Showdown Looms Over FAA and Federal Gas Taxes

The fight over FAA funding will once again rear its ugly head as the September 16 deadline looms and Congressional Democrats and Republicans can't come to an agreement on authorizing another extension.

When the sides allowed the tax to lapse, the FAA lost nearly $250 million in revenues, which funds FAA operations, infrastructure improvements, and safety programs (although the Department of Transportation shifted funds around to keep safety and air traffic control operating). At the heart of the fight is continuing to operate a rural airline program to small airports.

But that fight is chump change next to the looming showdown over the extension of federal gas taxes. We're talking about a gas tax that provides $52 billion in revenue and funds hundreds of thousands of jobs in places like New York (118,000+ jobs) and Texas (128,000+ jobs) alone.

federal authorization for the federal gas taxes ends on September 30, and so far there's no indication that Congress will extend the tax, which is used to fund infrastructure maintenance and improvements throughout the country.

Both the federal authority to collect the 18.4 cents a gallon in federal gas tax and authorization to spend the revenue on transit and highway projects are due to expire.

“When Congress comes back, they’re only going to have 11 days to take action,” said Susan Martinovich, president of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. “There is a crisis brewing.”

Until the FAA extension turned into a major test of wills between House Republicans and Senate Democrats, it was considered relatively routine for Congress to extend current funding while working on big spending packages.

The Senate balked when the House sent over an FAA extension with other provisions attached. The Senate finally buckled and approved the extension, raising the fear that House Republicans might repeat the move when that extension expires Sept. 16 and when the two surface transportation measures come due two weeks later.

The state administrators said that the Senate had committed to passing a six-month surface transportation extension but that House Transportation Committee Chairman John L. Mica (R-Fla.) had not responded to their inquiries.

Although the two houses are in final negotiations over a long-term FAA reauthorization, neither the House nor Senate has approved a long-term surface transportation bill. State officials consider long-term funding plans essential because they need to be confident that funds will be forthcoming when they launch highway and transit projects.

President Obama has called for a clean bill with no provisos or limitations on the extension, but Republicans are looking to restrict how and where the money can be used.

Infrastructure spending is woeful around the country, and that affects safety and interstate commerce - both of which are federal government obligations under the Constitution. Infrastructure needs to be maintained and improved, and that costs money and the Republican demands to cut spending will hamper economic growth and potential, to say nothing of imperiling drivers and commuters and ends up costing taxpayers more down the road as the deferred maintenance allows minor problems become major ones that cost significantly more.

Turkey Expels Israeli Ambassador After UN Report Finds Flotilla Raid Legal

The United Nations somehow managed to conclude that Israel's actions as a sovereign nation to defend itself was legal (which isn't a given when it comes to the United Nations) but still somehow managed to fault Israel for its use of force when its boarding party used force to defend itself from terrorists on board one of the boats in the flotilla seeking to break the blockade around Gaza.

The report, expected to be released Friday, also found that when Israeli commandos boarded the main ship, they faced “organized and violent resistance from a group of passengers” and were therefore required to use force for their own protection. But the report called the force “excessive and unreasonable,” saying that the loss of life was unacceptable and that the Israeli military’s later treatment of passengers was abusive.

The 105-page report, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, was completed months ago. But its publication was delayed several times as Turkey and Israel sought to reconcile their deteriorating relationship and perhaps avoid making the report public. In reactions from both governments included in the report, as well as in interviews, each objected to its conclusions. Both said they believed that the report, which was intended to help mend relations, would instead make reconciliation harder.

Turkey is particularly upset by the conclusion that Israel’s naval blockade is in keeping with international law and that its forces have the right to stop Gaza-bound ships in international waters, which is what happened in the 2010 episode. That conclusion oversteps the mandate of the four-member panel appointed by the United Nations secretary general and is at odds with other United Nations decisions, Turkey argued.

The report noted that the panel did not have the power to compel testimony or demand documents, but instead had to rely on information provided by Israel and Turkey. Therefore, its conclusions cannot be considered definitive in either fact or law.

The Foreign Ministries in Turkey and Israel declined to comment publicly on the report, saying they preferred to wait for its official release. No one was available to comment in the office of the United Nations spokesman.

