Hurricane Irene

[SSOWorld]

^so what's better, a hurricane or a Midwest blizzard

[rickmastfan67]

I happen to have a friend in CT that's a tow truck driver and he's told me that "ALL ROADS IN CT ARE CLOSED".  Pretty much it's travel at your own risk up there in CT right now.

[SSOWorld]

Just to add, I have a friend who moved to NYC this summer.  I'm sure he wasn't expecting a hurricane so soon.  Last I remember, upper east side of Manhattan.

[florida]

Irene's only picking up where she left off in 1999.

[froggie]

Reading through this morning, looks like the HRBT (I-64) is back open in Norfolk.  In Maryland, the Nice Bridge (US 301) is open, as is the Bay Bridge (50/301), Tydings (I-95) and Hatem (US 40) bridges, though the latter 3 have restrictions.

(EDIT) Also, she made landfall this morning in New York City around 9am Eastern as a tropical storm according to NHC.

[froggie]

NBC4 in Washington is reporting that visitors will be allowed back into Ocean City, MD at noon.  Residents are already being allowed back in.

[Michael in Philly]

We had a rash of tornado warnings yesterday evening, between about 6:30 and 11.  Tornado warnings don't happen every day around here.  (Not sure I'd ever been in one, actually.)  What was stupid was how the Emergency Alert System took over my cable box so that you couldn't change the channel to get better information from the TV stations.  

Lot of closings of "freeways, thruways, expressways" (roadgeeks would have appreciated the guy on the Weather Channel struggling thus for the right New York-area word) were reported around New York last night, and a stretch of the New Jersey Turnpike was closed for flooding (Exit 7A to 8 ).  Roads are reportedly pretty good around here.

The Schuylkill River (whose issue, at least as a general rule, is not tides but runoff from up-river) is expected to crest this afternoon at its highest level since 1869.  Rain has stopped here, but it sounds like a blizzard outside at the moment.

300,000 customers of Philadelphia Electric (PECO) without power.  Not, fortunately, yours truly.

[Alex]

Irene's only picking up where she left off in 1999.

+1     



And Jose formed from that ragged looking 91L as a quick fish.

Now 92L can be Katrina 

[Michael in Philly]

Irene's only picking up where she left off in 1999.

I didn't think they repeated names.

[Alex]

Irene's only picking up where she left off in 1999.

I didn't think they repeated names.

Names are repeated every six years and are retired if they are historically significant and a country requests it.

[vdeane]

It's pretty wimpy up here in Potsdam.  Everyone's just acting like nothing's going on.  I imagine it's worse closer to the coast, though.

[Ian]

Here in Philadelphia, mostly flooding, power outages and downed trees. My neighborhood didn't get too much damage, just a lot of leaves on the street. Our basement surprisingly didn't flood. Our power did go out for about 15 minutes late last night, but that's nothing compared to what some other people got.

[Michael in Philly]

The Weather Channel reports the New York State Thruway is closed from the Tappan Zee Bridge to Newburgh, including the bridge.

[Duke87]

Well, my family and I are all fine, but the damage around town is pretty extensive. More traffic signals out than not as of this afternoon, lots of trees down, a couple streets still blocked or partially blocked. We have no power at our house and most likely will not for the better part of the week. Our phone is also currently out. The trains will still all be shut down tomorrow and so I will not be making it into work, as predicted.

We actually had a pretty sizable piece of a tree fall directly on our roof. Banged up one of the caps on our chimney and poked a couple little holes into the attic, but all things considered the damage appears to be pretty minor.

Ah well, at least the weather's supposed to be nice all week, so power out won't be cause for thermal discomfort.
(and hopefully come Tuesday I'll be going to work again and things'll be fine there)

[xcellntbuy]

The Weather Channel reports the New York State Thruway is closed from the Tappan Zee Bridge to Newburgh, including the bridge.

According to the Thruway's website, the Thruway is closed as far north as Exit 21--NY 23 Catskill.

[Michael in Philly]

^so what's better, a hurricane or a Midwest blizzard

Apples and oranges.

[Roadgeek Adam]

NJ 18 is forget it for at least two days:


To your left is Boyd Park and the Raritan River, the right is Route 18. There were people walking on the bridge in the hundreds over Route 27. Route 18 is shut down from just before the John Lynch Bridge probably all the way to US Route 1. I walked from New Street to the John Lynch Bridge.


Northbound NJ 18 Express lanes, you can see where the water didn't reach.


This is NJ 27 under that same bridge, completely different story than the bridge itself.


Someone got onto NJ 18 somehow, found a ramp that wasn't blocked and got all the way up here. This cop, who was taking photos of the flooding, like the other 150-300 people there, was chiding her out. Later on he was backing her up and off the road.


Normally a busy freeway is empty with nothing but water.


