Yesterday's Massive Storms A Reminder Of Major Sewer Problems Across NYC Metro Region

Yesterday's deluge of rain as a cold front came through to break a 4-day heat wave was welcomed by many, although the rain may mean a washout at local beaches this weekend.

You see, much of the region - especially New York City - has combined sewer systems. That means that street water runoff mixes with sanitary sewage (toilet waste). On a normal day, this will get processed at sewage treatment plants and the waste wont make it into the area's waterways.

Yesterday's rainfall was anything but a normal day. The rainfall meant that much of the sewage bypassed the treatment plants and went directly into the area's rivers and waters:



That's from the 79th Street Boat Basin on the West Side. Hundreds of millions of gallons of untreated sewage went into the area rivers yesterday.

Now think about where you'll be swimming this weekend. Area beaches are likely to have closures due to high bacteria counts.

It doesn't have to be this way. Sanitary sewers should be separated from the runoff sewers, but that takes time and money. It gets short shrift because out of sight is out of mind - and who thinks about where their poop goes after it goes down the toilet.

We should - because the existing system across large parts of the country need to be improved to improve water quality and protect tourism opportunities for shorefront communities.

More Than Half Of America Suffering From Drought Conditions

The extreme high temperatures we've been experiencing in the Northeast has been baking much of the South and Midwest to the point that 56% of the country is seeing drought conditions. A significant portion of that is extreme and severe drought.

The drought hasn't been long enough to rank up there with the 1930s Dust Bowl or a bad stretch in the 1950s, David Miskus, a meteorologist at the weather service's Climate Prediction Center, told msnbc.com.

"We don't have that here yet," he said. "This has really only started this year."

But for a single year it's still pretty significant, not far behind an extremely dry 1988.

While 1988 saw much drier conditions and an earlier start to the drought than this year, said Brad Rippey, a meteorologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2012 has its own interesting qualities.

"This year the high temperatures have certainly played into this drought," he told msnbc.com. "There's a lot more evaporation ... and crop demands for water."

The Drought Monitor noted that the drought is starting to "take a significant toll" on food supplies. "In the primary growing states for corn and soybeans, 22 percent of the crop is in poor or very poor condition, as are 43 percent of the nation’s pastures and rangelands and 24 percent of the sorghum crop."

The lack of significant and consistent rains means that the drought is likely to intensify and will contribute to crop damages. That, in turn, is likely to result in higher food prices.

Of course, the extreme temperatures is also straining power grids, sparking severe storms, and people have to take precautions due to the high temperatures.

Heat-related deaths are being reported across the nation, from Baltimore to California.

The best way to prevent such an outcome is to find someplace cool, and to follow some common-sense measures and to check up on the elderly, infirm, and children.

A Nor'easter to Remember

The ongoing blizzard that is pounding the entire Northeast and the New York City metro area is being hammered with strong winds and snows that fall at a rate of 1-2 inches per hour. Thunder and lightning have been reported through the area.

Mahwah, New Jersey already has 17.5 inches and much of the area has more than a foot of snow. I figure I've got just about a foot of snow as of 10:30 EST. Plows from Fair Lawn have already been through once, but you wouldn't be able to tell as the blowing and drifting snows, plus additional snowfall has quickly enveloped everything in a fresh coat of white.



New Jersey's acting governor, State Senator John Sweeney, declared a state of emergency as Gov. Chris Christie is out of the state.

Mass transit - and indeed all transit- has slowed to a crawl as the weather is absolutely dangerous. The LIRR has canceled all service until further notice. NJ Transit is operating on a modified schedule on Monday, while the bus service has been canceled through much of the state. Amtrak has canceled all service between Boston and New York. More than 1,400 flights have been canceled at the 3 area airports.

Meanwhile, Mayor Mike Bloomberg has yet to declare a state of emergency in the city despite the fact that more than a foot of snow.

