I am officially tired of people calling it "Super Storm Sandy"

"The Transporter" (transporter)
10/29/2013 at 12:01 • Filed to: None

It was, at best, a slightly abnormally wide weak category 2 hurricane when it made landfall in New Jersey. We get far worse ones all the time in the southeast and they usually don't cause nearly the same amount of damage. Why? Because we're prepared for them. The damage and loss of life that the storm caused there wasn't caused by global warming or a "super storm," it was caused by hubris.

New Jersey and New York had plenty of time to prepare for this inevitability. Hurricanes making landfall that far north is part of living memory for that region. Yes, it's rare, but experts have been saying for years that as the Earth is getting warmer, hurricanes will move farther north. Yet nothing was done to prepare the northeast for this inevitability. I'm sorry that I don't feel sorry for people who were warned of danger and did nothing about it.

Now, when Katrina (a category 5 hurricane because there is no category 6) turned New Orleans back into a swamp and killed orders of magnitude more people, everyone was quick to point the blame where it belonged: criminal negligence. But when it came to Atlantic City and New York, people instead want to refuse to accept responsibility for their own fate and started calling a middling category 2 hurricane a "super storm."

So people of New York, New Jersey, and members of the press, stop calling hurricane Sandy a "super storm." Just because your basement flooded and the supermarket was closed for a day doesn't give you the right to call a storm that would have made me only slightly late for work a "super storm."

DISCUSSION (31)

DanimalHouse > The Transporter
10/29/2013 at 12:05

Kinja'd!!!

offroadkarter > The Transporter
10/29/2013 at 12:07

Kinja'd!!!

Bob Loblaw Made Me Make a Phoney Phone Call to Edward Rooney > The Transporter
10/29/2013 at 12:08

GOTTA LOVE THAT EAST COAST MEDIA B-B-B-BIASSSSSS!

For Sweden > The Transporter
10/29/2013 at 12:10

But it's different because it happened in a major media market.

GreenN_Gold > The Transporter
10/29/2013 at 12:14

I (wrongly) assumed they called it a super storm because it was below hurricane force. I didn't realize it was a cat 2.

I'm on the west coast. Aint nobody got time for hurricanes.

Mosqvich > The Transporter
10/29/2013 at 12:19

I agree to some extent. Particularly in the damage. However, I lived in Mississippi, which was hit, storm-wise, harder than New Orleans and was cleaned up much, much faster. The criminals, read politicians, in Louisiana are still milking Katrina for all she's worth. It sickens most Mississippians to hear the whining from New Orleans. The real question is why we continue to live in these areas? It seems like NJ will likely fix its problems, This Old House is doing a pretty good series on it now, but I'm not so sure about New York.

Kinja'd!!!

Tom McParland > The Transporter
10/29/2013 at 12:20

I was really tempted just to not engage...but I can't help myself. While I will agree that the semantic game of "Super Storm" vs "Hurricane" is just a semantic ratings game for local media, it was a serious storm that did a significant amount of damage. Could local and state govt's done more to prevent the destruction, maybe. But "accepting responsibility" how? The people didn't cause the storm, they didn't cause the damage. I live near AC, while I was fine I had several friends and co-workers lose everything, house, car, valuables. What exactly where they supposed to to do prepare? Move their house? I get that this is an over-blown news story that is being milked to death and has little or nothing to do with you and your area but to minimize what real families are still recovering from is a bit insensitive. If you don't like the "Super Storm Sandy" coverage fine rant all day, to say the residents of these areas "deserved" it....might be a step too far.

offroadkarter > offroadkarter
10/29/2013 at 12:24

fucking kinja, lets try this again

Kinja'd!!!

Tom McParland > offroadkarter
10/29/2013 at 12:24

Kinja'd again

offroadkarter > For Sweden
10/29/2013 at 12:26

versus new orleans where people just get shit faced on mardi gras

offroadkarter > Tom McParland
10/29/2013 at 12:26

it worked the second time for me

am I seeing a false reality?

Casper > The Transporter
10/29/2013 at 12:26

It annoyed me as soon as it showed up. They build their god forsaken city on a swamp. Then dug tunnels under said swamp as well as all their utilities. People know these storms hit the area, but because they don't hit every single year, they feel like they shouldn't need to prepare for the storm. The storm hits and breaks shit. Rather than having supplies and plans ready and just fixing it, they just sit around complaining that everyone else should pay for the repairs.

Just because something bad happens doesn't excuse a lack of preparedness, planning, or intelligence. All these people build houses in flood zones, in a hurricane zone, and didn't plan for it. A lot of them didn't bother to have realistic insurance, many didn't bother to have supplies or disaster plans. Most just expected the city to come swooping in and save them. They chose to put all their eggs in same basket and got burned for it. That doesn't magically make the storm worse, it just makes the situation worse.

ttyymmnn > The Transporter
10/29/2013 at 12:27

http://blogs.fox11online.com/2012/10/27/why…

Also this, which is more to your argument:

http://www.popsci.com/science/articl…

I pretty much agree with you, having ridden out a couple of hurricanes myself when I lived in Norfolk, most notably Dianna in 1990. However, I think you should reserve your opprobrium for the media and not the residents of the northeast. When meteorological events come together as they did with Sandy, no level of preparation can be effective.

Tom McParland > offroadkarter
10/29/2013 at 12:28

Saw it this time.

TheBloody, Oppositelock lives on in our shitposts. > Tom McParland
10/29/2013 at 12:32

Ahmen, my fiance's familiy lives in Toms River/Sea Side and they lost homes, cars ect... This isn't some dick swinging contest of who has it worse off.

