Oh Sandy!

Hurricane Sandy tore through the north east last night bringing waves of water and snow in some places! It’s surreal to see the footage of cars floating down the streets of Manhattan or water covering buildings and houses! How easy one forgets that NY and other parts of the NE are on the coast, you don’t ever consider a hurricane in these places but yesterday proved it’s very real! I’m sad that people have died (including 67 people in the Caribbean), that over 7 million people are without power on this cold October day, that kids won’t have a real Halloween, and that destruction has ravished communities. To my family and friends in NJ, NY and the NE I love you and I hope you all stay safe!

I’m not going to make light of such a tragedy but I do want to point out some of my observations:

Expiration on Concern: While people were battling winds and down pour of rain most of the country was upset about the loss of TV shows. Twitter was in an uproar about DirecTv outages! You turn off Gossip Girl and the Voice and people lose their minds!!!! Hurricane Sandy was ripping NJ a new asshole and half of the country was up in arms about missing a few TV shows. Let me be clear, I am not judging because if this would have happened during Scandal or Once Upon a Time I would react the same (maybe). I will also point out that Ratchet Monday was not interrupted which is unfortunate because Basketball Wives is some programming we all could have done without for one week! Essentially, my observation boils down to…What is this world coming to when TV is more valuable than Super Storm Survival!

People Don’t Follow Evacuation Orders: Seriously people, when your government says get the hell on, you should listen. When they are talking about shutting down subways, trains, and airplanes why are you even thinking about riding this storm out! If those things can't move in the storm why do you think your car can? You are not a storm chaser; you should not stay to video tape the events and you certainly shouldn’t be wind surfing! Just get out!!! Have we learned nothing from Katrina?! Also, why was anybody outside during this event? If the winds and flood waters are powerful enough to knock over cranes and move cars do you think you can walk around and be safe? Tree vs person! Car vs person, Building vs person…person loses in all scenarios! If you aren’t going to evacuate at least prepare and stay inside!!! And how much does it suck to be the mayor of NJ and have to tell people who chose not to leave you are on your own, we aren’t coming to help you!

Reality TV Angers the Gods: Mother Nature was trying to rid the earth of the Jersey Shore. I have been to Jersey and it’s kind of dirty but tv misrepresents it significantly! Real House Wives, Jersey Shore, Jerseylicious all do it a disservice! Everybody isn’t tan with big hair, loud mouths, or bad attitudes! Jersey was hit pretty hard by this storm and one can only think that maybe reality TV has angered Mother Nature! Does anybody else feel disappointment that MTV will likely use this as a reason to give us a “reunion” season of the Jersey Shore or that Bravo probably has a housewives special in the works?  I can’t wait to see how TV decides to capitalize on this tragedy, further proving this world has gone to shit!

Hurricanes Don’t Discriminate: Sometimes it takes disasters for people to unite! Super storms take everybody out equally! They don’t see race, religion, or sexual orientation! They don’t see at all because they have one eye like a Cyclops (usually in the center of their body). So be kind to your fellow man because one day you may need them to shelter you, or remove debris from your arm, or call rescue services to your aid! Love each other and help each other, whether there is a storm or not.

Politics Finds a Way (especially during election years): Just when one is prepared to see non-stop storm coverage from every news outlet for the next 2-3 weeks, politics finds a way into the thick of things! How we were able to so quickly take a tragic event and turn it into how Mittens and Obama can respond to secure votes is insane. First of all, Mittens is not the president so the only thing he can do is knit and make statements! Second, the president is likely going to handle this better than his predecessor because he has common sense and can read! Anybody could have handled this better than Katrina because most people can learn from mistakes!  Third, no the North East will not be fully functional in time for the election but let’s focus on finding people, getting power restored, getting transportation operational and handling the business of recovery before we start worrying about votes.  My guess is somebody that has lost their house isn’t too concerned right now about voting! I’m so ready for this election to be over, so people can stop pretending to care about issues!

Why is it the Storms named after Women do the most Damage: The deadliest and most destructive hurricanes and storms of all time are often named after women! It makes one wonder about the naming convention; does somebody just go down a list of girlfriends when deciding to name a tropical storm? So of course I did some research. During the Second World War military meteorologists working in the Pacific began to use women's names for storms. In 1978, meteorologists began using men's names for half of the storms. Currently for each year, a list of 21 names, each starting with a different letter of the alphabet was developed and arranged in alphabetical order (names beginning with the letters Q, U, X, Y and Z were not used). The first tropical storm of the year was given the name beginning with the letter "A", the second with the letter "B" and so on through the alphabet. During even-numbered years, men's names were given to the odd-numbered storms and during odd-numbered years, women's names were given to odd-numbered storms.

Learn more including current list of names at: http://geology.com/hurricanes/hurricane-names.shtml

I have deduced from these facts that yes somebody just picks names, likely of girlfriends past! I also learned there is a separate naming convention for storms outside of the Atlantic. Meaning separate naming systems exist for for Eastern North Pacific storms, Central North Pacific Storms, Western North Pacific Storms, the Australian Region, Fiji Area, Papua New Guinea, Philippine Region, Northern and Southwest Indian Ocean. Seems complicated! I will just point out that women may be unpredictable but we aren’t all destructive (unless provoked)! I’m just glad I never dated a meteorologist; Tropical Storm LC would have gone down in history!!!