Welcome to the Baked Apple

After cooking at 103 yesterday in Central Park and triple digits throughout the area, the NYC metro area is only supposed to simmer at around 98 (though it will again hit 100 in many parts of the area). Some weather people here were saying that an onshore flow and some clouds will keep temps down a little, but that only means that the humidity will be pumped up to unconscionable levels. If anything, the higher humidity will make it feel even worse outside than yesterday.

Demand for power is hovering near all time record demand. Power lines are sagging with some scattered outages, but no widespread blackouts to report. Con Ed and PSE&G are calling on customers to reduce their demand. Amtrak and NJ Transit are dealing with power and rail issues as the temps are causing problems with both the overhead lines sagging and the rails expanding and coming out of alignment (causing a possible derailment hazard) primarily on the NJ Coast Line, Morris and Essex, and the Northeast Corridor. That means fewer trains running and those that are are doing so slower. The MTA has had to deal with reduced power in some parts of the subway system so signals and elevators/escalators are off inconveniencing commuters.

More importantly, people must check on the elderly, infirm, and children. One person died yesterday from the sweltering heat. Cooling centers and pools are open all over the area, and it's a good idea to limit outside exposure.

A Close Call and A Makeup Opportunity

That's a satellite image (HT: Gothamist) showing just how close the massive snowstorm that hit the Middle Atlantic states from Virginia to New Jersey came to whacking New York City with 2 feet of snow. Parts of Staten Island got 6 inches though, and Southern Brooklyn got a dusting to an inch, but the significant and historical snowfall totals pretty much stayed well to the South. So, New York City missed out on the storm. The midweek storm will fix that oversight.

Have no fear, since New York City is in the bullseye for a significant snowstorm starting tomorrow night through Wednesday, when perhaps a foot or more is set to come up the coast. The latest predictive tracks put the brunt of the storm directly over NYC and LI - with 9-12+ of snow. The NWS says to expect more than six inches of snow. Other media outlets are running far higher possible totals.

Strange Apparation Sighted Over New York City

A most unusual form has appeared over the New York City metro area. It has caused mass hysteria, followed by a loosening of clothes and an insatiable need to lounge about.



I, for one, welcome this vision. Now, if it can only stick around for more than a day or two. All this rain is turning my garden into a mushroom patch and mud bog. This June is on pace to being one of the coldest and wettest on record in the New York metro region. Northern New Jersey got upwards of 1.5 inches, with areas seeing more than 2 inches of rain yesterday. It's been damp and dank all month long, and it's affected sporting events including the US Open at Bethpage Black, which saw greens turned into lakes and fans were left fuming as they weren't issued refunds or credits when play was suspended yesterday afternoon.

UPDATE:
The USGA has announced that the tickets will be honored after all - on Monday. Rain is in the forecast for tomorrow, so it makes sense that the tournament will be pushed onto Monday or Tuesday for completion.

March Storm Madness

For those who haven't noticed, I've been light on blogging this past week. I was out in the Caribbean on a 7-day cruise and got back into the NYC metro area last night. The trip was great, but getting back was an absolute mess because of the Nor'easter that we're experiencing in the NYC metro area and throughout the entire Eastern United States as the storm dumped snow from Alabama and Georgia all the way up through to Maine. More than 50 million people are being affected directly by the storm, and many areas will see more than 10 inches of snow before all is said and done.

It's a pretty bad storm no matter how you look at it and yet, it wasn't the weather in NYC that made travel so horrible yesterday. It was the mess in Atlanta, which was hit by the storm before it hit the East Coast. It may have been fun for some, but to the airlines, and Delta Airlines in particular, it was a disaster.

Hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed because they couldn't deal with the snow at the airport or to get equipment to the right place.

Normally, I would try to schedule direct flights between New York and our destination and for the return flights, but because I was using Skymiles, I got a connecting flight through Atlanta on our way back to Newark.

When we got to the airport from the cruise ship at 9AM, the airport was already a madhouse because Delta Airlines was having a meltdown. They were canceling flights left and right and people were scrambling to find alternatives. The line at the Delta ticket counter was winding through the airport and there were no representatives to direct people what to do. The situation was also bad at some of the other counters, including Northwest and Southwest, but Delta was having the worst of it. It was like that for hours. We were waiting on line with no guidance and no instructions.

