Remember.

Nine Years Ago.

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Arthur, Schmarthur. Just Go Away!

Tourist’s and Tempests Don’t Mix.

Rehoboth Beach is just east of Washington DC - on the Atlantic coast. We do not need a hurricane baring down on us on the Independence Day Weekend. 

Just to add my two-cents (plain), here’s to Le Morte d’Arthur.

Update HERE at the NHC.

More later.

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Sea Witch, Sunshine, & Spandex

Wow!  That was fun!

As I left the building to join the Sea Witch festivities yesterday I could hear a marching band playing.  I {heart} me some marching bands!  The parade had already stepped off and was heading down the avenue to the ocean.  I missed the first half as it did so, but found a good viewing spot and caught the whole parade on it's back swing.

Fun floats, fire trucks full of kids, high school marching bands, (did I say I {heart} me some marching bands?) and costumed walkers of every stripe. Costumes were original and many downright hysterical. Not being a slave to TV I am sure I missed some of the humor, but it was fun, nonetheless. The women costumed as the Kardasians (sp?) were boo'd and hiss'd by the bystanders.  I don't think they expected that response.  Was it a tough crowd?  Don't think so.  I think they were just expressing their "over-it" attitude toward the infamous family.

Six groups made up the various characters of the Hanna-Barbera Cartoon shows like, Scooby Doo, The Jetsons, The Flintstones with Pebbles and Bam-Bam,  Yogi Bear & Boo-boo,  Josie & the Pussycats, and a few others I didn't recognize drew lots of attention and applause. I bumped into a few of these folks again later on enjoying drinks & lunch at the restaurant.  Great fun and nice people.  Oh, and the costume theme for the restaurant this years was "The Old West" with the staff dressed as cowboys, Indians, gamblers, and dance hall ladies.  Though they weren't all "ladies" - if you get my drift.

Of course, this celebration is a far cry from last year when everything was cancelled (for the first time in  30 years) because Hurricane Sandy was moving up the coast, already sending heavy rains and high winds to our shores in advance.  Although the powers-that-be did their best to salvage something for the  kids - a mini-kids parade and costume contest - indoors at the Convention Center, it just wasn't the same.

That memory wasn't lost on those attending this year,  many commenting on where they were, how they evacuated, and how long they were away before being allowed to return to their homes. Still, that's the past and everyone was happy to be out again in the Autumn sunshine being as outrageous as they dared.  Let me say, some were quite daring.  In fact, I think I fell in love with one of the "Fantastic Four" hotties (don't know which one he was supposed to be, don't know the show. But he certainly filled out that spandex costume nicely.) who took notice of my feeble medical mask and jokingly reprimanded (and awarded) me for the least original costume of the day.

Returned home to a light supper - my beef, sausage cabbage soup - took a hot shower and watched a BBC series before heading to bed.  I was really tired out, but happy to be on the sidelines on such a happy day.

Before you ask, no, I didn't take pictures. The camera was in my shoulder bag and I didn't bring it along. Could have kicked myself at first, but I think I had a better time without it.  Aside from the Fantastic One, my presence went un-noticed, and that's fine with me. Staying out of crowds was a lot easier said than done.  I managed and haven't come down with anything, so far.


Had planned to attend the Pet Parade today, but I'm not up for another outing like yesterday. I may visit the restaurant for a few hours, but that's my limit this time around.

So there it is...A  good weekend all round and good time was had by all.

And so it goes.
*

"Home" a short film about Katrina

By Matt Faust.  part of the Tribeca Film Festival 'shorts' offerings. It's a poignant live/animated film using photos and family films to reveal his HOME; what it was and what happened to it. I won't embed  it here, I believe it should be viewed at YT to boost his numbers.

