Here in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, we’re picking up our kids from school an hour and a half early, due to “concerns” of high winds – even though there’s only an occasional gentle breeze, which fails to cause the wind chimes outside to sound even one note.
What’s blowing where you are?
The same here in central Maine, except I picked my kids up three hours early. It didn’t even start drizzling until a half hour ago.
And now, hours later, when the children would have been home for 120 minutes anyway, the wind sometimes picks up to a fine but still quite safe pace. The rain has been steady, but gentle. There has been nothing outside the ordinary from Hurricane Sandy here yet, to justify the early closing of school.
Tomorrow, school is delayed 2 hours, just to make room for assessment. That’s far less than has occurred on account of snow.
Our electricity remains on, without even a flicker.
Some storm of the century.
I suppose for those fortunate few who can afford shoreline homes, there may be some problems.
over a million people are without power and the storm is plenty strong and dangerous elsewhere. I don’t understand your flippancy just because it’s not that bad in the finger lakes area.
The point is, T. Ball, that it DIDN’T get at all serious here. It was a bit breezy during the night, nothing out of the ordinary. The collective concern, as broadcast mostly for coastal communities, affected choices here in totally irrational ways. Many school districts are completely closed today in my area, though there’s no impact up here beyond a few blown leaves, as if a mid-size thunderstorm had gone through.
It reminds me of how, on September 12, 2001, shopping malls and fast food restaurants were making plans for what they would do if they were targeted by terrorists.
I guess I misread your “some storm of the century” and the comment about shoreline homeowners. Looks like your local authorities may have jumped the gun on the school closings, but I was quite surprised last night to read how wide-reaching the storm was. Lakes Michigan and Huron had 25 foot waves and 40-50 mph winds.
If you’re an elected official there’s a lot of incentive to be overly cautious than there is to underestimating a storm. Voters (and lawsuit-fearing trustees) would never forgive the latter if their kids were in any danger.
Gloating is often a cathartic act, because secretly we are totally relieved that “nothing” happened or that we were spared. Meanwhile, trees fell through houses, loads of people are without power, many people can’t drink their water now and some died as a result of falling limbs and metal signs, and the damage from flooding will be huge.
We still have sustained 30 mph wind here and it’s still raining (lightly, for a change) and we’re LUCKY! Glad to hear that you had no problems.
Think twice when speaking about this storm in public. I am a long islander and my island is in ruins. My house is destroyed. Trees and power lines line the streets and water damage is everywhere. All of my belongings destroyed. One block over From me has been burnt to the ground due to gas explosion and live wires coming down. “Some storm of a century” is an insensitive comment. I get it, it wasn’t bad near you but remember that Long Island and NJ are suffering greatly.