apparently transportation authorities closed the subway early just so that they could retrieve much of the mechanical ware from underground and store it someplace safe for the duration of the storm. there will be some corroding, but it's thanks to the foresight of city and transit officials that the damage will be slightly less terrible. enlisting the army corps of engineers to help pump the subway is definitely helping to expedite the process, but it's still going to be a while before the city is up and running again.
On another note, is it terrible to feel as if those who stay in a mandatory evacuation zone, even when they have the cappability and opportunity to leave, deserve what is coming to them? If they are staying because they are hubris and selfish, then is it fair to risk the lives of our service men and women, who have families of their own, to make these dangerous rescue missions? I don't think that we should leave these people to their own demise. We should attempt to avoid as much loss in human life as we can. But of these likely Darwin Award winners, will they never learn to take responsibility for their actions if we keep bailing them out, especially when helping these people diverts resources and attention away from other critical relief efforts? I'm on the fence about how I feel about this... Maybe I'm just a terrible person who has been incredibly emotionally drained from trying to get into contact with friends and family in NYC (all of whom are finally --and thankfully-- accounted for, but are still, even thought they weren't in mandatory evacuation zones, in various states of no power/no real place to stay). I know that many places around the world deal with disaster constantly and we have been relatively privileged in New York, but Sandy still isn't a laughing matter and perhaps those who think it is won't have any last laugh besides their own.
I think that there is sometimes, a bit of hubris, especially in the very old, who have opinions like "...I've lived here 65 years, so believe me, so let it come, I've seen it all, nothing is going to take me out of my home!" On the surface that sounds like experience speaking; but if one analyzes it, for a 200 year storm, the fact is, they've probably never seen something as bad as this even if they had lived three lifetimes. So yes, are they being stupid? Of course. But if shit happens would the cry for help? Of course. I watched in amusement, tempered by sadness, at the idiocy of a woman who was crying on the television news as she tearfully recounted how when the storm hit, she was futilely "...stuffing towels under the door but it just kept coming..." Of course, it was tragically sad that the woman lost her home, but to try to hold back a hurricane by stuffing towels underneath doors? That was her storm defense? Talk about monumental stupidity. Whether this stupidity was due to hubris or a lifetime of innocence is anyone's guess. But whatever it was, it kept the woman in harms way with the mistaken notion that she could somehow be more deterministic than the will of a 200 year storm. Perhaps a lack of public education is what some may say, but honestly; how much public education can there ever be? Some people are simply destined to suffer for their ignorance.
makes me think of darwin... from one perspective, it's taking out the stupid ones i'm actually still in ny - and unable to get back to my place, since its still flooded and without power that being said, watching the tv showing idiots on jet ski's in the harbour a few hours before the storm hits... what more can you say? same applies to those unwilling to leave from what they deem as mandatory evacuation zones. then because of their reluctance, rescue workers have to stay to save them risking their lives and dying unnecessarily it's not like there wasn't much notice with sandy, it was all over the news days before it even got near there was technically plenty of time to "prepare" and leave, and if it was like irene for nyc where there wasn't much, u can just go back home the next day
So, I'm worried about how frequent these catastrophic natural disasters are going to become in the coming years...
You know, there are some who are wagging their fingers and saying that this is just the beginning of the results of an accumulation of events leading to global warming. Rather than being an anomaly, that storms like this would become ever more commonplace. Personally, I think that places like NYC, which never really cared before, should start to invest in permanent sea walls. I'm inclined to agree that storms like this are probably going to be more destructive over the years.
