Mega-storm Sandy

[weemadando]

No, the start of a socialist revolution, where the occupy movement begins to supplant the government's authority.

How big is the Occupy movement's army? What equipment, assets, training do they have? How well can they take and hold important points? Is their logistic train robust and competent?

Actually community actions can help a great deal at these times. All you need is a couple of people willing to get dirty, some brooms, mops etc and you can start cleaning out flood damaged houses. A couple of folks with household equipment can clear streets. You can make it so that you aren't relying on whatever your equivalent of the SES is for the most basic bullshit, leaving them to use their expertise and equipment for jobs that require them.

[Simon_Jester]

Er, the point is that they don't have an army and ryacko's fantasies about revolution are gibberish.

Occupy is doing a huge amount for disaster relief- but they're not an army.

[Losonti Tokash]

Man if someone had seriously suggested an Occupy revolution you guys would still look pretty silly, but seeing how ryacko said he's voting for Gary Johnson I don't think he's our type.

[fgalkin]

Man if someone had seriously suggested an Occupy revolution you guys would still look pretty silly, but seeing how ryacko said he's voting for Gary Johnson I don't think he's our type.

No, no, you misunderstand. He wasn't wishing for an Occupy revolution, he was trembling in fear of those Dirty Commies.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Zaune]

Meanwhile, in Libertopia...

Forbes.com

Once again, a terrible natural disaster strikes, and Americans from the Carolinas to New England are doing their best to sort through the wreckage and get their lives back to normal. Already, some, including The New York Times, have said natural disasters prove the need for big government. In fact, disaster response provides an excellent example of how the invisible hand of the market works to alleviate suffering and bring quick relief to those in need.

I will add one caveat. Large amounts of federal money will flow to the disaster areas. To accept it is not to concede government is more important than private efforts. We live in a federal nation, and, as part of the federal compact, fortunate states (right or wrong) help those in need. What is objectionable is big government, for reasons I shall come to.

So what happens when a disaster strikes? First, we hear how many people have lost power. Restoring power is the first order of business, as access to energy is fundamental to the reconstruction process. And getting the lights back on is the prime responsibility of utilities, not government. In Maryland, for instance, the utility PEPCO, reacting to criticism of its slow response following last summer’s Derecho storm, made sure it had sufficient manpower to restore power quickly.

For local transportation system managers, inspecting and ensuring the structural integrity of standing infrastructure is the top priority following a disaster. As facilities deemed structurally sound reopen, damage is assessed and managers begin the process of acquiring the necessary funds for repair.

These decisions require specialized local knowledge, often from the private sector. Coordination among local responders is critical. The federal government often doles out funding to affected areas, but it is local officials who manage transportation systems before, during and after disasters occur.

Then there are the responses by insurance companies and other financial institutions. All my financial providers already have contacted me to offer emergency assistance. Insurance companies are flooding the airwaves with information about how to submit claims. These companies provide the liquidity to get households and communities up and running again.

Of course, the vast majority of disaster responses occur at the individual level. People need emergency supplies—water, canned goods, generators and the like. In most cases, they do not wait for the Red Cross or a government agency; they go out and get them themselves. That’s where the often derided “big box” stores such as Wal-Mart and Target provide a vital service. They have procedures to ensure their supply chains respond effectively to disasters, and thus generally have the necessary goods in stock.

Big box stores also don’t merely sit and wait. They get out first and help people. As St. Lawrence University Professor Steve Horwitz points out, Wal-Mart was on the scene following Hurricane Katrina long before the bureaucracies. He quotes Phillip Capitano, mayor of the New Orleans suburb of Kenner, saying, “[T]he only lifeline in Kenner was the Wal-Mart stores. We didn’t have looting on a mass scale because Wal-Mart showed up with food and water so our people could survive.” It will be interesting to see whether the lack of big box stores in Manhattan has any effect on the speed of the recovery there. Mom-and-pop stores simply can’t do what big stores can in these circumstances.