The folks in the line were all well behaved and were quite helpful to each other, giving what little tidbits of information to each other. Phone lines to Delta's reservations line were useless as they were jammed and all you got were busy signals - and that situation remains unresolved even today. It didn't matter if you were a Skymiles member or not - you couldn't get through under any of the phone numbers except the flight information line - and there were significant waits for that too.

After three hours of waiting on line and still no closer to the counter, I made my way over to the jetBlue desk, and attempted to get tickets. I finally managed to get two tickets on a direct flight to JFK (our car was, and still is, at Newark), but it was a steep price to get back to NYC. The two tickets were $640, and we still had to deal with Delta. That was at 1PM. The new flight was scheduled for 6:32PM.

Oh, and there was no guarantee that the jetBlue flight would happen since there were weather delays and cancellations popping up all over the East Coast because of the storm that was now hitting all over the place.

Delta finally sent some people out into the crowd to provide additional phone numbers - all busy of course - but also that they shouldn't bother to stay on line since they wouldn't get any other information than what was being provided at the ticket counter. To say that this was not helpful was an understatement.

Still, it was a highlight of the day when a contingent of US Marines lugging what looked like 200 pounds of gear and bags entered the ticket area and attempted to get through the crowd to secure their own ticketing. Some of the Marines had bags and packs that were bigger than they were. The crowd parted easily and spontaneous clapping erupted as they made their way back and forth through the area. They were on their way to Camp Pendelton, but had to fly through Atlanta.

I would keep checking back with the Delta counter to see if the line slackened any, but that never happened. The line looked like it was a consistent two to three hour wait, and we were hearing that the earliest flights back to the NY metro area would be Tuesday at the earliest. That was completely unacceptable so I figured that I would deal with Delta when I got back to NY.

We kept a wary eye on the arrival/departures status boards, as we saw cancellations and delays mount. A delay on an inbound flight from Boston would mean delays on outbound flights from Tampa, and the domino effect was truly in play. Flights in and out of Newark, LGA, and JFK were being canceled or delayed. Our own flight ended up showing a delay because our plane was coming from Boston, where they got an early taste of the storm and that meant that our flight to NY was not expected to leave Tampa until 7:10PM.

The airport has some shops and a couple of restaurants so we made use of both - having lunch and wandering the airport terminal for amusement and to stretch our legs. Many other folks were in the same boat, although some gave up trying to fly out yesterday and instead looked to find a room for the night either at the Marriott on the airport property or at off airport locations.

Well, the folks at the jetBlue counter couldn't be any nicer and helpful and were able to get us on that flight and keep us informed. The Boston flight did get in late, but the jetBlue staff turned the plane around in literally 20 minutes time. They were deplaning the passengers through both the front and rear of the plane, checking it out, cleaning, and restocking it in minutes. We actually boarded the plane and pulled back from the gate at 7PM. It was still 20 minutes later than the originally scheduled time, but earlier than anticipated.

The plane was absolutely packed to the gills because people were scrambling to get back home. We finally touched down at just about 9PM. That's right - we made the trip in nearly 2 hours flat. Apparently we got a 50mph tailwind and were flying most of the trip at over 630mph. The ride wasn't too bumpy either although we did get a few thunderstorm displays out the window.

Touchdown in NYC was uneventful even though the runways and taxiways were wet and starting to slush up at the margins. We disembarked from the plane without a hitch although it took quite a bit longer to get our bags than we hoped. My brother got us from the airport and drove us home, which meant the world to us given the day we had.

Thousands of other passengers were in a similar situation yesterday and today because of the storm. Thousands of flights were canceled or delayed, and the problems aren't expected to ease for a couple of days. Meanwhile, while I can't say I'm glad to be home to shovel snow and deal with the storm, it is nice to be home.

And I finally managed to get through to a Delta rep today and they credited my account for the unused Skymiles. It's a start.