NASTY SANDY CHURNING UP THE COAST

Wow, NYC is just getting pounded. The damage is going to be incalculable.

Cycloptichorn

The cold front from Canada is not even close enough to freeze all this water never mind sea water.
That would take hurricane like winds of brutal temps. Seawater freezes at -1.9C, the salt seperates and only the H2O freezes. At that temperature, only the top layer freezes with some slushy water holding it up. To freeze 10 inches of fresh water on a lake, you still need really cold weather, for a fairly long duration, say -20 for a week or more. This storm may be cold, but it's not a blizzard.


On that note, I hope you are all safe and sound.

There's a lot of infrastructure underground in Manhattan, besides just the subways. The hard New York granite (called schiff) has long been considered as impermeable, besides being very strong and able to bear huge loads, and as a result there's been lots of underground tunneling for power, communications and other systems. I suspect the flooding of subway tunnels could well invade some of them as well. If so the recovery may take a long time.

Didn't they rebuild New Orleans?

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/shauntanner/comment.html?entrynum=216

Sandy: Latest State By State Information From Weather Underground Coverage
Posted by: Shaun Tanner, 5:29 PM GMT on October 29, 2012

We have broken down the latest news state by state so you can easily follow what is happening as Hurricane Sandy comes ashore.

You can also follow the latest by following us on twitter.

All times are eastern.

Sandy

Monday

4:48 PM: Almost 1 million people without power from NC thru NH.

3:59 PM: 470,000 without power in 13 states and DC

2:10 PM: NWS: NHC is expecting this system to reach the coast 6 pm to 8 pm. ET

2:03 PM: With #Sandy increasing her speed to 24 mph, landfall is close to 4 hours away.

1:32 PM: Heavy rain from #Sandy now spreading throughout Mid-Atlantic. http://wxug.us/tl8q

11:13 AM: Dr. Masters says, "Superstorm #Sandy intensifying, bringing record storm surges" http://wxug.us/tkfl

5:48 AM: Hurricane Sandy from GOES-East satellite http://twitpic.com/b8h653

6:51 AM: Satellite loop shows clearly that #Sandy is moving toward the coast. http://wxug.us/tjkg

Rhode Island

Monday

1:50 PM: Coastal areas of RI are showing a storm surge of 3 feet right now. These areas are in low tide. High tide part of the cycle upcoming.

1:02 PM: Another coastal flooding WunderPhoto. This one out of RI. http://bit.ly/RitHFC


Delaware

Monday
12:52 PM: WunderPhotos are documenting coastal flooding already underway. http://bit.ly/RitySv


New York

Tuesday
12:07 AM: Storm tide at Battery Park, NY decreasing rapidly moving toward low tide and is now at 8.62 feet.

Monday

6:58 PM: Kings Point storm surge at 12.3 feet.

6:57 PM: Battery storm tide (surge+tide) now at 10.69 feet, breaking the old record of 10.5 feet.

6:53 PM: Storm tide (storm+tide) at Battery, NY is at 10.39 feet and rising. The record is 10.5 feet.

5:47 PM: 9.1 foot storm surge at Kings Point, NY, approaching low tide.

5:43 PM: Wind at wx station south of Long Island sustained at 54 mph, gusting to 69 mph. bit.ly/XNY9Nw

5:36 PM: Battery storm surge, at 6.7 feet. Rate of increase is slowing.

4:49 PM: Battery storm surge up to 6.6 feet, Sandy Hook, NJ surge at 7.4 feet.

4:26 PM: Port Authority of New York & New Jersey and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to close New York City bridges at 7:00 PM today.

4:03 PM: Battery storm surge up to 6.3 feet.

3:33 PM: Storm surge at Battery, NY up to 5.7 feet.

2:58 PM: Partial crane collapse in New York City. Watch live. nbcnews.to/WVR4M5

2:25 PM: WX station south of Long Island reporting sustained winds of 56 mph, gusting to 69 mph. http://bit.ly/TQevjl #Sandy

2:16 PM: Diff btw normal high tide and low tide at Battery is ~5 feet. The surge right now is making the water level equivalent to high tide.

2:12 PM: Battery, NY storm surge at 4.9 feet. This is higher than Irene, but keep in mind it is currently occurring at near low tide.

12:30 PM: The Battery, NY storm surge currently at 3.3 feet, but low tide is approaching.

11:14 AM: Gov Cuomo: Holland tunnel and Brooklyn Battery Tunnel closing at 2pm today

11:14 AM: Receiving reports of significant surge flooding in Bayville, NY and Edgewater in the Bronx.

9:12 AM: Waves have increased to 23 feet at buoy south of Islip, NY

6:05 AM: 41 mph sustained wind speed at Robins Reef buoy south of NYC. http://bit.ly/S88Shd

8:18 AM: High tide approaching at The Battery, NY with a storm surge of slightly over 3 feet.

