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Hurricane Irene Threatens US Northeast; Cover Your Assets

Posted by timothy on from the oh-she's-always-theatening-people dept.

jfruhlinger writes "Hurricane Irene is bearing down on the heavily populated U.S. Northeast Corridor. If you work in IT, you know that there are few things that are worse for electronics than water; so, what's your plan? Tom Henderson has come up with a checklist, which sensibly includes backing everything up, twice; not that you have time for it now, but for future reference you might want to consider just moving your whole data center to a location that's been conveniently pre-hardened, like a water tower or a boiler room." Note that Irene has been no joke in the Caribbean; in Puerto Rico (with relatively modern infrastructure), about a third of the island lost power.

161 of 202 comments (clear)

  1. No worries here... by impaledsunset · · Score: 5, Funny

    I don't worry about Hurricanes, I have TornadoGuard on my iPhone.

    1. Re:No worries here... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      After the earthquake, the server room floor has enough cracks to drain the flooding caused by the holes in the roof.

    2. Re:No worries here... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      https://www.xkcd.com/937/

    3. Re:No worries here... by Dyinobal · · Score: 1

      What is TornadoGuard, I don't have an Iphone obviously it's some sort of software but what does it do?

    4. Re:No worries here... by jonadab · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yeah, no worries here, either. I live in central Ohio (close enough to the Mississippi/St.Lawrence continental divide that I've actually crossed it while walking the dog really -- yes, really), and I estimate that for a hurricane to get this far inland, this far north, and this far above sea level, not to mention crossing the entire Appalachian mountain system, with any significant punch left, the storm in question would have to be at least a category twelve, probably more like fifteen, on the scale where Katrina was a mere five. If that happens, keeping electronics operational will be the least of our worries. The whole eastern seaboard would be under more than a thousand feet of water.

      Frankly, a severe blizzard in August is more likely.

      --
      Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
    5. Re:No worries here... by camperdave · · Score: 3, Informative

      A hurricane is big enough to push normal storm cells around and disrupt local weather far inland. Just because the hurricane itself may not hit you doesn't mean you won't feel the effects.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    6. Re:No worries here... by Nadaka · · Score: 1

      This hurricane obviously won't make it over the Appalachia mountains, it isn't even headed that way.

      But a really strong gulf hurricane can affect places that far inland, causing thunderstorms and tornadoes. Hurricane Camille or Katrina for instance.

    7. Re:No worries here... by bobdole369 · · Score: 3, Informative

      This is actually incorrect. Think of the atmosphere as the surface of a balloon, much like curved space. There are large "mountains" and deep "valleys" (ridges and troughs) - domes of high pressure and bowls of low pressure. When a massive LP system such as a hurricane creates a large dip in the surface, it is steered by (pointed in the direction by) high pressure cells, around the periphery of them, and powered by the general flow of air around them as well.

      Low pressure systems are generally attracted to each other - but they are actually steered by the higher pressures around the individual systems. They'll even combine in severe instances.

      A low pressure system cannot push ANYTHING around. It will only be moved around by the higher pressures, towards the areas of lower pressures. It doesn't have a mind of its own, and she obeys the laws of physics.

      I will agree that it disrupts local weather far inland, as seen this morn in South FL. The first burst of energy that come to the coast sparked a convective line of storms that produced 40kt winds locally and a good amount of rain. The outflow has increased the local temps and humidity, and will likely leave an inversion layer in place as she leaves, thus we'll be hot, miserable, and it won't rain.

      --
      Lousy facepalm.
    8. Re:No worries here... by camperdave · · Score: 1

      /me concedes "mechanics" of the effect. My atmospheric physics teacher would be hanging his head in shame at my post. I should know better.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    9. Re:No worries here... by rednip · · Score: 1

      I'm no weatherman but it seems to me that in addition to flood stage rain event a strong late summer hurricane passing over the U.S. could easily spin off tornadoes. Either of those events usually cause some worries, even to the mighty mid-westerners.

      But who the hell cares, what's next?

      "No worries here in Australia, mate, for that to reach me, it'd have to be a bloody [and imaginary] category 500"
      +1 Insightful (or more maybe)

      --
      The force that blew the Big Bang continues to accelerate.
    10. Re:No worries here... by DRJlaw · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yeah, no worries here, either. I live in central Ohio (close enough to the Mississippi/St.Lawrence continental divide that I've actually crossed it while walking the dog really -- yes, really), and I estimate that for a hurricane to get this far inland, this far north, and this far above sea level, not to mention crossing the entire Appalachian mountain system, with any significant punch left, the storm in question would have to be at least a category twelve, probably more like fifteen, on the scale where Katrina was a mere five.

      Recently moved there, did you? Hurricane Ike did a pretty good number on central Ohio despite only being a category 4 storm. 2008 wasn't that long ago either.

      About the only accurate part of your post is the crossing the Appalachian limitation... Hurricanes that reach Ohio tend to dodge the Appalachians by way of that pesky Gulf of Mexico.

    11. Re:No worries here... by Intrepid+imaginaut · · Score: 1

      Any chance of a car analogy? /blankstare

    12. Re:No worries here... by DigiShaman · · Score: 1

      I live in Houston and rode out Ike when it came. It sucked when we had no electricity for an entire week, and it took days to find a gas station that wasn't limiting people to 1gal (they stretch inventory to keep more people shopping in the store). Fun fun fun!

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    13. Re:No worries here... by jonadab · · Score: 1

      Sure, we might get a little rain. Potentially.

      If there hadn't been a hurricane on the east coast, we might have gotten rain anyway. Rain is not exactly an unusual occurrence. It happens somewhere north of a hundred times a year. Granted, about half of those rainy days are in June most years, or at least it seems that way. Even in August, though, rain is not so unusual as to surprise anyone. It can just happen on any random day, without apparent cause, whether the meteorologists call for it or not. Whoopty doo.

      Admittedly, said rain probably would've come in from the west under normal circumstances, instead of from the east and/or south, so I guess if you consider that a major disturbance in the weather, the hurricane has the power to totally turn our world upside-down. Or something.

      --
      Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
    14. Re:No worries here... by jonadab · · Score: 1

      I lived here in 2008. (The last time I lived outside of Ohio was when I went to college in the mid nineties.)

      I don't remember anything about any hurricane.

      It's probably because I don't watch TV much. When you don't TV, things like hurricanes don't get your attention as easily. If we get a little rain, I usually just figure it's rain (something that happens very often here -- five days of rain in a week is not unusual in the summer time in Ohio), and I don't generally stop to think about whether there might possibly have been at some point in the storm's past a hurricane involved.

      Actually, I highly recommend the practice of not watching television. It's remarkably calming. It's amazing how many ostensibly earth-shattering disasters you can completely fail to notice. Election years are also much more pleasant.

