Hurricane Sandy updates

[Nova]

Uhhh...yeah. You were momentarily shocked and thought about getting under a desk.

You did NOT leave your home, carrying 2 small children to the SUV and strap them in, then start driving along the coast during a hurricane.

A moment of panic is one thing (yes I have screamed involuntarily and thought sheeshers...where did that come from???) however hauling small kids out of a house, loading them into a car, then driving along roads near the ocean (hello uphill?) until the car gets flooded isn't a "moment of panic". It is just plain stupid and can cause one's offspring to end up dead.

Darwin.

Sonya, I honestly don't know all the details and I don't have a clear picture of the terrain. We have had conflicting reports as to why the mother left her home in the first place. Maybe being left alone with two small children was enough to make her panic.

And she may have chosen the route she did because it was familiar and therefore "seemed" safer than unfamiliar routes to higher ground. I know it is very common out here for people to assume their SUVs are indestructible, even though that has nothing to do the car's tendency to float or stall in deeper water.

I honestly don't know what the mother was thinking and until some media outlet does an in-depth investigation, I doubt we will know.

 

[Nova]

I agree that she most likely panicked. What I don't agree with is blaming this man and trying to make him into the villain responsible for the death of these children. I don't think the children were still alive when she got to his house anyway.

I agree 100%. I don't know the man, but how can we blame him for being suspicious (and defensive) when somebody threw a flower pot through his door at the height of the storm? Besides which, there is no reason to believe he could have found the children or that they were even still alive by the time he became involved.

 

[vallie]

If you look at a map, or are familiar with that area, Hylan blvd would be easy route to the bridge, Her choice to even leave her house AND her second mistake, taking a beach road, her husband must be crazy with grief and anger over her decisions, she told him she would stay home, then the power went out, big deal, no TV! Its maddening how many bad decisions she took that day. I guess the more sinister idea (susan smith) went to my head because i couldnt comprehend how utterly avoidable this tragedy was and how the mom lived and the babies died,, (they would've found my body drowned trying to find them....) how could the husband even look at her? I'm sure that's why she blamed Alan, how could you tell that story to your husband without him saying "WHY WHY WHY

 

[Chewy]

Since you know the area you understand that Hyland would be the first, most direct, and safest choice towards the Verrazano. The Susan Smith story did come into my mind as well. As far as the woman going into houses and making a scene, potentially she could have felt it was necessary to do this to create an alibi. I hate to be so cynical, and I really do think that this was an actual accident based on poor choices. I just don't understand her decision to drive down there at all. It was a guarantee that something would definitely go wrong.

 

[jjenny]

I agree 100%. I don't know the man, but how can we blame him for being suspicious (and defensive) when somebody threw a flower pot through his door at the height of the storm? Besides which, there is no reason to believe he could have found the children or that they were even still alive by the time he became involved.

I think it's disgraceful what was done to this man by some news organizations.
There are a number of versions of the story. According to one version, the children were swept away when they were put on top of the car, according to another mother was holding them and they were swept away. But cnn was claiming the children were still alive when mother tried to get this man to let them into the house, without even mentioning the other versions.
And never mind that if hurricane is coming, and you decide to evacuate, the time to evacuate is before the hurricane-not during.

 

[Chewy]

Based on the video clips I don't even think the mother was at his door when she was screaming for help. You can see she got swept down into a weeded lot next to his house but below about two floors from his side windows. It seems that she was trying to hang on to the kids in that area while screaming for help.

But I do have to say something. She said that she was stranded crying in the streets for 12 hours and this makes absolutely no sense at all to me. Although Capadano is right there, the streets go uphill, she was literally ten blocks or so from a safe area that had very little damage. I don't see why it would have taken her 12 hours to get help.

 

[vallie]

right, why would she expect a stranger to dive in and search for her babies when she isn't willing to do that? i feel bad for alan and the way she and cnn portrayed him. since the CNN "bad samaritan" story, there has been no mention in tabloids, weekly mags of Alan, GOOD, but, the damage is done as far as public outrage and personal attacks on him. many people still believe alan is at fault.

 

[Chewy]

They have demonized this poor guy and I don't even know if she ever saw him.