8:04 AM: JFK Airport winds are up to 31 mph, gusting to 51 mph this past hour. http://bit.ly/Ss8wo4

7:37 AM: Storm Surge at The Battery, NY nearly at 3 feet at this hour.

7:13 AM: Buoy south of Islip, NY reporting ~19 foot waves. http://bit.ly/Tpctuk

7:01 AM: Sustained wind speed at buoy south of Islip, NY now up to 43 mph.

New Jersey

Monday

11:30 PM: The storm tide at Sandy Hook, NJ 13.3 feet earlier, which is 3.2 feet higher than previous record of 10.1 feet set during Donna (1960)

5:32 PM: NWS: Sandy Hook reached 10.11 on the gage and rising quickly, breaking old record set by Donna (1960) and the Nor'easter (1992)

4:49 PM: Battery storm surge up to 6.6 feet, Sandy Hook, NJ surge at 7.4 feet.

4:29 PM: PWS at Tuckerton Beach, NJ reporting sustained wind speed of 66 mph. http://bit.ly/Tkd5gr

4:05 PM: Atlantic City recorded a pressure of 959 mb at 4 pm, setting the city's record for lowest pressure on record. http://bit.ly/XNpi38

3:25 PM: Will be watching PWS along NJ coast over next few hours. Watch the pressure fall rapidly. Current pressure ~959 mb http://bit.ly/TkdMqa

2:23 PM: Sandy Hook, NJ storm surge is now up to 5.9 feet.

1:46 PM: Wx station at Robins Reef, NJ south of NYC reporting sustained winds 46 mph, gusting to 56 mph. http://bit.ly/Yf0LTT

1:35 PM: Webcam of heavy surf rolling in to Brigantine, NJ. http://bit.ly/YeYwA5

1:33 PM: Storm surge at Cape May, NJ now at almost 5 feet, going into low tide period.

11:12 AM: From AP: Willie Glass, public safety director for Atlantic City, says much of the city is under water.

8:36 AM: Nearly 4 foot storm surge currently at Sandy Hook, NJ.

7:48 AM: The sea is angry on a WU webcam in Ocean City, NJ. Take a look http://bit.ly/Ss6Fj1

7:41 AM: Atlantic City, NJ also experiencing a 3 foot storm surge at this hour.

7:15 AM: Pressure is falling on the NJ coast. PWS near Cape May is at 987 mb right now. http://bit.ly/QPDTHy

7:03 AM: 3.2 foot storm surge right now at Cape May, NJ

Maryland

Monday

3:50 PM: Maryland has closed the main bridge across the Chesapeake Bay because of high winds from Hurricane Sandy.

2:32 PM: 8-12 inches of rain in Baltimore possible from Sandy.

11:15 AM: Valarie Weiler-Killinger posted on Facebook Wall - the Ocean City, MD pier destroyed: http://ow.ly/i/14ovt

7:32 AM: Storm total rainfall via radar shows 6-10 inches of rain over the Chesapeake Bay area.

7:19 AM: Cam at Fagers Island in OC video of water on bay & land. Gazebo half underwater. http://bit.ly/QPciX8

6:57 AM: Rain gauges in eastern MD are quickly filling up. Take a look. http://wxug.us/tjl0

6:55 AM: As #Sandy advances on the coast, heavy rain is spreading thru MD http://wxug.us/tjku

Connecticut

Monday

5:55 PM: Bridgeport, CT storm surge 8.35 feet at this time.

9:13 AM: Connecticut Light & Power is reporting 6,361 power outages. http://bit.ly/S888si

North Carolina

Monday:

3:44 PM: 4 to 8 inches of snow expected in western part of North Carolina.

9:07 AM: Replica of HMS Bounty stuck at sea as 17 people abandon ship off NC. Taking on water.

Massachusetts

Monday:

4:07 PM: 4.5 foot storm surge recorded as far north as Boston, MA

3:03 PM: 81 mph wind gusts recorded on Cuttyhunk Island in Massachusetts.

1:41 PM: WX station at Cuttyhunk, MA reporting sustained winds 62 mph, gusting to 71 mph. http://bit.ly/YeZPz3

8:39 AM: Storm surges for MA area are 2-2.5 feet. Some gauges are above flood stage, expect minor to moderate coastal flooding

Delaware

Monday
8:09 AM: Sustained winds up to 48 mph at Brandywine Shoal Light in Delaware Bay. http://bit.ly/Ss8NHC

7:45 AM: Sustained wind at Brandywine Shoal Light in Delaware Bay up to 47 mph, gusting to 59 mph. http://bit.ly/QPDYv5

7:17 AM: Brandywine Shoal Light is reporting sustained wind 44 mph, gusting to 57 mph. http://bit.ly/QPDYv5