      --
      Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
  2. We're not shaking in our boots. by Sable+Drakon · · Score: 1

    The Northeast? Threatened? I wholeheartedly guffaw at the though. Hurricanes end up in the New England area whenever they don't sputter out on the way up. They're shadows of their former selves when they get here as cold northern waters neuter the hurricane. We get 1-2 days of rain and that's it. The storms are never anything we have to feel threatened by here. Call again in winter, we'll show you the storms we New Englanders actually fear.

    --
    The Amarri pray for god, the Caldari pray for profit. the Gallente pray for peace, but the Minmatar pray their ships hol
    1. Re:We're not shaking in our boots. by BradleyUffner · · Score: 1

      The Northeast? Threatened? I wholeheartedly guffaw at the though. Hurricanes end up in the New England area whenever they don't sputter out on the way up. They're shadows of their former selves when they get here as cold northern waters neuter the hurricane. We get 1-2 days of rain and that's it. The storms are never anything we have to feel threatened by here. Call again in winter, we'll show you the storms we New Englanders actually fear.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Agnes

    2. Re:We're not shaking in our boots. by JustSomeProgrammer · · Score: 2

      It's predicted to be a category 1 or 2 when it hits NJ and could still be a hurricane when it hits NYC. Although it could be *just* a tropical storm which only causes heavy rainfall and moderate to sever flooding.

      http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/graphics_at4.shtml?5-daynl?large#contents And NYC is already developing an evacuation plan in case the storm does come close.

      http://gothamist.com/2011/08/25/hurricane_irene_is_coming_heres_a_m.php#photo-1

    3. Re:We're not shaking in our boots. by Sable+Drakon · · Score: 1

      If you want to call New York a true member of New England, ok. But you've also got to admit that Agnes was a very weak storm compared to everything that's come up this way since.

      --
      The Amarri pray for god, the Caldari pray for profit. the Gallente pray for peace, but the Minmatar pray their ships hol
    4. Re:We're not shaking in our boots. by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 1

      It has been a long time but there have been occassions of Category 3 and 4 Hurricanes making first landfall in New England. When that happens they are just as devastating as those winter storms you fear. Although it does not happen very often and it appears that this one will be below, or barely at, Category 3 by the time it hits New England. There was a stretch from 1938-1960 where New England was hit by Category 3 every couple of years (with the 1938 storm reaching Category 5 level gusts at some places).

      --
      The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
    5. Re:We're not shaking in our boots. by RoverDaddy · · Score: 1

      He mentioned New England specifically, not just the whole Northeast. Agnes did damage in Pennsylvania, not up here. We haven't been hit by anything all that serious since at least Hurricane Carol (1954):

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Carol

      BTW: As far as I am concerned no hurricane in my entire lifetime has had a major impact on the 'Northeast' (i.e. the 6 New England states). This trolling guy from Massachusetts says Pennsylvania is about as much 'Northeast' as Westchester County is 'Upstate New York'. Pennsylvania and anything south is at best 'Mid-Atlantic'.

      --
      RETURN without GOSUB in line 1050
    6. Re:We're not shaking in our boots. by toastar · · Score: 4, Informative

      As a Texan, I consider New York to be part of New England, They're all yanks to me.

    7. Re:We're not shaking in our boots. by Megahard · · Score: 1

      Even better, this is what the news people are mentioning for historical reference
      1938 New England hurricane
      Some pretty good stories in the article.

      --
      I eat only the real part of complex carbohydrates.
    8. Re:We're not shaking in our boots. by Alien+Being · · Score: 4, Funny

      That's ok. We think of Texas as a part of Mexico.

    9. Re:We're not shaking in our boots. by Jason+Levine · · Score: 1

      Well, I feel threatened, but that's mainly because Irene is due to hit exactly where and when I planned on driving for vacation. It's altering my vacation plans and that's majorly annoying. We're taking a 10th anniversary trip without the kids. Do you know how RARE trips like that are? (No kids, not 10th anniversary.)

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    10. Re:We're not shaking in our boots. by NiteShaed · · Score: 1

      BTW: As far as I am concerned no hurricane in my entire lifetime has had a major impact on the 'Northeast' (i.e. the 6 New England states). This trolling guy from Massachusetts says Pennsylvania is about as much 'Northeast' as Westchester County is 'Upstate New York'. Pennsylvania and anything south is at best 'Mid-Atlantic'.

      "Northeast" and "New England" really aren't the same thing. The northeast region is New England, plus N.Y., N.J. and Pennsylvania.

      --
      Some bring out the best in others, some the worst. Some bring out far more.
    11. Re:We're not shaking in our boots. by icebrain · · Score: 1

      And as far as this deep-south trolling guy is concerned, anything north of Virginia is "The Northeast".

      So there.

      --
      The meek may inherit the earth, but the strong shall take the stars.
    12. Re:We're not shaking in our boots. by bobdole369 · · Score: 1

      Regardless of what category the storm is as she arrives, the storm surge height will lag far behind. It's expected to bring more than 10-30 feet of water up wherever she lands.

      --
      Lousy facepalm.
    13. Re:We're not shaking in our boots. by Altus · · Score: 1

      To a New Englander, Pennsylvania is practically the deep south.

      Western Pennsylvania actually kind of feels that way in some places.

      --

      "In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson

    14. Re:We're not shaking in our boots. by kimvette · · Score: 1

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Bob
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Gloria

      --
      The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
    15. Re:We're not shaking in our boots. by RoverDaddy · · Score: 1

      Bob and Gloria both did damage but somehow in my mind I don't think of them as massive hurricanes because they didn't do much damage where -I- was at the time. In fact I seem to recall there was an unnamed 'storm after Bob' that caused more damage to some communities than Bob did.

      --
      RETURN without GOSUB in line 1050
    16. Re:We're not shaking in our boots. by RoverDaddy · · Score: 1

      I know, hence the word 'trolling'. Wikipedia and Census Bureau not withstanding, I still don't consider Pennsylvania to belong. I'll accept NJ and NY begrudgingly.

      --
      RETURN without GOSUB in line 1050
    17. Re:We're not shaking in our boots. by Walkingshark · · Score: 1

      Yeah, judging by who I see when I look out my front window, it's the part where all the Mexicans live.

      --
      The world you experience is only a close approximation of reality.
  3. Puerto Rico by afidel · · Score: 3, Informative

    Yeah right, power and telecom frequently go out in a moderate thunderstorm down there. I have a coworker that's dealt with many offices at three different employers over the last 15 years and they've all had the same kinds of problems. The solution is to UPS everything and just not sweat it when the offices down there lose internet because you will NOT be able to get someone to respond in under 4 hours like you will stateside.

    --
    There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
    1. Re:Puerto Rico by madhatter256 · · Score: 4, Informative

      No one in Puerto Rico panics like they do in the US when it comes to Hurricanes. 99.9% of buildings are concrete.

