Then-hurricane Isaias.
National Weather Service products are in the public domain in the US.
Good evening, Kibitzers! Let’s try this again, shall we?
Last time, you’ll remember, I was writing on Monday night, anticipating a tropical storm that I didn’t expect to be as big a deal as was being implied by the forecast. It wasn’t even a hurricane! I was born in a bigger storm than that! (I was actually born before Hazel got as far as New Jersey, but because it was still the 1950s, my mom had not been booted out of the hospital by the time it did hit. Her mother insisted that my father had to drive her to the hospital through the worst of the storm, to make sure my mom and I were okay, and no amount of downed timber or broken power lines persuaded her to reconsider. When they got to the hospital, the power was out and someone at the door was handing every visitor a lighted candle. Yeah.)
So anyway, of course my power went out — I was absolutely expecting that. I know I’ve said here before that my power company apparently uses equipment made of sugar. And the storm was over so quickly that I actually called my brother, after it had been calm for an hour or so, to ask him to check the internet and make sure the storm was really past me, and not somehow stalled with the eye over my house. Because again, it was not a monster storm.
March 164th: 84 days until Election Day!
⛈️ 🌊 I should have known things were bad out there when my landline went down, hours after the power had gone. That is not at all typical, which is one reason I still have a landline. If I had known the enormous scale of the clusterfuck out there, I’d have just yanked open the fridge and eaten all the cold chicken for supper, rather than keep the door shut in the vain hope that the power would be back in time to save all the stuff in there.
So apparently, something like two million customers lost power in the general area of New York City, including New Jersey and Connecticut as well as New York suburbs/exurbs. This story on The Verge goes into some detail about how the grid in every state basically collapsed like the house of cards that it is. (It seems this is the second-largest outage in the history of the New York power company Consolidated Edison, or ConEd, following only Sandy in 2012.) Then they mull the news that the National Weather Service has made their hurricane prediction for the year more dire than it was, predicting as many as 25 named storms, twice the average number. Basically, I should just tear down the house and build a mostly-underground concrete bunker. From the NWS National Hurricane Center “Monthly Atlantic Tropical Weather Summary” for July:
For the North Atlantic...Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico:
Five tropical storms, including two which became hurricanes, formed in the basin in July. One tropical depression also formed late in the month over the far eastern portion of the basin. The five named storms ties the record for the most named storms forming during the month of July, which was previous set in July 2005. The season has been considerably more active than average so far, as typically only 1 or 2 named storms form prior to August. So far in 2020, nine named storms have formed, including 2 hurricanes -- Hanna and Isaias.
In terms of Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE), which measures the strength and duration of tropical storms and hurricanes, activity in the basin so far in 2020 has also been above average, about twice the long-term mean.
As for my power, it was out until Saturday night, and the landline/internet, after a false start, reappeared soon after. It was hot and muggy and crappy the whole time, and I was cranky. As I wrote to Besame earlier, by Wednesday, I was living about half in my car, inasmuch as it had dawned on me it is a giant gasoline-powered generator with seats, music, and air conditioning, that can recharge my devices and take itself to a gas station when it needs to. Since it's a hybrid, it has a battery the size of a cow, and when it's feeling low, it just turns on its gas engine for a bit and then turns it off again.
This didn’t help at night, because I wasn’t very interested in traipsing into the house in the dark whenever I needed to pee. It’s already way too easy to fall down and break things. Also: bears. So I just accepted being uncomfortably warm at night. I fell into a pattern where I did stuff in the house in the morning when it was coolest in there, and then I made a sandwich (tuna or peanut butter) and took that out to the car with some delicious room-temperature black coffee, and chilled out there, both literally and figuratively, until suppertime, and then drove the generator to someplace to get takeout. I have definitely been out for food more this week than I have since the beginning of March.
I’m sure you have detected that I’ve had an extremely easy week, compared to almost anyone. Nothing fell on me or my house, I didn’t have to evacuate from a flood or a fire (there were a number of big fires from downed lines), I have no medical condition that makes me reliant on any electrical device, I had enough to eat and the ability to go get more, I was still getting paid while I couldn’t work, and I own a car that I could comfortably hang out in, or go somewhere else in, come to that. I really have nothing to complain about. It was just an… interesting experience.
And that’s my report, other than to share this psychedelic version of Isaias, and then some music. Oh, and the link to the National Hurricane Center page.
Hazel was not a crossfire hurricane to my knowledge.
