October 30, 2012

THE BLAZE
Manhattan Goes Dark: See the Stunning Photos of NY Under Water
by Jason Howerton
October 29, 2012

(TheBlaze/AP) — Much of New York was plunged into darkness Monday by a superstorm that overflowed the city’s historic waterfront, flooded the financial district and subway tunnels and cut power to nearly a million people.

The city had shut its mass transit system, schools, the stock exchange and Broadway and ordered hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers to leave home to get out of the way of the superstorm Sandy as it zeroed in on the nation’s largest city.

Residents spent much of the day trying to salvage normal routines, jogging and snapping pictures of the water while officials warned the worst of the storm had not hit.

By evening, a record 13-foot storm surge was threatening Manhattan’s southern tip, howling winds had sent a crane hanging from a high-rise, and utilities deliberately darkened part of downtown Manhattan to avoid storm damage.

Water lapped over the seawall in Battery Park City, flooding rail yards, subway tracks, tunnels and roads. Rescue workers floated bright orange rafts down flooded downtown streets, while police officers rolled slowly down the street with loudspeakers telling people to go home.

“Now it’s really turning into something,” said Brian Damianakes, taking shelter in an ATM vestibule and watching a trash can blow down the street in Battery Park.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday night that the surge was expected to recede by midnight, after exceeding an original expectation of 11 feet.

“The worst of the weather has come,” he said. He said New Yorkers were inundating the 911 system and getting stranded in cars, and urged people to stay put until the storm passed.

“You have to stay wherever you are. Let me repeat that. You have to stay wherever you are,” he said.

Shortly after the massive storm made landfall in southern New Jersey, Consolidated Edison cut power deliberately to about 6,500 customers in downtown Manhattan to avert further damage. Then, huge swaths of the city went dark, losing power to 250,000 customers in Manhattan, Con Ed spokesman Chris Olert said.

New York University’s hospital lost backup power, Bloomberg said.

Another 1 million customers lost power earlier Monday in New York City, the northern suburbs and coastal Long Island, where floodwaters swamped cars, downed trees and put neighborhoods under water.

The storm had only killed one New York City resident by Monday night, a man who died when a tree fell on his home in the Flushing section of Queens.

Read more:  http://goo.gl/HBjT2

HOTAIR
Great news: Chris Christie ready to reschedule Halloween or something; Update: Some hospitals in trouble; Video: Building’s facade blows away
by Allahpundit
October 30, 2012

If Chris Christie tells you you’re trick-and-treating in mid-November, then you’re trick-or-treating in mid-November, punk.If conditions are not safe on Wednesday for Trick or Treating, I will sign an Executive Order rescheduling #Halloween.

— Governor Christie (@GovChristie) October 30, 2012

Via JWF, watch below as he makes sure that Atlantic City’s answer to Ray Nagin won’t drag down Christie’s administration with him.

You’re welcome to use this as your open thread for Sandy. As I write this, the storm surge is overrunning lower Manhattan and looks to be just as bad as predicted. These three tweets followed in succession in my timeline some 20 minutes ago:

BREAKING: Con Edison says large sections of Manhattan plunged into darkness by storm.
— The Associated Press (@AP) October 30, 2012

BREAKING: Floodwaters have rushed through Lower Manhattan, inundating subway and automotive tunnels. Subway system could be out for a week.
— WSJ Greater New York (@WSJNY) October 30, 2012

RT @adamlisberg Entire Hudson River is flowing into Ground Zero, Carey Tunnel and subways. It sounds like Niagara Falls. Too dark for pic.
— Robert Costa (@robertcostaNRO) October 30, 2012

This amateur video makes Avenue C look like a river, and we’re really only in the first hours of this. The storm made landfall around an hour ago so the surge should continue into the night. The MTA tweeted that it hasn’t made any decisions about closing the subway system and that they won’t be able to assess the damage until tomorrow, but, er, they’re also tweeting that up to four feet of seawater is entering the tunnels on the east side. LaGuardia’s runways could be next, and no one knows how long the blackouts in lower Manhattan — and maybe beyond — will last. I can’t begin to imagine how much total economic damage there’ll be. But hey: Christmas for Keynesians, no?

Update: Rumors flying now on Twitter that the floor of the New York Stock Exchange is under three feet of water. I’m assuming that’s a lie and you should too, but the way things are going, it’s not a completely outlandish one. This, however, appears to be for real.

Update: If you’ve never seen what it looks like when a giant transformer blows, here you go.

Meanwhile, in Manhattan, the lights went out at NYU’s Tisch hospital — and then the back-up generators went out too:

More Reports from NYU Tisch hospital + backup generator failure.Personnel manually evacuating PICU and NICU down 9 flights of stairs. #TAN
— David Shuster (@DavidShuster) October 30, 2012

NYU nurses in pediatric ICU manually bagging patients on ventilators, according to a staffer. City begins emergency evacuation.
— Reuven Blau (@ReuvenBlau) October 30, 2012

Update: Here’s something you don’t see every day:

Read more: http://goo.gl/T06ij