      My grand parents live down there and went a whole month without power and electricity during the 2004 hurricanes. They have a cistern in the back that collects rain water in case the water supply gets tainted and generators in case electricity goes out.

      Lots of people do and live with it. Hurricanes and mudslides are no problem for us.

      --
      Previewing comments are for sissies!
    2. Re:Puerto Rico by couchslug · · Score: 1

      "99.9% of buildings are concrete."

      As they should be. Wood is fine for furniture and camp fires.

      Wood is a shitty construction material.

      --
      "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
    3. Re:Puerto Rico by MaWeiTao · · Score: 1

      That's the same thing my friends who have family there tell me. And it's generally the same thing I've seen with typhoons in Asia. Most destruction comes from landslides and biblical amounts of rainfall that result in flooding. But otherwise the vast majority of buildings weather the storm unscathed.

      I don't understand how the hell it is that states like Florida permit people to build homes out of lumber or live in trailers. Then there's the whole thing of people building homes along the water, having them destroyed in a hurricane, then being able to rebuild them again on the same spot. It's not like hurricanes in Florida are a rare occurrence.

    4. Re:Puerto Rico by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 1

      I'm assuming that those occasionally killed in mudslides(though the last properly dramatic one was in '85, so it's been a little while) would beg to differ; but are unlikely to be able to...

    5. Re:Puerto Rico by s122604 · · Score: 1

      Unless you are in a Earthquake, then wood as damn awesome

    6. Re:Puerto Rico by maxwell+demon · · Score: 2

      99.9% of buildings are concrete.

      I see, you have a very low level of abstraction in your buildings. :-)

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    7. Re:Puerto Rico by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      The concrete with steel roof I work in held up pretty good to the earthquake. I had a portable hard drive fall over at home, but I hardly count that as damage...more poor design.

      http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Seagate+-+FreeAgent+GoFlex+Desk+2TB+External+USB+2.0/3.0+Hard+Drive+-+Black/1335107.p?id=1218251232104&skuId=1335107

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    8. Re:Puerto Rico by Grishnakh · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Wood is a shitty construction material.

      Tell that to all the people in Haiti, who still haven't recovered from the earthquake there a couple years ago. Or the people in various other 3rd-world cities where everything's made of concrete and they didn't think earthquakes were a concern until one hit.

      Concrete is a terrible construction material, unless you reinforce it with a lot of steel. But steel's expensive compared to plain concrete.

    9. Re:Puerto Rico by bobdole369 · · Score: 1

      We don't. At least not in the lower 4 counties. Live in trailers are few and far between here.

      --
      Lousy facepalm.
    10. Re:Puerto Rico by kilodelta · · Score: 1

      I'm up here in RI and honestly all I see us getting is a little rain with some wind. We did have a hell of a T-storm earlier this summer that ripped a few trees up, and I don't expect this to be much worse to be honest.

    11. Re:Puerto Rico by Kildjean · · Score: 1

      In PR a Hurricane means extra vacation time... =)

      --
      Nom de dieu de putain de bordel de merde de saloperie de connard d encule de ta mere.
    12. Re:Puerto Rico by Kildjean · · Score: 1

      I think we are the only country in the world that actually roots for a hurricane to come because it means there will be a chance to not go to work and still get paid LOL!

      --
      Nom de dieu de putain de bordel de merde de saloperie de connard d encule de ta mere.
    13. Re:Puerto Rico by Kildjean · · Score: 1

      How fast were those winds going? 20mph? thats nothing... when you get 75mph sustained winds (thats cat1) to 135mph sustained winds (cat4) then talk to me... That same attitude is what got so many people in Katrina killed.

      --
      Nom de dieu de putain de bordel de merde de saloperie de connard d encule de ta mere.
    14. Re:Puerto Rico by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      Don't balance things on their skinny edges.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    15. Re:Puerto Rico by Clsid · · Score: 1

      It's more about the design than the material. As long as the material is able to flex itself then you should be fine.

    16. Re:Puerto Rico by Clsid · · Score: 1

      Almost anything that you see today more than 2 stories high be it in a developing country or not is going to have steel reinforcement. Sure you can make the beams out of concrete as well as the columns but even then they are reinforced with steel rods. And working with steel actually tends to be cheaper than concrete because you spend less time and labor.

      Wood structures as you would find in your typical house in the US is actually pretty bad when it comes to earthquakes. Having lived in the US and then having to work in the construction field in a developing country, it always struck me what's the reason some structures in developing countries are of higher quality, especially when you consider anchors with bolts on the columns that helps the structure a lot in case of disasters. In the end, I think it comes down to a cost issue. Wood is cheaper in the US and Canada than doing the same structure in concrete. In Latin America at least, it's cheaper the other way around, where you have industry giants like Cemex providing cement at very cheap prices.

    17. Re:Puerto Rico by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      Sorry, but the proof is in the pudding. Haiti->concrete->disaster in an earthquake. Countless wooden structures built by non-engineers->work just fine in earthquake.

      Sorry, but wood does NOT need a ton of steel to survive an earthquake. Countless houses across America attest to that. We've had earthquakes here for centuries, yet wooden structures generally do just fine. These things aren't steel-reinforced, they're just plain old houses built by uneducated morons. Wood can do this because, unlike concrete, it isn't brittle and it doesn't crumble under tensile stress. Concrete does.

      I've seen how houses in 3rd-world countries are built firsthand, and they don't use steel, and they certainly don't have any engineers around to design their houses for them. They build them out of concrete, and that's it. They're even lucky if they have any poured columns; a lot of them are just a bunch of blocks stacked up.

      So basically, you're telling me that concrete is a great material, but only if you have highly-educated people to do the work. That's a disaster for any 3rd-world country, where there's no educated people at all, and they certainly don't have the money to hire structural engineers. Wood is a superior material: any moron can use a hammer and nails and put together a structure that will do reasonably well in most conditions; maybe not a 9.0 on the Richter scale, but it'll certainly outperform a concrete-block building with no steel rebar.

      Sure, if you live in some highly advanced country where you can afford structural engineers to supervise every single building project, then concrete+steel is the way to go. If you live anywhere else, where 95% of the human population lives, then wood's really a better material in many places. It's cheap, it grows on trees (literally), it doesn't take a lot of energy to create (unlike concrete), and it's easy to work with. Here in the USA, for instance, we have 125 million houses, most made of wood. You think a structural engineer was involved in most of these? You'd be deluded if you do; residential houses here are built by uneducated people called "builders", who are really just laborers who managed to work their way up to being a boss and hiring other laborers. There are a few houses here designed by structural engineers and architects, but they cost millions and only super-rich people live in them. Finally, there's tons of houses 100-200 years old here made of wood, which seem to be doing just fine as long as they keep the termites away. For a structure built before "structural engineering" even existed, I'd say that's pretty good.