Last-minute update: Order your full-ticket signs, buttons, etc. HERE.
Stay safe! 💙💙💙💙💙
New video:
The Lincoln Project:
The Meidas Touch:
Don Winslow:
🦠 COVID-19 🧫
Flatten the Curve: How social distancing, hand-washing, and similar measures can help.
I’m cutting this box way down, because we’re all familiar by now with the available information, such as it is. We know how to shelter in place; we’ve been doing it to give public health measures time to be implemented. Now, many of us are just waiting for some public health measures.
My past diaries list, where the older purple boxes still live.
NEW: Georgia Tech “Event Risk Assessment” map. Use the slider on the left to pick an event size, and it shows you, for every US county, the current % risk of having at least one Covid-positive person show up.
NEW: SciShow video discusses the latest information on asymptomatic infection.
New: MinutePhysics video explains how N95 masks work (it’s waaaay more subtle than you may think).
Viruses on surfaces, from The Guardian.
This virus spread tracking site also has an excellent “wiki” page on virus information/misinformation, proper mask use, symptoms, etc. h/t eeff!
The Atlantic has listed their ongoing virus coverage here, and none is behind a paywall.
This excellent video explains clearly how viruses are killed by washing with soap. h/t Sara R!
And this one intelligently discusses the benefits of face masks.
If you know someone who feels wearing a mask is just too hard, maybe they need to see this.
The Washington Post offers video tips on dealing with common mask annoyances. h/t Sara R again!
CDC chart showing how to remove gloves properly to avoid contamination.
The lung exercises in this diary are still good for anyone, sick or not.
If you’d like some attractive handmade facemasks, see Sara’s diary here to order a set made by Sara R and WInglion from various cotton quilt fabrics: $40 + $7.75 Priority Mail shipping for a set of 5 (or other quantities at $8 each). You can contact Sara R to discuss your preference in fabrics or special needs.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (The Borowitz Report)—Donald J. Trump raised eyebrows on Monday by signing an executive order granting himself a million-dollar unemployment check if he leaves office in January. Trump said that he will deserve the seven-figure check if the election is “stolen” by what he called “a conspiracy between the U.S. Postal Service and Antifa.” [...snip]
The executive order immediately drew howls of protest from congressional Democrats, as well as from the Republican senator Ben Sasse, who called it “a steaming pile of constitutional crap.”
Unmoved, Trump called the Nebraska senator “Poor Li’l Sassy” and argued that the executive order was a “work of genius” that should guarantee him a place on Mt. Rushmore. …
— The Borowitz Report, at The New Yorker
If You’re Bored, Part a million:
- Brewing beer at the Obama White House.
- Ukulele duet: Sultans of Swing. You might be surprised.
- Here’s Michelle Obama’s new podcast on Spotify. If you don’t have an account, you can sign up for a free preview “with occasional ads” (I have not done this, so cannot report).
- Online Arts: This list, kept current by DC Metro Theater Arts, is of arts organizations under their umbrella that are offering online performances or presentations. Although it’s all Washington DC area, cyberspace sneers at that sort of boundary.
- Samantha Bee has kindly provided information about cities that already have prominent “Defund the Police” movements, to help us contact city officials and urge them to do the right thing. There is also a link for the many of us who don’t live in such a city, to help us find contact info for our city officials just the same.
- Make hummingbird feeders from soy sauce bottles — video.
- The Frick Collection, a NYC museum/library based on the art collection of robber baron Henry Clay Frick and housed in his 5th Avenue mansion, is offering a weekly feature (live at 5 pm ET on Fridays, but viewable thereafter) called “Cocktails with a Curator”, in which a Frick curator discusses a work in the collection and also shares a cocktail recipe (the week’s recipe posted in advance). They run around 15-20 minutes. (See also the Frick’s “Travels with a Curator” series, posting Wednesdays at 5 pm ET.)
- List of 30 virtual tours of museums, zoos, aquariums, and theme parks.
- Tours of New York City museums.
- Samples of free art courses from the Museum of Modern Art.
- Free online drawing class from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
- Virtual-reality tours on YouTube of the Met’s impressive spaces.
- The Metropolitan Opera is still streaming operas daily. (They do not plan to re-open physically until the start of 2021.)
- For kids, the Children’s Museum of Manhattan will email you a fun activity every day — sign up at their website.
|
🌟 GOTV 🌟
🌟 VOTING BY MAIL: NEW: Please see this diary by “Postcards To Voters” founder TonyTheDemocrat about his stance on voting by mail. I found it pretty compelling.