Here is what Matt writes in the YT description:

A few months after I finished chemotherapy for an extremely rare cancer, Hurricane Katrina hit and my childhood home was destroyed. With ideas about what is really important in life and what makes a home special at the forefront of my mind, I was compelled to record and share these thoughts through what would become my first film, Home. I was inspired both by what came to mind when I returned to my destroyed post-Katrina home and by what I saw when I returned to my pre-Katrina home in my dreams. The result, I hope, is something that is relatable, therapeutic, informative, and encouraging to everyone whether you've experienced a sudden loss like Katrina or not. I hope it can help us all to remember and honor what we've lost, but more importantly, to appreciate what we still have.

Thanks for watching. Feel free to contact me.- Matt

Go and watch HOME. Now!

And so it goes.
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Say It Ain't So, Verizon!

Back in the day when there was only one telephone company (a monopoly, I'll grant you that) the Bell System developed an infrastructure of lines throughout the hurricane-prone areas of the country, then carried that development to the rest of the eastern seaboard. When hurricanes hit anywhere the single communication link one could rely on was the land-line telephone. Everyone I know in NOLA, for example, may have a cell phone and a cordless phone in the home for convenience, but look in any closet and you will find an old fashioned wired phone for emergencies.  BTW, I still have one in the closet. An old "trimline" number. It came in handy during Sandy last year.

During a big storm, the electric power can be out for days or weeks, cordless phones (run on batteries even though the base is connected to the land-line) are useless, as are cellphones when the towers go down (electricity, again) leaving people stranded with no connection to the outside world. This is when those old phones come out, get plugged in, and will work 99% of the time. After a major hurricane I was able to reach most everyone because they had these old phones. 

Now, Verizon wants to change all that.  Thinking of higher profits rather than customer service and safety, they want to do away with the copper wire, high maintenance system and force everyone into the wireless market.  They're starting small, as you will read below, but the plans are in the works for the rest of the country. To my mind, Voice Link is an unreliable alternative.

Southern friends should take particular note of this.

MANTOLOKING, N.J. — Hurricane Sandy devastated this barrier island community of multimillion-dollar homes, but in Peter Flihan’s view, Verizon Communications has delivered a second blow: the telecommunications giant did not rebuild the landlines destroyed in the storm, and traditional telephone service here has now gone the way of the telegraph. 

“Verizon decides then and there to step on us,” said Mr. Flihan, 75, a retired toy designer and marketer. Verizon said it was too expensive to replace Mantoloking’s traditional copper-line phone network — the kind that has connected America for more than a century — and instead installed Voice Link, a wireless service it insisted was better. 

Verizon’s move on this sliver of land is a look into the not-too-distant future, a foreshadowing of nearly all telephone service across the United States. The traditional landline is not expected to last the decade in a country where nearly 40 percent of households use only wireless phones. Even now, less than 10 percent of households have only a landline phone, according to government data that counts cable-based phone service in that category. 

The changing landscape has Verizon, AT&T and other phone companies itching to rid themselves of the cost of maintaining their vast copper-wire networks and instead offer wireless and fiber-optic lines like FiOS and U-verse, even though the new services often fail during a blackout. 

“The vision I have is we are going into the copper plant areas and every place we have FiOS, we are going to kill the copper,” Lowell C. McAdam, Verizon’s chairman and chief executive, said last year. Robert W. Quinn Jr., AT&T’s senior vice president for federal regulatory issues, said the death of the old network was inevitable. “We’re scavenging for replacement parts to be able to fix the stuff when it breaks,” he said at an industry conference in Maryland last week. “That’s why it’s going to happen.” 

The Federal Communications Commission has long agreed. In its National Broadband Plan, published in 2010, the F.C.C. said that requiring certain carriers to maintain plain old telephone service “is not sustainable” and could siphon investments away from new networks. 

“The challenge for the country,” the F.C.C. said, is to ensure “a smooth transition for Americans who use traditional phone service and for the businesses that provide it.” 

But as far as Mr. Flihan and others in New Jersey are concerned, that transition from a reliable service — one that has given them a sense of security all their lives — is not smooth at all. An array of state-sanctioned consumer advocacy groups, as well as AARP, have petitioned regulators to disallow the replacement of Mantoloking’s copper lines with Voice Link. 