      We just had a 5.9 earthquake strike near our nation's capital. I don't think any buildings collapsed, even though all the houses in that area are made of wood.

      I've even read about 1000+ year old buildings in Europe (probably northern Europe or Scandinavia) made of wood.

      Finally, since you're obviously European, aren't most of the houses there made of things like brick and stone, and quite old, meaning they have no steel reinforcement? Of course, since I don't think I've ever heard about an earthquake in Europe, you're probably just lucky all those old buildings aren't falling down. If steel+concrete is so great, why aren't you tearing down all the old historic buildings and replacing them with new concrete ones?

    18. Re:Puerto Rico by That+Guy+From+Mrktng · · Score: 1

      What makes your assertion even more clueless is taht you can't reasonably prepare a wood strucutre to face seismic actions without employing steel in comparable amounts to those which are added to a concrete structure to face seismic actions.

      Bamboo would like to have a word with you

      Bamboo homes and other buildings have actually have survived a couple important quakes here. Also Japan do well in quakes, being tsunamis what really can fuck up the place. Theres a really cool book about Bamboo architecture, I couldn't find it in Amazon.

    19. Re:Puerto Rico by Estanislao+Mart�nez · · Score: 1

      I think we are the only country in the world that actually roots for a hurricane to come because it means there will be a chance to not go to work and still get paid LOL!

      Eh, there's no lack of poor country folks living in houses built on flood zones in PR, and they're terrified of hurricanes.

      The government however is very good at going to the most dangerous flood zones and actually evacuating people. If the PR government had been in charge of New Orleans, there would have been only a few dozen deaths from Katrina...

      --

      Are you adequate?

    20. Re:Puerto Rico by xenobyte · · Score: 1

      Unless you are in a war zone, like the middle east. Concrete is bullet-proof.

      Depends on the size of the 'bullet'... Nothing is 'bullet-proof' if you use a big enough bullet.

      --
      "For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong." -- H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) --
    21. Re:Puerto Rico by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Japanese buildings are all earthquake proof. Steel frame with flexible cladding. Even steel re-enforced concrete tends to crack, where are a flexible steel frame will cope well. They have magnitude 5 quakes regularly so anything not flexible and somewhat decoupled from the ground won't last long.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    22. Re:Puerto Rico by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      It is supposed to sit on that edge, there aren't bumpers on the sides.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    23. Re:Puerto Rico by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      ALL Japanese buildings are steel frame? Seems to me that I've seen pictures of wood-frame houses there too, especially in rural areas. Somehow I seriously doubt your assertion.

      Are you confusing commercial buildings and residential buildings?

    24. Re:Puerto Rico by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      I didn't say "all buildings are steel framed", I said "all buildings are earthquake proof". It seems you are the one who is confused.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    25. Re:Puerto Rico by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      This is a discussion over whether wood is a viable building material or not. So are there buildings in Japan that are wood-framed, or not? If there's any at all, and they're fairly old, then that supports my contention that wood is a viable building material. Surely there's historic buildings there made of wood.

    26. Re:Puerto Rico by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      It is supposed to sit on that edge, there aren't bumpers on the sides.

      Will it vent if you put it flat? I have a WD external which has no bumpers at all, doesn't seem to get hot.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    27. Re:Puerto Rico by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      I imagine it would, it is just not the way it appears to be designed. It wasn't a big deal, the drive was running at the time but still sustained no damage. The funnier part was that my computer rebooted for no reason (it is set to remain off after power outage)

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    28. Re:Puerto Rico by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      I imagine it would, it is just not the way it appears to be designed. It wasn't a big deal, the drive was running at the time but still sustained no damage.

      Nice! I wonder if the mechanism has one of those g-sensors that auto-parks? Usually you'd expect a head splat onto the platters (SMART long-test, natch).

      The funnier part was that my computer rebooted for no reason (it is set to remain off after power outage)

      Maybe an un-handled SATA error killed the driver? I bet that code path isn't well-tested!

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  4. Re:Obligatory XKCD by slinches · · Score: 1

    In what way is that particular XKCD obligatory?

    An appropriate xkcd mention would go more like this:

    I'm not worried. I think it's just that there's too many people constantly refreshing the weather radar. xkcd.com/831/

    --
    Knowledge Brings Fear
  5. Already prepared! by EvilSS · · Score: 1

    My company ordered all of our servers Scotchgarded last year for just such an emergency!

    --
    I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
    1. Re:Already prepared! by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      Pschaw! Everyone knows you protect things by wrapping them in tin foil. Then buried. Then lost. Then found. Then put up for public comment. Then buried again.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    2. Re:Already prepared! by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 1

      You misunderstood, the CEO just wanted an IT peon to guard his Scotch until the servers could bring it to him.

    3. Re:Already prepared! by kilodelta · · Score: 1

      Or you do it the right way. Raised floor in the room housing the servers and absolutely no terminations under the floor, cabling is ok, but no terminations.

    4. Re:Already prepared! by jeffmeden · · Score: 1

      Let me guess, you also waited until today in order to call all your hardware vendors to ask "how do I set up email alerts?"

    5. Re:Already prepared! by EvilSS · · Score: 1

      Of course not! Our bosses consider email alerts to be unreliable. Alerts are printed then FedEx'd to each member of the data center team.

      --
      I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
  6. Re:Data centers by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 1

    And where would that be? On the Moon perhaps?

    --
    The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
  7. Re:Data centers by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

    Please name such a place.
    Is there anywhere that has no natural disasters?

  8. Irene by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Puertorican here, and yes, Irene didn't even hit us directly and caused MAJOR damage. I'm talking about landslides, rivers going crazy, floods, trees falling, and all the disaster you can imagine, plus no water and electricity for days (at one point 92% of PR was without power). Puerto Rico builds it's houses and buildings out of cement, not wood (rural areas are most likely to be made out of wood, but rarely), so this is just crazy weather we're having. Hope you guys up there hang on tight.

    1. Re:Irene by Faw · · Score: 1

      Eh, ignore this moron, maybe his power was out and he was without tv or internet, probably does not even lives here. Irene did hit us directly, the eye of the storm entered through Humacao and left through the city of Dorado. It was a tropical storm at the time (winds 65-70mph), it became a hurricane on top of us. Most of the problems here are with:

      • electricity : trees falling on power lines
      • water : no power=water pumps wont work
      • blocked streets : debris,mudslides, overflowed rivers

      That's mostly it all we have to do is save some drinking water and wait for the thing to leave. I had a generator so I had internet, satellite tv (didn't even removed the antenna) and air conditioner, so it was basically a holiday for me, actually 3 day holiday work was without power for 3 days. :).