Some states (New Jersey is an example) don’t have vote-by-mail as their standard procedure, but issue absentee ballots with no questions asked. Now would be a good time to check into that for your state and those of your Democratic friends and relations — Google can help. In the case of NJ, one has to download, fill out, and mail in an application. I plan to switch over to automatically getting a mail-in ballot for every election from now on, which is one of the options here. No one who does not have to touch buttons in a voting booth should be doing so!
🌟 POSTCARDING: If you are looking for a way to help and can’t do things like canvassing or phoning, consider hand-writing postcards asking people to vote. It’s easy because you’re given specific talking points from the campaign you’re working with, so you don’t have to think up what to say, and no one will be coming back at you with questions. And if you like to color, you can get creative decorating the cards. Note that you are responsible for buying postcards (and stamps if you don’t use pre-stamped ones.) Postcard stamps are 35 cents each; pre-stamped postcards from USPS are 39 cents each; two different pretty designs. If you can spend a little more, the two postcarding sites below sell their designs; or, searching the phrase “postcards to voters” on Amazon will show you many designs.
To get started:
🌟 PERSONALIZED LETTERS: Similarly, you can do more good than you might expect by writing personalized letters (from a template) to Democrats who are unlikely voters, adding a brief personal statement about why you VOTE EVERY TIME. Studies have shown this can boost turnout by enough to make a difference. As with postcards, you get names/addresses for these voters in targeted districts from the website, fill in the letters, address/stamp/fill the envelopes, but then, you hold them and mail them on Oct. 27, a week before election day! Note that, as with the postcards, you are responsible for buying envelopes, paper (no special paper required), and stamps. First class letter stamps are 55 cents each. (A new Gwen Ifill stamp came out recently!) You can also buy pre-stamped business-size envelopes, also two designs.
For more info:
(Postcard v. letters: letters are to registered Dems who seldom vote, trying to persuade them voting is important. Postcards are to registered Dems likely to vote, giving them information on specific elections/candidates.)
THESE MAIL PROJECTS ALSO HELP SUPPORT THE USPS, THE LATEST GOP TARGET!
🌟 FOLLOW THE DIARIES OF Yosef 52: He posts at least once a day with tons of information and links to help us vote, get others out to vote, and support candidates, and if the last election was any guide, he will only jam in more and more info as time goes on. I highly recommend his work as a resource!
🌟 CONFIRM YOU ARE REGISTERED, REPEAT REGULARLY, AND GET YOUR FAMILY AND OTHERS TO DO THE SAME!!! FIGHTING VOTER SUPPRESSION STARTS AT HOME!
- Many folks here have been surprised to find that their or a family member’s registration has mysteriously disappeared, even though it had been active. Don’t wait until too late to catch and correct this bullshit.
- HEADCOUNT.ORG will direct you to your state’s Department of State/Division of Elections (or similar) webpage, which is the horse’s mouth, as it were.
- Or, google something like “am I registered to vote” plus your state, and go to your state government’s page directly.
🌟 If you can do more, do it! These are just things you can do at home at 3 am. Some of us have the wherewithal to do more, and we should! No one is coming to save us. Act accordingly.
Remember we need the House and Senate, or no president will be able to help us. If you’re sad your presidential/VP candidate wasn’t nominated (I was), please find some downticket races to get excited about. We all need each other.
|
It has been 1,056 DAYS SINCE HURRICANE MARIA MADE LANDFALL IN PUERTO RICO ON SEPTEMBER 20, 2017. JUNE 1 BEGAN THE THIRD HURRICANE SEASON AFTER MARIA’S SEASON.
NOW, they’ve just been hit by Isaias, and they have even more damage to contend with.
Full power has never been restored there, and many homes still have blue tarps for roofs. Earthquakes (still!) and now coronavirus, the giant dust storm, AND a severe drought have made recovery still harder. Sadly, this is the Trump model for handling any kind of disaster.
If you can help one of the organizations working to help the people of Puerto Rico or any of the subsequent disasters, please check out the diary of links.
⛈️ 🌊 💥 HURRICANE MARIA AND EARTHQUAKES 💥 🌊 ⛈️
🐨 🔥 AUSTRALIAN FIRES 2019-20 🔥 🐨
🚒 🔥 CALIFORNIA FIRES 2019 🔥 🚒
⛈️ 🌊 HURRICANE DORIAN 🌊 ⛈️
|