Israel considers the report to be a rare vindication for it in the United Nations. A United Nations Security Council statement at the time assailed the loss of life, and Israel faced widespread international condemnation. It thought that by offering to negotiate an agreement with Turkey that would stop the report’s publication, Turkish officials might soften their position.

The fact that the United Nations had to issue a report about a sovereign nation's inalienable right to defend itself shows the farcical nature of the Arab-Israeli conflict and how the United Nations has gotten wrapped up into knots over the ongoing conflict to the point that any action taken by Israel is instantly criticized and only later does a potential vindication come.

It should have been self-evident that Israel had the right to stop the blockade and to protect itself. Deaths resulting from the stop should be on the IHH, not Israel. But the report lays blame on Israel for not giving sufficient warnings and using too much force (as though the terrorists on board were not willing to use deadly force themselves - as viewed in the videos and photos taken before and during the raid).

For that, Turkey has decided to send Israel's ambassador packing.

Never mind that Turkey has no problem invading a sovereign nation - Iraq - in the ongoing hunt of Kurdish terrorists and has caused tens of thousands of casualties over the years and not once has the United Nations sought to issue a report or criticize the cross-border raids.

Israel was completely within its rights to board and search the Turkish flotilla that was organized by an extremist group, the IHH. It's another one of those but-for situations.

But for Palestinian terrorism, Israel would not have needed to impose a blockade, let alone carry out a raid to thwart pro-terrorist sympathizers from running the blockade to Israel's security detriment.

It was not unreasonable for the Israelis to carry out the raid, and members of the IHH aboard the Mavi Marmara were armed and were seeking to induce a conflict. They were more than willing to use deadly force against the Israeli commandos, and therefore Israel's actions were fully justified. Once the terrorists aboard the ship attacked the commandos, the Israeli commandos were justified in their use of force.

That is borne out in the harsh criticism of the IHH and its reckless disregard for safety. In other words, the UN considered the IHH flotilla a stunt and that Israel was justified to carry out the search.

Yet, Turkey's government is whipping up the Islamists and anti-Israel sentiment over the raid and would rather see its relations with Israel falter rather than admit that its own actions were in poor judgment. The diplomatic expulsion is meant for domestic consumption in Turkey, and it shows that the Islamists in Turkey are increasingly taking control over the political process there, which will be detrimental to Turkey's future economic and sociopolitical development.

NJ Transit Finally Provides Bergen/Main Line Customers With Revised Schedule

Following the devastating damage to the Port Jervis line resulting from Hurricane Irene, NJ Transit fumbled about for several days with no clear plan or notification to Bergen county commuters as to what to expect. Finally, just after 5pm today, NJ Transit released a statement providing what it calls a schedule. This is what it intends to do with Bergen Line trains during rush hour:

The following NJ TRANSIT trains will add stops in New Jersey from cancelled Port Jervis Line trains:

Inbound Train 1252, the 7:14 a.m. Waldwick departure, will add Suffern and Route 17 stops from cancelled Train 48, to form new combined train No. 1192, which will keep the same station stop times and arrive in Hoboken at 8:08 a.m.
Inbound Train 1254, the 7:48 a.m. Waldwick departure, will add Suffern, Mahwah, Route 17, and Ramsey stops from cancelled Train 52, to form new combined train No. 1194, which will keep the same station stop times, and arrive in Hoboken at 8:31 a.m.
Inbound Train 1210, the 8:35 a.m. Waldwick departure will add Suffern and Route 17 stops from cancelled Train 54, to form new combined train No. 1138. The combined train is rescheduled to arrive in Hoboken at 9:38 a.m., 7 minutes later than 1210, to account for possible delays resulting from the added stops.
Suffern and Route 17 times are 6-7 minutes later than Train 54, at 8:25 a.m. and 8:30 a.m., respectively.
Outlying station times from Waldwick to Secaucus do not change.
Previously published Secaucus and Path connections do not change.
Ferry connection shifts 10 minutes later to 9:40 a.m. departure/9:50 a.m. arrival
Outbound Train 1169, the 5:45 p.m. Hoboken departure, will add a stop at Route 17, to replace the Route 17 stop on cancelled Train 57.

What does this actually mean?