Big government, on the other hand, can get in the way. Local environmental ordinances routinely prevent utilities from trimming trees that can threaten power lines during storms. The clean-up process might be hindered by pro-union rules such as the Davis-Bacon Act, which increases the cost of federally funded construction projects.

Anti-fraud rules can hinder banks and insurers getting funds to their customers, and the federal National Flood Insurance Program undermines the insurance process and encourages building in flood-prone areas. Anti-“price gouging” rules can cause shortages by preventing price signals from helping the market allocate resources. Finally, union lobbies and NIMBY concerns chase away big box stores.

And what about FEMA? This agency is there to help the transfer process, but its bureaucracy and empire-building get in the way. After Hurricane Katrina, for instance, it made a variety of errors, such as:

It was ill-prepared to conduct the massive search-and-rescue function. Its federally coordinated building search teams found spraypainted symbols indicating state teams already had looked through the buildings.
Its tracking of supplies was sadly lacking. Some FEMA and state workers said they had to order twice as many supplies to get half of what they needed, primarily because they had no confidence in the system.
Agency officials disrupted supply lines, turned away diesel fuel provided by the Coast Guard and three trailer trucks filled with water—provided by Wal-Mart.

There is probably a role for a small, lean, efficient government agency dedicated to disaster relief, and in particular to provide temporary respite from federal regulations such as Davis-Bacon. Yet for the most part, disaster recovery is a local, private matter. As a free people, we should recognize—and celebrate—that fact.

Iain Murray heads the Center for Economic Freedom at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and is the author of Stealing You Blind: How Government Fatcats Are Getting Rich Off of You.

I'm sure someone much smarter than me will go through this and provide a detailed point-by-point rebuttal, but all I can say is, "[Citation Needed] you morally bankrupt little shit!"

[fgalkin]

He does have a point in that individuals and private companies were able to respond much faster than the authorities. However, they lack the resources and coordination for a sustained, large-scale relief effort. You need the National Guard and NYC's 8000 volunteers for that.

The problem is that the government has been extremely uneven in its distribution of aid, with poor neighborhoods getting almost nothing and living in hellish conditions for a week (no power, no heat, no running water- people are shitting in the hallways and stairways because the toilets don't flush, people are dying from lack of access to medication, people are being killed for flashlights and canned food, etc) and being forced to rely on extremely unreliable private efforts.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Broomstick]

Has anyone here heard of recovers.org? Scroll down for the NYC and NJ areas. Looks like some grassroots relief effort going on there.

[fgalkin]

Has anyone here heard of recovers.org? Scroll down for the NYC and NJ areas. Looks like some grassroots relief effort going on there.

Yes. In fact, I've just come home after spending 2 hours after work delivering blankets from a community center I was directed to by that site.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[fgalkin]

