Leslie and I are still stuck in New Orleans. As I noted yesterday, we have been stranded by US Airways which cancelled flights to Washington yesterday despite the relatively mild weather in the city. It appears that the airline simply did not want aircraft in Washington when the storm hit. My complaint has not been that decision but the lack of consumer support after trying for hours to reach anyone at the airline. We have little choice but to try to drive back to Virginia since we have four kids who are being watched over by our sitter (I also have classes to teach on Tuesday and Wednesday). We intend to be highly cautious and stop if it gets to dicey. However, we cannot leave the kids any longer in this storm.
We have been told that we might be able to get on a flight for Tuesday but it does not look promising. Indeed, it was not even raining last night in D.C. with low winds. Tuesday looks like it will be pouring with strong winds. We love New Orleans (where I used to live) but we are increasingly anxious to be with the kids.
There may be an interruption in my posting on Tuesday in light of our effort to drive back. I will try to tweet on our status.
I hope everyone is safe during the storm. I would not travel if we were not separated from our kids. I strongly recommend that people stay indoors and of course continually on this blog.
nick,
Then quite simply you should know better than to make light of a hurricane. It’s not a matter of how one recovers. They’re inherently dangerous and only a fool takes them lightly.
Elaine,
I’m glad Sandy diffused as it came ashore. As bad as it has been for parts of the East Coast, it could have been much much worse. I’m a big fan of storm preparedness too. Even then with a hurricane, sometimes it’s just best to get out of the way if you can. That’s what happened with Katrina. The strength was questionable already. It didn’t look like the kind you choose to sit out unless you had no choice. Then the tracking data starting rolling in. Before they called for an mandatory evacuation, I was already inland. The projections made it look like the eye was going to park on Lake Pontchartrain (plus or minus 10 degrees) which a direct hit to the lake is a worst case scenario for New Orleans. It would literally move the lake into the city. Fortunately it came in a little further east than the last predictions we were operating from when we decided to bolt. We had just enough time to secure things and get out ahead of the rush. We were almost to Baton Rouge when they announced evacuation. As it was, nothing was lost to water except one car we lacked a driver for, but considering how many people on the east side and lower West Bank lost everything they had in that one, it’s a loss I’ll take with no complaint.
Gene,
Where’s the tough guy this morning?
We were fortunate and missed the brunt of the storm. I am very thankful for that. I’m no chicken little. I’ve lived through a number of hurricanes and mega-blizzards in my lifetime too. I believe in storm preparedness. My husband too. He was an electrical lineman for more than a decade. He watched homes being washed into the sea during big storms.
Elaine, My grandmother and my primary care doc’s grandma both lived through the flu pandemic of 1918 . We discussed how that real crisis changed people’s lives. She suggested I read The Great Flu Pandemic by John M. Barry to see how that tragedy changed medicine and the government’s relationship to medicine. It’s a fascinatig read.
Gene, I have lived through several hurricanes[grew up in Ct. and was on Cape Cod for one] and worked in the Susquehanna Valley in the aftermath of Hurrican Agnes in 1972. My college apartment was under water. I moved back to Wilkes-Barre from Ct. for the summer to clean up our apartment, help my girlfriend’s family, and worked cleanup crews during the day. It was a long, hot, tiring summer that taught me a lot. I learned the Salvation Army are truly good people who care, the Red Cross is a company who doesn’t. I ate spam 3 times a day for over a month until refridgeration came back online. I saw the devestation, the stink, AND THE MUD. You would scrub and scrub and when the water dried there was still mud. I saw how money pours into a disaster area during an election year almost as fast as the rain did. I saw the waste and corruption that ensues. But you see Gene, while I personally understand losing worldly possessions I never forget they are just that..temporal. People saved family photos and the things that mean most. You have a pity party for a few days and then you get back to work. People who recover emotionally from a disaster are the people who don’t allow it to define them.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/30/hurricane-sandy-drowned-new-york-city Filled with “cold salt water”……..