It means residents using peak time trains in the heart of Bergen County have to deal with crowded trains for the foreseeable future and NJ Transit offers no explanation of how it plans to mitigate the problems. NJ Transit will start trains that were normally packed by the time they reach Radburn and are instead starting them in Suffern, meaning that the crowding conditions will be insufferable and pose an ongoing unsafe conditions.

NJ Transit is simply passing the buck and claiming that it will maintain this sub-par service until Metro North can fix the problems, which will take months.

NJ Transit apparently couldn't find three additional train sets to run from Suffern to handle the overflow, and they have made no plans to add railcars to the affected trains to reduce the cattle-car like atmosphere on board the affected trains.

NJ Transit offers no apologies and no explanation as to why it took so long to inform customers what it was doing (and had been doing since it claimed service returned to normal. Customer service once again was sorely lacking and atrocious considering that the agency is supposed to be serving the public and attempting to get people to consider commuting by train rather than by car.

The crowded conditions continue to pose a safety hazard and NJ Transit continues to act as though customers have no choice but to accept their service regardless of how poor it is.

My main beef with the agency is its atrocious public relations and inability to timely inform commuters of these kinds of problems. There was no notice that these trains would be combined and that by the time they reached the heart of Bergen County that there would be no space to board safely. It's a situation that will only get worse once we get past Labor Day and everyone attempts to go back to work.

Meanwhile, Metro North has announced that it will attempt to expedite repairs, including seeking various contracts to get repair work underway. It will take months before they can restore service, which means it will probably be next summer before service is completely restored. Until then, commuters will have to put up with atrocious service.

The Great Falls of Paterson During the Floods of 2011

Hurricane Irene is leaving its mark on the NYC metro region, but one place where we can see some beauty amid all the deaths and devastation is at the Great Falls in Paterson (if you can actually reach the falls since the floods are blocking most roads in and out of Paterson).

Hurricane Irene Cleanup Continues Across NYC Metro Region

We're still kinda soggy around Northern New Jersey and even into New York, Connecticut and Vermont, but the nice weather is helping to dry things out. Things are starting to return to normal, if by normal you mean that there are still more than 250,000 people without power in the NYC metro area (110k are without power in NC where Irene first roared ashore). That's a vast improvement from the millions without power in the hours and days immediately after the storm came ashore, and some of these folks will be without power until the storm flooding recedes and power crews can safely work on restoring the power lines and damaged systems.

Flooding will persist in some parts of New Jersey through the weekend, when President Obama will visit Paterson to tour the damage and see the aftereffects of the flooding first-hand.

Meanwhile, Gov. Christie has slammed Congress for even appearing to play games with storm assistance funding - a direct slap at folks like Rep. Eric Cantor (a fellow GOPer) who has stated that he would only support disaster aid accompanied by offsetting cuts. Expect Cantor to back off that nonsensical position because it's the government's job to help deal with natural disasters and help local communities recover from catastrophic damage resulting from storms and other calamities.

The nice weather reprieve may not last that much longer though. TS Katia is now a hurricane and has the potential to make waves for the East Coast. It's still too soon to predict with 100% certainty that it will stay offshore, but there's actually a tropical disturbance in the Gulf that may pose more of a threat as moisture from that system may find its way towards the Northeast in the next week.

Just what the flooding victims are least likely to want to hear.

NJ Transit Continues Failing Main/Bergen County Line Riders

If you read through the NJ Transit website, there is absolutely no mention of schedule changes or train consolidations relating to the damage to the Port Jervis line and accommodating the ridership that is being bused in from points above the damage.

There are no rider advisories.

Sep 01, 2011 09:21:25 AM
Port Jervis service will remain suspended between Port Jervis and Suffern due to flooding. Private carrier bus service provided to/from Harriman and Ramsey Rt. 17 only.
Service Advisories
Aug 31, 2011 11:14:26 AM
Update: Port Jervis Line - Substitute Bus Service between Harriman and Middletown for Trains 49 and 66 Cancelled

There are no revised schedules to refer to.

If you're hoping to hear something from the media outlets about service changes, good luck because they'll simply look at the NJ Transit website or hear from NJ Transit reps and they'll tell you that service has been restored and things are running normally.

That can't be further from the truth.

There is nothing but silence and wishful thinking that a train will come that can safely board passengers on trains that have been combined.