Reposting from FB

Dear all, I spent my day today volunteering at the JASA Buildings in the Far Rockaways and wanted to share what I saw. First of all, here are some of the facts: there are approximately 700 senior citizens still stranded in these concrete high rises who have no power, heat or water; approximately 80% are Russian and do not speak adequate English. There were about 50-80 volunteers that I saw at any given time, which was nice to see, but most cannot communicate with the residents because only about a dozen spoke Russian. There is NO RED CROSS, FEMA, OR ANY OTHER GOVERNMENT AID AT ALL. These poor people have been abandoned there since the storm, which was a week ago! Without power, there is no elevators and there are anywhere between 12 and 22 floors per building. The stairways are pitch dark and freezing, the smell is unpleasant at best since there is no working plumbing. I saw some residents who are more or less mobile bring in buckets of ocean water to use to flush their bathrooms, but as you can imagine, with the mean resident age of about 80, most are not that capable of climbing the stairs. Many are bed bound and do have home attendants most of which are not very helpful or proactive in recruiting help. I did not see Doctors Without Borders as had been reported by the management company. The only medical professional I saw was an RN from a visiting nurse service who due to regulations and HIPPA could only see his actual patients. The volunteers were being mobilized by several religious organizations and grass roots campaigns such as the one we have here on Facebook. Today there was a command center thanks to a great guy, Ken Soloway, from Kips Bay Y and his troops which provided some order and it made a huge difference, but the system is far from perfect because there are no current protocols and resources to keep track of things, although they are developing it. There were also about 20 JASA employees, most of them just stood around watching us as if we were a traveling circus. There is a ton of clothing donations in a corner, but no one is sorting these bags. There was a huge pile of donated blankets, which were in high demand and were gone by the end of the day, so we need to keep them coming. They are currently organizing a large scale voluntary evacuation to a shelter at a Jewish Center in Brooklyn for tomorrow because of the bad weather on the way, so aside from providing warm meals and some necessities, our job was to try and convince these poor people to agree to evacuate. Some were happy to do so, others insisted to stay. I encountered a couple of residents who would evacuate, but did not want to leave their cats behind as we could not tell them how long the evacuation would last and since we were unaware they had pets, we had no way to know how to handle this situation. It just so happened that while voting today I ran into a girl from my vet’s office. I shared with her what I saw, and she promised to donate cat food to take there tomorrow as well as to take in the pets for the time being if we can convince the owners to let them care for them temporarily. I will try to do so tomorrow. I have to tell you that my overall impression is that the efforts are moving in the right direction and making a difference, but just the thought of the fact that it has taken a week for people to realize that no one was helping these elderly makes me want to cry. The management company was aware of the situation and I am appalled that they have taken no effort to recruit help or to repair their badly compromised facilities. From what I understand, it can be WEEKS before services are restored, so an ideal situation would be a complete evacuation, but that’s easier said than done.
To aid with evacuation efforts they need as many volunteers for tomorrow as they can get. Bilingual volunteers are invaluable. I will be driving there late morning if anyone from Queens needs a ride. If you are available and need a lift from anywhere else, please let me know as there are people driving in from all over and will be happy to carpool. As far as what they need, first and foremost its BLANKETS, FLASHLIGHTS AND BATTERIES. They also need paper towels, toilet paper, moist wipes, Russian newspapers to read, water, fruit, bread, stomach medications such as Pepcid, Immodium, and OTC Prevacid/Zegerid, etc as many have gotten food poisoning from eating spoiled food.
Thank you for reading my eye witness account and if you can help in any way, feel free to contact me directly.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Terralthra]

And what about FEMA? This agency is there to help the transfer process, but its bureaucracy and empire-building get in the way. After Hurricane Katrina, for instance, it made a variety of errors, such as:

It was ill-prepared to conduct the massive search-and-rescue function. Its federally coordinated building search teams found spraypainted symbols indicating state teams already had looked through the buildings.
Its tracking of supplies was sadly lacking. Some FEMA and state workers said they had to order twice as many supplies to get half of what they needed, primarily because they had no confidence in the system.
Agency officials disrupted supply lines, turned away diesel fuel provided by the Coast Guard and three trailer trucks filled with water—provided by Wal-Mart.

Carefully not mentioning how the FEMA response to this hurricane has been way way better.

[fgalkin]

Except it wasn't.

The city authorities and the National Guard were slightly more competent than those of New Orleans. FEMA is as useless as ever. They haven't done much of anything except fill out applications for reimbursement.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[fgalkin]

Like so

TOTTENVILLE — They fly into disaster areas, but flee from raindrops.

FEMA disaster recovery centers in Hurricane Sandy-ravaged sections of the city that were supposed to provide assistance to hurricane victims went MIA Wednesday morning, posting signs saying that they were closed due to the approaching Nor'easter.

The temporary shuttering of the facilities, which help victims register for disaster relief, as well as city food distribution centers come even as many of those still reeling from the monster storm were not told that they had to leave the battered areas.

