646, stick to your day job.

.The rollercoaster is in the ocean.

That would make for a much more interesting ride.

We have confirmation that the baby walrus is safe.

Some trains will be running with limited service starting tomorrow, according to the MTA twitter feed. Schools are closed for the rest of the week, though teachers/administrators are to report Friday. Lassus's source is different from mine; Con Ed said on their Twitter last night that power will be restored in three days; though it's up to a week for those served by overheard power lines. Many (if not all) buses are running (albeit with detours) and are free. Grand Central is now open.

LGA (which does not have an official twitter that I can find) is flooded. Delta says it MIGHT be open tomorrow, but I'm not going to take the airline's word for it.

Howie's right, Brooklyn game is off, per NBA.com.

Though the NBA had said Tuesday night the game would go on as planned, Bloomberg asked the league that it be called off.

I would add to the campaign staffer who quit that any reporter who simply repeats something posted on Twitter ought to also quit.

the mta map for tomorrow's working lines is pretty crazy. I live in Jackson Heights, Queens and have to report for work in Harlem, Manhattan. The F line is the one line serving all of Queens. Holy Moly!

This is a portion of a pool reporter's news feed on riding in a helicopter today directly behind another helicopter - Marine One - that carried President Obama:

"After eight minutes in the air we appeared over the Atlantic City skyline, with the casinos rising along the Shore. Your pooler witnessed a soccer game going on and initially not a great deal of devastation. The Atlantic City boardwalk seemed in tact near the main drag by the casinos. North things got hairier."

other than making "intact" two words, yes.

.............

fyi, some Christie ad-libs in Sayreville today (Jon Bon Jovi's hometown), again off the pool feed. Even Democrats are eating it up:

In telling the governor about her situation, resident Deborah Decker said she didn’t want to be too much of a pain.

“Don’t worry,” Christie said. “I’m as big of a pain in the ass as anybody.”

He told a 95-year-old woman who recently had heart surgery: “I want you to relax. You had all that work done on your ticker, I don’t want you to get wound up.”

Kim Bosso introduced the governor to her son, who has cystic fibrosis. He has been cut off from his breathing machines since the power went out, and the utility company told her she’s not a priority case while her insurance won’t cover her if she goes to a hospital.

“This is my lawyer,” Christie said, introducing her to Charles McKenna, his chief counsel. “He’s going to take care of you.”

By "take care of you" I assume he means that his lawyer is going to suck the life force out of her.

By "take care of you" I assume he means that his lawyer is going to suck the life force out of her.

Or whack the hospital guys.

EDIT: rest of post redacted - forgot this wasn't the political thread.

@626 - Hey, that's my combined welfare/energy proposal!

I need LaGuardia undelayed Wednesday. The forecast indicates that is likely.

Yeah, so that didn't happen.

Yeah, so that didn't happen.

No. The forecast held, though.

Power back on in the hokie household. Snow is starting.to melt.

To the east, not so lucky. Dozens of collapsed building and homes under 2ft+ of snow. One friend of mine had 42 inches of snow with nearly 5ft drifts.

On ABC they were showing how in tons of areas of NJ you can hear the wizzing and humming of natural gas that's leaking. They've been trying to call the gas companies to turn them off and the gas company is basically saying "it's not going to be a problem".

Presumably it will only be a problem once somebody gets blown up.

Presumably it will only be a problem once somebody gets blown up.

If they don't think gas leaks are a problem, do they think they're a solution?

Well, eliminating a few people from New Jersey does sound like a solution to something.

I need LaGuardia undelayed Wednesday. The forecast indicates that is likely.

Has nothing to do with the weather and everything to do with the fact that most of the airport is still underwater. You could fly a jet in, but you'd have a helluva time landing it and it probably wouldn't be ready to fly off anywhere else anytime soon.

Kim Bosso introduced the governor to her son, who has cystic fibrosis. He has been cut off from his breathing machines since the power went out, and the utility company told her she’s not a priority case while her insurance won’t cover her if she goes to a hospital.

“This is my lawyer,” Christie said, introducing her to Charles McKenna, his chief counsel. “He’s going to take care of you.”

Hell, no. I don't want to start liking the fat ####.

Christie with another masterful effort today, by ALL accounts, in Moonachie in the shadow of the Meadowlands Sports Complex (tidal flooding overwhelmed a couple of towns in Bergen County, although most of the worst is down the shore).

One elderly woman told Christie, "You my man!"
"And you're my lady tonight," he replied.
She walked away saying, "You should be the President."

Whats happening in the Rockaways, and in Staten Island, while not on par with Katrina, is NOT good folks.

THere are a lot of desperate people not getting any help, or it's coming in very slow. The reports I'm seeing are almost unbelieveable.

Whats happening in the Rockaways, and in Staten Island, while not on par with Katrina, is NOT good folks.

19 reported dead on Staten Island alone.

Some interesting background in another Times story:

In the Roaring ’20s, when Nick Carraway came to life in the pages of “The Great Gatsby,” a train ride from West Egg to Manhattan took him past a desolate stretch of ground in Queens.

Tucked into a few lines is a clue to long-forgotten chapters in the natural history of New York City.

Looking out the window, Carraway describes the scene: “This is a valley of ashes — a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air.”