Not only will Voice Link not work if the power fails — a backup battery provides two hours of talking time, hardly reassuring to people battered by Sandy — but Verizon warns Voice Link users that calls to 911 under normal conditions might not go through because of network congestion. Medical devices that require periodic tests over phone lines, like many pacemakers, cannot transmit over Voice Link. Fax machines do not work over most wireless phone networks, including Voice Link. Neither do many home security systems, which depend on a copper phone line to connect to a response center. 

“They told us this was the greatest thing in the world,” Mr. Flihan said. But he estimates that roughly 25 percent of the calls he makes through the Verizon Voice Link service do not go through the first time he dials, or sometimes the second or third. Occasionally, the call is interrupted by clicking sounds, and sometimes a third party’s voice can be heard on the line, Mr. Flihan said.

The Gray Lady has the story HERE.

And so it goes.

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Naming Hurricanes: The Climate Name Change

This is a great idea.  Instead of naming violent storms after innocent people, why not name them after the policy makers (past and present) who deny what's happening to the planet.

Yes, I know it's late.  But I had to get up to shower and eat something substantial. If I am not back to full strength in the morning, I will consider asking for a ride to the ER to find out what's happening to my body.

And so it goes.
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One Artist vs. Army of Planners

Great news from New Orleans via Upworthy:

These magnificent creatures make up part of one of the most innovative emergency management programs in the country — seriously, the CDC and FEMA even said so — by providing memorable locations where New Orleans residents know they can show up and find free rides in the event of an evacuation.

These are all over the city.

Map shows most vulnerable areas of the city.

Sure beats the old system! Would you remember your evacuation spot if it were marked like the last picture below? I doubt it.

EvacuSpots sculptures by artist Douglas Kornfeld.

More later.
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Digital Divide in Emergency Management

Being from a notoriously well known hurricane area, I have always kept a land phone line. Have one to this day. When cell sites go down with the power, the old land line phone still offers a dial tone. I just stumbled onto this article about the truth regarding cell phones, smartphones, and land lines.  Most importantly, what needs to be done to develop and protect folks possibly in harm's way.  It's a 2-way street.

Of all the strange and sensational images produced by Superstorm Sandy, the scene I can’t stop thinking about took place a few steps from my apartment in Lower Manhattan, two days after the storm surge. Dozens of us were wandering up and down 7^th Avenue, arms extended like zombies and eyes fixed on our hands. We were hunting—not for food or money or human assistance—but for a cellular signal. The power was out. Stores were closed. Food was beginning to spoil. But the more urgent problem was the communications breakdown. We wanted to know what was happening, to check up on friends and family, and to tell them how we were. We’d lost phone and Internet service at the moment when we most needed it, and thousands of us wouldn’t get it back for days.
Two decades ago, a network breakdown would not have caused much trouble. Back then, landlines were ubiquitous, and when the power went out, Americans got their news about emergencies from old-fashioned, battery-operated radios. It was hardly a perfect system. Information came from the top down, and ordinary citizens were passive recipients, with virtually no capacity to tell officials or journalists what was happening in their neighborhood or town. But at least it was reliable: Designated emergency broadcasters had on-air personalities with local knowledge; radio towers and telephone lines were remarkably resilient; and smart regulations ensured that vital communications channels operated smoothly, even during peak demand.
The Cellular ShiftWeather-related disasters are growing more common and more extreme, yet we’ve failed to update our emergency communications system for the challenge. According to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), more than one-third of all U.S. households have no landline, and in cities the proportion of residents who’ve abandoned landlines for mobile phones is even higher. But Congress and the Federal Communications Commission have failed to require the mobile phone industry to ensure that they have protocols for maintaining and restoring service during outages. In theory, cellular networks could be made more flexible, robust, and reliable. Good public policies could ensure that they work better daily, and during disasters, too.
One reason we need more resilient networks is that new technologies can dramatically improve emergency communications. For instance, mobile phone providers have the capacity to send detailed messages to customers in locations where dangerous weather is approaching—a sophisticated reverse 911. In the run-up to recent storms, including Sandy and Nemo, meteorologists provided remarkably accurate and timely forecasts of where and when the damaging weather would hit. And according to NBC News, the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) system (set up by the FCC and FEMA) did send a text blast before Nemo to subscribers with certain devices and operating systems. But if you don’t have one of those models (most of which are high-priced smartphones), you are out of the loop.
Likewise, the FCC established the CMAS (Commercial Mobile Alert System) but there are problems with it. Mobile providers can opt out and customers probably don't realize that they are ineligible to get those alerts. Even if your mobile carrier opts in, the default is to be out. The default should be to get the alerts. Why not create an emergency alert system in which all customers automatically receive a series of direct, personal, and geo-coded messages with information about local conditions and clear instructions on how to stay safe?
Today, many state and local governments, including New York, allow residents to opt in to programs that deliver this kind of information. The opt-in format may help protect customer privacy, but it comes at a great cost, because the least tech-savvy and lowest-skilled subscribers are far less likely to enroll in the program. That means the most vulnerable people (the old, the poor, and the sick), those who could benefit from advance warnings about, say, whether and how to evacuate, are also most likely to miss out on the protection that the new technology offers. No one had the choice to opt in or out of the Emergency Broadcast System. Why should it be different in the digital age?

