Things are slowly winding down for Sandy (with emphasis on slowly)
Paul, Dammit!
posted today:
flood, fire: low tide
With the waters receding, all the cars and heavy equipment densely parked behind the warehouse in the last photo were uncovered. My guess is that an electrical spark, coupled perhaps with some liberated gasoline from a submerged fuel tank vent, led to a small fire. Which led to a big fire. And some explosions. We are upwind and have a decent-sized concrete dock between us and the cars, so we stayed put while our tug called 911. The fire department took forever to find the place. I saw them 10 minutes before they got in the neighborhood, and then another 15 minutes to dig up a masonry saw to cut through the fences in their way. Eventually they got to the fire and about 30 minutes later they put it out. My camera was overwhelmed between the lights, backscatter from the fire monitors on the tugs being turned on (monitors are the super-sized water cannon that you see on fire boats; many tugs have one just in case. ).
Next high tide is in a few hours. Not supposed to be as high as the last one, but still might be rotten.
One of Paul, Dammit!'s commenters posted the link to this story from
ABC/Yahoo:
Tanker Run Aground by Superstorm
Powerful storm surges from Superstorm Sandy caused a nearly 170-foot water tanker to run aground in Staten Island, N.Y., on Monday night.
The front third of the tanker is grounded into Front Street. The city's waterfront was largely destroyed, which includes a number of businesses on the water.
The 168-foot tanker was moored about a mile away when Sandy's powerful force propelled it toward land.
No one was on the tanker and no one was hurt as a result of it running aground.
And there is this tragic story - from
gCaptain:
Tall Ship Bounty Abandoned, Sinks in Heavy Seas off Hatteras, 1 Body Recovered, 1 Still Missing [UPDATE 3]
Coast Guard Sector North Carolina initially received a call from the owner of the Bounty saying she had lost communication with the vessel�s crew late Sunday evening.
The Coast Guard 5th District command center in Portsmouth subsequently received a signal from the emergency position indicating radio beacon registered to the Bounty, confirming the distress and position.
An air crew from Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City launched aboard an HC-130 Hercules aircraft, which later arrived on scene and reestablished communications with the Bounty�s crew.
The vessel was reportedly taking on water and was without propulsion. On scene weather is reported to be 40 mph winds and 18-foot seas.
It is easy to armchair quarterback but they ignored the initial forecasts. They were trying to run out of harms way but they didn't have the speed to outrun a 500-mile wide storm.
They would have been better off running to shore and heading as fa upriver as possible and ground themselves. They would have been damaged but that is what insurance is for -- they would not have lost to souls.
As for our little neck of the woods,
Flood Watch.
Posted by DaveH at October 30, 2012 10:28 AM