Idiots at their best here. This guy followed an SUV past a bunch of cones and drove on NJ 27 NORTHBOUND into the water under the bridge. The SUV made it across. However, this happened.

[PAHighways]

Needless to say, there are many state route closures in northeast, east central, and southeastern Pennsylvania, even some bridge closures as well in District 6-0.

I thought it was appropriate that when the tornado warnings were being issued around Philadelphia, the Tango Traffic channel's background music was "Rock You Like a Hurricane".

[Ian]

Went around town today to further inspect the damage. A few roads have been blocked due to either downed trees or flooding. I counted at least 15 intersections in both Delaware and Chester Counties that have the traffic signals out. There is a sizable chunk of US 1 in Chadds Ford that is completely underwater. Stupidly, I didn't get any photos, but I was able to get some cell phone shots of an overflowing waterfall in Swarthmore.

[Alps]

NJ got hammered. Millburn was completely underwater downtown, which is unheard of. Lots of washouts on streets hours after the storm passed (once the waters made their ways into streams). Passaic, Pompton, Raritan Rivers, Bound Brook, countless other waterways are breaking record flood stages right now, and have yet to crest. I can't get into work this week. A friend's apartment complex is an island, no way in or out due to flooding. Only a couple of roads crossing any creeks - NJ 10 is shut down, as was the next road up (Melanie Lane) - ended up going up to I-280 to get across there. NJ 10 itself is barely out from underwater in eastern East Hanover - Wendy's parking lot has a car still waist-deep in water, and flood puddles still lap over the right lane on either side. Lots of roads are impassable in the right lane, even freeways, due to trees falling over. It's nothing catastrophic, but it's going to take most of this week to pick up the pieces and get back to normal.

[Jim]

The worst of it here in Amsterdam, NY, came today when the runoff from the 12" rains in the Catskills made it to the Mohawk River.  It's by far the highest flood crest I've seen.  I-90/NYS Thruway has been closed due to flooding, with the official detour being NY 5.  Which, unfortunately, also has large stretches underwater.  So we have a ton of people being put off the Thruway at Exit 27 with no obvious way to continue west for those unfamiliar with the local roads.  I will post a note when I get my pictures from the day up.  In the greater Capital District area, more roads are closed than I can remember for any flood event.



Post Merge: August 30, 2011, 12:12:15 AM
The latest report here: I-87 across the Mohawk (the Twin Bridges, between Northway exits 7 and 8) has been closed due to a runaway barge carrying a crane heading downstream toward the area.  The US 9 bridge, which is the main alternate, is also closed.

[Dougtone]

The worst of it here in Amsterdam, NY, came today when the runoff from the 12" rains in the Catskills made it to the Mohawk River.  It's by far the highest flood crest I've seen.  I-90/NYS Thruway has been closed due to flooding, with the official detour being NY 5.  Which, unfortunately, also has large stretches underwater.  So we have a ton of people being put off the Thruway at Exit 27 with no obvious way to continue west for those unfamiliar with the local roads.  I will post a note when I get my pictures from the day up.  In the greater Capital District area, more roads are closed than I can remember for any flood event.

I believe that every bridge crossing the Schoharie Creek is currently closed due to flooding, as are most bridges crossing the Mohawk River.  I'm anticipating that it will take a few days at the least to get back to normal.  I think this may be worse than the 2006 floods, which also made things rough in Upstate New York.  I'm also thinking that due to the severity of the 2006 floods, officials are taking every precaution to ensure people remain safe.

For what it's worth, I took some photos of the flooding in Schenectady.  No, I didn't make it to the flooded Stockade, but I did walk over to the flooded Mohawk River.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dougtone/sets/72157627425785619

[froggie]

It's been an absolute mess in Vermont.  3 covered bridges, including the Quechee bridge just off US 4, are gone.  A large section of US 4 itself near Killington is also gone, and numerous other sections of highway have been washed out.  Both US 4 and VT 9 are effectively closed between US 7 and I-91.  Several towns have been completely cut off.

[Dougtone]

The Catskills were also hard hit by Irene, especially in places in Margaretville, Fleischmanns, Roxbury, Windham and Prattsville.  This blog post pretty much sums up what happened in Margaretville... http://www.watershedpost.com/2011/middletown-irene-update.

If you look at the Watershed Post's main Hurricane Irene page at http://www.watershedpost.com/tags/hurricane-irene, you'll see more devestation.  Even the old Blenheim Covered Bridge was washed away into Schoharie Creek.

[Michael in Philly]

How else are TV Stations going to make money.  More drama = more viewers = MORE ADVERTISING DOLLARS 

[/crazy moment]

Headline in today's New York Times business section:  "Media Outlets Gave Up Millions in Ads Pursuing Hurricane Coverage."  The article itself:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/business/media/hurricane-news-mostly-uninterrupted-by-ads.html?_r=1&ref=business