As storms become more frequent and more dangerous, this is going to become a very important issue.

More HERE.

And so it goes.
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Andrea, The Third

It began on June 1 and will continue til November. What is it? Why, it's hurricane season, silly.  And mind you, no time was wasted in finding and naming the very first one. Andrea!  That's the name of my oldest niece, BTW.

This is the third storm named Andrea in the last decade. One in 2007, another in 2011, and now this big girl. I suppose she didn't do much damage in her last 2 incarnations, or they would have retired the name by now.

Anyway, Andrea is making her way inland up the Atlantic coast and should be here later today with heavy rain and thunderstorms, and winds of about 45 mph. No longer hurricane force winds, but more than enough to damage the still fragile coastline here.

There are empty shelves at the markets - especially bread, milk and toilet paper - and don't ask why. I've given up on that list. As I checked out my grapefruit, oranges, and bananas the cashier just stared at the stash in disbelief. I smiled. She finally did, too.  Fun.

The sky is black and menacing this morning. The wind has kicked up, but nowhere near that 45 mph level, and I am getting ready for work. We never know how stormy weather will effect business. Whenever we predict that no one will venture out in this ________________(fill in the blank), we have been slammed all day, mostly diners, but the bar has its fair share of business, as well.

Heavy rains and coastal flooding are in the mix for this area. So far, the rain is steady with no thunder or lightening, so far. I hope this early first storm isn't an omen of things to come.

To all my blogger buddies here on the east coast, take care and stay safe. See you on the other side.

And so it goes.
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A Fine Way to Treat a Steinway!

I am mystified by the fact that I have to visit the site of  a British newspaper to get this kind of information. I suppose Honey-boo-boo, the latest celebrity bitch fights, Lindsey Lohan, and the marathon  bomber's wife are more important than salvaging one of America's Music Treasures. From the Daily Mail:

A white Steinway grand piano salvaged from musician Fats Domino's home after Hurricane Katrina has had its classic looks restored and will be the centerpiece of an exhibit in New Orleans' French Quarter.The piano was damaged after water poured through a broken levee during the August 2005 storm, flooding Domino's home in the Lower 9th Ward. Its restoration came through $30,000 donated to the Louisiana Museum Foundation.
The largest gift of $18,000 came from Allan Slaight, a retired music producer in Miami. Other donations came from Sir Paul McCartney, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Tipitina's Foundation.Greg Lambousy, director of collections for the Louisiana State Museum, described the restoration of Domino's piano as "painstaking" and a years-long process.‘It was in really bad shape,’ he said. ‘It had been submerged in water for weeks.’