Every time there's a crisis relating to service on NJ Transit, the agency promises to do better, but nothing changes.

Service interruptions are regularly mismanaged and there's no communication about problems.

Today's conductors aboard train 1254 said that riders needed to contact our elected representatives to put pressure on Metro North to rebuild the damaged infrastructure.

That's laughable. They'd rather pass the blame onto Metro North, which suffered catastrophic damage to its rail line from Sloatsburg on north to Port Jervis, instead of admitting that they don't have sufficient rail cars to handle the existing traffic (they're combining trains on service that wasn't affected by the Port Jervis line).

Where are all the railcars that were taken out of service once the more than 300 railcars that were recently purchased or refurbished put into service? Why are there railcars sitting idly in Hoboken yard not attached to locomotives and used to alleviate crowding conditions?

It's all part of a pattern of incompetence by NJ Transit to accomplish its reason for existing - serving customers to get them to their destinations.

It's clearly failing NJ Transit rail commuters in North Jersey.

UPDATE:
The latest updates on the NJ Transit page do little to change my mind about the agency's handling of the situation:

Sep 01, 2011 02:00:59 PM
Busing to Beacon Station from Port Jervis and Middletown: Buses (with the exception of one round trip in the afternoon) will originate at Port Jervis Station, stop at Middletown Station, then go directly to Beacon Station on our Hudson Line for train service to Grand Central; outbound is the reverse.

Busing to/from Harriman and Ramsey Route 17: Metro-North is busing to/from Harriman Station and Ramsey/Route 17, where customers can transfer to train service. Buses follow the train schedule.

Still no mention of combined trains or other problems with service on the Bergen/Main line, which affects all customers, including those being bused in from above Suffern.

Damage Reports and Continued Flooding Shows Hurricane Irene Was Anything But Hype

As I have previously noted, Hurricane Irene and its damage path was anything but hyped by media outlets. The New York Times reports that the storm will rank among the 10 costliest disasters in US history. That's even as insurers breathed a sigh of relief that they wouldn't be on the hook for as much of the cost as they expected because there was more flooding than wind damage. Flood damage is typically picked up by the National Flood Insurance Program and isn't covered under typical homeowners policies.

Industry estimates put the cost of the storm at $7 billion to $10 billion, largely because the hurricane pummeled an unusually wide area of the East Coast. Beyond deadly flooding that caused havoc in upstate New York and Vermont, the hurricane flooded cotton and tobacco crops in North Carolina, temporarily halted shellfish harvesting in Chesapeake Bay, sapped power and kept commuters from their jobs in the New York metropolitan area and pushed tourists off Atlantic beaches in the peak of summer.

While insurers have typically covered about half of the total losses in past storms, they might end up covering less than 40 percent of the costs associated with Hurricane Irene, according to an analysis by the Kinetic Analysis Corporation. That is partly because so much damage was caused by flooding, and it is unclear how many damaged homes have flood insurance, and partly because deductibles have risen steeply in coastal areas in recent years, requiring some homeowners to cover $4,000 worth of damages or more before insurers pick up the loss.

This could make it harder for many stricken homeowners to rebuild, and could dampen any short-term boost to the construction industry that typically accompanies major storms, Jan Vermeiren, the chief executive of Kinetic Analysis, said in an interview.

“Especially now that the economy is tight, and people don’t have money sitting around, local governments are broke, and maybe people can’t even get loans from the banks,” Mr. Vermeiren said.

The governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut sought expedited disaster declarations from the federal government on Tuesday, which would pave the way for more federal aid. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York wrote President Obama that he had seen “hundreds of private homes either destroyed or with major damage and an enormous amount of public infrastructure damage.” Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey wrote the president that “immediate federal assistance is needed now to give New Jersey’s residents a helping hand at an emotionally and financially devastating time.”

Even as I write this, major flooding continues through New Jersey and upstate New York and Vermont communities are still cut off due to massive flash flood damage that washed out roads and communications.

The Passaic River flooding continues even though the river has crested at record or near record levels. They don't expect flooding to recede until the end of the week at the least. It's the same story on the Raritan River and other rivers through New Jersey. (Photos of damage, including Mountain View Road in Wayne, New Jersey, and Totawa, New Jersey).

