Dog update please.

Dog update please.

Ken Dodd’s dad’s dog’s dead.

Not storm related though.

Try being over here at te minute… It’s a nightmare. We’re stuck in NYC, and they still can’t guarantee when we can fly out..

The ques to get anything to eat everywhere are mad, half the city still has no power, and everyone is plugging their mobiles/ laptops into anywhere they can.

Oh, and the Five oh are just driving up and down everywhere with their sirens going all the time.. 🙁

They’ve closed all the good bits, so we can’t even do the tourist things either..

My mate’s dog is ok, his house in Greenwich Village has however lost power and all communications so he has decamped to Midtown with the dog.

The ques to get anything to eat everywhere are mad…

Que? Lausajne estas rano en mia bideo!

Why is there no news on the 54 people who died in Haiti?

Seriously? Because there are unlikely to be any visitors from the uk there and the victims are unlikely to be related to anyone here.

Or we’re you being facetious?

A lot of the disaster relief is the US is led at the state or local level; the federal government really can’t do much until they’re asked to. That was one of the problems with hurricane Katrina; the New Orleans and Louisiana governments were completely unprepared and unable to coordinate assistance that was provided.

New York (both the city and state) seem to have been as ready as they could be, and seem to be doing a good job at recovery in the immediate aftermath. I’m sure that there will be some mistakes made, and no doubt there will be some things that could have been done better, but I’ll bet that they get things up and running as soon as feasible. Some things like the subways may take time though depending on the severity of the damage. New York will recover much faster than New Orleans did.

Although at school I was also told that in Australia a cyclone was referred to as a willy willie – but apparently this is now recognised as the Australian version of a tornado.

Cyclones are still cyclones out here, willy willie refers to smaller whirlwind type things they get out here a lot – usually a just a rotating column or air / dust / sand on a 1m – 20m diameter scale not associated with a major storm just due to heat etc. See them every few days out here in the desert, occasionally one will come through camp and we’ll have to go round picking up chairs / tables out of bushes etc.

OHH – that’s called a dust devil in the states.

Have a rant at the news if you like, but people were killed, homes have been destroyed, people have lost everything. As someone who works with people in the US health system and having spoken with one woman yesterday, she was still going in to work to help out even though her house was underwater.

And you’re bothered about news reports?

Compare and contrast how the US has coped and how the UK would muddle through if a storm surge flooded London and the eastern coast.

Compare and contrast how the US has coped and how the UK would muddle through if a storm surge flooded London and the eastern coast.

I’d like to point out three things……..

1) We don’t get hurricanes (Mr Fish’s gaffe asside), if the government was spending money on preparing for them i’d be first in line telling them it’s a waste of money. Having said that we’ve got the Thames barrage, NYC didn’t have any such preperation and has suffered floods recently (10 out of their worst 100 in the last 2.5 years or somethign equaly ridiculous too).
2) Ammerica didn’t deal with it very well did they, the road tunnels all closed, ditto the subway, and the bridges. There’s been looting, people died, still no electricity for half a million people etc. And Katrina was a good example of how not to deal with the problems, nearby towns turned away refugees at gunpoint! I know Liverpool and Manchester don’t get allong but I can’t see that happenign here!
3) You’re hypotheticaly supposing that we’ll not cope. We’ve an international reputation for a stiff upper lip and getting on with it, the Blitz spirit, cleanups after the riots etc etc.

terrible floods

expect some serious military retaliation from Uncle Sam – someone or something is going to have to pay for this!

We’ve an international reputation for a stiff upper lip and getting on with it, the Blitz spirit, cleanups after the riots etc etc

I thought we had an international reputation for endlessly whining and complaining?

Although, this would come in to its own in the event of a super storm surging floody thing.

Just think of the complaining that could be done if it happened here!

World news – meh! Grand designs was on last night.

My wife’s American.

I don’t really understand why she wants to live here when there’s people like most of you lot around- I would love to see the UK deal with the biggest storm ever to hit the country. There’d be flapping and confusion and things would not get done.

They will deal with this brilliantly, the US now that Bush has gone is a much slicker machine than it once was and while you aren’t going to restore half a million people’s electricity overnight after a massive hurricane, it will get done quickly and efficiently and with no fobbing off and half arsed excuses like the National Grid would give.

I don’t really understand why she wants to live here when there’s morons like most of you lot around

F*** off then, just be prepared to be called a commie by a load of red necks with guns every time you ask why the government can’t step in and spend money to solve problems 😛

From a news feed:
”Three of the top 10 highest floods at the Battery [southern New York] since 1900 happened in the last 2½ years.”

Seems that London’s quite well prepared with it’s barrier, certainly doesn’t have half a million homes without power and three (of the top ten, not just three as an absolute) floods in 30 months.

The US disaster stops everything and affect human’s life very badly. 😥

How would you defend New York then? The Thames Barrier only has to block a river a few hundred metres across against relatively small events, what defences do you suggest they build to protect New York from a storm surge that has a 5 mile wide entrance point in the bay and around 25-30 miles of coastline?

And how quickly do you expect these to be designed and built given that these events have only increased in frequency in the last 3 years, and how would you pay for them in the current economic climate? An infrastructure project of that size to protect would cost a vast amount of money, and could you justify diverting that money away from the entire nation’s healthcare/welfare/environmental budget to protect a very small area of the country?

