Hurricane Ida

[Too Tall]

No joke. Folks in the track please stay safe. Looks like a big bad one.

[giordana93]

no joke indeed. when they start comparing it to Betsy, you sit up and listen. hoping it will be more of a spectacular display of nature for us than catastrophic but the river parishes are in for a rough 36 hours

[guido]

Making landfall as a strong cat 4 and holding cat 1 till past Interstate 10 and Baton Rouge. Yes, this one is going to be bad...

My thoughts are with you folks...

[giordana93]

glued to tv, now tickling cat 5 numbers. btw, these numbers coming from the brave hurricane hunter crews aboard NOAA planes. Previous administration wanted to cut noaa budget 24%, in part because of climate change foolishness (calling it a debate is too generous). Certainly don't want to turn this political, but lots of nervous energy in the air.

[mnoble485]

Well the wife and I picked the wrong time to come visit the kids and grandkids in Hattiesburg this week. We thought of leaving yesterday but I 10 was a parking lot with everyone leaving so we decided to hunker down. Don’t except anything like NOLA though. You guys stay safe.

Mike

[guido]

Here is more info on how Ida increased in power so fast...

Ida Strengthened Quickly Into a Monster. Here’s How. | New York Times

[giordana93]

How often do you see 100% outage for an entire city? Did you guys see that major transmission lines fell into the Mississippi River? I’m north of the lake in the red zone—99% outage after storm. Maybe 15-20% back. Tired of hearing the drone of generators but had ears plugged most of the day for chainsaw. Trees down everywhere. Big trees, including some really old oaks. Sad. Luckily little loss of life but an old guy in Slidell fell victim to a gator; that’s rare. What a way to go.

[j44ke]

Maybe not going into the city this morning...

Screen Shot 2021-09-02 at 6.16.35 AM.jpg

Realize this isn't the same as 99% power outage, 150mph winds, etc. But I haven't seen that many roads closed since Sandy. Some images from the subways last night are similar too with exploding storm sewers knocking off covers and sending up geysers of water. Also several building collapses result in people killed by falling debris, and a giant (by early accounts) tornado in NJ.

[vertical_doug]

Bronxville and the Bronx River

Sprain Parkway, I think the guy probably crawled out of his sunroof...



That retaining wall is keep the water out of flooding all those apartments.

[j44ke]

Wow. That's an impressive amount of water. I had doctor's appointments lined up today, and the first indication that things were serious was when I called the garage and they said don't bring your car here. Since then the doctor's offices have all cancelled.

The Sprain Brook Pkwy is one of my routes into the city from the north.

We got 3.6" of rain. Creek is raging but no flooding yet (could happen later though) and no trees down on the road. Post-hurricane blue sky.

[vertical_doug]

we had 9.1

[giordana93]

STILL without power.

The federal flood insurance plan is complicated and in need of a major overhaul but contrary to popular belief it is less for beach front property than inland river areas

[j44ke]

My friend Ryan and his wife have an 1800's school house near Riegelsville PA. He got this photo from his neighbor yesterday. Creek comes down the hill on their side of the road until about 150' from their house where it crosses under the road and goes down to the Delaware River on the other side. Water is about 12 feet above its normal level in the creek bed, but it made the turn and went over to the other side of the road. Some under the road, some over the road but looks like it didn't go straight through their house. They are cautiously relieved.

imagejpeg_1.jpg

[Mabouya]

Creek comes down the hill on their side of the road until about 150' from their house where it crosses under the road and goes down to the Delaware River on the other side. Water is about 12 feet above its normal level in the creek bed, but it made the turn and went over to the other side of the road. Some under the road, some over the road but looks like it didn't go straight through their house. They are cautiously relieved.

I would be terrified if I lived anywhere near any sort of water feature, flowing or not, or significant drainage, and not sure if I could handle the anxiety it would induce any time the forecast called for heavy rain.

[j44ke]

I would be terrified if I lived anywhere near any sort of water feature, flowing or not, or significant drainage, and not sure if I could handle the anxiety it would induce any time the forecast called for heavy rain.

I think they are at least somewhat protected by geology. The stream turns there not because of road engineering but because of a massive outcropping of bedrock. Some kind of granite or bluestone or whatever they have out there that is really hard. It comes out of the hill on the left well above the creek and makes the water turn and then forms the abutment on the downhill side of the bridge. The stream heads back downhill where the outcropping slants down into the hill on the right side.

Still, I don't know I would stand there to take the photo. Their neighbor is a pretty hardy sort though.

[johnmdesigner]

I’m just a poor man driving a 24 year old car but I was just wondering - I drove up the Sawmill Parkway today and saw several Mercedes and BMW’s on the side of the road drying our after total immersion. I’m assuming they are totaled. Does their car insurance actually cover a full replacement? And is there a penalty for demonstrating complete stupidity in the face of a tropical storm? Or do they just get shipped off to another country?

