Those That Were in the Path of Sandy - Report In!

Cleveland got a pounding with high winds and we were fortunate in that we only lost power a couple of times and just for a few minutes before it came back on. Driveway and yard is littered with tree branches, so we did have some cleanup to do before we could go anywhere.

Lake Erie waves were higher than I've ever seen them in the 22 years I've lived here with the waves crashing up over the break wall and actually hurling boulders into adjoining parking lots and marina berths. Some folks didn't pay attention I guess to the weather warnings and so far over 100 boats were sunk sitting at their marina moorings.... and what we got was nothing compared to New Jersey and New York areas. If you were in the path of Sandy and have the means to check in ... (ponyboy and Lloyd for instance) let us know you're ok.

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I wonder how many GWW members have ever been located in that part of the US? (Or even in the US!).

I'm thinking that part of the public policy debate over the coming months will have to do with whether people should be allowed to build that close to the ocean ever again. Insurance companies sure are not going to want that kind of exposure, over and over again. I see them leading the charge over Climate Change due to dirty power manufacture/consumption, from now on.

NYC is going to need to think about bigger barriers, or moveable barriers, like the UK and Netherlands installed decades ago.

While US business is busy piddling its time and energy gambling in risky paper investments above board and in the shadows of Wall Street markets, rather than manufacturing goods and services for B2C and B2B, the various units of government, and insurance companies, will be stimulating the economy with $30-$40 Billion of economic recovery in the affected areas. Again, if public policy allows certain rebuilding that close to the ocean again.

Most important to me is how my sales fared during the storm. A whole lot of our consumers were without power, and possibly homes, for an extended period of time - including still today, and possibly into next week! Some lost their possessions, including physical hardware needed to access our content online.

DogGone Video, offices on the east coast of Florida - no interruption in business, sales were typical, if not slightly up, for a week where I did not have a new release.

AEBN, offices in North Carolina - no interruption in business, sales were typical for a week where I did not have a new release.

HotMovies, offices in Philadelphia - office was closed at least Mon-Tue if not also Wed, sales were up considerably as I had a popular new release.

TLA, offices in Philadelphia - office was closed at least Mon-Tue if not also Wed, sales were up a bit.

Nook eBooks, offices seem to be in NYC(!), member backend was down periodically Mon-Wed, sales reports were down, 30th of the month payday is late.

2 of my banks are headquartered in NYC, and one other, that has limited monthly activity, somewhere on the east coast. It appears that Monday was the worst day for them to keep up with transactions as normal, possibly some also on Tuesday. Transactions are up-to-date now, except two incoming ACH from vendors which should have arrived by now. 2 of 6.

While many of use have scratched our heads over the years wondering why Silicon Valley has developed itself in a seismically active part of San Francisco, with the inherent risks to telephone utility cables, and wiring and hardware infrastructure in their server farm offices, it baffles me to this day why any high volume Internet service puts any of its eggs in a basket in a east coast big city - not only for exposure to Hurricanes and blizzards, but also the high cost of real estate and transportation costs for labor.

Why is Apple in SFO, Nook in NYC, why is (much of) PayPal now in SFO (EBAY) when it started out in Omaha? And big name credit card companies are in South Dakota! Amazon is in Seattle, a nice place, but very near a Sound that can be wiped out by high tides and storm surges, or even Tsunamis in that seismically active region, as NJ and NYC just were by Sandy.

There's nothing saying high caliber talent needs to live in big cities, with high rents and exposure to earthquakes and Hurricanes, because there's more Starbucks per square mile, sit down Asian buffets, and trendy bars.

Hurricane Sandy affected a thousand miles and 15% of the US population - yet when corporate offices and infrastructure sits in the path of recurrent weather patterns, that affects the rest of the 85% of the US population as well.

This kind of weather is not going to stop with Sandy. Internet companies need to think abut the wisdom of being located in the path of Sandy's successors.

Of course I would leave the comfort of hurricane alley in Florida to visit the safe DC metro area only to be hit by a hurricane. The second one this year that they've had.

Other than long term power outages and transportation being shut down it was relatively uneventful.

My flight home for Tuesday was cancelled on Sunday but I called a little after midnight on Tuesday and got straight trough to a JetBlue rep that was able re-book me the next day when they planned on resuming operations. There were only two seats left on the plane so I got lucky.

I was doubly lucky because in all of my infinite wisdom I didn't pack extra medication.

I'm in NYC (in Upper Manhattan - Central Harlem). Our lights flickered, but that was about as bad as it got. Other than that the major effect to us was we took in 6 people from "SoPo" (South of Power). There were two kids - and that part was sort of disruptive. But all in all not affected that much.

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Originally Posted by nickbaer

NYC is going to need to think about bigger barriers, or moveable barriers, like the UK and Netherlands installed decades ago.

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We haven't really needed them until now. Luckily we have a wonderful governor and mayor who understand that this is the result of global warming and "we'll be having 100 year storms every 2 years or so" (to roughly quote the governor).

But it's going to come to a battle between 1) eco types - who think cutting back on NYC's/NY's emissions and planting some wetlands will fix our problems (not facing the reality that you can't cut back enough to offset what China and India will be emitting), 2) the sea gate folks - who think we should build huge gates at the mouth of NY Harbor (ignoring the fact that the Hudson River and the Long Island Sound via the East River are dumping enormous quantities of water into NY Harbor from behind the gates), and 3) the people who will just want to build seawalls - that only protect parts of the City.

Personally I want to see a combination of #1 & #3 - I want homes in low-lying areas taken by eminent domain and then managed by the City for conservation, parks, and wetlands re-established where possible. And I'd like to see seawalls built or made taller in critical areas like Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn. And on top of that I'd like to see (relatively) inexpensive tech (like inflatable tunnel plugs) used as secondary backups in case the other measures aren't sufficient. And I'd like to see building codes changed so buildings in low-lying areas can flood with minimal damage.

But the problem with taking homes by eminent domain is that many of the communities have homes that have been passed down from generation to generation. It's going to be a nasty fight - but it's necessary. The good part is that the areas that were hit the hardest were Republican/conservative. So the people most likely to oppose eminent domain will understand why it's necessary.

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Originally Posted by nickbaer

...it baffles me to this day why any high volume Internet service puts any of its eggs in a basket in a east coast big city - not only for exposure to Hurricanes and blizzards, but also the high cost of real estate and transportation costs for labor.

This kind of weather is not going to stop with Sandy. Internet companies need to think abut the wisdom of being located in the path of Sandy's successors.

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They locate here because we have two things - 1) business opportunities and 2) users/customers. One of the 6 people we took in was someone who's pretty senior with Google. Google owns an enormous building that takes an entire city block (they paid $1.9 BILLION for it a couple years ago - at the bottom of the market). It's in Chelsea which didn't have power - so the offices were closed, but their data center center operated just fine on generators. You need generators anywhere you locate - once you have them it doesn't really matter where you locate - so you might as well get as close as possible to your users.

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Originally Posted by StunnerJesse

I was doubly lucky because in all of my infinite wisdom I didn't pack extra medication.

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If it happens in the future, go into any pharmacy and ask for the meds you need. They'll find a way to get you your meds - even if it means giving you a few days supply for free. I've forgotten my high blood pressure meds before when I went on vacation and the pharmacist just gave me enough to get through my vacation.

i hope everyone is safe...from the pictures i saw there was so much damage its crazy