Update: According to Kos, the Daily Kos servers are in New York City. If this site goes down, I will continue sending out information on twitter. Follow me @WillMcLeod99
Mothership diary is Here. Please recommend that diary.
The storm hasn't even hit yet and it's already starting.
The surge is already pretty significant, but there's a lot more water coming our way. If you're inside, stay inside, I know I am.
The power is already out in areas of Brooklyn and Queens, the neighborhoods of Flatbush and Rosedale respectively.
The Holland Tunnel and Brooklyn battery tunnel closed at two PM. There is no estimated time of reopening for now. There's a good chance they'll flood.
And I say good chance because most of the storm surge isn't here yet, and the FDR East River Drive is already flooding.
Here it was an hour ago:
And here's the picture I took just before noon:
I remember thinking that the Blackwell island lighthouse will be underwater shortly:
There was a crowd of about two hundred people milling around there, taking photos and joking about going for a swim in the road. I hope they get inside soon. There were two police officers trying to persuade people to get out of the highway, which is closed.
This picture was taken just south of where I was:
And it's happening on the west side too:
And it's getting bad.
The water is creeping on to the runway at JFK international:
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/...
The situation is worse in Atlantic City. The boardwalk is gone.
They'll rebuild it, of course. They've done it before, and they'll do it again.
I've got a few things I need to take care of, I'm going to see about some of the elderly folks and try to get signs on the elevators. We have been told not to use them, but I was on autopilot, and I completely forgot about the stairs when coming back from taking those photos. I don't know where the JFK photo comes from, but the rest have their attributions. The top two are mine.
Don't worry, I'm not going back out into that.
I'll be back in a few minutes with facts and data for everyone.
Before I go, though, gchaucer2 had an idea that all the New York Kossacks should plan some sort of meetup [Edit: AFTER the storm] to make sure everyone is okay. I'd like to do that. I would suggest someplace open where we can all check in, like the steps of Moma. Does anyone else in NYC think this is a good idea?
I will be running this live-blog until the storm is over. I may need to repost a second version. If my power goes out, my neighbor has cellular internet, so I'll be able to come back and tell you what's happening. We're going to conserve that, though, so that we can get disaster bulletins. Talk to you all soon. I'll be back with full data on the storm, pictures and video, and some talk about why storm surge is so dangerous. I'm willing to set up a mothership, too, if there are other livebloggers talking about their experience.
I've checked the recent and current diaries list, and I'm unsure about a mothership or who to link. Let me know in the comments.
1:29 PM PT: A crane has collapsed in New York city on 57th street between 6th and 7th aves. FDNY and NYPD are responding. Occupans on 57th between 6th and 7th have been told to contact their safety reps and move to lower floors.
The storm's current strength and speed is 90 MPH, with 940 Millibars.
There is up to an 11 foot storm surge expected. Those pictures I showed you earlier were with the tide going out. The water was rising as the tide went down.
When the tide comes back, if you add high tide to storm surge, you get potentially a 17 foot storm tide. That happened with Andrew: 16 feet of water because it hit at high tide.
This will be hitting us not only at high tide, but the highest possible tide.
People correctly pointed out that water was the big danger of this storm.
1:36 PM PT: The storm surge is already at 7.2 feet in New York and long island.
1:44 PM PT: About that meetup, I didn't make it clear that I wanted it to be AFTER the storm. To make sure everyone is okay.
1:57 PM PT: Taken five hours ago, New York Post reports that Redhook Brooklyn is underwater.
2:26 PM PT: Bunch of people are down at battery park. One of them is a friend of mine. I told him that the news guys next to him just said "This whole area will be under water soon."
The wind-wrapping that protects workers from wind gusts on the freedom tower has been torn away by high winds. It got warm in here so I cracked a window and got sprayed with a gust. Leaving it cracked for about 45 seconds drops the temperature in here quick.
As far as my preparations are concerned, I just made a soup out of some perishables on their last legs. Tomatoes and such, and the rest of the meat that wasn't frozen. I like it. I'm going to make this an actual recipe.
National weather service just updated this map.
That's a wind map. It's startin to get pretty dark. Looks like everyone has power in manhattan still.
2:52 PM PT: First Responders have been pulled out of Atlantic City. A group of people ignored evacuation orders and have stayed on a barrier Island, including some public officials according to Christie. They're being overtaken by floodwater, but first responders can't get to them.
Chris Christie was a dick about it, but he's right for once. They need to get to high ground, and there's nothing anyone can do for them until tomorrow.
There's a record surge in New Jersey. The surge in New York is now 8.6 feet.
Bloomberg is speaking. Queens is getting 10 times the normal volume of 911 calls. Most are for trees.
A jogger was injured by a falling branch, she's okay. That's the only reported injury so far. "Stay away from parks, beaches and boardwalk."
Flooding and power loss have ocurred. 47,000 in NYC are without power, mostly in queens and Staten Island.
Con Ed may be shutting down power in lower manhattan and brooklyn to prevent damage.
The MTA has moved most of their equipment out of the subway to limit damage.
You should assume that roads along the water will have problems.
The east river bridges will close at 7 PM tonight.
All buildings near the crane have been evacuated, including a large hotel.