  9. Tornado goes WHOOOOSH! by AnotherAnonymousUser · · Score: 2

    http://xkcd.com/937/

  10. Re:Data centers by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

    So, north sea storms are just imaginary?
    What about Ice storms, are those imaginary as well?

  11. Re:Data centers by peter303 · · Score: 1

    They been siting them in locations with abundant cheap energy. Unfortunately things that make energy abundant can make it too abundant at times, e.g. hydroelectric.

  12. Re:Data centers by Coren22 · · Score: 1

    I used to say Maryland...but it looks like we are right on the path. The earthquake was interesting, but didn't do anything out here...

    --
    APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  13. Re:Data centers by hesiod · · Score: 4, Funny

    The virtual world has no natural disasters!

    Just virtualize your virtual servers so your system is 100% virtual with no hardware, and you have a completely unusable system that can't be damaged because it doesn't exist! Wait, what was the question again? ...to the cloud!

  14. Re:Data centers by EvanED · · Score: 1

    A hate to disappoint, but the moon is clearly out.

  15. Re:Data centers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Yes. Here, in Central Europe, yes.

  16. Re:I'm ready by cyberchondriac · · Score: 1

    Well, cue the mob scene at the grocery stores. It'll be a madhouse. People act like it's the end of the world in my neighborhood whenever any storm is coming.

    --

    Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
  17. Re:Data centers by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

    Name the location. I bet we can find a nice natural hazard.

  18. Irene? by hemp · · Score: 1

    I thought it was Ilene?

    --
    Skip ------ See the latest from http://www.anArchyFortWorth.com
    1. Re:Irene? by Faw · · Score: 1

      maybe, are you japanese?

  19. That brings up an interesting question by Cro+Magnon · · Score: 1

    Where are the "cloud" servers located? It would suck if you backed to Dropbox, Google Docs, or whatever, and Irene wiped THOSE out, along with your local hardware.

    --
    Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
    1. Re:That brings up an interesting question by characterZer0 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If you cannot restore your backups without an Internet connection, you do not have backups.

      --
      Go green: turn off your refrigerator.
    2. Re:That brings up an interesting question by Cro+Magnon · · Score: 1

      If your onsite backups just got blown into a REAL cloud by Irene, you don't have backups either.

      --
      Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
    3. Re:That brings up an interesting question by LordLimecat · · Score: 1

      Id rather have my backups on google docs alone than sitting in my house near my computers, alone.

      Most good backups will require either a car, or an internet connection, to restore.

    4. Re:That brings up an interesting question by xenobyte · · Score: 1

      If you cannot restore your backups without an Internet connection, you do not have backups.

      That's not true. You have useless backups.

      But if your business depends on Internet access, it doesn't matter whether you have backups or not... no Internet means no business, backups or not.

      --
      "For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong." -- H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) --
    5. Re:That brings up an interesting question by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      For those of us who can't afford the time or expense of doing regular backups to media take a long way off site remote backups are an excellent option. If my house burns down I have copies of my photos on my Picasaweb account. What is wrong with that?

      I assume you are talking about just businesses who could otherwise continue to operate without an internet connection. Even in that case you could just take some portable HDDs to a place that has net access and download your backup files. No slower than tape and considerably cheaper and easier to manage.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    6. Re:That brings up an interesting question by mapkinase · · Score: 1

      Yes, you have. Pretty much everybody simply cannot do much work without Internet connection, so restoring your date does not make much sense until Internet connection is restored.

      My stupid Comcast provider is marinating me 3rd day in a row by not fixing my connection and I did not even bother approaching the keyboard at home.

      --
      I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
    7. Re:That brings up an interesting question by eric_brissette · · Score: 1

      Dunno about cloud servers, but my web servers are located at FortressITX in NJ. Looking forward to seeing how they handle the storm.

    8. Re:That brings up an interesting question by RogerWilco · · Score: 1

      My onsite backups are in a 500 pound safe, my offsite backups are in another country 1000km away.

      --
      RogerWilco the Adventurous Janitor
    9. Re:That brings up an interesting question by Slashdot+Parent · · Score: 1

      Where are the "cloud" servers located? It would suck if you backed to Dropbox, Google Docs, or whatever, and Irene wiped THOSE out, along with your local hardware.

      Depends on the service. Amazon S3 replicates your data to multiple locations (one of which is about to get a wallop by Irene). I would be shocked if any data was lost, however.

      --
      They don't grade fathers, but if your daughter's a stripper, you fucked up. --Chris Rock
  20. We'll be just fine by elrous0 · · Score: 1

    you know that there are few things that are worse for electronics than water

    That's such a crock. Saltwater is actually an excellent conductor of electricity. Electronics need good conductors. Hence, electronics need saltwater.

    So relax and stop it with all that plywood and tarp. Have a beer instead.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    1. Re:We'll be just fine by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      you know that there are few things that are worse for electronics than water

      That's such a crock. Saltwater is actually an excellent conductor of electricity. Electronics need good conductors. Hence, electronics need saltwater.

      So relax and stop it with all that plywood and tarp. Have a beer instead.

      Idiot. Modern electronics need SEMICONDUCTORS. Salt water soaked plywood is an excellent semiconductor so it's just perfect. Add the silvery duct tape and you're ready to power up and rock and roll.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  21. WTF, don't you people have windows? by alen · · Score: 1

    i've been through a few hurricanes in NYC and we have these things called windows to keep the water out. it's a rectangular hole cut into the building with multiple panes of glass with a metal frame and some sealing material around it.

    in some instances if there are extremely high winds predicted we put packing tape on the windows in an X shape in order to prevent shatter

    1. Re:WTF, don't you people have windows? by bws111 · · Score: 1

      It is stupidity like this that gets people in trouble. The last hurricane of this size to come near NYC was Gloria in 1985. It did several hundred millions of dollars of damage to NYC. If it had been a little closer to NYC and hit at high tide it would have been catastrophic.

      Your nice little X of packing tape is going to do a whole lot to stop a tree limb or 2x4 that is carried in 90MPH winds.

    2. Re:WTF, don't you people have windows? by alen · · Score: 1

      i remember Gloria. we put some tape on the windows and stayed home watching TV. the damage was probably in the burbs or the burb parts of NYC. believe it or not most of NYC by area is private homes where you can't see manhattan at all. the part where all the work gets done is completely hurricane proof

    3. Re:WTF, don't you people have windows? by bobdole369 · · Score: 1

      You haven't been through a few hurricanes in NYC. Christ you still think taping windows works? Don't you see how unprepared you are??! It just makes the shards stick to you! Don't do that. Put up plywood. Or leave.

      Gloria 85, Agnes 72 are the only ones that came close - and agnes 72 was 50ish MPH winds in the city. It's likely to bring 100-120mph winds up there so be ready guys.