7:08 AM: Buoy in Delaware Bay at Ship John Shoal reporting sustained winds of 31 mph. http://bit.ly/QPD41m

Illinois

Monday:
7:32 AM: Sandy is huge. Storm Warnings on Lake Michigan warn of 20-25 foot waves on the lake. http://bit.ly/QPEtoL

West Virginia

Monday

6:21 PM: Meanwhile, WV looks like a Winter wonderland...bit.ly/UblpjJ

2:28 PM: Blizzard conditions too where Hurricane Sandy meets an upper-level system. Up to 2-3 feet possible! http://fb.me/1fCsNG955

7:21 AM: As heavy rain falls on the east coast, snow falls in WV. http://wxug.us/tjml Temps are in the 30s in the Appalachians.

7:12 AM: Light snow falling now in Beckley and Bluefield, WV and Marion, VA. Winter radar/alerts: http://wxch.nl/TPu1fw

Michigan

Tuesday
12:04 AM: Moving to the west...wx station on Lake Michigan is reporting sustained wind speeds to 52 mph at this hour. http://bit.ly/RsVLIh

Monday
2:58 PM: NWS Detroit : Wave heights on Lake Huron could reach 38 feet.

Pennsylvania

Monday

4:54 PM: Many rivers and streams around Philadelphia approaching flood stage. http://wxug.us/tm70

The wind around here died just after midnight like someone threw a big switch, and the rain stopped. Right now it's dead calm outside, no rain at all and very warm (65 deg... at 5am that's very unusual for this time of year).

The storm is basically over here. It did some very eird things and we got spared some insults because the township had, just in the two months prior, done a major manicure of trees that are along right of ways. (We apparently had a little bit of infrastructurenmoney left so the roadmaster decided to use it for "A way to prevent major damage from any winter storms". (Today hes a hero cause our little section of the power grid is fine and we all came through without loss of power despite many tree falls)

I see that theres a levee break in Bergen County NJ and three towns are being inundate and its a major S&R effort going on)

Loss of major stretches of power in our area seems to be focused on Philly, Belaware County, Chester and Montgomery Counties . As the storm proceeded N and W, it seemed to lose its devastating punch and turned into a middling strong NE'er.

At first light I need to run around the edges of fields and into the woods to see hat tree downs I have (may as well make firewood rather than let it rot on the stumps)

So glad to hear you're OK fm and Ros. Hoping Glitterbag will let us know as soon as she can.

Looks like Gov Christie has thrown the mayor of Atlantic City under the bus because the mayor contradicted Christie when the Gov called for mandatory evacs of the city. Many people went to in=city shelters and then had to be rscued by Nat Guard and that pissed off Christie for placing his Guard in harms way.

Looks like, over all, Connecticut got a huge blow with flooding

I hope you all will be well. I am reliving hurricane Ike through these stories. Not a comfortable thing. I am grateful to have good weather here for now.

well, we need to be periodically humbled and recognize the old phrase that "NATURE BATS LAST"

the economics of this may be pretty big. Im hearing of all kinds of damage and inconvenience from Va to Ohio and into New England.

They say that about 22 people have died in the storm. The "Onion Capitol"f the US is the area around and including Long Island. Fortunately the onion harvests hve all been completed in Sept

One can only wonder what the reaction would be if the north east ever got hit by a cat 3 or higher given the over reaction to a large cat 1.

Hell when what look like a transformer in a sub station shorted out in New York last night you would had thought the world was coming to an end or when one large crane in the city was broken and it parts might fall to the street below for that matter.

I guess it is all what you are use to and if there was a large snow storm in Miami we might reacted in a similar over the top manner.

Still all in all it time you guys man up a little bit over this storm and the resulting damage from this storm.

Here is a few pictures of the results of a cat 5 hitting........

HMS Bounty crew member dies and captain missing in stormy seas Superstorm Sandy causes famous ship used in Hollywood films to sink in immense waves, as crew post updates on Facebook
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When the Bounty set sail last week, the captain running the ship made famous in Hollywood adventure films believed he could navigate around hurricane Sandy and weather the storm. After two days in rough seas, he realised his journey would be far more difficult.

"I think we are going to be into this for several days," Robin Walbridge said in a message posted on Sunday on the vessel's Facebook site, which reads like a ship's log of its activities. "We are just going to keep trying to go fast."

By Monday morning, the vessel had started taking on water, its engines failed and the crew of the stately craft had to abandon ship as it went down in the immense waves. One crew member died and Walbridge was still missing.

Most of the sailors were plucked from life rafts shortly after the ship went down, but Claudene Christian is found hours later, unresponsive and floating in the water. She was pronounced dead after being taken to hospital, coastguard David Weydert said.

The rest of the crew was in good condition.

By the time the first rescue helicopter arrived, all that was visible of the replica 18th century sailing vessel was a strobe light atop the ship's submerged masts.