Huffington Post Outage
Due to power outages caused by Superstorm Sandy, our own website is experiencing technical difficulties. We are working around the clock to get the site back to normal. The news team, which has offices around the U.S. and in other countries, is still monitoring everything and will be updating this page with the latest on the storm. We will also update our social media accounts.
http://status.huffingtonpost.com/
Sandy leaves death, damp and darkness in wake
By ALLEN G. BREED and TOM HAYS | Associated Press
10/30/12
http://news.yahoo.com/sandy-leaves-death-damp-darkness-wake-092828043.html
Morning…… all is good up here in woods of Maine ….. it hit more in the southern parts of Maine but not bad… NY…NJ..not so lucky… thinking of all up north…. watching the clean up on the news this morning…
Its 60 outside at this time…. very unusually for Maine at this time of the year…
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie speaking now… major flooding and searching for people… so sad prays are with them… seeing pic now… so much flooding…. guess the Governor is not happy with the Mayor… of Atlantic City giving mixed messages..and now they are searching for people that stayed… the Governor said get out…. guess they should have listened to the Governor….
Prays for all the people
Not queationing the Professor’s wisdom, but wonder why he chose to drive north on the Appalachian range?
It may be of Interstate quality, but snow and wind were guaranteed in those locales.
Glad they stopped and hopefully have hotel. Condx will continue to be hazardous through the Virginia piedmont area.
Hope we get good news from all today, Tuesday.
I crossed them at night on ordinary roads in a fog, 1962. Gave up when could not see the road. Same occurs here in snowstorms. We call it a “white-out”.
all the flooding in NY and NJ…I wonder how the creatures at the Zoo made out…
🙁
We tornado-inured buttercups have this as our theme song:
Glad to hear Tex got home OK and Bettykath is also home safely.
CNN’s crawl is reporting 6.5 million people without power from Virginia through Maine, at least 3 million in New York and New Jersey, also 1+ foot of snow in the mountains of West Virginia, 13 deaths. Blizzard conditions, snow, flooding, thunderstorms (depending on the area/state) through Tuesday and into Wednesday, MSNBC is reporting 7 million + without power.
Be safe people.
Plan accordingly Professor, be safe.
Left NC about 11:30 am. Arrived NYS safely. Rain all the way. Worst was getting out of the car in MD to pump gas. Thought I would be blown away by the wind and rain. No other difficulties.
ARE, I was thinking that exact same thing when I wrote what I did. And here in these mountains, the automobile wrecks tend to look more like plane crashes than what one thinks of as a car wreck. If the kids are safe, have power and enough to eat, then then the cost of the nanny for an extra day plus hotel is a small price to pay for actually making it home in one piece.
I am now kicking myself. I only live a few miles off I-81, and knew full well he was not going to make it much further than Washington or Smythe County once he passed the VA line. I would have been happy to meet them and treat them to dinner when they came through this area. I am sure he and his family will not want to repeat this adventure anytime soon, but the invitation still stands.
Going over Afton Mountain on I-64 to Charlottesville may not be such a good idea. Blizzard warnings for that area.
Here is the NWS weather forecast for Marion, VA. It is in three parts. Times for each bulletin is: 8:57PM for the Winter storm warning, 9:04PM for the high wind warning, and 4:35PM for the hazardous weather outlook. All times EST.
Looks as if the worst part of the storm will last throughout the day tomorrow, and easing up on Wednesday morning. He needs to be very careful if he decides to drive tomorrow. Get-home-itis can be a fatal disease…even if that Jeep is a 4×4.
OS As you know get home its has killed more pilots than most any other cause. I hope he realizes that and acts accordingly.
I’m a non-twit and proud of it.
Glad to hear the kids have power and hope they all get some sleep tonight.
Tex made it home in one piece and told me he was the only on the road for miles dodging downed trees. He’s a buttercup.
Mespo and Nal,
I want to echo Gene’s thanks for keeping us up to date on Prof. Turley’s ride home! I hope the snow stops so that he can be reunited with his kids!
Two thoughts at days end.
1. Jonathan must be one hell of a driver to have gotten as far as he did.
2. Nick, rarely in life do we get to see someone 🙂 totally hoisted on his own petard, in so short a span of time. I hope your bottom doesn’t hurt too much. 🙂
Nal:
Not sure he could get far enough north on I-81 to reach I-64. That intersection is near Fishersville. He could try to get to Roanoke and take 460 East and then head north towards Richmond but that would be dicey, too.