Date: Sat, 2 Jan 93 07:57:03 EST
From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: The Recent East Coast Storm
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 13, Issue 4, Message 1 of 12

In TELECOM Digest Volume 12 : Issue 928 jeffj%jiji@uunet.UU.NET
(Jeffrey Jonas) writes:

[ report about storm damage in NYC deleted ]

> [Moderator's Note: You are correct. Not a word was mentioned here. I
> did not see it personally, and no one bothered to write about it. :(
> Thanks for bringing it up.   PAT]

Long Island took a *major* hit.  Places like Bayville, located on a
peninsula jutting into Long Island Sound, were cut off completely from
the mainland of the island for days.  The damage there was
unbelievable; houses destroyed, roads washed out, electricity out and
variable telco service.  Ditto Eaton's Neck and Asharoken.

Downtown Port Jefferson, located directly on the Sound, was under
several feet of water.  Docks were washed out and the ferry terminal
was severely damaged from the wind and waves.

A friend of ours who lives in Nassau County and right on the ocean
spent the night on the top floor of her apartment building.  Her car
had water up to the top of the tires.

Downtown Riverhead, located on a small river (anyone who has seen a
major river wouldn't call this one a river), had flood waters up to
the tops of cars.  My wife works there and had to find an alternate
route home.

Orient Point was cut off from the Island when a causeway became
damaged after a barge (whatever that was doing there) hit a bridge on
the causeway.  Damage: No electricity or telco service (really bad
since the only way to get water there is by wells with electric
pumps).

Orient Point is on the easternmost tip of the North Fork of Long
Island.

Fire Island, which protects the mainland was breached in two places:
One was a 500 foot gap which looks like a new inlet; the other is 100
feet wide.  Both are pouring sand and water into the south shore bays
and upsetting the salinity levels.  This can wipe out what is left of
the clamming and fishing industry there.

Robert Moses State Park, located on Fire Island, saw the near
undercutting of a road in front of a lighthouse which used to have
about 100 feet of beach in front of it.

Almost 50 homes on Fire Island washed out to sea or were destroyed in
place.  Some are so cut off that one local township has said: "No more
road rebuilding to them.  We (the taxpayers) can't afford it."

There were one or two lives lost due directly to the storm.  Other
than that injuries were minimal if at all.

During the course of the storm, the winds seemed like they were of
hurricane force and probably were in some places.

Nassau and Suffolk Counties were declared disaster areas last week
thus clearing the way for federal aid.  On a sad note, the Nassau
County of the American Red Cross has gone broke.  It had spent a lot
of money last August when Hurricane Andrew struck Florida and the Gulf
states.  This was money and supplies that they contributed to the
relief effort.

Red Cross officials said that this storm will take $500,000 (US) of
their 1.5 million budget which has nearly been exhausted by this time
of the year.

How did the storm affect me personally?  Not much.  I lost electricity
for 2 1/2 hours.  Telco service was available all of the time.  I live
1.5 miles from the Great South Bay to the south and east and never had
to worry about flood damage.  Some of my wife's colleagues were,
though and they had to evacuate.

There were a lot of complaints about electricity service from the Long
Island Lighting Company for outages.  LILCO's way of doing things is
to restore service to the greatest area first and then go after the
smaller ones.  One problem was that just when one area was restored,
another would go out.  Some days, no one can win.

To their credit, I will congratulate LILCO and NYTel for their
efficiency and dedication in restoring their respective services.
Neither of these utilities is on my Christmas Card list, nor will they
ever be.  However credit must be given where it is due.

I apologize to PAT and others for not reporting in sooner but the
holidays got in the way and the storm came just before they did.  What
an ufortunate occurrance.


Dave Niebuhr      Internet: niebuhr@bnl.gov / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl
Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973  (516)-282-3093


[Moderator's Note: Thanks for passing along your very sad note. I
guess the storm in Florida late in the summer occupied so much
attention and took so many resources the events in California (big
fire which went on for a long time destroying many things) and New
York early in December were given a short-shrift in the media as well
as relief agencies whose funds were dangerously low as a result of the
Florida horror. 1992 was a very bad year disaster-wise in the USA with
the various events both of nature and the total social breakdown
which occurred in Los Angeles in April. Here in Chicago, 1992 was the
second most murderous year in our city's history with over 900 murders
committed in the city alone. Saddest of all, about 200 of the persons
killed were under age 21; about two dozen were small children -- about
two youngsters per month are gunned down in our public schools here,
usually as a result of their gang-affiliations or lack of same.  :(
We here in Chicago are fully expecting a major riot ala Los Angeles in
the next year or two. With luck (see my tongue in cheek), the New
Yorkers and Californians will get their tribulations by fire and flood
out of the way early in the new year and thus get the attention and
relief assistance they deserve before it all runs out.  :(   PAT]