The Transporter > Mosqvich
10/29/2013 at 12:33

Just like Texas, Louisiana is like a whole other country. What everyone else, including people inside the Beltway, would call extreme corruption at every level of government, Louisiana calls business as usual.

But my point was that NY and NJ had decades to write building codes that could have prevented that kind of destruction but refused to do so because it got in the way of making money. Compared to the Jersey shore, Vermont got absolutely hammered. That state is nothing but a series of mountains and everybody lives in valleys which were all washed away because of the rapid rainfall. The wanton destruction per capita was far worse in that state than in the Jersey shore, but the whiny wheel with the annoying accent gets the grease.

Casper > Tom McParland
10/29/2013 at 12:33

It's not like hurricanes are new to the area. Just because they don't happen every year doesn't make them something you can just ignore. It's individuals responsibilities to know what the risks are of their area, be it floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, or giant lizards from the sea, and prepare for it. If your house is in a flood plain, you should have flood insurance as well as sand bags, dry boxes, etc. Just passing the buck off to the government or insurance company completely and having it not work out is a conscious gamble. I fully evaluated all the disaster statistics when I chose my house, and planned accordingly. Everywhere should be prepared for a minimum of power outages, fires, etc. Some places just need more specific preparations. At a minimum you should be looking at 50 year trends for the area if not 100+ years.

I don't feel sorry for people who don't bother to prepare to take care of themselves. I feel sorry for the kids, animals, and other dependents that needed the people to be on their game about the issues.

PatBateman > offroadkarter
10/29/2013 at 12:34

Yo. Check out my super car.

Kinja'd!!!

The Transporter > offroadkarter
10/29/2013 at 12:34

It was wide, but it was on the lower end of the middle of the road with respect to wind speed.

Mosqvich > The Transporter
10/29/2013 at 12:37

LOL! You are right. I didn't even know Vermont was impacted. I'm in Colorado and we build to survive fires, floods, snow fall, Big Foot, you know, the usual disasters.

offroadkarter > PatBateman
10/29/2013 at 12:38

dis nice

offroadkarter > Tom McParland
10/29/2013 at 12:39

I can sleep easy now

The Transporter > Tom McParland
10/29/2013 at 12:49

I never said that they deserved it, I just said I didn't feel sorry for them because they had decades to prepare. Where I live we have building codes. Houses on or near the beach can't be but so close together and they have to be built using certain materials and techniques so that they can withstand high winds. And by law everyone on the coast in my state has to have hurricane insurance, which went up, but the way, thanks to Sandy. So now I'm having to pay more because somebody else was unprepared.

JEM > The Transporter
10/29/2013 at 12:49

Not to mention Vermont got completely F***** up just the year before by Irene.

PatBateman > Tom McParland
10/29/2013 at 12:55

What were they supposed to do to prepare? They can do a lot.

Here's a website from the NJ Office of Emergency Management listing some pretty good ways to shore up your house for hurricanes.

http://www.state.nj.us/njoem/plan/hur…

Tom McParland > The Transporter
10/29/2013 at 12:57

And by law everyone on the coast in my state has to have hurricane insurance, which went up, but the way, thanks to Sandy. So now I'm having to pay more because somebody else was unprepared.

Anger understood. The many suffer for the sins of the few; it sucks but that is the country we live in. We are not a country of "responsibility" and "accountability" maybe at one time, but not anymore. This I will agree with you. Our experiences and perceptions shape the way we see an event. You see a storm that happened somewhere else being is over hyped due to some one year anniversary, and your insurance go up. I see my students at Atlantic City High School who go home to houses that still aren't repaired because their parents rent and the land-lord did not get much of a settlement from insurance or FEMA. Neither perception is "more right" than the other, just different.

Tom McParland > PatBateman
10/29/2013 at 13:01

Yes and many people did that, but when the ocean decides it wants your house. There is not much you can do. As a local the impact of the storm was different for me than others who don't live here. I will share with you one of my responses to Pistol Pete:

"And by law everyone on the coast in my state has to have hurricane insurance, which went up, but the way, thanks to Sandy. So now I'm having to pay more because somebody else was unprepared.

Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy > The Transporter
10/29/2013 at 13:06

The Scotsmen have a much better name for such storms. "Hurricane Bawbag".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane…

PatBateman > Tom McParland
10/29/2013 at 13:13

As a veteran of gulf coast hurricanes, I obviously understand that there is no way, other than putting it on 20' reinforced concrete columns and sprinkling magical fairy dust on it, to prepare a home for a tidal surge. Even then, you're not guaranteed to pass through the storm intact. The homes that were taken out by some flooding and wind damage, however, could have been prepped. Of course, we know that down here because we have to deal with it every few years. Get us into a deep freeze, and we would be clueless as to how we would live through it.

I do take issue with the whole "super storm" moniker. It would be like if Houston got a snow storm that dropped 8" over night and we called it a "super blizzard" because it was attached to a really big cloud. Otherwise, I understand completely why so many people were surprised by how a hurricane and a large surge can do damage. Y'all have never really had a big one before. Hopefully, the homes in the area will be repaired soon.

Chteelers > The Transporter
10/29/2013 at 13:54

Because it hit New York. The greatest and most important city in the world. It can't just be a hurricane that caused lots of damage, it must be a SUPERSTORM!!!!

sliding-sideways > The Transporter
11/08/2013 at 00:15

Katrina made landfall as a Cat 3. It was a 5 when it was further out in the gulf, but as hurricanes close in, most tend to lose some strength. Sandy also didn't make landfall in the States as a hurricane. Sorry, just a sticking point for me.