On Tuesday, Mayor Bloomberg said that residents in the low-lying portions of Staten Island and the Rockaways were advised to leave ahead of the nor'easter, which could hit the city with 60 mph gusts and several inches of rain Wednesday afternoon, but that the evacuation was not mandatory like the one issued for all of Zone A ahead of Sandy.

The move led residents of the storm-ravaged areas fuming.

"The storm is coming. We don't know how hard it's going to hit us," said Jenny Cartagena, 46, who found the FEMA center in Coney Island closed Wednesday. "I need some help now."

The city's food distribution centers, a lifeline for the thousands left without power, heat and water for more than a week, would only be operating until noon Wednesday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced.

In Staten Island, a printed paper sign taped to the front door of on the center at 6581 Hylan Blvd. at 10:30 a.m. read “FEMA Center Closed Due to Weather.”

The front doors of the disaster recovery center, which is housed inside the Mount Lorretto Catholic Youth Organization, were unlocked, but there was no staff anywhere in sight for at least a half an hour.

And a set of buses which served as a pair of warming centers at the site for the past several days were missing, according to non-FEMA volunteers who continued to hand out supplies from a nearby building despite the storm.

Volunteers at a nearby donation distribution center said the buses vanished on Wednesday.

“FEMA packed up and left,” said Louis Giraldi, 47, a volunteer handing out cleaning supplies to victims.

“We don’t know where they are, so there’s nothing here but us.”

The site is listed on FEMA's list of NYC recovery centers, and was supposed to be open from 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday. The site was also included in the city's list of warming facilities supposed to open at 9 a.m. on Wednesday at the site.

A FEMA R/V also sat empty next to the recovery center.

A pair of FEMA workers alarmed by a reporter's camera came out of the building at 11 a.m. and took the sign down, saying the shelter would open at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.

The worker declined to give his name and would not explain why the site was closed or why the buses were missing.

FEMA spokesman Carter Langston said that the mobile centers were shuttered and staff moved inland because they were not structurally sound enough to weather the storm, which could put their staff in danger.

"Because these are mobile centers, they were shut down for life safety," Langston said. "As soon as weather permits tomorrow, they’re going to be back in place [possibly by noon]."

The remaining five sites in the city — in Staten Island, Coney Island, the Rockaways and The Bronx — were also closed or in the process of shutting down.

In Coney Island, a sign written in red ink that was bleeding from the rain sat on a police barrier in the parking lot of Our Lady of Solace Shrine Church on West 17th Street and Mermaid Avenue.

"They didn't want to get their precious van wet," quipped a church volunteer.

Cartagena, an asthma sufferer, said she showed up to the site with her home health aide, Camilla Suriel, 49, and her son's grandfather, Nelson Otero, 72 expecting "at least water."

"Something, you know, help," she said.

Serkan Yalcin, whose apartment in Sheepshead Bay was wrecked by Sandy, had a friend drop him off there. He applied online for FEMA assistance last week, and came to the center today to follow up with an actual FEMA rep after his wife was not able to get through to reps.

"I would like to know if my application is in the system or not," he said. "Nobody has called or shown up."

The situation was similar in Queens, where thousands remain without power more than a week after Sandy.

At the FEMA site on Rockaway Point Boulevard, near Barrett Street, a sign read: “Operations stop [Tuesday] at 4 p.m. Closed Wednesday 7 Nov.”

The plan was to move the tent on Rockaway Point Blvd. and Barrett to the 99th Regional Support Command Center for Army reservists there, but because the building had no power the move could not be made until Thursday, a rep for the command center said.

“If it’s going to be the same kind of storm as Hurricane Sandy, it’s going to be very difficult to operate, especially inside a tent like this one,” said Army Sgt. First Class Francisco Soriano, who was on scene.

