Dan Robinson
EF5
As I'm among the many who are either heading east/north to chase Sandy or wishing we were (unfortunately I'm in the latter group), I wanted to offer my thoughts on some of the unique dangers and complications that could come from this storm for those who are there. If you are planning to intercept, please keep these in mind!
This storm is coming into a highly populated region that has not seen a wind event of this magnitude in a very long time. If this situation comes to pass as currently expected, a widespread, catastrophic tree damage/toppling event is pretty certain. That of course translates to widespread long-term (a week or longer) power outages. This is nothing like a Gulf or Florida hurricane making landfall among palm trees and forests that have seen TS-force winds in the past 5 years or less. The potential to get stranded with little to no access to basic survival resources (food and water) could be ten times worse with Sandy coming into the northeast corridor than your average southern US hurricane. Add to the fact that the large population apparently will not be evacuating means if you're not prepared, you'll be competing with 100 times more people for the very limited access to gas and food than you would on the Gulf/Florida coast.
As with any hurricane chase, I would prepare for being self-sufficient for at least 5 days minimum (food, water and fuel).
Second, the terrain in much of the region Sandy will be impacting is not your typical flat, sandy coastal plain that can drain large amounts of rainfall. Hills and mountains will make flooding a major concern, more so than most Gulf/southern Atlantic landfalling storms.
This is an entirely different animal than your average hurricane, simply because of where it's impacting. It will require some new challenges that I'm not sure our generation of chasers have encountered before on this scale.
EDIT: Mods, please correct typo in title.
This storm is coming into a highly populated region that has not seen a wind event of this magnitude in a very long time. If this situation comes to pass as currently expected, a widespread, catastrophic tree damage/toppling event is pretty certain. That of course translates to widespread long-term (a week or longer) power outages. This is nothing like a Gulf or Florida hurricane making landfall among palm trees and forests that have seen TS-force winds in the past 5 years or less. The potential to get stranded with little to no access to basic survival resources (food and water) could be ten times worse with Sandy coming into the northeast corridor than your average southern US hurricane. Add to the fact that the large population apparently will not be evacuating means if you're not prepared, you'll be competing with 100 times more people for the very limited access to gas and food than you would on the Gulf/Florida coast.
As with any hurricane chase, I would prepare for being self-sufficient for at least 5 days minimum (food, water and fuel).
Second, the terrain in much of the region Sandy will be impacting is not your typical flat, sandy coastal plain that can drain large amounts of rainfall. Hills and mountains will make flooding a major concern, more so than most Gulf/southern Atlantic landfalling storms.
This is an entirely different animal than your average hurricane, simply because of where it's impacting. It will require some new challenges that I'm not sure our generation of chasers have encountered before on this scale.
EDIT: Mods, please correct typo in title.
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