      --
      Lousy facepalm.
    4. Re:WTF, don't you people have windows? by afidel · · Score: 1

      You have to get a bit above 90mph before significant sized limbs get carried, heck we had 75 mph winds in the thunderstorm last night and while it will uproot some trees you don't see it carrying branches across yards.

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
    5. Re:WTF, don't you people have windows? by afidel · · Score: 1

      Except all the financial computer systems that rely on power and other utilities that are housed in the basements of the buildings which could get swamped by the storm surge. I know a lot of that stuff has moved to Jersey, but I'm not sure how vulnerable that area is to storm surge.

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
    6. Re:WTF, don't you people have windows? by NotSanguine · · Score: 1

      Except all the financial computer systems that rely on power and other utilities that are housed in the basements of the buildings which could get swamped by the storm surge. I know a lot of that stuff has moved to Jersey, but I'm not sure how vulnerable that area is to storm surge.

      Except that they're not in basements. They're in raised-floor rooms on (relatively) high floors of 40-50 story buildings. There may well be communications infrastructure in the basement, the systems and storage are all in climate-controlled, UPS'd raised floor environments. If those were to fail, there are hot and warm backup sites in NJ, PA and elsewhere.

      As someone who lived through Agnes and Gloria, I can tell you that Manhattan and the Bronx are likely pretty safe. Long Island (the island, not Nassau and Suffolk counties) are a different story.

      --
      No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
    7. Re:WTF, don't you people have windows? by Gorobei · · Score: 1

      Yep. As one of our MDs quipped "we have a 4MW server farm with one of the most expensive views in Manhattan."

    8. Re:WTF, don't you people have windows? by afidel · · Score: 1

      The power comes through the basement and I'd bet dollars to donuts that the transfer switches that switch to generator power are down there as well. A bunch of London banks found out that this is a common mistake when the Thames flooded last year.

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
    9. Re:WTF, don't you people have windows? by NotSanguine · · Score: 2

      The power comes through the basement and I'd bet dollars to donuts that the transfer switches that switch to generator power are down there as well. A bunch of London banks found out that this is a common mistake when the Thames flooded last year.

      [Emphasis Added]

      Perhaps yes, perhaps no. I can't speak to the locations of specific equipment at every location in Manhattan. However, having done consulting and full-time work for a surprising (at least it was to me when I counted them all up) number of Fortune 100 companies, I can tell you that the financial sector is well prepared for almost any eventuality.

      In fact, at one firm their primary data center was (and still is, I'm sure) located in the desert of the southwest (as several posters pointed out, it's a pretty good place to avoid natural disasters). The data center looks just like all the other buildings in the office park where it lives. However, unlike the other buildings, The outer walls are feet-thick steel reinforced concrete and access is strictly controlled. It's weatherproof and mostly bombproof. Power comes from multiple mains and generators can provide (as long as they have fuel) power almost indefinitely. Other firms' data centers/hot sites may not be quite so hardened, but they have plenty of equipment and geographic diversity. This makes weather (however severe) in one region a temporary inconvenience rather than a disaster. Too much money is at stake to take any chances with their businesses.

      Other, smaller companies for whom milliseconds aren't quite so important have hot, warm and even cold sites in geographically diverse locations which might cause significant disruption if a switch-over is required, but only for as long as it takes to get the DR site into production.

      None of this stuff is new and emergency procedures have been further refined since we had a few problems here in NYC about ten years ago. You might have heard about that.

      --
      No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
  22. Our servers are flood-proofed by PPH · · Score: 4, Funny

    Our IT guys assured us we are OK. Cheetos absorb 47 times their weight in water.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  23. Don't Forget . . . by StefanJ · · Score: 1

    Lay in supplies of wadded beef, creamed eels, and corn nog to feed the IT staff shackled to the A/C units.

    1. Re:Don't Forget . . . by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 1

      ... wadded beef, creamed eels, and corn nog

      Are those porn euphemisms?

    2. Re:Don't Forget . . . by couchslug · · Score: 1

      You FEED the IT staff?

      What unwarranted luxury is this? Ours are powered by floggings. Much more efficient and great for morale.

      --
      "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
  24. pre-hardened locations? by egburr · · Score: 1

    "consider just moving your whole data center to a location that's been conveniently pre-hardened, like a water tower or a boiler room."

    So, move it to a place where if something does go wrong, in addition to the disaster you also have a huge tank of water nearby to douse your whole center? I'm not so sure I'd like that idea.

    --

    Edward Burr
    Having a smoking section in a restaurant is like having a peeing section in a swimming pool.
    1. Re:pre-hardened locations? by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      Well the article got it wrong.
      They moved it to an old water tank. It was not a tower.
      Those tanks are all concrete 8" thick actually and are ground level.
      They never fail and yes I am in Florida and been there and done that. I fear that New York is going to be an epic disaster since they have NO clue how to deal with this.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    2. Re:pre-hardened locations? by Gorobei · · Score: 1

      New York City will be fine. We deal with planes flying into buildings, sovereign defaults, and rats the size of polar bears.

      The NY suburbs might need to be told what do do, though.

    3. Re:pre-hardened locations? by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      Yes but I have seen what happens in NY with no power for a day. Imagine a week or two. Not to mention a foot of water. Of course that is worst case.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
  25. Re:Data centers by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

    Arizona seems to be pretty safe from natural disasters. It's too dry for tornadoes to form (we do get "dust devils" frequently, but those are harmless). We're not close enough to the east coast to be affected by any hurricane. We don't seem to get any significant earthquakes, though it's conceivable we could get some very minor tremors if any big quakes hit California which isn't that far away. It's much too hot for any ice storms or other winter weather (in fact, it almost never snows). As long as your equipment can handle 120-degree ambient temperatures, it's not going to fail due to a natural disaster (and you can always avoid the temperature problem by placing it underground, if you don't want to have to worry about the A/C failing and ruining everything)

    Of course, this place is full of morons, and it's right on the border of a country that's descended into anarchy, so it's definitely not safe from the human element. Any data center here needs full-time security to keep copper thieves from breaking in and stealing everything. Public schools are frequently hit by copper thieves who steal the pipes and wire.

  26. Re:Data centers by lrobert98 · · Score: 1

    Not to mention the wierdos attacking it with high powered lasers.

  27. wow by loconet · · Score: 1

    So .. in the last few days we've had Tornados, Earthquakes and now a Hurricane? Someone is pissed at us.

    --
    [alk]
    1. Re:wow by dkleinsc · · Score: 1

      Yeah, this is exactly what happens if you don't make the proper offerings to Poseidon. Well, except possibly the tornado part.

      --
      I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
    2. Re:wow by drobety · · Score: 1

      Yep, Earth has had enough. This week is just the first audible sound emitted from the first 'F' of 'FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU...'

    3. Re:wow by SeximusMaximus · · Score: 1

      Confirmation bias is a great thing

  28. Re:God Apparently For Gay Marriage by lrobert98 · · Score: 1

    Googling for Santorum

    Eww. Now go wash your hands.

