Hurricane Sandy = non event

[Brainonska511]

FYI this was from a fire, not the storm.

You're an idiot.

 

[DCal430]

While the fire happen just after the storm, and the flooding likely slowed down the response. I am not convinced the storm was cause of the fire. When the fire broke out the storm was basically over. Most of the homes around that "survived" will likely need to be rebuilt as the whole area was flooded and the homes all suffered major flood damage.

 

[Brainonska511]

While the fire happen just after the storm, and the flooding likely slowed down the response. I am not convinced the storm was cause of the fire. When the fire broke out the storm was basically over. Most of the homes around that "survived" will likely need to be rebuilt as the whole area was flooded and the homes all suffered major flood damage.

The fire happened during the storm. Flooding and windows knocked over power lines and started fires. Part of why so many homes burned down is because the FDNY couldn't make it to the area easily because of the large storm surge.

 

[MomentsofSanity]

The fire happened during the storm. Flooding and windows knocked over power lines and started fires. Part of why so many homes burned down is because the FDNY couldn't make it to the area easily because of the large storm surge.

And add to that the fact that the winds from the hurricane were fanning the fires spreading them quickly across the homes. When was the last time one house fire wiped out 80?

 

[Doppel]

While the fire happen just after the storm, and the flooding likely slowed down the response. I am not convinced the storm was cause of the fire. When the fire broke out the storm was basically over. Most of the homes around that "survived" will likely need to be rebuilt as the whole area was flooded and the homes all suffered major flood damage.

Gawd look at you go.

Yeah, fires taking out 80 homes like that happen all the time. Not related to the storm at all.

 

[GaiaHunter]

Making landfall is, more or less, luck (or rather, unluck.) E.g., if it wasn't for the system to the Northeast of Sandy blocking her, she would have turned out to sea, like the vast majority of storms following a similar path do at this time of year. There are a lot of hurricanes every year. The average person doesn't have a clue about most of them, because most don't make landfall. There were 19 named storms this year.

1951-60: 10,7,14,11,13,8,8,10,11, and 7 named storms.
1951-60: 8,6,6,8,11,4,3,7,7,4 hurricanes

Let's use the most recent 10 years:
2003-2012: 16,15,28,10,15,16,9,19,19,19 named storms
2003-2012: 7,9,15,5,6,8,3,12,7,10 hurricanes
So, 1951-60
99 named storms, 64 hurricanes (of which 34 were major hurricanes)
2003-12
166 named storms, 82 hurricanes (of which 37 were major hurricanes)


That's 28% more hurricanes in 10 years than the previous worse decade. The only thing that stands out for the 50's is that we were unlucky - a lot of the major storms made landfall.

If you notice the number of major hurricanes is identical.

It only shows better detection.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pastdec.shtml

 

[DrPizza]

I'm curious - we can see the damage of boats being tossed around by the waves, up against houses; are structures in the northeast better built than structures along the gulf? That is, along the coast where a lot of houses were hit in the NE, aren't there crawlspaces with the house being built upon a cinderblock foundation (that extends significantly into the ground), with the house anchored to a sill plate which is bolted to the foundation? Whereas in the South, were a lot of the structures just, more or less, sitting on top of concrete slabs, making them easier to get water underneath & cause damage?

 

[Fern]

-snip-
Whereas in the South, were a lot of the structures just, more or less, sitting on top of concrete slabs, making them easier to get water underneath & cause damage?

Yeah, in the South a lot of homes are built on a slab. There's not much else you can do because the water table is so close to the surface and the soil is sandy (water flows easily through it) and there is a lot of rain. I.e. no basement or crawl spaces below ground level because it would constantly flood. It doesn't get much worse than having water pool under your house. You would get a lot of rot and the mosquitoes would be horrible.

OTOH, in older homes, the houses were built a few feet above the ground. This allowed air to circulate and cool the house. This was before A/C became widespread. The houses were aloft by pillars, usually made of bricks, cinder blocks or concrete. I don't know how many of these old houses remained at the time of Katrina, but any existing then would have been easily swept away and destroyed.

Fern