While NJ Transit is getting service restored including on the Northeast Corridor, the Port Jervis line into NY is suspended indefinitely due to storm damage and it's affecting NJ Transit service and customer service is nonresponsive to the situation (and hasn't issued warnings to commuters to seek other routes due to lack of equipment or overcrowded trains).

Ongoing flooding is complicating efforts to restore power through the region. Crews can't get in to make repairs until the flooding recedes and/or crews can clear roads of debris so that power companies can repair the damage. That means that the power will remain out in and around the affected areas. Some people have been told not to expect a restoration of power until the weekend, and others have an even longer timeframe due to need to wait on receding floodwaters.

Germany Shuts Down Nuclear Plants With No Plan For How To Make Up Energy Difference

In the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster and the Japanese quake/tsunami, Germany made the rash decision to shutter nuclear power plants across the country.

I say it was a rash decision, because instead of figuring out whether the country could actually handle the decision to take that many nuclear power plants offline, it decided that it would take the plants offline and see whether the country could handle the loss after the fact.

Nuclear plants have long generated nearly a quarter of Germany’s electricity. But after the tsunami and earthquake that sent radiation spewing from Fukushima, half a world away, the government disconnected the 8 oldest of Germany’s 17 reactors — including the two in this drab factory town — within days. Three months later, with a new plan to power the country without nuclear energy and a growing reliance on renewable energy, Parliament voted to close them permanently. There are plans to retire the remaining nine reactors by 2022.

As a result, electricity producers are scrambling to ensure an adequate supply. Customers and companies are nervous about whether their lights and assembly lines will stay up and running this winter. Economists and politicians argue over how much prices will rise.

“It’s easy to say, ‘Let’s just go for renewables,’ and I’m quite sure we can someday do without nuclear, but this is too abrupt,” said Joachim Knebel, chief scientist at Germany’s prestigious Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. He characterized the government’s shutdown decision as “emotional” and pointed out that on most days, Germany has survived this experiment only by importing electricity from neighboring France and the Czech Republic, which generate much of their power with nuclear reactors.

Then there are real concerns that the plan will jettison efforts to rein in manmade global warming, since whatever nuclear energy’s shortcomings, it is low in emissions. If Germany, the world’s fourth-largest economy, falls back on dirty coal-burning plants or uncertain supplies of natural gas from Russia, isn’t it trading a potential risk for a real one?

The world is watching Germany’s extreme energy makeover, as politicians from New York to Rome have floated their own plans to shut or shelve reactors.

The International Energy Agency, generally a fan of Germany’s green-leaning energy policy, has been critical. Laszlo Varro, head of the agency’s gas, coal and power markets division, called the plan “very, very ambitious, though it is not impossible, since Germany is rich and technically sophisticated.”

Even if Germany succeeds in producing the electricity it needs, “the nuclear moratorium is very bad news in terms of climate policy,” Mr. Varro said. “We are not far from losing that battle, and losing nuclear makes that unnecessarily difficult.”

Experts are expecting to see blackouts, brownouts, and economic losses as a result of a power generation system that is now far less robust and far more susceptible to disruptions because so much generating capacity is being taken offline in such short time without any new capacity being brought online.

The problems may not be felt immediately within Germany's borders, but they will be soon enough as other countries scramble to find generating capacity and are more likely to turn to gas and coal plants to make up the difference. The net result will be a worsening of air quality over Europe, and despite advances made on wind and solar power, there are times when those sources will not be sufficient to provide capacity.

Turning the back on nuclear power is a tremendous mistake, and one that Germans and the rest of Europe will come to regret.

The Weirdest Hurricane Aftermath Video

The weirdest video from the hurricane aftermath has to come from a National Guard unit in Manville, NJ.

Those are National Guard trucks driving UNDER the flood waters. At least they were driving until they started floating under the water and needed a rescue themselves.

The vehicles in question are apparently LMTVs, which stands for “Light Medium Tactical Vehicles.” Officially, they are apparently M1078 Standard Cargo Trucks.

They can fjord waterways and because their exhaust is high up on the trucks, they can handle flood waters, but this is completely out of their league.