The valley of ashes evoked by F. Scott Fitzgerald was, in history, the Corona Ash Dump, a receptacle for incinerated garbage; not long after the novel was published, Robert Moses, the shaper of 20th century New York, bought the dump, hauled off millions of tons of garbage, and staged the 1939 World’s Fair there. Today, it is Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, where the United States Open is played.

But before it was anything shaped by humans, that ground was the kind of natural place that, this week showed, we urgently need: salt marsh, a living bumper that would protect the lands behind it by absorbing the force of surging tides.

About 300,000 acres of tidal wetlands around New York City have been filled in by human development in the 19th and 20th centuries. All that remains are 15,500 acres, according to a 2009 report prepared by the United States Army Corps of Engineers and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey....

Another thing i was thinking about is do any of the economic cost estimates take into account lost productivity from NY NJ ?

Te impact of this event must be many times greater than 9/11 in terms of lost productivity going forward

I have finaly escaped the island nation of Hoboken! Water finally went down so Thursday morning we could get out. Spent most of the day cleaning out the ground floor garage in our building - water came up about 4 feet on all sides of our building - lots of sludge and junk, it wasn't pretty.

Walking around town yesterday - there were some places with generators, and there were charging stations set up and FEMA had an 18 wheeler full of big ice bags. They were also giving out food at some places, had charging stations set up and the CVS was open. People who had power were had signes out "Free Wi-FI" - so it seemed people were pulling together pretty well. I did enjoy the fact that in an area where everyone is freaking out about getting gas, there were a good half-dozen National Guard trucks outside City Hall....all of them idling the engines.

People in my building were pretty well stocked - we even had a Halloween party for all the kids on Wednesday. Our building is one of the lucky ones - our power came back on last night. Took the bus in this morning - most of town still seemed dark.

Hopefully they can get power restored to more places - that plus getting more gas in should help with a lot of the area's recovery.

In DC, after being stuck in ATL for a week. Waiting for my connecting flight to LGA in a half hour. I'm scheduled to land at 11:30, and so far, it looks like it's on time. I'm thinking there will be a looooong wait for a taxi, with the gas shortage that's going on. I can't wait to get the hell home. If I am back in my apartment by 5 o'clock, I will consider that a success.

I'm checking in for the first time since the storm and haven't read any of the posts yet. My wife and I live in the West Village although not in any of the flood zones, and we lost power (and running water and heat along with it) around 8 p.m. Monday night. We had stocked up on supplies including storing about 10 gallons of water in various pots and containers, and our gas stove continued to work so we were able to cook. AT&T cell service is also out so we were basically getting all of our news by battery-powered radio.

On Tuesday afternoon we walked around a bit and surveyed the damage. Lots of trees and branches down in our neighborhood, some of them on cars, and when you got closer to the West Side Highway you could see where there had been flooding (mud in the street, cars that had floated into the middle of the road) but the water had receded from most places and the cleanup had already started. One four-story apartment building on 8th Ave. had its facade completely torn off and you could see directly to the apartments inside, but supposedly nobody was hurt. We eventually walked up to Times Square -- below 26th St. on the West Side was totally dark, above 26th things were starting to come back online. We ended up having dinner by the Port Authority and catching a movie in Times Square before walking home by flashlight.

As of today, power is still out in our neighborhood and everywhere below 26th St. (on the East Side I think it's still out below 39th). Last night we saw the Freedom Tower and other parts of Tribeca lit up so I'm assuming part of downtown has electricity by now. The latest I've heard is that power should be restored by 11 p.m. Saturday night, although on the radio this morning I heard that it might be as early as tonight.

My office in Gramercy also lost power, and they are only allowing critical staff in to manage the strain on the emergency generators. My team has been working from a conference room in one of our lawyer's offices in midtown for the last few days which at least has power, water and Internet access. Business is still getting done with clients outside the city, but most clients in Manhattan have not been around given difficulty of getting here. My wife's office is open although very few people are in. She and I have been getting around by bicycle, showering at the New York Sports Club, and generally eating out before heading home each night. All in all, it's been pretty manageable but not something I would like to repeat anytime soon.

My parents in Westchester are in a similar situation. They haven't had power at home since Monday but they do have (cold) running water. Both of their offices are open though, so they have been going to work during the day. My father is diabetic but he has been able to keep his insulin refrigerated at work. The latest I heard was that they are supposed to have power back by the middle of next week, but hopefully it will be sooner.

My thoughts are with you and your family, Dave, especially with your father and his insulin.

I swear, the more I read and hear, the worse it sounds, almost post-apocalyptic. I mean, I heard about some guy pulling a gun in a gas line, that some people in certain areas might not get power back permanently for months, the National Guard had to get generators from a fashion show that was supposed to be next week, the Marines are supposed to be landing in New Jersey to help out, the NY aquarium (home of, yes, the Baby Walrus) is considering evacuating all of the animals (I can't imagine how you "evacuate" a shark)...

And this is just news I'm getting from TV and the internet. I have to imagine there's a parade of horribles that we aren't hearing about...

(Oh, and apparently the mistake by the lake is a Zombie)

Thanks Gamingboy. We got power back around 4 a.m. last night. My parents are still without power and it seems the biggest issue up there now is the lack of heat, as it's supposed to get into the high 30s tonight. But there are various relatives they can stay with if it gets too cold for them.