Posting has been and will be intermittent, due to ongoing power outages and/or loss of the internets. Outages were actually increasing today, since trees continue to fall on power lines. An entire subdivision not far from me was evacuated because a little creek transformed into a raging torrent ruptured a gas pipeline. A cloud of gas is still wafting above the Hudson Valley somewhere.
Anyway, in checking in to the news today after being in an information vacuum for the past 24 hours, I am glad to see The Times is finally noticing that New York extends past the five boroughs and there is a major freaking catastrophe going on. Many of our towns, including in our neighboring Vermont, are literally cut off. So far, reported deaths have been surprisingly few, given the epic scope of this disaster. But I am afraid many isolated people in isolated areas have been lost or remain stranded without anybody even noticing. Power may not be restored to many until next week. And the locales affected were already underwater, economically.
I have to say I am worried about our friend Marie Burns of RealityChex.com -- she was in her cottage in one of the devastated areas upstate and we haven't heard from her. If she could get out, I know she would post in a McDonald's or other WiFi area. So I have a feeling her road may be blocked. Since vehicles can't get through, volunteers are searching the area on foot. The last I heard from Marie, she was as well-prepared as she could be, stocked up on food, water, etc.
Here are some more photos from the local paper. Why do some parents think it's a cute idea to have their kids pose waist-deep in flood waters?
P.S. Having just gotten the internet and electricity back, having endured a horizontal lashing of 10 inches of wind-driven rain, I received an email from my apartment management stating they are going to power wash the outdoor area and to bring in all my loose belongings. I think they must be related to the people who tell their kids to go outside and swim in the fun new water park in the front yard.
8 comments:
Doesn't Marie Burns have a cell phone? I'm sure lots of us are worried about her with all that's going on up there.
@Forrest,
Cell phone service is dicey up this way in the best of times. My cell was useless. Must have something to do with the towers being knocked out. I just got the modern amenities back myself (at least for now), so will keep trying.
Hi Karen
How about offering to "power wash" your apartment managers? And maybe donate to a brain transplant program to benefit them and the parents who send their kids out to swim in the floodwaters. Or.....maybe you should just send notes to those nutty parents asking if their kids have have up to date typhoid shots! (-:
I haven't been to your blog lately, there are just so many interesting and informative sites out there. Still I love your posts and I just discovered that you have a post on Facebook button. I posted the one about Eric Shneiderman on my wall. What a travesty and you are right, the blatancy is amazing. Only sleeping americans allow this. Eric Shneiderman does have a Facebook Page. A few days ago he had less than 1000 likes which is really too bad when there is 10 million foreclosures. I posted his FB page on my wall and the wall of a few key friends, but there is just no energy out there to make something like this go viral. Too too bad for us americans.
Karen, I suggest your concern for children placed in harm's way by their parents is misplaced. It appropriately thins out the gene pool.
Gerald, I am not a Facebooker but I would totally give Eric Schneiderman a thumbs up if I knew how. Can you talk me through it? Otherwise, I send him a “love letter” a day to the link Karen gave us telling him how much we appreciate his courage and integrity.
I just saw PBS last night - it comes on at a strange time in Australia so I usually miss it. It was so biased against Schneiderman - gave the impression it was imperative to get the foreclosure problem solved so we can get all those people who don't belong there out of their homes and on the street. The problem is this difficult AG in New York is holding up the whole process. No interview with Schneiderman, I noticed. When I hear stories like this on PBS and now know that they can't find a time slot for Bill Moyers - well I am done sending them my meagre contributions.
I think all you have to do is go to www.facebook.com. It will ask for a user name and password pretty much like any other site. FB is not perfect, but it is a good forum to hook up with like minded people and share ideas and share sources. There are so many half hearted though revolutionaries that it is difficult to make something go viral like I wish could be done with Eric Shneiderman's FB page. But some savvy people have helped honed some of my ideas, like moving away from electoral politics cause it can no longer accomplish anything of substance. I have a relative small number of FB friends around 80 because that is not my goal. I probably have about 10 or 15 supra progressive or perhaps revolutionary friends and they are my favorite to share ideas with. There are also every type of political group like some Free Bradley Manning groups, or a group in which democrats pledge to move beyond election politics. It can be addictive. It has blogging elements. You can definitely use it that way. It sometimes can move very fast. A couple of days I was in an interesting comment thread with 3 or 4 people and there were like 20 comments in 20 minutes. I like that kind of action. There is also non political themes and you may be on a comment thread with your supra progressive friends and it may shift into a humorous thread. Karen could easily set up a facebook page to supplement her blog. It is much less formal and doesn't require nearly as much time to do. It is also a way for Karen to greatly increase her exposure. I have advertised Sardonicky to some of my friends, I like to help others connect this way. You could do the same Valerie as I also like to read your comments. Facebook would be a good forum for your ideas without the trials and tribulations of blogging. If you want to skip a few days it is much more understood on Facebook than with a blog.
Yadda. Yadda, Yadda.
Gerald,
I may end up caving and joining Facebook eventually. So far, I have resisted because Goldman Sachs has a stake in it. Then again, they probably have a stake in everything.
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