I don’t really understand why she wants to live here

My wife’s also American and was horrified to discover this morning that one of her friends has just acquired a gun ‘for personal protection’. Stuff like that… 🙂

But I actually agree with you – it was seriously bad weather, of a kind we just don’t get. So why are we all whining about it? This is like the storm of 87 but over a much larger area with a couple of months’ worth of rain thrown in in a day or two for good measure. If you think we’d deal with it any better you’re being silly.

We don’t get hurricanes (Mr Fish’s gaffe asside)

That wasn’t a hurricane. We didn’t get 6″ of rain for a start.

How would you defend New York then?

Being Americaland, the solution will involve guns, wieners & a baseball bat.

acquired a gun ‘for personal protection’.

One of the wife’s uncles won’t fly anywhere because they won’t let him take his gun with him. He’s a dentist. WTF?

I am happy to admit there are a lot of crackpots over there, but a tiny percentage and the reality when you spend a lot of time over there is that people are exceptionally nice day-to-day.

And RE Michael Fish- not a hurricane. Hurricanes form off the west coast of Africa/South America and head west, hitting the east coast of continents. We could not have one, that was just a storm.

If you’re losing your roof whether a storm qualifies as a hurricane is academic. Me, I’ve a lot of sympathy for those affected. One day it’ll be our turn…

How would you defend New York then? The Thames Barrier only has to block a river a few hundred metres across against relatively small events, what defences do you suggest they build to protect New York from a storm surge that has a 5 mile wide entrance point in the bay and around 25-30 miles of coastline?

And how quickly do you expect these to be designed and built given that these events have only increased in frequency in the last 3 years, and how would you pay for them in the current economic climate? An infrastructure project of that size to protect would cost a vast amount of money, and could you justify diverting that money away from the entire nation’s healthcare/welfare/environmental budget to protect a very small area of the country?

So what you’re saying is that we’re much better prepared for this sort of thing? Which seems at odds with your erlier comment?

If you’re losing your roof whether a storm qualifies as a hurricane is academic. Me, I’ve a lot of sympathy for those affected. One day it’ll be our turn…

naaaaa it won’t, STW pedantry will mean we’ll never have hurricanes, just big storms.

It’s not really pedantry, it’s like calling the Thames through London a stream.

A hurricane has a double whammy effect of having winds blowing one way, then an eye, and then winds blowing in completely the opposite direction, which increases damage enormously by attacking from both sides, a storm won’t have that so is much less damaging. The pressure is so high across the hurricane that the storm surges are enormous, which is what happened in the USA.

A storm won’t have any of that.

As for the defences, I’d say we’re as prepared as we can reasonably be and they’re as prepared as they can reasonably be. I’d say the Mayor’s preparations for Sandy were excellent in warning people, which in New York’s location is what’s going to be most effective.

Dog update please.

jimmy savile in puppy fiddler scandal

I would love to see the UK Scotland deal with the biggest storm ever to hit the country.

And some more evidence for the defence (stronger winds than the US storm these last few days):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Bawbag

Now if that had been England….

On the plus side, transport is free over here at the minute…

Apart from taxis.

Hurricanes give INSANE amount of rain. Far far more than the UK ever experiences. In some places there were EIGHT INCHES of rain. That’s about as much as Glasgow gets on average in the whole of January and December combined. Dumped in a day or two.

It’s not trivial, and it was much much worse than bawbag or 87 or any of the rest of it. Seriously, stop being silly.

Just be interesting to see whether Harlem is up and running as quickly as Manhatten.

I’m never surprised when American houses take so much damage in a bit of wind – my brother’s house in Michigan was being built when I first went over to visit him and he showed me around. The Mexican guys who were nailing the 4×2 framework together were so slapdash that about 2 in 10 of the nails had missed the joints completely and come out the other side.

(House is currently worth about $80,000 less that his mortgage so he couldn’t move out even if he wanted….)

The Mexican guys who were nailing the 4×2 framework together were so slapdash that about 2 in 10 of the nails had missed the joints completely and come out the other side.

My UK house is like that.

US houses are made like they are for a few reasons. It’s cheaper, it tends not to crush you as much when it gets blown down in a hurricane/tornado, and everyone else’s house is the same.

Brick houses are quite a bit more expensive to buy. House prices are in general so low that the physical material of the house is a larger portion of the cost than it is here, which means less headroom for the developer so materials costs are more critical.

By the way my in-laws house has been standing for 120 years in all sorts of storms, so they are not as flimsy as you make out.

matt_outandabout – Member

I would love to see the UK Scotland deal with the biggest storm ever to hit the country.

And some more evidence for the defence (stronger winds than the US storm these last few days):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Bawbag

Now if that had been England….

Best Troll attempt today! Congratulations – I was almost tempted to pretend I am English…

*is disappointed no-one bit*

jimster – Member
Just be interesting to see whether Harlem is up and running as quickly as Manhatten.
POSTED 4 HOURS AGO # REPORT-POST

FYI, Harlem in on ManhattAn

Have a rant at the news if you like, but people were killed, homes have been destroyed, people have lost everything

+1

This thread is pretty unbelievable to be honest. What a bunch of ****.