  29. Not a water tower... by Beorytis · · Score: 1

    ...Altamonte Springs, FL put their data center in a decommissioned concrete water tank, located at grade, not an elevated tower.

    1. Re:Not a water tower... by confused+one · · Score: 1

      Excellent. It will hold in the water and guarantee the servers are all soaked thoroughly!

  30. Re:Data centers by dkleinsc · · Score: 1

    Isn't it funny how all the cloud spin states that there'd never be a problem with spinning clouds?

    --
    I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
  31. Re:Data centers by dkleinsc · · Score: 1

    Arizona seems to be pretty safe from natural disasters.

    What about wildfires?

    --
    I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
  32. Re:God Apparently For Gay Marriage by couchslug · · Score: 1

    "Googling for Santorum confirms"

    The thinner you spread Santorum the weaker it gets.

    --
    "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
  33. Re:Data centers by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

    Wildfires, by definition, happen in the wild, not in cities.

    I'm talking about southern Arizona, which as you may or may not know, is a desert. There are no significant trees here, and predictably, there's no wildfires. Those happen in the parts of the state which have trees. Take a look at that link of yours. Notice all the fires on the map are in places that are green. Those are places where trees grow. The brown parts are desert; that's there Phoenix, the capital city with 4+ million people, is located. The green parts with forests have an almost insignificant portion of the states' population.

    Believe it or not, when an area is mostly sand and has no trees, fires don't happen.

  34. Re:Data centers by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 1

    The poster I responded to didn't say anything about moonquakes, so, the moon is still a possibility (although quite likely not much of an improvement).

    --
    The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
  35. Re:Data centers by hesiod · · Score: 1

    Yeah, I'm not a big fan of all this "cloud" stuff, especially after the Amazon outage... They should be incredibly embarrassed about that.

  36. D'oh! by StefanJ · · Score: 1

    Obligatory Simpsons References.

  37. In the clouds by CuriousGeorge113 · · Score: 1

    All my servers and data are kept in the clouds.

    Which, as you know, are way above sea level.

    --
    No man is an island, But if you take a bunch of dead guys and tie them together, they make a pretty good raft.
    1. Re:In the clouds by confused+one · · Score: 1

      But clouds fall out of the sky as rain...

  38. Re:Data centers by martas · · Score: 1

    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_2n3QqDrb12M/TIVcHQQQgII/AAAAAAAAADI/2BVsBcawamM/s1600/xzibit-happy.jpg

    --
    weinersmith
  39. PR Is just a step up from a 3rd world country by Kildjean · · Score: 2

    "Note that Irene has been no joke in the Caribbean; in Puerto Rico (with relatively modern infrastructure), about a third of the island lost power."

    Dont fucking insult me. Relatively modern infrastructure? We don't build our buildings with fucking wood and gypsum board... We use armed concrete... that is why we can take a Category 5 Hurricane (like Hugo) or Category 4 (like Georges or Katrina) and survive it without the DRAMA the US experienced with Katrina... When we get a hurricane like that, we receive it with Don Q Rum and in a Beach Chair...

    Now If you had said that the island was a step up from a third world country, I couldn't agree with you more... If the goverment agencies did their job right one third of the island wouldn't have lost power and water for more than a day... The services down there are such a fucking joke compared to 20yrs ago when a Category 5 Hurricane would cause the same inconveniences that this Category 1 hurricane caused.

    Don't let me get started on the "puppet" we got as a governor... he makes Obama look competent...

    --
    Nom de dieu de putain de bordel de merde de saloperie de connard d encule de ta mere.
    1. Re:PR Is just a step up from a 3rd world country by hb253 · · Score: 1

      Katrina was a big storm, but not ridiculously so. What destroyed New Orleans was flooding made extra destructive by the fact that the city is below sea level.

      --
      Self awareness - try it!
    2. Re:PR Is just a step up from a 3rd world country by Faw · · Score: 1

      Hugo wasn't a cat5 when it got to us. It was cat5 just for a while, when it made landfall in Puerto Rico it was a cat3, Georges (1998) was just a cat2. Georges actually shook my house (like an earthquake) and it was a cat2 I don't want to know what a cat4/cat5 will do to us.

    3. Re:PR Is just a step up from a 3rd world country by Estanislao+Mart�nez · · Score: 1

      Georges actually shook my house (like an earthquake) and it was a cat2 I don't want to know what a cat4/cat5 will do to us.

      I remember back in 1995 or so when a hurricane warning was issued for Hurricane Luis (Cat 5). Governor Rosselló held a live press conference on TV, and you could tell from his face that he was scared shitless.

      --

      Are you adequate?

    4. Re:PR Is just a step up from a 3rd world country by demonlapin · · Score: 1

      Katrina was ridiculously big; what it was not was especially powerful in New Orleans. Check out what Katrina did in Mississippi for an idea of how much power the storm packed - the area from Waveland to Long Beach experienced storm surges of approximately 30 feet of water.

    5. Re:PR Is just a step up from a 3rd world country by Faw · · Score: 1

      Luis was a really scary one, it was going to hit us directly. It was cat4 almost cat5. I had saved a image of when he was just east of us but lost it in the last reformat. Here is one from Tracking the Tropics, if that thing had hit us we would probably be still picking up debris. :)

    6. Re:PR Is just a step up from a 3rd world country by RogerWilco · · Score: 1

      It's a real difference in the state of mind between the US and my country, the Netherlands.

      We have very thorough natural disaster protection, even against the once in 10.000 years events. Especially flooding.

      Because in most countries, the water goes away after a couple of hours/days. In the Netherlands most of the country is below sea level, and you need to be well prepared and have large scale measures in play to deal with the aftermath and get the water out again.

      It's what went wrong in New Orleans: It's below sea level as well, and therefore what usually worked in most other hurricane prone areas didn't work.

      It needs a very different mindset, where prevention is much more important, instead of repairing and rebuilding after an event.

      --
      RogerWilco the Adventurous Janitor
    7. Re:PR Is just a step up from a 3rd world country by Tamerlin · · Score: 1

      "Katrina was a big storm, but not ridiculously so. What destroyed New Orleans was flooding made extra destructive by the fact that the city is below sea level." Don't forget the torn up barrier islands, and the poorly maintained dikes that weren't properly built in the first place.

    8. Re:PR Is just a step up from a 3rd world country by gentlegiant03 · · Score: 1

      I know I'm a bit late on this but "third world" isn't a designation of development, it simply means the country did not choose a side in the Cold War.

  40. Re:personally I'm excited by confused+one · · Score: 1

    yay hurricane season, exciting! *gets popcorn* great to be a european!

    Keep it up buddy and we'll shut down the Gulf Stream and stop sending you all that heat, then see how you like dealing with an ice age...