[Matthew Strongin]

I’m just a poor man driving a 24 year old car but I was just wondering - I drove up the Sawmill Parkway today and saw several Mercedes and BMW’s on the side of the road drying our after total immersion. I’m assuming they are totaled. Does their car insurance actually cover a full replacement? And is there a penalty for demonstrating complete stupidity in the face of a tropical storm? Or do they just get shipped off to another country?

If you have good insurance they'll just total it and reimburse you based on whatever your policy determines. In our last house we had a flood that was about 4-5 feet of water in the neighborhood. The den in that house was a converted garage and it was only a foot or two above the ground. We got a foot or so of water in that room that came in from the baseboards. The rest of the house was elevated enough that the inside stayed dry. We had three cars at the time. A Wrangler Rubicon with a couple inch lift parked in the back that wasn't totaled thanks to the height of the vehicle and the higher elevation of the back yard. My daily driver mini cooper and my wife's ford focus were in the front driveway and they were filled up to the dashboard. She had USAA and they sent her a check as soon as she called them and explained what happened. I had State Farm and they sent an adjustor a couple days later. He looked at the car for a minute just to make sure I wasn't lying and wrote it off as a total loss. My wife got fair market value for her car. My mini was a lease with gap protection. They also gave me fair market value, which was actually more than the residual + remaining payments, so I got to pocket a little money from the deal. I reluctantly sold the Jeep a month or two later. I just wasn't confident that it would be electronically or mechanically sound after two days sitting in brackish water. It was a Rubicon from the first year when it was a special edition and not a trim level and from when Jeeps were still Jeeps. I digress. The answer is that it depends on your insurance. I would normally guess that anyone with a BMW or Mercedes has good insurance, but I live in Miami so I know that is a terrible assumption to make. I'd be surprised if there's any penalty for demonstrated stupidity unless you were also clearly trying to do something shady, though someone here who knows Insurance better than me can probably chime in.

The photos I'm seeing in the news are just shocking. I remember what it felt like to have water rushing into my house like it was yesterday, but that was nothing compared to this situation. I'll see if I can dig up a photo.

[j44ke]

I’m just a poor man driving a 24 year old car but I was just wondering - I drove up the Sawmill Parkway today and saw several Mercedes and BMW’s on the side of the road drying our after total immersion. I’m assuming they are totaled. Does their car insurance actually cover a full replacement? And is there a penalty for demonstrating complete stupidity in the face of a tropical storm? Or do they just get shipped off to another country?

I think there were very likely stupid people out there doing stupid things - it is New York after all - but I keep hearing how fast the water levels changed. That's pretty much the definition of a flash flood. One minute not so bad, but the next is water everywhere. A lot of those parkways especially were named after the streams they were built along as a scenic byway, so the surrounding land drains naturally into those areas. Put up some retaining walls and chisel some rock walls and you end up with sections that can be very similar to slot canyons in a big storm. That's why there are all those drains along the edge of the left hand lane - kabump...kabump...kabump...

[Matthew Strongin]

but I keep hearing how fast the water levels changed. That's pretty much the definition of a flash flood. One minute not so bad, but the next is water everywhere.

This is definitely a thing. In the flood I described above that totaled our cars the water level rose so fast it left us all stranded. We lived on the mainland side of the intracoastal waterway, but only a few blocks from the water as the crow flies. A few minutes after my wife got home from work I received a call from a friend who lived about a half mile inland. He had heard the water levels were rising and recommended we move our cars and get to higher ground. So I walked out the front door and it was already too late. The water in the road was already 2-3 feet high, which took maybe 5-10 minutes from when my wife pulled into the driveway. Once the seawall was breached the water rose almost immediately. One of the things I remember most clearly is how every time a fire truck would drive down the street to go help someone in need (the can drive in 4 feet of water apparently) all the cars would get lifted by the wake and repositioned closer to the house. Pretty nerve wracking.

I've seen more than my share of damage from hurricanes and floods and I'm heartbroken every time I see photos or read the news about the damage a storm like Ida leaves in its path.

[giordana93]

I’m just a poor man driving a 24 year old car but I was just wondering - I drove up the Sawmill Parkway today and saw several Mercedes and BMW’s on the side of the road drying our after total immersion. I’m assuming they are totaled. Does their car insurance actually cover a full replacement? And is there a penalty for demonstrating complete stupidity in the face of a tropical storm? Or do they just get shipped off to another country?

definitely do a title search if you buy a used car anytime soon

assisted living facility my parents live in New Orleans is still without power but many parts of the city coming back on line. Metairie suburb still has issues. Laplace, LA, is a complete disaster. Coastal towns wiped out. Of course the argument is that many of these places should be abandoned/no longer inhabited but besides the fact that the shrimping industry is still made up of these people, many are historic settlements that pre-date the nation. They have been devastated by coastal erosion, brought on in (large) part by the oil and gas industry's practices. There are old hardwood forests now completely wiped out by saltwater intrusion. nola.com has some photos of Pointe-aux-Chenes which is home to a splinter tribe of the Houma tribe:
https://www.nola.com/multimedia/phot...c687877.html#1

61350ddecd79f.image.jpg