Another location that was listed on FEMA's website on Beach 116th Street and Beach Channel Drive, showed no signs of the agency's presence.

At the city's Miller Field Distribution Center on New Dorp Lane in Staten Island, which houses a mobile FEMA disaster recovery center was also shutting down on Wednesday morning, a police car blocked the entrance at 11:35 a.m.

A cop said that officials were evacuating it because of the storm.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[ryacko]

Isn't the start of state failure considered the start of revolution?

Or maybe political science does not apply to the United States?

[Zaune]

Isn't the start of state failure considered the start of revolution?

Or maybe political science does not apply to the United States?

State failure is stretching it a bit. State apathy, ineptitude and class/race prejudice would be my guess; after all, the only people left in the danger areas are the ones who couldn't afford to leave.

[Simon_Jester]

Ryacko, you say that a revolution resulting from this is "political science."

I'm asking you to cite your sources for this opinion. What theories do you base it on?

[ryacko]

Revolutions aren't necessarily fought by armies and won through blood.

"The seeds of totalitarian regimes are nurtured by misery and want. They spread and grow in the evil soil of poverty and strife. They reach their full growth when the hope of a people for a better life has died. We must keep that hope alive." - Truman

Truman said this in the aftermath of WWII.
While hurricane sandy is less severe, there are people neglected, who are becoming dependent on non-state groups.

In this particular instance, the state has failed in some geographic areas, which will have effects.

[Block]

Revolutions aren't necessarily fought by armies and won through blood.

"The seeds of totalitarian regimes are nurtured by misery and want. They spread and grow in the evil soil of poverty and strife. They reach their full growth when the hope of a people for a better life has died. We must keep that hope alive." - Truman

Truman said this in the aftermath of WWII.
While hurricane sandy is less severe, there are people neglected, who are becoming dependent on non-state groups.

In this particular instance, the state has failed in some geographic areas, which will have effects.

Proof that they've failed as opposed to just been inefficient?

[Gandalf]

Isn't the start of state failure considered the start of revolution?

Or maybe political science does not apply to the United States?

That's not even close. Based on study of historical revolutions, James DeFronzo writes that a revolution requires five things:

• Mass dissent. Not present.
• Elite dissent. Not present.
• Unifying motive. Not present.
• State crisis. Just had a successful election. Definitely not present.
• World permissiveness. Not present.

[fgalkin]

The man quotes Harry Truman as if he was an authority on anything. He is clearly a mewling moron, whose prattle is best ignored.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[fgalkin]

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/liv ... -1.1197748

For more than a week, hundreds of public housing tenants — mostly ailing or elderly — have been trapped inside their upper-floor apartments, waiting in vain for the return of elevators, lights, heat and water.

They say they’ve yet to get help from NYCHA and, instead, are relying on a steady stream of volunteers for food, water and a glimmer of hope.

“Nobody from management has come up here,” said Jose Reyes, 57, who has left his 13th-floor apartment in the Red Hook Houses in Brooklyn only once over the last week. “It’s incredible that in the greatest nation in the world, this is happening here.”

As of Tuesday – eight days after Hurricane Sandy battered New York – 21,000 NYCHA residents in 114 buildings across Brooklyn, Queens and lower Manhattan were still without power.

In these developments, there are residents who are sick or too frail to negotiate the pitch-dark staircases that now serve as the only means of entry or exit until elevators are restored. Living high above the city, they survive without running water, and with toilets that don’t flush, refrigerators that don’t function and heat that seems to diminish each day as temperatures dip.

Reyes, who weighs 350 pounds, has osteoporosis and a weakened ankle from surgery that won’t allow him to schlep up and down 13 stories.

A Daily News reporter on Tuesday helped two of Reyes’ sisters, Marelnand Enily, drag a shopping cart full of water jugs and canned food up the unlucky 13 flights in total darkness. Urine pooled on one floor, and the load seemed heavier each step up.

