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"There is no surfing, please, tomorrow,” Mayor Bloomberg stressed.
Monday, 29 October 2012
Hurricane Sandy hit the Greater Antilles and Bahamas hard and brushed the east coast of Florida, Now Sandy is taking aim on the mid-Atlantic and northeast United States putting 60 million people in its path. The western fringe is now reaching the North Carolina coast and part of the South Carolina coast, with high surf and bands of rain and wind, and near the Outer Banks, storm surge.
The extraordinary combination of meteorological ingredients will continue coming together to produce an historic storm in the northeastern states, with the peak being late Monday after Sandy makes an unusual turn sharply back toward the coast, blocked from moving out to sea by a pattern which includes a strong ridge of high pressure south of Greenland.
Severe and catastrophic impacts will threaten the mid-Atlantic and southern New England. There is no longer the uncertainty that previously existed about Sandy's track and strength. Conditions will deteriorate Sunday into Sunday night with the worst of the storm raging Monday into Monday night. Impacts from heavy rain and wind will be felt hundreds of miles inland and the power in some neighborhoods could be out for days.
New York mayor Bllomberg announced at Saturday's Frankenstorm briefing that school is, for now, still in session come Monday, as is work for all government employees. Parks will be closing early, at 5 p.m. Sunday, and events will be over by 2 p.m. Beaches are now closed. “Let me say something again and again and again—the beaches are dangerous and surfing is extremely dangerous. There is no surfing, please, tomorrow,” Mayor Bloomberg stressed.
“You may want to run the risk, but if we have to send our emergency workers into the ocean to save you, their lives are at risk, and you just don’t have a right to do that to somebody else,” the mayor said. He is even hip and with it, and knows surfing is the cool new deal, but so was smoking in bars and transfats, and the mayor wasn’t having any of that, either.
“So please, tomorrow, I know the surfing looks attractive, and there’s more surfing done around here than ever before, but this is just much too dangerous a storm,” Mayor Bloomberg concluded. “For a small amount of pleasure, you life could be in danger, but certainly the emergency workers will be in danger.”
Storm surge flooding will occur over a large area. Sandy has the potential to bring historic storm surge flooding near and north of the center. It is possible areas from New Jersey to New York City and Long Island have some of their worst coastal flooding on record. The same can be said for the Delmarva and Philadelphia areas if Sandy makes landfall farther south around the Delaware Bay and the Delmarva.
Communities, neighborhoods, roads, rail yards, subway stations and other low-lying areas near the coast, generally north of the track can take on feet of salt water. Meteorologists are expecting a storm surge of 5 to 10 feet, but locally higher levels are possible near and just north of the storm track. The full moon on Monday afternoon, Oct. 29, will add to high tide levels spanning the 28th through the 30th.
Near-coast waves will average 10 to 15 feet, while seas well offshore will range from 30 to 40 feet.
Sandy will not be your typical hurricane when it moves in from the southeast. Hurricanes are small and compact. Sandy will be more like a large nor'easter on steroids. It could have the strength of a Category 1 or 2 hurricane. Tropical storm and hurricane-force wind gusts will extend out hundreds of miles from the center. Sandy should be taken extremely seriously.
Effects will include very strong, gusty winds with widespread tree damage and long-duration power outages; major coastal flooding from storm surge along with large battering waves on top of that and severe beach erosion; flooding from rainfall; and heavy snow accumulations are likely in the central Appalachians.
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