Tsunami
Last night I got a tsunami warning from NOAA then I got a notice from UNESCO saying there would be no tsunami. The NOAA warning was for Pacific coastal US and Canada and the UNESCO advisory for the rest of the world. A bit later I got another warning from NOAA and another advisory from UNESCO saying the same thing. Then there was a third iteration. I think the next notice was the one from NOAA saying that a small tsunami had registered on a deep ocean buoy. There was no followup from UNESCO. Then CNN announced that the tsunami evacuation sirens had been sounded in Hawaii. I watched the reports come in all night. It seems the farther the wave went the bigger it got. I want to calculate it's speed to the various locations but can't get my distance calculations to work. I suspect I am having a radians problem. Math is not my strong suit.
Hurricane Sandy
We are battening down the hatches for a killer hurricane, the storm of the century, as Frankenstorm as it has been dubbed because it will make landfall on 30Oct2012.There have been predictions floating around the Internet since Thursday that there will be massive power outages due to the storm winds and heavy snowfall that will be generated when the storm collides with a cold front coming out of the plains and cold air coming down from Canada. It looks right mow like we will have winds around 45 mph gusting 70 mph tomorrow night but the low temperature through Friday is only supposed to be 45 so it is unlikely that any precipitation that falls as snow will still be snow when it reaches the ground. And we haven't had a freeze yet so any snow that did reach the ground wouldn't hang around long.
Aside from the high winds we will get a bit of rain, mostly tomorrow. The storm total is supposed to be 4-6".
The City has not announced any mandatory evacuations yet but the weather service has forecast "life threatening storm surges" in Long Island Sound and New York Harbor so they are going to have to do it soon. The Transit Authority plans to curtail bus and subway service this evening and shut the system down before winds reach Tropical Storm force around 0200 tomorrow morning. So any evacuation will have to be completed while the buses and subways are still running and it has always been policy that they be completed during daylight hours. I am on high ground so will not be affected no matter how bad the storm gets.
Every time they issue a new advisory on the storm the predicted landfall inches closer to NYC. It is currently predicted for central New Jersey. That puts us on the strong side of the storm and means that water will be impounded in New York Harbor and Long Island Sound. Maximum winds on Monday are predicted to coincide with high tide. And that high tide will be higher than normal because the winds will keep the previous high tide from emptying fully. Add to that the fact that the Moon will be full tomorrow evening which means the tides would be higher than normal anyway. So we are hoping to get out to see the surf on the Hudson River, probably around the time of high water on Tuesday morning.
At 1040 the NYC Mayor's Office Of Emergency Management sent out a notice saying that MTA will stop running subways, Metro North trains and Long Island Railroad trains at 1900 tonight and all buses at 2100. They have no estimate for restoration of service.
Another notice was sent out at 1145 stating that a mandatory evacuation of Zone A, the Rockaways, Hamilton Beach and City Island has been ordered. Everyone in those areas is ordered to evacuate "ASAP but no later than tonight." they don't define what they call tonight. There aren't enough police to go door-to-door to enforce the order so the only way you will be hassled if you remain in the area is if you make your presence known.
I went down to the senior center for lunch today and because they are going to be closed for the next two days they gave everyone a Meals-On-Wheels box that is supposed to contain enough food for three days (if you are a bird)
- single serving tunafish in a foil pouch X3
- box of crackers
- box of cookies
- single serving applesauce X3
- sliced carrots - 1 can
- precooked microwave rice - 2 servings in a microwave tub
- 1 liter jug with dehydrated milk powder in it
