The state of Vermont woke up this morning to a new reality that turns the joke, ‘You can’t get there from here’ on its head. All of a sudden, we truly can’t get there from here. Whether it is from the south or the east or the north or west, either there are no options at all or extensive detours. The north, south and west will open up soon enough once the flood waters recede and repairs made but the eastern entry points, notably Route 4, will take much, much more time to be restored to pre-Irene status.Below are a few pictures to help you get the picture in Vermont. Click on the pictures for the larger view.
Senior pundit George Will's utterly loathsome words:
“Florence Nightingale said, ‘Whatever you say about hospitals, they shouldn’t make their patients sicker,” he said. “And whatever else you want to say about journalism, it shouldn’t subtract from the nation’s understanding, and it certainly shouldn’t contribute to the manufactured, synthetic hysteria that is so much a part of modern life. And I think we may have done so with regard to this ‘tropical storm,’ as it now seems to be.”It's way past time for Will to retire, don't you think?
And finally, Rmj at Adventus' brilliant find - this old cover from The New Yorker.
Someone once did a brilliant take off on the New Yorker cover about the Episcopal Church. Anyone have a copy?
ReplyDeleteTobias, I'd love to the take off. Anyone?
ReplyDeleteRenz, I didn't mean to start a partisan bicker fest. I said nothing about Republicans. Yes, I know Will is a Republican, but I hated what he said. In my initial post I used 'old fart' instead of Will's name. I corrected my post, but that is my true sentiment about Will, whose writing I once admired back in the day.
I'm no admirer of home girl Cokie Roberts, either.
I meant, 'I'd love to see the take off.'
ReplyDeleteRenz, thanks for your kind words about me.
The old Beltway codgers, females included, need to make way for younger blood. Is Cokie even a Democrat these days?
Don't yell at me, I live in Brooklyn. As far as Manhattan is concerned, Brooklyn might as well be in Louisiana.
ReplyDeleteAs far as Manhattan is concerned, Brooklyn might as well be in Louisiana.
ReplyDeleteAin't that the truth, Counterlight? The Bronx, too, our friend Tobias' home place.
More helicopters overhead taking relief to those trapped in towns, including my partner.
ReplyDeleteVermont was utterly surprised because the storm tracked to the west of the state rather than the east and many places got over eight inches of rain in under 24 hours. We are not a flat state so there aren't a whole lot of places for the water to run off and obviously towns are by rivers. You do the logic.
The transportation secretary of the state (VT) says the goal is to get the major E-W routes passable by WINTER.
So while people may snipe about whether coverage of New England is elitist, Republican or what, it's what we are living right now.
So while people may snipe about whether coverage of New England is elitist, Republican or what, it's what we are living right now.
ReplyDeleteI think the "elitist" coverage was of what didn't happen to NYC.
Vermont has my sympathies, and I'm not sure what you could do to prepare for flash floods from a tropical storm. You can board windows against a hurricane, and even flee to higher ground. But other than run from flood waters, there isn't much to do about them (I've lived in places where flash floods were also a way of life, but the warning for those often comes just before the waters roll down).
If you are going to evacuate, you must do so early, while most others are still making up their minds. We've done that, and it was pretty painless. We've also waited too late, and ended up not leaving. Once we evacuated, and the storm struck our home town and then followed us to our place of evacuation, where the very eye itself passed over us. We thought the storm was over. We could see blue sky. And then the winds returned with even greater force.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with where we live is that one scenario has 8 feet of water coming in. It's never happened, but the experts tell us it could. On our farm northwest of Baton Rouge, we may get blown away, but at least we won't drown.
In many places, people had under five minutes to leave because the water rose so fast.
ReplyDeleteThere's no preparing for that.
ReplyDeleteYou really don't have to "find" that New Yorker cover: it's never gone away (it's a popular poster---that, and the ZILLION parodies of it)
ReplyDeleteJCF, if you can find me a link to the Episcopal Church parody, I'd like that.
ReplyDeleteMimi, may I suggest you owe George Will a slight apology? That comment was from the Sunday morning gabfests of 8/28, when the storm was still actually heading up to New England, and the focus of attention was still on New York City. The flooding in New England and upstate New York had not even begun at the time he was saying that.
ReplyDelete