Like I said I' just cannot understand what she thought she was doing. I'm going to post a google map below of the intersection.

father capodanno blvd mclaughlin street

You can see that the beach even narrows down to this tiny strip and that she drove them into an area with a wetlands.

The map says A but she was down on the beach basically. Follow the A down to the end of the street where it intersects with FC Blvd.


https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&... mclaughlin street&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl

 

[jjenny]

If somebody went out there to look for children in the water they would most likely drown themselves. Now, there are people who are heroic and are willing to die for a stranger. But they are in the minority.

 

[Nova]

They have demonized this poor guy and I don't even know if she ever saw him.

Like I said I' just cannot understand what she thought she was doing. I'm going to post a google map below of the intersection.

father capodanno blvd mclaughlin street

You can see that the beach even narrows down to this tiny strip and that she drove them into an area with a wetlands.

The map says A but she was down on the beach basically. Follow the A down to the end of the street where it intersects with FC Blvd.


https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&... mclaughlin street&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl

The map doesn't show those two streets intersecting. I'm assuming she was on Father C. Boulevard because that runs parallel to the beach. It doesn't exit to McLaughlin or anything else for a mile or more, which may be how she got stuck (near McLaughlin but without an actual exit to it).

Not a good choice of routes, but I can understand how once she was on the boulevard parallel to the ocean, if the water rose as fast as people said it did, she had no way to get to higher ground.

 

[Nova]

If somebody went out there to look for children in the water they would most likely drown themselves. Now, there are people who are heroic and are willing to die for a stranger. But they are in the minority.

And by the time she got to his door, she would have been pointing to an unbroken ocean, more or less. Who would simply wade into a stormy sea looking for anybody?

 

[Chewy]

The map doesn't show those two streets intersecting. I'm assuming she was on Father C. Boulevard because that runs parallel to the beach. It doesn't exit to McLaughlin or anything else for a mile or more, which may be how she got stuck (near McLaughlin but without an actual exit to it).

Not a good choice of routes, but I can understand how once she was on the boulevard parallel to the ocean, if the water rose as fast as people said it did, she had no way to get to higher ground.

It does connect. Follow the A all the way down or zoom in until you can see it. It's not a main intersection but that's what the street is called. If you zoom in it's easier to see. Right next to the wetlands. If she had continued onto the curve around Lily Pond she might have made it.

I'd like to know where her address is from where she started out. Perhaps she lived on a one way street that directed down to FC Blvd. I still can't understand how she waited so long. 12 hours? 12 hours? Unless she passed out it doesn't make any sense. Two three hours maybe but 12?

 

[redheadedgal]

they intersect?

 

[Nova]

It does connect. Follow the A all the way down or zoom in until you can see it. It's not a main intersection but that's what the street is called. If you zoom in it's easier to see. Right next to the wetlands. If she had continued onto the curve around Lily Pond she might have made it.

I'd like to know where her address is from where she started out. Perhaps she lived on a one way street that directed down to FC Blvd. I still can't understand how she waited so long. 12 hours? 12 hours? Unless she passed out it doesn't make any sense. Two three hours maybe but 12?

I've zoomed in as far as it goes. It shows McLaughlin Street ending about a football field's length from Father C. Boulevard, the latter running parallel to the shore.

https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&... mclaughlin street&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl


(Well, I tried, but my link does the same as yours: it gives one the entire USA. The best way to find it is to search for "McLaughlin Street New York, NY" and then zoom in on the south end of the street. If in fact she was traveling East on Father C. when the water rose abruptly, she was a mile past the previous exit and almost a half-mile before the next exit. I'm not surprised she panicked.

No, she shouldn't have been there in the first place, but if she was scared, she may have felt a false comfort from taking the most familiar route.

 

[HMSHood]

Here is the National Hurricane Center report on Hurricane Sandy. It was upgraded to Category 3 hurricane before it hit Cuba. It was extratropical storm when it made landfall on New Jersey. Sandy would be the second major hurricane of the 2012 Atlantic Hurricane Season.

Hurricane Sandy (Large article!)
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/AL182012_Sandy.pdf