NYC Metro Area Continues Storm Recovery; Damage Estimates Roughly $7-10 Billion

$7-10 billion in damage from Hurricane Irene is nothing to scoff at. Neither is the rising death toll, which is above 40 people throughout the affected areas across 11 states. Some of the worst damage is in upstate New York and Vermont, where the storm dumped more than a foot of rain on areas and caused massive flash floods ripping apart everything in their paths. Entire towns were seemingly washed away. Hundreds of roads and bridges are out, including a stretch of the I287 in Boonton, New Jersey where the Rockaway River scoured away part of the roadway and it will be days before state officials can even begin repairs.

Many of the bridges between Paterson and Fair Lawn and Hawthorne are shut down due to flooding, but the bridge immediately above the Great Falls is open (and crowds have gathered to witness one of the greatest flood events in recent history).

Destruction From Widespread Flooding In New Jersey: MyFoxNY.com

Amtrak will resume service between Boston and New York later today, but service south of New York City is still down as a result of flooding in Trenton and New Brunswick.

New Jersey Transit has resumed some service, but several lines are running abbreviated service due to damage and flooding in parts of the state, including around Wayne, where some of the worst flooding in the state is located along the Passaic River.

The Willowbrook Mall and its environs are completely flooded and the storm waters reach to the mall itself, which is highly unusual and speaks to the overall flood levels.

Flooding along the Passaic is widespread and will continue through the week as the river is expected to crest sometime today but wont fall below flood stage until the end of the week.

Metro North has also resumed some service, but there is no service from Suffern New York to Port Jervis due to flooding and storm damage along its right of way.

Further upstate, the Capital District was hammered by the rains, and both the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers continue flooding, including around Troy and parts of downtown Albany:



Gov. Cuomo warns that things will get worse before they improve across the state.

TROY — It was touch and go for a while, but water from the worst flood to hit the Collar City since at least 1977 began to recede at about 6:30 p.m. Monday.//Now comes the clean up, as water flooded a number of streets and homes in Lansingburgh and South Troy and businesses in downtown thanks to the rain that dropped as part of the remnants of Tropical Storm Irene. (Troy Record)
KEENE — Tropical Storm Irene hit the town of Keene hard, causing the greatest recorded damage since the mid-19th century.//This morning, residents woke to find their fire station ripped in half, nearly a half-dozen bridges washed out, homes destroyed and every town road suffering damage primarily caused by flooding. No lives were lost, but the cost to restore public and private property is said to be in the millions. Also, the Marcy Dam bridge washed away. (ADE)
MARGARETVILLE — A day after flash floods spawned by Hurricane Irene’s heavy rains swept through communities in Delaware, Greene and Schoharie counties, residents took stock of their losses.//The storm knocked out power to tens of thousands of people across the region, including many in Otsego County. Flash floods tore through mountain towns and caused rivers to swell, destroying or damaging homes and leading to at least one death, that of an 82-year-old woman in Fleischmanns.//Although flood warnings were issued for Walton and Downsville, river flooding in those communities was described as minor and limited to flood-prone areas. River levels were expected to fall below flood stage today.//The bulk of the damage was focused on Fleischmanns, Margaretville and Roxbury. (Oneonta Daily-Star)

UPDATE:
Among some of the harder hit areas around Upstate New York and Vermont are ski area communities including Windham, New York and Rutland, Vermont. In fact, part of the Killington Ski Area is cut off due to storm damage, and part of one of the ski lodges there collapsed.

This damage will be lasting and the number of bridges and roads out will cause inconvenience to people around those states for a long time to come.

Local officials in places like Tuxedo, New York are considering calling in the Army Corps of Engineers to assemble temporary bridges until a permanent replacement for bridges can be made.

UPDATE:
It's real bad news for customers who take the Port Jervis line. Service is suspended indefinitely as the damage to the line is catastrophic in nature.

Some of the more significant issues that have been identified include:

• Three washout locations of 1,000 feet each near Sloatsburg
• A 400-foot section of track washed out to a depth of 8 feet south of Sloatsburg
• Significant damage to several railroad bridges
• Suspected significant damage to the signal system, which is exposed and under water.

Metro-North will retain an engineering firm to perform a thorough inspection of 24 miles of infrastructure to determine the full extent of necessary repairs and determine required environmental permitting. Major construction work would follow.

It will take months to rebuild the track, signal and bridge infrastructure required to reinstitute train service, although the exact duration will be determined by the investigation.

