h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I think its name is Sandy. It's somewhere off the coast of North America. And it's messing up the weather. Since everybody keeps asking me, 'How's it going?', here's an update from North Carolina, where we're not nearly as worried about ourselves as we are about the friends and family up in the Northeast. Paulh, we're pulling for you.

Since we're all afraid the power's going to out up there, big-time, we've sent every spare technician up to Yankeeland, which probably leaves our power companies a bit shorthanded. Which might explain this afternoon.

We're inland, so we don't have to worry about surf and such. But the storm has inconvenienced us today. It's very windy outside, and cold, and the wind is blowing things around. I got some work done for the Post this morning - good thing, as it turned out - and we had some hot soup for lunch (ditto), and then we planned to go grocery shopping a couple of miles away.

We were literally headed out the door when the power failed.

'Oh, that's what that noise was,' said Elektra. 'It must have been a tree falling on a transformer.' So back in we went.

You see, I reasoned thus:

1. If the apartment complex was dark, so, very likely, were the traffic signals between here and Superbullseye. Since getting to Superbullseye involves passing the entrance and exit ramps to the interstate highway, this is a potentially life-threatening undertaking without a traffic signal.

2. If you believe that a handy policeman will show up and direct traffic to balletic perfection, you watch too many movies. They only do that in New York City. Even in Philadelphia, they leave you to sort it out among yourselves. This is the sticks.

3. Even IF the traffic lights were working, the power would probably be out in the shops. And it is a well-known fact that without computer technology (which requires electricity), modern people CANNOT MAKE CHANGE. Therefore, nothing will be sold during a power outage.

(I am not making this up.)

So we stayed in. Closed the doors to keep the warmth in, and opened the blinds to let in more light. I started reading 'Thirteen Moons' by Charles Frazier, the author of 'Cold Mountain'. This man is Nobel Prize level, I kid you not, and it's high time I got around to enjoying this book. The first sentence reads, 'There is no scatheless rapture.' It gets even more interesting after that.

Frazier's telling a wonderful story about a man who lived through the 19th Century, and into the 20th in the Southeast US, a time of enormous change. At the beginning, Cooper, now an old man, is complaining about how much he hates electric light bulbs. He's turning them off and using a candle to write by. Good for him, he must have good eyes...

I was deep into a tale about the Cherokee Wild Potato Clan in the 18th Century, and their feud with a member of the Long Hair Clan, a three-quarter-Scots kid named Featherstone, when the lights came back on, so I stopped reading long enough to tell you about it.

We're glad for the power - it's getting warmer in here, and we could turn on the coffeemaker. But I'm going back to my book, so if I'm slow to answer, you'll know why.

Wherever you are, stay warm and dry, and make sure your doors are shut against the wind.

I'm with Dmitri and Elektra Paulmy fingers are crossed mate that you'll be ok

We had a power outage a few years ago and the supermarkets were willing to give away their frozen food for free - it was snowing, so it could be stored outdoors by people - but they couldn't get the doors open without electricity.

Hope you have no major problems. Snuggle up, pet cats, play board games.

Thanks.

The scale of land the thing is covering is amazing. We only ever get dull and boring weather here (dull in every sense ) - so it'a hard to imagine.

to all affected!

That to-scale pic of Sandy reminds me of the shots from that climate-change SF movie, "The Day After Tomorrow..."

The eye has almost no enter...what does that even mean -- no calm in the vortex,
at all?

um, "center"...

This just in: "3 million US'ians are without electrickery at the moment. Later a lot of people inland are facing 1 to 1.5 meters of snow"

to all and sundry

It's not good, but it could have been so much worse.

I'm catching up on videos of it now and am really glad it's not be, and really worry for those over there.

"7 millions without electricity..."

I do hope people can keep warm until power is restored

7 million now? it was 3 million on the beeb ten minutes ago.

also just seen on our news, New York subway flooded and unfortunately 13 people have died already from the storm

I find it interesting that the news outlets are concentrating on the US, and almost nobody mentioned the devastation it's already caused in Haiti...

Interesting, but not surprising.

Indeed

Hurricanes over Haiti are seasonal - but a socalled superstorm threatening the very heart of the Western civilization is of special interest since it will only be the first and will (hopefully) rekindle discussions about man-made changes to the environment

I'm not at w*rk any more so can't check the numbers, but I see that 8 hours ago 5.7 million were without electrickery

That's what I call a wake-up call

I've been thinking about this, what could be done is a sort of water turbine generator sand bag cross over thing. Not sure how effective it'd be, but there's an *awful* lot of power in those flood waters.

Hmm, the flaw that strikes me is that the better they are at stopping the water, the less the turbines will turn...of course damns are used for hydroelectric, but it relies on unleashing the water all at once. Not great for a populated area!

Dams, even.

Most of the time there will be far too little energy to be harvested from this on the Eastern seabord. Solar panels in the deserts and wind turbine farms out at sea seem to be a better option since what we need is a stable production