Sandy and the Presidential Election

The devastation brought by Hurricane Sandy on the East coast will continue to affect the people in a negative manner. Some Democratic hopefuls are thinking that this has been a good sign for the presidential election showing Baracks leadership skills and passion for the American people.

Sandy is a reminder to Americans about climate change and the continued denial of the warming of the planet and melting of the polar ice caps is not a top concern for Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney.  In recent months Mitt Romney has showed interest in dismantling FEMA and making disaster relief programs all privatized.  With the efforts that FEMA’s crew has been making during this time Americans are seeing just how much we need and are benefiting from FEMA.

President Obama and Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney
helping as much as they can with relief efforts.

As many leaders are critiquing Obama as he gets closer and closer to Election Day a not so common supported or Obama is praising him for the work that he’s done thus far on the Atlantic coast. Republican Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey spoke warmly about him as the topic came up often in an interview today. Democrats are making sure people know who is being a successful leader during this time and that Obama has the skills it takes to lead a country in a time of great disaster like this one. “He looks like a real president” said a individual at a Ohio rally for Obama’s reelection. 

There are many issues that come up when talking about climate change and more frequent storms is one of them. People want a president that is going to be firm about this issue and not turn a blind eye to the concept that our planet is in a changing state. Obama pledged to cool the planet by cutting carbon emissions because if they continue at the current rate we’ll so more super storms like sandy and eventually boil the planet. These issues are being showed in live action just days before the election and could possibly change minds of undecided voters.

Politico.com-11-02-12

Hurricane Sandy Aftermath

New Jersey is still suffering from effects of Hurricane Sandy President Obama gave a word today “the entire country has been watching what’s been happening.” As they have, we’ve been wondering what kind of devastating effects this storm would leave for people in the East Atlantic Coast area. President Obama and the Governor of New Jersey took a aerial tour of the hurricane ravaged coast.

New Jersey Residents waiting in line for gas.

2.1 Million American homes and businesses are without power, fires are sparking up and ripping through homes ignited by broken natural gas lines, lines are forming at gas stations, food supply may become scarce, and temperatures could lower to close to freezing temperatures, leaving unlivable housing for people without power. The death toll in the US has reached 55 and is expected to continue to climb.

Some of the deaths are a result of drowning being crushed by objects blown in the wind and some in fires related to the storm. FEMA organizers have restoring power as their number one priority so that people can get power incase temperatures do drop to freezing temperatures, and so grocery stores can open up again and suit the public. One thing that often happens in a storm situation like this on is that people take advantage of being able to easily steal from stores and houses. This storm, officials are not finding much of that happening at this time. People seem to just be in distress and too many communities in the area are experiencing damage ad losses from this storm and they are still living in dangerous conditions. Emergency managers and response officials will continue their work. 

October 31 The Star Ledger

Physical Analysis of Hurricane Sandy

Tuesday October 30^th super storm Sandy reached land and made its path of destruction across parts on New England the Appalachia and other parts of the Northeast.  Sandy downgraded from a Hurricane just before landfall and left millions without power at least 51 dead and causing over 20 billion dollars in damage.  Sandy won’t be forgotten for a long time because of its strength and unusual mix of weather conditions that it brought across the Eastern Seaboard.   Here are some of the latest record breaking statistics

The storm pressure of this storm is the second highest to ever make landfall. With a reading in just south of Atlantic, New Jersey was 946mb at landfall. In general the lower the mb, the stronger the storm. The lowest central storm pressure was recorded in the New England area was the Long Island Express Hurricane in 1938 with a storm pressure of 941mb.  Records were broken in many different metropolitan areas such as Philadelphia, PA and Baltimore, MD.

Wind gusts that developed with this storm were already strong days before it hammered the coast. Twenty four hours before reaching landfall areas along the East Coast recorded hurricane force winds of over 90 miles per hour in New York and New Jersey and they were felt well into the interior parts of the New England region.

Super storm Sandy might have hit New York and New Jersey the hardest but, rain fell the hardest southwest of New Jersey.  Sandy dumped more than 8 inches of rain as its winds pelted the cost in Maryland, Delaware and southeastern Virginia. Sandy broke multiple daily rainfall records including all three D.C. area airports.  Accuweather has a good list of the highest recorded rainfalls from this storm and Easton MD recorded the highest at 12.55 inches in a little over 48 hours.

One of the last major aspects of this unique storm was the snow. Sandy’s unusual development as tropical storm merging with a winter cold front brought high elevations of snowfall. Redhouse, MD measured an impressive 28 inches topping the list for the greatest accumulations amount the eight states that saw measurable snow  West Virginia is also a notable state reaching over 28 inches in some areas and snow is still continuing to fall at this point. Sandy dropped enormous amounts of snow for this time of the year and six states received over one foot of snow in areas. Sandy has left a memory engrained in the lives of people all over the county, leaving us to pick up after its destructive force.

