Your Comprehensive Guide To Frankenstorm — Plus, LIVE Updates!
UPDATE: Things are definitely picking up. The National Weather Advisory announced an imminent turn towards the Northwest at 11 a.m. Mayor Bloomberg has ordered the evacuation of over 370,000 people in coastal Brooklyn and Manhattan, and winds have been recorded up to 80 mph.
We're listening live to Mayor Bloomberg's update, so stay tuned. Right now, it looks like the peak surge for NYC is still yet to come — around 8:00 PM tonight (although the exact times depend on your location), and water levels will remain "higher than normal" for about 24 hours. The storm will make landfall near Atlantic City, New Jersey. Meanwhile, remember to stay away from large windows (especially in high-rise buildings) and not to use elevators in case of a power outage.
When asked to compare Sandy to Irene (gossip!), Bloomberg noted that it's too soon to tell, but it may be apparent once the "real flooding" comes tonight at high tide. It's a full moon tonight, so that might make things even worse. That said, NPR spoke with a number of listeners who reported anecdotal evidence suggesting this storm is already worse than some of the peak winds and flooding they saw during Irene.
Bloomberg also noted that if you're in a mandatory evacuation zone, you're making a "bad judgment call" if you haven't left yet, though he estimates only half of those affected have actually followed the order (and about 3100 people are currently in shelters, filling only a fraction of the 16,000 beds). On the other hand, while the mayor helpfully suggests that you spend the afternoon watching television or catching up on sleep, you can still go out to local restaurants during the day. Then again, he doesn't want you going out after about 3 PM today.
But really, this is all NYC real estate's fault: "People pay more, generally, to be closer to the water...even though you could argue that they should pay less because it's more dangerous. We cannot build a big barrier reef off the shore," Bloomberg noted. But significant changes have been made to building codes in lower-lying areas, and according to Bloomberg, the city has done basically everything possible to prepare. Fingers crossed it works. Stay tuned for more updates, we'll keep you posted!
Like those creepy cellos that play as Jaws approaches the ship, tweets and blogs are announcing the imminent approach of the FRANKENSTORM. As if Halloween wasn't scary enough, some sort of weird blizzard/hurricane amalgamation is approaching our shores, and, to quote The New York Times, "If the storm does make landfall in the United States, it could become, to use a technical term from meteorology, a whopper." Okay. We are scared.
But handling disasters with a combo of humor and thoroughness is what New Yorkers do best, and so before we all fly into our own respective panics, we've pulled together a helpful list of things to know if Sandy does visit The Big Apple. Obviously, we can make plenty of jokes about stocking up at a liquor stores and renting movies — but we don't need to tell you how to pair box wine with a Roseanne marathon. Instead, here we've got a couple of numbers, experts, and ideas for feeling as safe as possible if the Frankenstorm decides to trick-or-treat. And, first things first: don't forget to check your evacuation zone!
Photo: Courtesy of The City Of New York
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