Hurricane Irene just hit us

Question

Lost power. Now iPhone app is useful :) ---Posted from iPhone App---

Mahesh Chand · Answer

Yes Sam. So I sit in between DC and New York. Today finally everything is back go normal. I got Power back yesterday and today I got my Internet back. Man! Do I feel a handicap without power. Anyway! Everything is back to normal. We are in business.

Manikavelu Velayutham · Answer

I have experienced two to three hurricanes in south india but no tornados till now :(

Sam Hobbs · Answer

First note that there is difference between tornados and hurricanes. A tornado is essentially land-based and a hurricane is mostly over water. Hurricanes lose strength when they hit land but before they lose all their mighty power they can do extensive damage on land. In the USA most (not all by far) tornados are in the Tornado Alley . In other parts of the USA tornados are either rare or never ever occur. Where I live there are only a few tornados that are so weak that they are hardly called tornados. In Tornado Alley though you can be swept up all the way to the Wizard of Oz. Hurricanes are different from tornados. It is normal for there to be a few hurricanes every year that come up and either go up the route that Irene did (Puerto Rico Cuba Florida and then further north) or that take a route more like what Hurricane Katrina did that caused so much destruction to New Orleans and that area. They are usually not as destructive as Hurricanes Irene and Katrina and the more destructive ones usually do not affect the east coast as far up (up to New York or almost) as Hurricane Irene. Note that after hurricanes lose strength they become tropical storms not hurricanes. I am not sure but I think that Irene was a tropical storm when it got to New York (50 MPH winds) but New York got the most attention. When Irene initially hit land (such as the countries of Puerto Rico and Cuba and the USA state of South Carolina) it had 100 MPH winds.

Jaish Mathews · Answer

It's geographical. In india it's flood and also almost all costal areas hitting by sea during every monsoon.

Manikavelu Velayutham · Answer

Why so many Tornado's are hitting USA ? I think its rarely occured in India....0.0001 %

Sam Hobbs · Answer

iPhone App is useless if it loses its charge and you still don't have power but usually that is not a problem. I did not pay attention yesterday (Saturday) to the news. I know that the hurricane was headed for Newport News and Norfolk but the news (Fox News Channel and also our local ABC news) seemed to instead talk about what will happen to New York and New Jersey. All the news seems to give more coverage to New York. I heard nothing about Washington DC yet the storm was more devastating to there. Right? Yes I heard that millions of people lost power at least for a while. Fortunately the deaths were relatively minimal. They don't yet have estimates of loss of property and such other than very rough estimates. It is now after midnight for your area Monday morning and I hope everything is back to normal but I get the impression it will take more time to recover. The hurricane is still affecting the web site.