV that indicated the price gouging laws allowed something like a 10% increase which I would think would cover the cost of running a generator. I'm pretty sure that a station running on a generator could post a sign reminding folks of the extra cost of that and people would generally understand a small increase.

[Pete C.]

Wood stove and cold weather?

[Pete C.]

Pretty much every emergency related organization has had the same 3 day kit recommendation for literally decades. More people are starting to take that seriously, but it's still a slow process to try to get people to take responsibility for themselves. There seems to be an entitlement mentality that thinks FEMA should be airdropping supplies and personal disaster assistants to each an every household within a few hours of the event.

[Pete C.]

There are plenty of rural Yankees who are doing just fine. The issue is city dweller disease, cities are a cancer on civilization.

[gfretwell]

He also needs to recover the cost of the generator the installation (not trivial in a classified location like a gas station) and maintaining the generator.

A better example is batteries. The news is saying they are simply out of batteries in New York New, Jersey and large areas of the northeast. An enterprising guy might load up a truck at the Walmart in Tennessee or Kentucky and drive up there but if he could only mark them up 10%, he isn't going to do it. They simply don't get batteries. Is that better? Ask the guy sitting in the dark with a dead radio how much batteries are worth.

[Smitty Two]

Would it be gouging if he charged list price for the batteries, and $7.95 for "shipping?"

[G. Morgan]

I heard they even have pump-trains.

[George]

They have 3 diesel powered pump trains. They basically pull up to a flooded area and run discharge hoses up vents to the street and start pumping.

What cracks me up are all of the people who think all you need to deal with storm damage of this magnitude is a sheet of bounty..

[G. Morgan]

That's good, as long as the storm drains on street level can handle it.

No doubt. Water is always the biggest problem in a storm like this, many think it's the wind.

I talked to a friend outside of Yonkers, NY. He says the train just started running again, clear into Grand Central.

[clare]

Would any sane new yorker or jersey boy think there was a POSSIBILTY that if hit by "frankenstorm", there would not be EXTENSIVE damage to infrastructure? Or that there was even a SLIM possibility that repairs would be done in record time??????

If I lived in the path of a forcast storm of that magnatude - and that close to the ocean, with stormsurge forcasts like that - I'd be getting the H#!! out of Dodge!!!!!

It's bad enough when a blizzard or ice storm hits Central Ontario. We know SOMEONE is going to be out of power for a week.

We are prepared to exist in the cold - even if we have to sleep in 4 layers of clothes in a sleeping bag.

Being under 6 feet of water is a different story.

[rbowman]

In 1972, I worked for a company that got a contract to do the cleanup in an industrial plant after Agnes stalled out and flooded the Chemung Valley of NY, including Corning and Painted Psot. We needed two or three rools of Bounty... 6 feet of muddy water on the production floor doesn't do much for the machinery.

[clare]

In the winter, when we are most likely to be without power, a snowbank or the garage works fine for refrigeration - heck, the house can be cold enough. If it looks like the power will be out long enough we just drain the water, lock the doors, and head up to the (friend's) farm. Wood furnace, a few hundred gallons of fuel oil to run the tractor on the genset if required, 6 cords of wood out beside the barn, and lots of food in the cellar and freezers.

When a storn is forcast, BOTH vehicles have full tanks - so does the snowblower and the generator - and both jerry cans are also full. If we have to empty one vehicle to keep the generator going the other one still has enough to get us a few hundred miles from home if we have to

- and the farm is only 20 miles - if the power stays out that long.

Generator was a bit hard starting, even after cleaning the carb and putting in fresh gas this week - had a sticky intake valve so I just fixed THAT this afternoon. Second pull starts the 1950s era Onan now.

[George]

The 7 train is also running the full run from 42nd St to Main St Flushing. They had to pump out the Steinway tube and get the signals going to make that happen.