 There are great pics at the link HERE, including a great shot of Fats in his prime, sitting at this very piano. Check it out.

And so it goes.
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Observations of a Few Stupid Things

(In my best Andy Rooney voice) "Didja ever notice..."

Automatic DIY check-out lanes at the supermarket.  Wasting time looking up produce code numbers is bad enough, but items with no code, as well as cents-off coupons, require an override by a CASHIER!  And this is progress?

No more quart or half-gallon containers for items like mayonaise (now 30oz), ice cream (48 oz.), but the prices are the same or higher. A 5 pound bag of sugar now weighs 4, and costs more.  Paper products continue to shrink, as well.

Cable & phone companies and banks offer special deals to NEW customers while sticking their current ones with higher fees and lower interest rates on savings. Shouldn't loyal customers be rewarded?  Guess not.


Cell service providers offer a FREE phone with a two-year contract,  meaning that over those 24 months you'll probably have paid for the phone three-times over.  You're locked into a contract, but the carrier isn't.  That new phone without a contract would cost you up front, but save you big bucks in the end.  There ain't no free lunch, folks. 

Robo-calls from companies trying to sell something.  A recorded message that's supposed to give you a boner at the chance to do business with them. Who was the genius behind this one? If your company wants my business, you had better have a living, breathing, knowledgeable person call before I'll take you seriously.

Collection agencies do the same thing and expect you to return their call to prove you are not the person they're looking for.  WTF? Fat chance, that.

Fat-ass southern GOP congress-critters vote against an aid package for victims of hurricane Sandy, after pleading for aid for their red-neck, gambling frenzied states following Katrina. There is a special circle in Hell for creeps like these. 

I wonder.  Do these entities believe we're that dumb and don't notice what they're trying (and, in some cases, succeeding) to pull? Do we have such short memories? Or, is it that we don't care and just follow along like lemmings into the sea?

Oh, and I just bit the tip of my tongue and it won't stop bleeding.  Damn!  Stupid things, really!!!

Rant over.

And so it goes.
*

Beyond Sea Witch, Sandy, and...I forget

We're at the end of the Thanksgiving holiday, and I just realized that I forgot to post photos from Sea Witch/Halloween weekend. In fact, I don't think I would have remembered Sea Witch at all if not for a customer today, asking about our costumes this year.

OK, that weekend and the weeks following were distracting thanks to Hurricane Sandy (remember Sandy?) followed a week later by a nasty nor'easter that battered our shore far worse than Sandy.  Then suddenly we were gearing up for Turkey weekend and all but out of breath.

Needless to say Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and today were big winners at the restaurant. Records were broken all three days and it isn't over yet. Of course, we're all pretty tired, but it's been great fun for our regular customers, as well as ourselves. After tomorrow, we're looking forward to a brief 10-day lull where we collectively catch our breath as we prepare for Chanukah, Christmas, and the New Year.

All that said, the images will be downloaded from the camera and posted within a few days.

Meanwhile, I smell olives.  Yes, there are priorities!

And so it goes.
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Ali Forney Drop-In Center Destroyed By Hurricane Sandy

I have nothing more to add; the fact that young people are suffering this kind of hate from their own biological families in 2012 is mind-boggling enough.  Help if you are able.  These kids have no one, but our caring community. Reposted from JMG:
A terrible message from Carl Siciliano:

Dear Friends,  Yesterday we were finally able to inspect our drop-in center in Chelsea, half a block from the Hudson River. Our worst fears were realized; everything was destroyed and the space is uninhabitable. The water level went four feet high, destroying our phones, computers, refrigerator, food and supplies.