Steam has been shut down in that area, and water and gas are being shut down in that area to prevent damage if the crane falls.
6:30 to 10:30 will see the worst flooding. Long Island sound and city island will see a similar surge four hours later.
Some windows are blowing out in public buildings.
Stay away from elevators.
3:50 PM PT: So I just got back from checking on neighbors. Updates incoming shortly.
3:54 PM PT: Okay, I have more info on the subway.
MTA workers pulled most of the expensive equipment out of the subway, and covered entrances and vents in areas likely to flood with plywood.
Things seem pretty calm here for the moment. It's rainy, and everyone seems to have their windows and blinds open. They're just watching.
Taxis are occasionally driving by, despite the warnings to stay inside.
The MTA knows their business:
4:13 PM PT: Just the facade:
4:17 PM PT: Sandy is no longer a hurricane. It is now, I am told a "Superstorm." The wind is ridiculous. I now hear constant concussive impacts as crap is blown around. A lot of it sounds like metal on metal, so stuff is hitting fire escapes. It's gusts for now, and thankfully it's blowing perpendicular to the building rather than directly at my window for the moment. We have some sustained winds with heavy gusts, but this is not the main force of the storm yet.
5:00 PM PT: An image of New Jersey's White Horse Parkway, that leads into Atlantic City. This is why evacuations have stopped, and first responders can't get in.
The roads in Long Beach are now rivers:
5:09 PM PT: So there are sharks swimming in New Jersey streets.
5:15 PM PT: Lower Manhattan:
Hoboken:
Chinatown:
5:19 PM PT: Apparently, that shark picture is likely a fake.
5:25 PM PT: More lower manhattan:
5:34 PM PT: People were driving around after they were told to get inside. They're getting stuck in cars now. I hope they're all able to get to safety.
5:52 PM PT: Lower Manhattan. 1st ave.
5:57 PM PT: According to the LEV newspaper, there has been an explosion at a power plant on 14th street in the local east villiage. Verifying.
6:19 PM PT: Parts of the DailyKos server infrastructure seem to have gone down after an apparent explosion at a power plant knocked out most of the lights in lower manhattan. We'll see how long we stay up. Can no longer embed images because of image checker.
Lower Manhattan. Dark:
http://img32.imageshack.us/...
6:27 PM PT: NYC office of emergency management:
Go indoors immediately and remain inside, staying away from windows.
6:31 PM PT: Wow. The city is dark, but the empire state building shines on.
http://instagram.com/...
6:35 PM PT: More than four feet of water are in the subway tunnels. That saltwater means that a lot of electric parts are going to need to be replaced. ACFE is flooded. The Hoboken PATH station is filling with water.
This is bad.
6:35 PM PT: All of Lower Manhattan is probably under water.
6:36 PM PT: Rikers Jail has lost power.
I hope they're all okay.
6:38 PM PT: Roosevelt Island is flooding.
https://pbs.twimg.com/...
6:45 PM PT: Three feet of water on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Confirmed.
6:47 PM PT: A TPM contributor at 9th Ave and 23rd is reporting the smell of burning wire.
Transformers have been detonating.
6:49 PM PT: This is a real photo of the PATH train stations in New Jersey filling with water.
The same is happening in NYC.
6:53 PM PT: Everything south of 39th street is dark.
The city that never sleeps is in the dark, but the empire state building shines on:
7:00 PM PT: So FDNY is breaking into boarded up subway stations with axes, trying to get into the potentially flooded subway to take care of underground transformers which have caught fire.
New York City's infrastructure is seeing some significant damage.
7:05 PM PT: A tree just went over behind our building smashing a bunch of stuff. Nobody hurt.
The world trade center construction site is flooded. New Jersey reports four deaths. Two in a car accident, two from a fallen tree.
7:14 PM PT: Water pouring into tunnels.
7:16 PM PT: Video wouldn't embed.
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/...
Transformers, both above ground and under ground, are still cooking off in New York. Water is flooding our infrastructure.
7:33 PM PT: World Trade Center construction site flooding.
7:37 PM PT: 10,000 911 calls per half hour. The city is going mad.
There are a number of fires caused by exploding transformers.
NYPD is responding to at least one house fire wile dealing with 60 MPH winds.
7:39 PM PT: The water is receding for now, but will return with a 9ft storm surge tomorrow.
Brooklyn:
7:46 PM PT: Cars in the lower east side are floating away.
8:06 PM PT: Coney Island hospital reportedly on fire.
8:11 PM PT: Shit. Confirmed: Three hospitals are going down. Coney Island Hospital is on fire, FDNY reportedly can't get there. Langone medical center lost their backup generator. Bellvue is losing power, too.
This is bad.
8:15 PM PT: Okay, let me check these sources. I'm now hearing that Langone evacuated most of their patients before the storm, just in case. I really hope I'm getting punked here.
8:22 PM PT: We got trolled. All three hospitals are fine, or evacuated.
FDNY read on twitter about the "fire" at Coney Island hospital, and showed up moments after I heard about it. No fire, no reports of injury.
Not cool, whoever started these rumors. I'm so glad they're wrong.
8:28 PM PT: Correction, Again, the NYU medical center has in fact lost its generator, and ambulances are transporting patients to other hospitals, according to ABC News.