  41. ... the end is near... by Kildjean · · Score: 1

    Earthquakes on the east coast, an impending hurricane too, then Steve Jobs resigned as CEO of Apple, CmdrTaco gone too...... I think the apocalypse is upon us.

    --
    Nom de dieu de putain de bordel de merde de saloperie de connard d encule de ta mere.
    1. Re:... the end is near... by cyberstealth1024 · · Score: 1

      ...and the quintfecta of disasters is complete.

  42. Preparing for Hurricane Irene by John+Galden · · Score: 1

    Here is one of the best and most comprehensive writeups of how to prepare and weather safely through Hurricane irene. http://www.soulneeds.com/articles/view?id=600

  43. Be careful of hubris. . . by dtmos · · Score: 1

    I don't expect this to be much worse to be honest.

    You'd better hope you're right -- and away from the water. If you're wrong, you could end up five feet above sea level with a fifteen-foot storm surge, and need to swim in 100 mph winds and twenty-foot seas.

    Don't forget, emergency services (police, ambulance, fire, ...) suspend their services during these severe storms, so there's no help available (even if your phone service still works). The definition of pitiful is recordings of 911 calls made during the landfall of almost any major hurricane. People in fear for their lives, begging to be saved, and the 911 operator can do nothing. . . .

    1. Re:Be careful of hubris. . . by kilodelta · · Score: 1

      I live approximately 100 feet above sea level so I'm relatively safe.

  44. Re:personally I'm excited by baegucb · · Score: 1

    You might want to check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_windstorm#Historic_and_notorious_European_storms
    And I seem to recall a cyclone getting into the Med, reaching Greece.

  45. Re:Data centers by rednip · · Score: 1

    There were tornadoes in NE MD just a few years ago, maybe you forgot. More importantly, that inlet at the bottom of Ocean City, MD was created by the Chesapeake Potomac Hurricane in 1933. You should have never been under the impression that Maryland has some sort of 'free pass'.

    --
    The force that blew the Big Bang continues to accelerate.
  46. Actually... by dakameleon · · Score: 1

    A sufficiently "virtualised" data centre could potentially be distributed around the country/world, negating any local effects, naturally for any clients willing to pay a disaster premium.

    --
    Man who leaps off cliff jumps to conclusion.
  47. Cheetos Sandbags by dakameleon · · Score: 1

    Can't wait to see the orange-stained pools afterwards. Something tells me they'll look positively radioactive.

    --
    Man who leaps off cliff jumps to conclusion.
  48. Re:Obligatory XKCD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    http://goatkcd.com/865/

  49. Same reason the financial crisis was a shock by istartedi · · Score: 1

    The generation that operated in finance during the 1929 crash had passed away. Note, their kids are still alive; but they weren't actually on Wall Street. Those kids remember the hurricane of 1938 and told some of us about it. My mom was riding a streetcar in Worcester, MA which was forced to stop in that howling wind and rain. She was terrified. This is many miles inland from the ocean, and definitely New England. The real victims were on Long Island. I've been told they still find bits and pieces from houses that used to be there.

    Of course now there are no streetcars, and if there were people would have warning enough not to ride them. Back then? Nothing but vague reports from ships at sea, some notion that something bad might be coming...

    --
    For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
  50. Don't exaggerate. by Estanislao+Mart�nez · · Score: 1

    Note that Irene has been no joke in the Caribbean; in Puerto Rico (with relatively modern infrastructure), about a third of the island lost power.

    Dont fucking insult me. Relatively modern infrastructure? We don't build our buildings with fucking wood and gypsum board... We use armed concrete... that is why we can take a Category 5 Hurricane (like Hugo) or Category 4 (like Georges or Katrina) and survive it without the DRAMA the US experienced with Katrina... When we get a hurricane like that, we receive it with Don Q Rum and in a Beach Chair...

    Bullshit. I was there for Hugo and Georges. Hugo when it hit PR was a category 3, but it barely scraped the northeastern tip of the island (close to Fajardo). The Vieques and Culebra islands got hit the hardest, followed by the eastern municipalities, and the rest of the island got off easy. My street was without power for over a month afterward.

    Georges was category 3 when it hit PR, too, not a 5. That did cut diagonally right through the middle of the main island. My parent's house lost a crappy zinc roof used in an extension that they should've never made to the house.

    Now If you had said that the island was a step up from a third world country, I couldn't agree with you more... If the goverment agencies did their job right one third of the island wouldn't have lost power and water for more than a day... The services down there are such a fucking joke compared to 20yrs ago when a Category 5 Hurricane would cause the same inconveniences that this Category 1 hurricane caused.

    Dude, 22 years ago when Hugo hit I was without power for a whole damn month. And I lived in a middle upper class neighborhood.

    When it comes to hurricanes, the guys in PR who've got their shit down are Defensa Civil—the government emergency preparedness agency.

    --

    Are you adequate?

  51. 1,464 hurricane deaths in a first world country by Estanislao+Mart�nez · · Score: 1

    Katrina was a big storm, but not ridiculously so. What destroyed New Orleans was flooding made extra destructive by the fact that the city is below sea level.

    ...and what killed 1,464 people is that neither the city, nor the state, nor the feds had any freaking plan for evacuating people out of the city who couldn't do it by themselves. And that would've never happened in Puerto Rico. I mean, (a) classify the areas of the city beforehand by their vulnerability to a flood, (b) when the hurricane warning is issued, send out dudes in vans and buses to the most vulnerable places to order the residents out and take to shelters the ones who can't get out on their own.

    --

    Are you adequate?

  52. a 2.6% chance a hurricane will impact NYC? by G3ckoG33k · · Score: 1

    According to a report, "New York City Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan Section III: Natural Hazard Risk Assessment", from March 2009:

    "According to hurricane probability models, there is a 2.6% chance a hurricane will impact the New York City area (New York City, Westchester, and Long Island) during any given hurricane season. During a 50-year period there is a 13.6% chance a hurricane"

    I guess that chance [sic] would have to be recalculated, fast.

  53. Just back it up to the cloud! by seanvaandering · · Score: 1

    Err wait....

  54. Re:Data centers by poofmeisterp · · Score: 1

    Nah, quakes happen on the moon..

    How about deep space? Deep space with nuclear power and....

    WAIT, I wouldn't have a job if crap didn't break!

    *changes tone in political fashion*

    What I meant was, failures are GOOD. Failures keep system administrators and finance individuals on their toes with experience. It's good for the whole family as well as the whole nation! Go disaster! *fake grin* :)

  55. Mod parent up by Intrepid+imaginaut · · Score: 1

    Insightful...

  56. Pre-emptive strike by Convector · · Score: 1

    I just went ahead and deleted everything beforehand. Nothing to back up and no possibility of data loss due to the storm!