Just after noon today I was supposed to meet my wife at the mall where she works. I’d had a morning class, so the kids were with her and then we’d go for lunch and I’d take them home afterward. As I neared the mall, I saw three big firetrucks right in front of the building, cherry
The Calm After the Storm
red, plus a whole bunch of other police and rescue vehicles. I wondered what was going on but, not seeing any flames leaping out of the building, or even a crowd gaping open mouthed, my first thought was that it was some sort of let-the-kids-play-on-the-firetrucks day, as they are fond of that sort of event in this country.
Then they evacuated the building so I realized that something was, indeed, up. Still, though, no leaping flames, no panicked crowd pouring forth. People were quietly filing out, and one elderly lady asked me if I knew what was going on.
Apparently, there had been a fire at Burger King. Nobody hurt, fire quickly contained. We were talking about it later, why the massive reaction for such a small incident, and we agreed that it was better to send too many fire trucks than too few, it was better to evacuate the building and have it turn out to be unnecessary than the other way around.
Which brings me to Hurricane Irene. It was no small thing, really. 26 people died, and millions were inconvenienced. Still, it totally failed to live up to the apocalyptic vision that the weather people and public officials, such as New York mayor Michael Bloomberg and President Obama, had spread. In New York, it was basically a pretty bad rainstorm. The people who decided to wait it out wound up with a good story to tell. The funniest example of this is here.
Still, better to expect the worst and get people evacuated than to say “eh, no big deal” and get it wrong. In this case, for a change, I think that the media, and the government, did pretty much what they were supposed to do. No matter how jaded and cynical you are, better safe than sorry is still a pretty good rule to live by.
www.gurukalehuru.com 
Michelle Bachmann says it’s a warning from God. I’m not kidding, she said that.
Perry and Bachmann ain’t even playin’ at politickin’, they’s flat out preachin’
I wasn’t even -in- NYC and got stranded by the weather. I drove back toward town – NYC – on Sunday night, in preparation for the work week, but got stuck in a small town called Chester: the roads east were blocked. I tried going around but ran into flooded roads. Decided it was better to spend the night in the car in the parking lot of the McDonalds. Next morning, the roads were “open” but impassible: traffic was backed up. I ended up going north on back roads to Cornwall and then down 9W to my apt near Congers. After a quick shower, I headed in to work, in Tarrytown, and still did better than half of the plant: the place was almost empty. Power was out in a number of places – passed an armada of electric utility trucks heading south near West Point – and flooded basements were common. Cell phone coverage was pretty poor, as well. By Tuesday, most things were almost back to normal. Cell coverage is still worse than usual.
However, I agree: people would be pissing bricks if the weather people had underestimated the storm and we had another Katrina experience.