This is a terrible tragedy for the homeless LGBT youth we serve there. This space was dedicated to our most vulnerable kids, the thousands stranded on the streets without shelter, and was a place where they received food, showers, clothing, medical care, HIV testing and treatment, and mental health and substance abuse services. Basically a lifeline for LGBT kids whose lives are in danger.

We are currently scrambling for a plan to provide care to these desperate kids while we prepare to ultimately move into a larger space that will better meet our needs. The NYC LGBT Center has very kindly and generously offered to let us temporarily use some of their space, and we hope to determine the viability of that on Monday.

We have been deluged with kind offers from people who wish to volunteer and donate goods. Unfortunately, we will have to provide our services in the time being in much smaller spaces that won't accommodate volunteers or allow for much storage space. The best way people can reach out to help in this very challenging time is by making monetary donations. Please go to our website.

It is heartbreaking to see this space come to such a sad end. For the past seven years it has been a place of refuge to thousands of kids reeling from being thrown away by their parents for being LGBT. For many of these kids coming to our drop-in center provided their first encounter with a loving and affirming LGBT community. I thank all of you for your care and support in a most difficult time.

And so it goes.
*

Sandy Destroys Dunes, Closes New Bridge

This is probably the worst news for the coastal highway and the coastal beaches of Delaware and Maryland. It appears the bridge will not reopen until November 4 or 5.
Cape Gazette:

By late afternoon Nov. 1, state transportation officials were still not sure whether the Indian River Inlet bridge would reopen for weekend traffic. The bridge was closed Oct. 28 as Hurricane Sandy approached the Delaware coast.
On Oct. 31, one lane of Route 1 south was opened to emergency vehicles only.
As Hurricane Sandy pushed northward toward the Mid-Atlantic region, a wind-driven high tide and waves pushed tons of sand and water across the highway, eventually reaching across to the marsh on the west side of the roadway. The water came first, followed by blowing sand that piled up quickly as storm conditions worsened during the day and into the night of Oct. 28.
As soon as conditions improved, state officials assessed the situation, and what they saw was astounding.
Several feet of sand covered both sides of Route 1 for half a mile on the north side of the bridge.
At least a half mile of dunes was lost, said Frank Piorko, director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control's Division of Watershed Stewardship. The good news is that nature is already starting to rebuild the destroyed beach, said Tony Pratt, administrator of DNREC's Shoreline and Management Section.

More HERE. Plenty of pictures, too.

And so it goes.

FEMA Head To Michael Brown: 'Better To Be Fast Than To Be Late'

On Tuesday I posted an interview with Michael Brown, BushCo's head of FEMA, who botched the Katrina disaster and now has the gall to criticize Obama's quick response to Sandy's devastation.  My personal views aside, the current head of FEMA, no longer the gutted agency it was under Dubya, responds to Brownie's comments today.

FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate dismissed criticisms of President Barack Obama's response to Hurricane Sandy lobbed by Michael Brown, who oversaw the disastrous Bush administration response to Hurricane Katrina.
"Better to be fast than to be late," Fugate said in an interview on NPR Tuesday morning.
Brown, whom President George W. Bush infamously praised for doing a "heckuva job" in the aftermath of Katrina in 2005, told a Denver paper that Obama had acted too quickly in mobilizing relief for Sandy.
"Here's my concern," Brown told Denver's Westword on Monday, suggesting that the prompt official response was actually making people complacent. "It's premature [when] the brunt of the storm won't happen until later this afternoon."

Fugate also addressed the role of FEMA, which has been a hot topic since Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said he wanted to abolish the agency so that states would have direct responsibility for disaster response.

His campaign later clarified that he would not eliminate FEMA.

"Governor Romney believes that states should be in charge of emergency management in responding to storms and other natural disasters in their jurisdictions,” said campaign spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg. “As the first responders, states are in the best position to aid affected individuals and communities and to direct resources and assistance to where they are needed most. This includes help from the federal government and FEMA.”

But as Fugate explained on Tuesday, this is exactly how FEMA already works.