10/31 Washington Post

New York City Braces for Storm

        City and State officials braced Sunday for a brutal bearing by Hurricane Sandy, ordering all public transportation to shut down. Governor  Cuomo ordered the MTA to end all subway bus and commuter rail service beginning Sunday evening and urged people to stay home. Areas of evacuation in the low lying neighborhoods and are being ordered to evacuate to higher grounds adding that all public schools in the same areas will be closed on Monday stating that “When there’s no mass transit, and with weather as bad as it’s going to be, we don’t want to put children’s lives at risk”. Subway and train service will be coming to a grinding halt by 7pm and by 9pm bus services will be as well. It’s unclear how long the transit services will be closed down for the governor said but the storm system from the west and cold air from Canada is expected to wreak true havoc on the New York region.

          Meteorologists are predicting gusts of wind to top 80 miles per hour and storm surges to reach 11 fee when the killer cane makes landfall along the central New Jersey coast Monday night right at the high tide. Last year Hurricane Irene devastated New York for 12 hours and Sandy is expected to hit for a total of 24 to 36 hours. Governor Cuomo said on Sunday “ This is nothing to take lightly. You want to stay at home, be prepared, enjoy the family, read a book”. That sounded pretty luxurious for those individuals but for the 375,000 people living in Brighton Beach, Battery Park , Broad Channel and other low-lying zone A neighborhoods Bloomberg ordered evacuated by Sunday afternoon. The city has close to 72 shelters for those individuals to stay but most are resorting to family and friends out of the evacuated areas. For those who are planning on stick out the storm have a “Shove it Sandy” kind of attitude for the storm. Officials are also activating 1100 national Guard members 400 on Long Island and 200 in the city. I guess in a situation like this you wait and prepare for the worst but hope for the best.    

New York Daily News – October 28^th 2012

October Surprise/ Hurricane Sandy

             The possibility or either a tropical storm, hurricane or bursts of snow devastating the east coast is becoming more apparent as the days go on and the reality of the Caribbean become far too real. The pre-Halloween hurricane is already starting to effect the presidential race between Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama. Prompting cancelations of campaign events in critical battle ground states such as North Carolina, Virginia and Pennsylvania. Some states such as Virginia and Maryland have already issued emergency declarations.

The National Weather Service in Philadelphia warned the morning of Friday the 26^th to expect major flash and river flooding along with storm tides of as much as 5 feet in the Chesapeake Bay and 10 feet in the Delaware Bay. Meteorologists advised some areas to expect strong winds for up to two days straight from the slow moving storm. Sandy could merge with an eastward moving winter storm and join cold air flowing from Canada to form what the media is calling a “Frankenstorm” which could drop as much as two feet of snow on West Virginia and smaller areas of Ohio and Pennsylvania. Experts aren’t confident on how the storm is for sure going to play out they just know that it’s a large and dangerous storm and could have widespread effects.

Sandy throws one more wildcard into the Presidential election that has already taken many different twists and turns in the public’s perception. Some of the ways that the storm could affect the outcome are.

1.)    Early Voting. in many states such as Ohio and Virginia will be in trouble and prone to flooding are already making plans to relocating voting equipment. This could effect different groups on people in making time or having the availability to be able to vote on or before election day giving different candidates more of a advantage.

2.)    The Katrina Factor.  Any disaster offers a chance to see how a leader governs. Seeing the strength of the current President in dealing with aid to the public and working closely with disaster officials could make a difference in how Republicans and Democrats push for last minute advertisings.

3.)    The distraction. The fact that hurricanes and large natural disasters bring in a lot of attention the presidential election might lose importance and headlines in the media making final pitches of the future president hopeful less time in the media.

There are many last minute variables right now. The campaign is closely monitoring the storm and watching to make sure the public stays educate and safe when the storm hits.

www.politico.com 10/26/12

Servere Tornados

Thousands were left without electricity and power after a blustery storm swept through Arkansas and Mississippi on Wednesday October 17^th. Storm trackers are suspecting that at least five tornadoes touched down.

The storm traveled up from the Golf Coast into Mississippi and then up into Arkansas as well where it gained most of its strength.  In Northern Mississippi and Eastern Arkansas was were winds and tornadoes took out dozens of houses, trailer homes, trees, and electric towers leaving up to thousands of people in both states powerless.

After the strong winds and tornadoes ripped through Mississippi and Arkansas, dozens of people evacuated from their trailer homes in Tennessee. A man outside Memphis, TN stated “It sliced it open like a can, you can see the sky when you go in my kitchen, it’s pretty rough right now around here”

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/18/14531330-ark-miss-tornadoes-leave-thousands-without-power?lite