I’ve never lived in the Midwest anywhere near Tornado Alley and thus have no first-hand knowledge, but it seems to me that there have been an awful lot of them over the past few years, more than I remember from twenty or thirty years ago. There were 866 in 1980, according to the National Climatic …
No, not the one scheduled to come by this evening. This one arrived yesterday in Russia, and Gizmodo has collected several dashboard-camera views of it. That might sound like pretty cheesy video, but it really isn’t. It’s amazing stuff, and it’s mostly short clips: nothing more than five minutes. There’s also a link to an …
In case you haven’t heard, tomorrow night NBC will broadcast a one-hour telethon to raise money for survivors of Hurricane Sandy. Performers include such New Jersey residents as Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi, as well as Long Island resident Billy Joel. It will be shown across all NBC-owned channels: NBC, Bravo, CNBC, E!, G4, …
Bobby Jindal’s wish to cut volcano monitoring was nothing compared to Romney’s desire to shift FEMA’s responsibility to the states (which in practice would mean money spent for other things, then shrieks of despair to the Federal Government when disaster struck and the states had blown all the money designated for it — Hey! Double …
The Weather Channel is livestreamed via YouTube.
Last night’s tsunami was a lot smaller than anticipated, peaking at about five feet (peak to trough) at Kahului on Maui. Nobody here is screeching about the forecasters crying wolf, though. These things are scary. Orderly evacuations of low-lying areas went pretty well, apparently, but traffic was a mess in East Honolulu. I’m glad to …
The NYT’s Lede blog is collecting info from power and utility companies about what they are expecting from Hurricane Sandy. It’s being pointed out that long before it makes landfall the winds and storm surges may reach coastal areas. Somebody named Tony Karon snarkily tweeted “Sandy’s disruption of electioneering is nature’s poetic rebuke to both …
I don’t care whether it’s a Category One, Two or Three, that’s a helluva lot of wind and rain inside that thing. Listen to the authorities and evacuate if you’re told to.
The confirmed death toll from the March 11 disaster reached 15,413 as of Saturday, although 13 per cent, or about 2000 bodies, have yet to be identified, the National Police Agency, says. Another 8069 people remain missing. Three months down the road and there are still eight thousand people missing. That’s heartbreaking. More understandable, perhaps, …
CBS News reports: Only one of the 125, 10-ton steel floodgates on the 4,000-foot long Morganza Spillway in Louisiana was opened Saturday to prevent worse flooding downstream in New Orleans; a cautious first step to give everyone and everything a chance to flee. “We’ll open one bay today. We’ll open one or two tomorrow and …