"We're a federal government; we're not a national government," he said "Disasters are local. Through state constitutions, the governors are the primary incident commanders for the entire state response in support of that. And the role of the federal government is to support the states when the disaster exceeds their capabilities. And when it's this bad, we work as one team. But we are in support of the governors, as they are in support of the local officials. It's a federal system of government."

Read the rest and listen to the NPR interview HERE.

And so it goes.
*

OK, so it's Halloween.

I just don't feel it this year.  Wonder why?

Maybe it's Superstorm-Sandy (I hate that name) withdrawal.  Maybe it's coming to grips with what happened.  Maybe it's attempting to wrap my head around the scope of the destruction and the slow road to recovery for so many, especially those in New York.

And maybe it's the realization that I am exhausted from the past 4 days and just want to get back to work, get out of myself, and be with people again. The fact that I was without electricity for less than 24 hours and experienced no flooding leads me to believe that I made the right decision to live in town.

I dragged myself out today to run a few errands and traveled west rather than east, didn't visit the ocean. I didn't want to see what I know is there.  I'll wait for a better day.  Today is cold, gloomy and gray; kinda like my mood. The streets in my part of town were still littered with debris, but the large broken branches were gone. 

The restaurant will open for dinner today at 4.  As far as I know all staff made it through the storm OK.  Though a few remain without electric power. At least I've not heard any bad news from the bosses.

I'll be grateful to get back to work tomorrow and not only for the joy of it. The combined bills for the recent blood work and x-rays of the hands arrived and is more than I expected. I also lost 3 days pay this week.

Good News:  The Cardinals that nest in the stand of bamboo next door have just now made a noisy appearance. I have not heard their song in days, I was afraid we'd lost them.

A sunny day and getting back to work will do wonders to cheer me up.

And so it goes.

*

Obama Criticized for Quick Response to Sandy by Michael Brown?

Remember Michael Brown?  How about "Heck of a job Brownie"? He's the douche nozzle who headed FEMA's non-response to Katrina. While New Orleans drowned, Brownie was in Baton Rouge trying on new suits that made him look official, or something. The sub-header to this story published today reads:  

Irony is dead, cremated, stuck in a capsule and shot into outer space.
Amen.

Former FEMA Director Michael Brown offered criticism of President Obama’s early responses to Hurricane Sandy yesterday, including a dig at the administration’s response to last month’s attack in Libya.
Yesterday, ahead of the storm’s pummeling of the eastern seaboard, Brown gave  an interview  to the local alternative paper, the Denver Westword, on how he believed the Obama administration was responding to Sandy too quickly and that Obama had spoken to the press about Sandy’s potential effect too early.
Brown turned then to a reliable right-wing attack on the President’s response to the attack on a U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi that killed four Americans:

“One thing he’s gonna be asked is, why did he jump on [the hurricane] so quickly and go back to D.C. so quickly when in…Benghazi, he went to Las Vegas?” Brown says. “Why was this so quick?… At some point, somebody’s going to ask that question…. This is like the inverse of Benghazi.”

Conservatives have been hitting Obama  for weeks  on his attendance at a fundraiser in Nevada following the assault in Benghazi, claiming at alternate times that the President either  cared more about politics  than lives lost or that he was trying to downplay the attack’s significance. Now the critique has mutated into a belief that Obama is currently “playing President” to score points during disaster relief in the run-up to the election, in contrast to his actions in September.
Brown is  not the only one  making the insinuation that Obama and his administration are responding too quickly to Sandy only for political reasons. He’s joined in his accusations by such prominent right-wing commentators as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich  and columnist  Charles Krauthammer .
However, Brown’s comments carry a special irony due to the role he played during the Hurricane Katrina debacle in 2005. As director of FEMA during the legendarily botched response, Brown,  famously dubbed “Brownie”  by President Bush, was in the center of criticism from both sides of the aisle that the Bush administration was too slow to respond. An  internal review  by the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector-General following the disaster concluded, “Much of the criticism is warranted.” Brown resigned from his position as director less than two weeks after Katrina hit.