Metro-North worked with Orange County to develop an alternate service plan for the 2,300 people who use the Port Jervis Line each weekday. If the NYS Thruway is open in the morning, bus service will take customers from the Harriman Station to the Ramsey/Route 17 station to catch trains. For the return trip, customers will get off trains at Ramsey/Route 17 and board a bus for the trip back to Harriman. Buses will follow the train schedule. As road and station conditions improve in Orange County, Metro-North will seek to expand the bus options available.

Damage was not nearly as severe on the East of Hudson lines, but this will put a serious crimp on service for those along the upper reaches of the Bergen/Main Line, who would often take Port Jervis express trains from Suffern, Mahwah, or Ramsey Rt. 17, to commute to Manhattan.

Members of Khadafi's Family Fled To Algeria; Mumar MIA

While no one seems to know where Mumar Khadafi has gone, his wife and several of his children have fled to Algeria.

The report cited Algeria's Foreign Affairs Ministry as saying the family entered the neighboring country on Monday. It did not immediately provide additional details or say whether Qaddafi himself was with the family.

The report came as battles raged on two sides of Sirte, the southern city that is the headquarters of Qaddafi's tribe and his regime's last major bastion. The rebels were consolidating control of Tripoli, the capital.

Despite effectively ending his rule, the rebels have yet to find Qaddafi or his family members -- something that has cast a pall of lingering uncertainty over the opposition's victory.

The Egyptian news agency MENA, quoting unidentified rebel fighters, had reported from Tripoli over the weekend that six armored Mercedes sedans, possibly carrying Qaddafi's sons or other top regime figures, had crossed the border at the southwestern Libyan town of Ghadamis into Algeria. Algeria's Foreign Ministry had denied that report.

Ahmed Jibril, an aid to rebel National Transitional Council head Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, said if the report of Qaddafi relatives in Algeria is true, "we will demand that Algerian authorities hand them over to Libya to be tried before Libyan courts."

Anything But Hype

I find it curious that there are people out there who are claiming that Hurricane Irene was somehow hyped and that the damage wasn't as bad as had been predicted.

Well, there's a couple of ways to approach this.

If you live in NJ, there's nothing moderate about this storm. It's a huge flooding event, and record flood levels are already occurring or likely along major rivers around the state, including the Raritan, Passaic, Ramapo, Millstone, and Saddle River/Brook. Some of those rivers wont even crest until midweek, and remain above flood stage until the end of the week.

If you live along the Atlantic Ocean in New Jersey or New York, you had to deal with major flooding, and urban areas had areas of significant flooding. If you live along the NY barrier islands, you've got a similar story, such as in Long Branch, where the ocean met the inshore bay during high tide.

And then, upstate New York saw record rainfall and major flooding, causing disruptions throughout New York along the Hudson Valley up through the Capital District.

It most certainly is a wakeup call for folks around here who haven't experienced a hurricane in more than a decade. Storm preparations did their job - reducing the amount of damage and loss of life. The very metric that that some critics claims suggests hype (the body count) is also an indicator that the warnings and preparations by emergency services did their job.

But did the storm really not live up to the hype?

The storm ended up tracking pretty much as the models predicted. They had predicted a storm that would hit the NYC metro area, and they were right on the money.

The models had predicted a significant storm surge, with a range of 3-8 feet at the Battery in Lower Manhattan. The surge did hit 4.5 feet, which wasn't the catastrophic damaging event, but still ranked as sixth highest all time.

A bullet was dodged, it could have been worse, and scientists will learn from the data collected here to adjust their models for East Coast storms to account for interactions between land and sea, coastal topography, front interactions, and future models will be improved as a result.

The one area in which the models fell short was the predicted wind speeds - and we have to be thankful for that. The storm was pretty nasty even with winds that didn't reach category 2 or 3 levels as early models had indicated. Yet, it was sufficient to take down trees all over the region and cause widespread flooding.

So, to anyone trying to claim that the models are somehow prove that this natural disaster was hyped, try again. If you're trying to claim the models disprove other models? Try again. The facts simply don't support your claims.

And the total economic damages will bear this out - it's expected to run above $7 billion for all damage along the East Coast and with particular emphasis in North Carolina, New Jersey, and New York.