2 thoughts on “(Non) Storm update”

  2. My friend in Germantown had no power for 12 hours.

    Here in Brooklyn, at least in this part — right now I’m just a few blocks from the water, but we are at high ground in Bay Ridge; the water was pretty mean at high tide early this morning and cascading over the rails by our side of the Verrazano Bridge — a lot is still closed: the banks, most stores (the ethnic — Greek and Bangladeshi around here — mom & pop stores opened even yesterday; otherwise is hit and miss: Starbucks stores are closed, but Dunkin Donuts stores are open), and of course the transit system, although buses should start by 7 pm. The subways? Who knows? I am teaching at three colleges this semester — one branch of the State University of NY, one branch of the City University of NY, and one private college — and all are closed tomorrow. The parks are closed to due to falling branches and trees. Lots of them on the street. Saw cars at service stations which had windows knocked out or were crushed when trees fell on them.

    I just walked around the neighborhood for an hour, and no newspapers anywhere. The lead NY Times editorial, “A Big Storm Requires Big Government” excoriated Romney.

    Obama should get out a commercial soon showing Romney’s response to a debate question in June:

    Mr. Romney was asked whether emergency management was a function that should be returned to the states. He not only agreed, he went further.

    “Absolutely,” he said. “Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that’s the right direction. And if you can go even further and send it back to the private sector, that’s even better.” Mr. Romney not only believes that states acting independently can handle the response to a vast East Coast storm better than Washington, but that profit-making companies can do an even better job. He said it was “immoral” for the federal government to do all these things if it means increasing the debt.

    I’d like Romney to ask Gov. Chris Christie, who has praised President Obama’s response to the hurricane, if he thinks federal aid to New Jersey is immoral.

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