The bastard should have been thrown in jail for incompetence, if not brought to trial for the deaths of almost 2,000 innocent men, women, and children.

Sandy: Comparison

This was shot Monday afternoon at the Rehoboth Beach Boardwalk with someone watching the waves from the corner at Dolle's. Don't know the photographer.  Just love this powerful shot.

This was shot this morning at 7:30 AM from just above the Boardwalk. Looks like most of the recently replenished beach is no more. This image was on the front page of the web edition of our local newspaper, The Cape Gazette. Quite a contrast, no?

I have not ventured out today.  I am more exhausted than I originally thought. Stress is not our friend.

And so it goes.
*

Post-Sandy Update: Tuesday Morning

(Image: the street where I used to live, taken yesterday afternoon.  Now glad I live in town. The old neighborhood didn't do so well.)

Power went off at around 6 PM last evening. I broke out the candles and read for about 2 hours hoping for it to be restored.  It wasn't.  Kindle reading is very comforting.  Screen gives off a warm glow and is easy on the eyes.

Gave up, extinguished the candles and got under the covers as the wind and rain lashed the building. I was  asleep almost immediately.  Woke in the dark, lit a candle, found a watch - it was 5:30 AM - close to my usual wake-up time.

Half hour later the apartment hummed to life. Lights came on and all clocks were blinking. A few minutes later power went off again.  It has been flickering or going out momentarily ever since. When it remains on for  an extended period I will plug the refrigerator in, but not until then.

It is still dark out, the winds have diminished somewhat, though still strong, and rain continues to fall. The apartment felt cold when I woke but I attributed it to the stress of the past 48 hours.  Not so. The temperature had dropped 30' over night and the indoor temperature is 64' - outdoors it's 42'. As with the refrigerator, I will crank up the heat when the power is relatively stable. Same goes for a coffee and breakfast. I am starved.  Pulled on some sweats to take the chill off the old body and wanted to get this posted before the power goes down again.

When things calm down a bit I may take a walk around town to check things out, but not in this heavy rain and gusty winds, thank you very much.

Be safe everyone.

More later.
*

Sandy: Evening Update

Note: This post was to have been published at 6 PM Monday evening, but just as I was finishing up, the electricity went out and the town went dark. What you read now is history. More later.

Sandy has now shifted a bit farther north of northwest and will likely come ashore in southern New Jersey.  Delaware is a short distance across the bay from Cape May, NJ; this isn't exactly good news.

Winds are gusting to 90 mph and the rains are relentless at this hour. Reporting that Sandy should come ashore at any time now.
As I wrote earlier about riding out these storms and the isolation we felt, I've  been thinking more about the isolation and loneliness of riding out hurricanes in New Orleans (in the dark ages) when all we had was a deck of cards, books, lots of candles and a radio.

Ah yes, the radio.  Radios were great for official updates and other important information, but unfortunately, they would eventually lose electric power and revert to backup generators.  This meant that their signal was reduced to a few mile radius of the towers.  So, when the power failed, the lifeline broadcasts disappeared as well.

Back then, local stations were AM stations only (FM was a promise for the future) and many of these station licenses were restricted to dawn-to-dusk broadcast hours, so as not to compete with signals of the larger network stations broadcasting from cities like New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

When the lights went out and/or darkness fell, we were totally isolated and very much alone. The only technology that kept us connected was the good ol' telephone.  Say what you will about old Ma Bell, but their foresight in designing and building their infrastructure in the south means that even today, if you have a land line - and a corded phone (not cordless, they are useless when the power goes out) you could always reach out to friends and family to check in on them.

During and after Katrina the only people I could reach were those who maintained a land line. The cell sites went down almost immiediately creating instant panic. As a matter of fact, that's how my NOLA friend called me this afternoon - on my land line.  It's an automatic response learned in childhood.

There are some lessons one better not forget.