Hurricane Sandy slogs toward U.S., 41 killed in Caribbean

No Climate Change here, folks. Nothing to see, nothing to worry about. “Highly unusual” is the new norm. Thank You GOP/big oil/heritage foundation, et al.

It seems the hurricane ratings scale should be upgraded. As the earth has warmed, the hurricanes seems much larger in diameter which is yielding much larger storm surges and more sustained periods of heavy rain, but also slower winds which is what drives the Saffir-Simpson scale. Two many category 1&2 storms lately have yielded more deaths and damage than these storms seemed to deliver historically. If any nation prepares for hurricanes, it is certainly Cuba, and for them to loose so many people to a cat 2 storm is frightening. If the very densely built up US eastern seaboard is hit hard, it may force a rethink. Storm surges along the barrier islands in NC, VA, MD, and NJ could be very pricey, much more so than for missing roof tiles and broken windows, which used to be the damage level of a cat 2 storm.

Here’s a thought. What if this hurricane causes widespread power outages in the Northeast next week? Could this have a possible effect on the U. S. election? What would we do if the polls can’t open for lack of power? Would the election be delayed or postponed in NJ, NY and New England? These are all blue states. Without their electoral votes Obama could not win.

Well im going to look forward to loosing power for 2 weeks and loosing 2 weeks worth of pay…. This is gunna be bad, im so screwed

This is a repeat of 1991 YOUGOYO. Try to keep up and take your meds!

Since 1851, 18 Hurricanes have hit in October (Texas to Maine).
Mitch was a category 5, and then crossed through Florida as a Tropical storm on November 5, 1998. Wilma hit Florida on October 24, 2005 as a CAT 3. So it was actually 7 years ago, not decades.
The media has Romnesia.

@IntoTheTardis

That’s a very good question.Would this be considered a form of disenfranchisement if they use the election results minus those affected? Or would they call it Force Majeure and let results stand?

My question was if this dumps on NYC and floods it out for a few days/weeks, would it be the nail in the US Economies coffin from the lack of access to the financial districts?

Good point though Tardis, food for thought about our electoral process.

Like in wars, hurricanes destroy large amounts of property and often kill many people, so I suggest we name them after leaders of nations that have become known throughout the world for their warmongering. For example, Hurricane Bush, Hurricane Obama, Hurricane Netanyahu, – Merkel, – Cameron, – Sarkozy, etc. It’s harder to imagine a more appropriate way to honor our great leaders than to name natural disasters after them.

“Sandy Heads to U.S.”

She apparently has not seen Romnney speak yet. She’ll fall asleep once she’s here.

H.A.A.R.P. http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/ then ask why 6 or more other countries are using the same devices.

I’m hardly an expert, but I think Sylvan is onto something when he suggests the Safir-Simpson scale may be too simplistic. Just considering the top sustained windspeed near the storm center doesn’t give much of an indication of the danger a particular storm poses.

The advantage of the SS scale is simplicity. Even back in the 1950′s, meteorologists could fly a plane into a hurricane, penetrate the eye wall, and measure peak sustained wind speeds on the way in and out. But modern meteorolgical data ought to support estimation of wind field energy and rate that on a scale to give us a better feel for the danger posed by a particular storm.

Nice one, MichaelMann! There are many more, too: Hitler, Mussolini, Hirohito,…

in response to YOUGOYO- This storm is not any proof of global warming because this has happened before as was even indicated in the article. Their have been really bad weather conditions all throughout history and yet you cant blame those on man made global warming. And guess what the earth goes through natural cycles of warming and cooling and has when humans were not so advanced.

Global warming is a hoax so that some rich elite can make money such as Al Gore.

How did no one see this coming? Just a couple of weeks ago massive Tesla Coils were running at full capacity for 72hrs. Who regulates this stuff? It’s cause and effect. We could easily save more lives by running David Blane’s Tesla coils or HAARP near the Caribbean.

Give Karl Rove and the GOP slime machine time, and they will find a way to blame Obama for the storm also. I’m sure Rush is already screaming about how the storm is all the democrats fault.

I don’t understand the doom and gloom tone of this article. I’ve lived in the southeast in a coastal town below sea level my whole life. We get hit by by tropical storms all the time. And hurricane season regularly sends those storms our way. Heck, if it just rains hard, we get massive flooding downtown. Still, the only time we start freaking out is if a category 3 or higher is heading our way. But geez, one tropical storm and the entire northeast alights with the gossip of panic. I have yet to understand this.