I decided to start a thread in this room because I didn't see one. Many of the threads in this urban survival room discuss urban survival in theory. Well, here we have an actual example in real life. This photo from the streets of NYC after Hurricane Sandy says so many things about urban survival without uttering a word.

@ireckon

Great idea. It would be neat to see a thread devoted to pictures only (no commentary) as the saying goes, "A picture paints a thousand words."

Being disconnected from Matrix can be very unsettling. I have a horrible feeling from the news reports I have seen that the situation could be become extremely dire as there are still millions in New York without access to electrical grid and even running water services. I suspect that the next 48-72hrs could be a turning point as the emergency response clock is now into day 2. There are even now reports of more Hospitals such as Bellevue Hospital Centre being evacuated within New York, which were previously using backup generators, which would suggest a lack of fuel which is unable to make its way into the city, although the news report is suggesting ongoing flooding where the generators are located in the hospital basement. If Diesel fuel has become difficult to procure then food distribution through commercial business could become a serious issue in the next few days if the normal everyday supply chain has been so severely affected as folks begin to emerge in an attempt to restock.

Is the electronic food stamp system down in these affected areas i.e. access to food may become restricted to those people without access to cash? Electronic ATMs within wide areas of the city and surrounding suburbs might be unavailable due to the power grid/comms issues (which I suspect may take weeks to rectify - again no damage assessments and repair timescales are forthcoming even 2 days in) if communications are disrupted to the point of this photograph. Even stored water, batteries for flashlights (quite critical for security in large tower blocks etc), candles and other consumables will now start to begin to run low 48hrs into this emergency.

This is actually a very worrying photo because it shows many aspects of the unprepared and the ability to assess the ongoing situation i.e. Situational awareness.

I don't want to yet compare this to a Katrina New Orleans type situation, but if things start going south then the New York area situation could be on an order of magnitude scale larger disaster as New Orleans was essentially evacuated before the storm unlike New York (essentially an impossible logistic). I really hope I am wrong and that normal commerce (Money, food and Liquid fuel distribution), grid electricity and communications/electronic entertainment (the Matrix) can be returned before Tuesday, November 6th.

Wonder if those clowns know what is probably in that flood water?? Ick.

I have also just checked the weather outlook for the next week for the New York area with regard to temperatures as well. The temperature will rarely get above 12-14 degrees Celsius, with a low of 3 degrees overnight this Saturday. These temperatures could easily begin to see cold related injuries and deaths as well especially for the elderly. 8 degrees difference from a comfortable temperature might not sound like much but day after day gets old very quickly even for the those in their 20-40s even if properly fed and hydrated.

What about voting Tuesday?

I am currently working in my county election office (California), recruiting and training poll workers. I have been doing this for the past several years and I have a pretty good idea of the effort required by a large number of hard working people to administer an election. The challenges faced by election workers on the east coast are absolutely staggering.

I agree, a big city is not a good place to be in the event of a disaster. Too high a concentration of people who unfortunately are clueless, not prepared, and therefore freaked out, which can lead to dangerous behavior. The situation in NY/NJ is already bad enough, and appears likely to get worse before it gets better due to a combination of the above and the fact that resources are running out. I have a friend whose sister and her fiance live in Hoboken and apparently they are stuck in their building with four feet of water outside. There are shortages of gas, food and water and I also just heard that more hospitals in NYC are having to evacuate due to losing backup power (flooding affecting systems, running out of fuel for generators). As someone who works in a hospital, that really hits home for me--it's hard to imagine having to get critically ill/non-ambulatory/confused/etc patients out of a hospital quickly, especially a large high-rise one like those involved (it'd be hard enough at my little 2-story community hospital). Not to mention, where are they going to find beds for all those patients?

A few more.

Bingo. Every hurricane I can remember there have been hospitals that had generators in the basement, and every time everyone clucks at how dumb that was, and with the next hurricane it happens again. The operating license system may have to be changed to stop this.


It's not anywhere close to that.


USNS Comfort