The final hours of HMS Bounty were as dramatic as the movies it starred in.

"When a crew decides it's safer in an inflatable than it is on deck, then you know she's [the ship's] in peril," said Bill Foster, the mayor of St Petersburg, Florida - a frequent winter port for the ship and where it had been expected to arrive in November.

The ship was originally built for the 1962 film Mutiny on the Bounty starring Marlon Brando, and it was featured in several other films over the years, including one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

Rochelle Smith, 44, met Christian this summer when they sailed on HMS Bounty in Nova Scotia.

"She loved the Bounty. She absolutely loved it. She was so happy to be on it and doing something that she found that she loved to do," said Smith, a medical transcriptionist who lives in Ontario, Canada.

The vessel left Connecticut on Thursday with a crew of 11 men and five women, ranging in age from 20 to 66. Everyone aboard knew the journey could be treacherous.

"This will be a tough voyage for Bounty," read a posting on the ship's Facebook page, which showed a map of its coordinates and satellite images of the storm. Photos showed the vessel plying deep blue waters and the crew working in the rigging or keeping watch on deck.

As Sandy's size became more apparent, a post on Saturday tried to soothe any worried supporters. "Rest assured that the Bounty is safe and in very capable hands. Bounty's current voyage is a calculated decision … NOT AT ALL … irresponsible or with a lack of foresight as some have suggested. The fact of the matter is … A SHIP IS SAFER AT SEA THAN IN PORT!"

As the storm gathered strength, the Facebook posts grew grimmer. By mid-morning Monday, the last update was short and ominous: "Please bear with us … There are so many conflicting stories going on now. We are waiting for some confirmation."

Tracie Simonin, director of the HMS Bounty organisation, said the ship tried to stay clear of Sandy's power.

"It was something that we and the captain of the ship were aware of," Simonin said.

Coastguard video of the rescue showed crew members being loaded one by one into a basket which was then hoisted into a helicopter.


"It's one of the biggest seas I've ever been in. It was huge out there," said coastguard rescue swimmer Randy Haba, who helped pluck four crew members off one of the canopied life rafts and a fifth who was in the water.

A helicopter pilot said the waves appeared to be 30ft (9m) high during the rescue. The US Coast Guard said in a news release that waves in many places topped out around 18ft (5.4m).

The survivors received medical attention and were to be interviewed for a coastguard investigation. Gary Farber was watching crewman Doug Faunt's house while his friend sailed. He hasn't heard from Faunt directly, but relayed his Facebook postings made as the ship went down, including: "The ship sank beneath us, but we swam free and mostly got into two rafts."

"Doug is a jack-of-all-trades, but I am surprised he was able to get his cellphone and send messages as the ship went down," Farber said.

The mother of another crew member, 20-year-old Anna Sprague, said her daughter had been aboard the Bounty since May.

Mary Ellen Sprague, of Savannah, Georgia, said she had spoken to her daughter twice but didn't know many details.

"She's very upset," Sprague said.

The crew was eager to return to St Petersburg and to calmer waters.

"I know they were very much looking forward to being here," said Carol Everson, general manager of the pier where the vessel docks. "They were very excited about coming down."

The Bounty's captain was from St Petersburg, she added.

Wallbridge learned to sail at the age of 10, according to his biography on the Bounty's website. Prior to the Bounty, he served as first mate on HMS Rose, the Bounty's sister ship.

"The ship was almost like his home," Smithsaid. "That's where he spent most of his time was aboard the ship. He was so full of history and so interesting to talk to. And he knew his sailing stuff."

(Bill, so am I to take it that your position has moved from "oh come on it's not gonna be a big deal" to "ok so it's a big deal but hey it could've been worse!!")

It's time to replace or augment the Saffir-Simpson scale with something that accounts for the surge impact. SS is based solely on sustained wind speed. Right before landfall Sandy intensified in both wind and pressure. The pressure readings at landfall were consistent with a cat 4 storm while the winds remained a high cat 1. The amount of surge is dependent on many factors including with size of the wind field, the length of time the storm builds offshore and the tide. Surge is what took out the Bolivar Peninsula during Ike. It's also what is affecting much of Long Island and the Connecticut/RI shores. The force of water can cause as much damage as the force of the wind. People don't heed warnings about a Cat 1 storm and then find themselves looking at water levels 13-14' above normal.

crazy winds continue here north of lake erie sustained gusts of 50 km/h (32 m/h)

last night it was twice that

power out in a few areas (we flickered once last night)

not so much raining as wind driven mist

It's headed your way, dj. Stay safe!

i'm at the west of the lake, it's going to get better here from now on (or so they say)

Sorry but it is not a big deal when compare with other storms such as the New Orleans Katrina in 2005 and the south florida hurricane Andrew in 1992 and so on.

You people should man up.................