Reyes fled his apartment on Sunday, and Sandy reached the first-floor windows of Red Hook West the following day. When Reyes returned two days later, fetid black water filled the basement of his building.

Since then, he’s remained in his cramped one-bedroom with only one two-hour break.

I went downstairs once to charge my phone. I stayed a couple of hours, looked around and went back up. I had to take painkillers and I’ve been here since.”

He can’t walk his rat terrier, Pinto, so the little dog uses a pad in the tiny living room to do his business. Reyes’ wife cooks meals from whatever is left over: “Spam, a little rice, canned food.” He drinks instant coffee and watches the tropical fish in an aquarium that no longer circulates swim slower and slower each day.

“I’m knowing about the outside world with this little transistor radio – battery operated, old school,” he says. In the dark at night, “I listen to 1010 WINS, cuddle up with the wife, reminisce about the old days.

“It’s amazing to think that with all this technology, they can’t resolve this,” he said.

Brooklyn City Councilman Stephen Levin grew frustrated Tuesday trying to get NYCHA to restore power to three buildings at the Gowanus Houses in Brooklyn. Con Ed was ready to turn it on, but a NYCHA contractor had yet to show up to finish repairing the authority’s electrical system that was damaged during the flood.

“The level of dysfunction and apathy from NYCHA to the tenants of NYCHA is shocking,” Levin said. “I can’t get an answer for the last three and a half hours. I get responses like, ‘We’re trying.’ ”

In a 10th-floor apartment at Gowanus, Daisy Torres needs an electronically powered respirator to help her breathe. Without power for the last eight days, “It’s been terrible.”

Her daughter, Wendy, 28, has spina bifida and uses a wheelchair, and her husband, Antonio, is confined to bed as he battles prostate cancer. The days since Sandy knocked out the power at Gowanus have been an endless nightmare.

“I feel liked we’re trapped in here,” she said. “We can’t do anything.”

With Joseph Tepper

and Mark Morales

gsmith@nydailynews.com

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Dalton]

Let's see...Governor Cuomo is fucking PISSED, I mean P-I-S-S-E-D at LIPA right now. Nassau County exec Ed Mangano (my neck of the woods) is calling for the US military to take over the managerial structure. Shit is getting real on Long Island. We need new infrastructure (understatement much?).

[Sea Skimmer]

Considering the US Army has one prime power battalion, half of which is in Afghanistan, I wonder what exactly he thinks the military would be capable of doing in terms of restoring electrical power? The Army Corps of Engineers does something like 95% of all its work through civilian contractors in the first place and its historical involvement with power distribution tends to be limited to military bases which while not tiny, are hardly comparable to Long Island. The call for a 'military style flow of information' doesn't even start to make sense. tend to have a reputation for incredibly bad information management. This all sounds like a call for ass covering rather then a serious attempt to get the power back on. Calling for FEMA to administer funding to bring in more outside crews would make a lot more sense, but it isn't so dramatic.

As for new infrastructure, burying all the power lines will increase costs by about 600%over building the same system on power poles, right after you guys just paid to rebuild everything broken. It will also mean the whole system can flood out easier... Flooding and wind is an annoying combination to guard against. One thing that might get more consideration now though are concrete poles. They are pretty common around the world and much more resistant to wind loading and falling branches, its just they cost more up front and they are harder to remove and replace if they do get damaged. The vast supply of trees has ensured they are seldom used in the US.

[Dalton]

Ed Mangano is part of the horribly corrupt Nassau County GOP political machine so him covering his ass is nothing new.

[Dalton]

Someone on Facebook said that they already have the 76th Engineers out of Knox here already. Army has Sandy-relief missions as well. All secondhand info tho.

[fgalkin]

Someone on Facebook said that they already have the 76th Engineers out of Knox here already. Army has Sandy-relief missions as well. All secondhand info tho.

Watch this amazing video to see what the volunteers are actually doing in the Rockaways.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin