3651 Weathermen or Tarot cards?

Friday, October 26, 2012

It is the insane that make the sane go insane.

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Constant storm warnings on TV, and it isn't even expected until Monday evening.

The only thing that would worry me is splash/overflow from the bay.  I'm about 29 feet above sea level, Maybe 600 feet from the bay.  The TV folks are confusing me.

To consider:
- high tide.
- storm surge.
- waves
- rain unable to go into the storm drains because the drains are full of leaves (and washed away Hallowe'en decorations).

Tide - They're saying high tide is 8 feet.  Huh?  Maybe in constricted areas.  Judging by what I have seen on the piers in the bay, I'd say less than 5 feet.

Surge - There's been three different guys talking, all on the same channel.  One says 5 to 10 foot surge.  Another says 10 to 20.  Another said 8 to 12.  Who do I believe?

Waves - "Up to 20 foot waves."  Wow.  That "up to" really covers every possibility, doesn't it?

Rain - I LOVE the way everyone here rakes and blows their leaves into the street.  Right over the drains.

So adding the numbers up, I can expect somewhere between 0 and 19 feet of water in my house.

Cool.  But I'm staying here.

Note - I did evacuate in August of last year, a hurricane, but that was less for myself and more to convince Daughter and Hercules to go.  The Nugget was 4 months old, and I mainly wanted her out.

3353 Flood?

Thursday, September 8, 2011

“Some people make your life better by walking into it,
other people will make your life better by walking out of it.”

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I'm north, at the old house. I plan to head back south this evening, with a stop in Goshen, NY, in Orange County, only slightly out of the way, to attend a Mensa dinner. I haven't seen those people in six months. I keep trying to go to dinners and events, but the weather, health, and schedules haven't cooperated.

So I really thought I'd make it this evening.

But TV news reports flash flooding all over Ulster and Orange counties (west of the Throughway) , and the NYS Throughway southbound is CLOSED between exits 18 and 17. I'd be getting on at exit 19 and off at 16 to go to the dinner. The detour would be through local roads in Ulster county, which is not good, since there is a good chance of flooding, and a guarantee of being full of Throughway traffic.

I put out a call for information and route advice from locals on the Mensa Yahoo group, but have not had a response yet. I'm not sure what to do.

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11:00 am - Just got a response to my group note for advice, from Roman (long-time readers, remember Roman?). He says the Throughway is now open except for the shoulders, and that 9W south to 84 is open and clear if I still want to detour, and that I can call 511 to get road condition info.

That's one good thing you can say about Roman. He always has good info about everything.

4:00 pm - Went to visit Piper and ran into The Angel, my CPA. He says I don't really want to go to Goshen. Even if the roads are open and the bridges are up, Goshen itself is flooded and they have no power, so the restaurant probably won't be open.

11:30 pm - I went anyway. I'd be headed south, which is where I want to eventually end up anyway, so I may as well try. All roads were open, there was no sign of flooding anywhere along the way, and Goshen was fine. I got to see several of the people I'd been missing, and it was a good evening.

You know, I think there's simply a lot of exaggeration in the reports of conditions. Kind of like when it's windy, and a roof blows off a building, and everybody yells "Tornado!", when it's really just strong wind. It's tiresome.
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1209 Flood

Monday, April 16, 2007

I spent some time planning trips today, making hotel reservations. The Maryland Mensa gathering over Memorial Day weekend is already out of rooms at the group rate, so I got an executive room at the regular rate. Not a big problem, it's only $20 a night more (and with any luck I'll have company), but I'm getting tired of Mensa groups not reserving enough rooms. They get snapped up too quickly.

I also finally located the hotel I had stayed in nearest to Jay's father's house in Irondequoit. For some reason, they had dropped off the internet last year, and I had to stay in that icky place where the fire alarm kept going off. The good place is back now, and it's a different chain, so I guess that explains it. I'll be going to Rochester for Dad's ninetieth birthday, the weekend of May 12.

Given the propensity for hotel rooms at the Mensa group rate to disappear, I'm booking the October Chicago gathering room now. I don't know what my travel plans will be, so I've booked from a day before to a day after the gathering. It's easier to cancel if I don't need the room than to try to get another day if I do.

I went out to run some errands today, and was surprised to find flooding on my street. My house is on the top of the ridge, and the road curves down. Several lawns had large deep puddles, and the water was running like a river down and across the road. I don't know where it was coming from. So I decided to drive around on the back roads a bit and see what's what.

Lots of houses have huge deep puddles in their lawns. I'm sure their basements are flooded. One house had a pair of ducks swimming in the lawn lake. It was kind of cute. They looked very happy, like they were planning to move in.

I went through a woodsy development to the south west of my house, and couldn't get out, because there's a little creek that winds through, and every turn I took ended at a flooded bridge. I had to retrace my steps out.

I went down to the river. I've never seen the Hudson so high and fast. I'll bet Kingston has lost all their beach sand.

The next county up is on emergency whatsis - nobody but essential services and occupations are allowed on the roads.

Miss Thunderfoot doesn't mind. When things get bad, she gets tuna fish.
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