Hurricane Irene

I live in NYC and I braced myself for Hurricane Irene.  I did not live in an evacuation zone.  I watched the news with a fervor.  It did rain for many consecutive hours.  There were high winds.  I was worried that a tree was going to fall and knock out my neighborhood's power.  I was prepared for the storm in any event that my power was knocked out.  I was also worried my utility company was going to preemptively shut off power too.  But when I awoke on Sunday, the storm had pretty much passed.  And I discovered that when Irene made landfall on Coney Island, it was downgraded to a Tropical Storm.  We still experienced high gusts of wind until late Sunday evening.  I thanked the benevolent universe that NYC pretty much came out of it unscathed.  There were a few downed trees and property damage, but all in all, it was much better than the worst case scenario, authorities had prepared us for.  In the case of Hurricane Irene, NYC authorities decided it would be better to be as cautious and safe as possible than sorry.  We may have been too cautious, but I like being prepared for the worst possible scenario.  So we did good.

Unfortunately, the rest of NY state fared much worse than NYC.  My thoughts and prayers with all people along the Eastern Seaboard of the United States of America and countries south of America, who suffered at the hands of Hurricane Irene.  Some towns, inland NY, were wiped out due to severe flooding.  Vermont state suffered incredible flooding.  With Hurricane Irene, the problem was the flooding.  It was about 500 miles in diameter and moved approximately 15 miles per hour.  And it was dumping a lot of rain.  A ton.  So flooding was the major damaging effect of Irene.

I really didn't know what to expect from Hurricane Irene.  I had already experienced a hurricane in 2004 (Hurricane Gustav down in Florida).  That was much worse than Irene was for me.  We were stranded in Florida for about five days.

This is Hurricane season.  I think it ends in early November.  The thing is that these Hurricanes that originate south of the US usually end up being tropical storms by the time they reach NY and further north.  

However, Irene caused a great deal of damage and deaths throughout the Eastern Seaboard. You can go to the Red Cross
to donate for disaster relief.

Many areas throughout the states in the path of Irene  have been declared disaster zones.  Please keep them in your prayers and there are many ways in which you can help. NYC may have come out of this with a mild bruising, but who knows what tomorrow may bring.  Therefore, I thank the NYC authorities and NY state authorities for their vigilance and proactive measures.

Earthquake hits the East Coast

So there was an earthquake today on the East Coast.  The epicenter was in Mineral, VA, but it could be felt as far away as Washington DC, NYC, Ohio, and North Carolina.  I'm a native New Yorker and I didn't feel a thing.  It could be that I was walking around at the time...moving friskly...with a friend in Queens at the time NYC felt the quake.  I feel cheated that I missed out on it.  However, I did feel an earthquake in Southern California back in 2000.  It felt like a large truck was barreling down the street.  So I have experienced an earthquake, just not in my hometown.

The Earthquake was recorded at 5.8 magnitude, 3.7 miles deep.  Another reason why I may have not felt the earthquake was because I was walking on street level.  A lot of people in the subways and on the streets didn't all feel the earthquake.  However, people in buildings on higher floors did feel the earthquake for a good 20 seconds.

I didn't even know there was an earthquake until someone called me and asked me if I was alright.  So I turned on the news and watched as New Yorkers seemed panicked.  They kept showing a news clip of Manhattan District Attorney, Cy Vance's press conference.  He was giving a statement when people started getting up and leaving the room.  He tried to assuage their fears and told them he lived in Seattle and experienced earthquakes like this before and they shouldn't be alarmed.

Apparently, it was Manhattan that was affected the most.  Many buildings were evacuated.  A lot of people went on to the streets and left work early.  Mayor Bloomberg gave a press conference and basically said we were very lucky that there wasn't any significant damage.  He did mention that there was a partially collapsed chimney in Brooklyn, but responders were sent there to inspect and investigate.  I also went online and read articles about the earthquake.  I discovered that a NYC building on 125th Street and 7th Avenue was evacuated and cordoned off because it has a major crack in it, as can be seen in the photo up top.

My major concern when I heard about the earthquake was transportation.  I was worried bridges and tunnels and the subway were affected.  They did close the tunnels for a bit.  And they sent responders to inspect all bridges.  Everything looks structurally sound.  I'm glad to report the subway appears undamaged, but in the back of my head I keep thinking, next week I could be on an underground subway and part of the tunnel will collapse on top of my car.  hehe.  I mean I'm not sure how they can check that there's no damage in underground subways.  But I do hope they check thoroughly.

Supposedly the last major earthquake in NYC of this magnitude was back in the 1880s.  A Columbia University Seismologist, Won-Young Kim, stated back this past February that NY was long overdue for an earthquake.  Freaky.  But then again, that's Columbia University for you =)

My thoughts and prayers with the people who were truly affected by this earthquake (NYC just got aftershocks), especially those in Virginia.  Damage in that area was obviously more significant.  

I guess NYC made such a big deal about earthquakes because we're not known for them like California.  I read articles about West Coast people making fun of East Coast people.  One person said, "We have 5.8 for breakfast." lol.

So NYC has to better prepare and equip itself for earthquakes too.  I'm just glad it wasn't worse.  And I still feel cheated I didn't feel it.  hehe

Time Magazine's Top 50 websites for 2011

Time Magazine's Top 50 Websites for 2011

So this week Time Magazine released it's Top 50 websites for 2011.  Many were interesting to note and included was Google Plus.  Definitely worth a read to see what the up and coming websites are for this year and to get connected.

I'll showcase my 3 favorites: Proust, Big Think, and Smart History.

Proust is a blogging site where you can write down your autobiography. The site provides you with writer prompts, like what your first day of school was like.  It's a good site to get your family and friends connected.  You can all share your life experiences together.  The set-up is easy and the design is quite lovely.  I highly recommend it.

BigThink is a website that offers articles and information on just about every subject imaginable by resident Big Thinkers who are renowned experts in their chosen fields.  You can read their thoughts and interact with them, as well as learn a lot of useful information from distinguishable scholars.  A definite site to visit if you are looking for quality information on a particular subject.

SmartHistory is a wonderful website for those interested in Art History.  It provides illustrations, photos, and a plethora of information on Art History from the Cave Paintings to Modern Times.  A beautiful website for art aficionados around the world.  Definitely worth a visit.  Viewing beautiful art work is soothing to the soul.

Those are only 3 of the websites from Time's 50.  There were many wonderful websites to check out in areas ranging from music, education, sports, gaming, shopping, and more.