Sandy latest.....

People in the Northeast are still wringing themselves out after Sandra had her way. New Yorkers do not tolerate inconvenience very well and tempers are reportedly short.

 

It is amazing to me that some of New York's tunnels flooded so quickly and easily. The Brooklyn - Battery Park tunnel is still full and it may take weeks to pump out the water. There are widespread reports of sewage, debris and gasoline mixed with flood water throughout the City. Wall Street is now operating and its buildings were not flooded.

 

Elsewhere, in Queens, some 80 houses were leveled by fire. Amazingly, one was ignited, perhaps by an exploding electrical transformer, and the strong winds blew the flames across a wide swath of homes. There were very close to one another.

 

Elsewhere, Americans were not much affected. The worst hit were people who lived along the shore, especially the New York and New Jersey shores.

 

 We are told to expect a small increase in insurance premiums in order for the insurance companies to recoup their losses and to better protect them in future. Gasoline prices have declined in anticipation of a drop in consumption. Perhaps worst of all are the large numbers of people stranded in the path of the storm who are unable to find a seat on slowly remobilizing aircraft.

 

JFK was totally flooded but is now partially operational. We have friends who are stranded in New Haven Connecticut and don't expect to fly home before the weekend.

 

People are comparing Sandy with Katrina in terms of the cost they bore. Katrina was much more devastating, but Sandy hit the high rent district and its flooding cost loss of business revenue, hampered all types of public transportation and otherwise did little damage. Katrina, on the other hand, raised havoc with homes and infrastructure owing to its high winds. In short, Sandy was a humongous water storm while Katrina was a winds storm.