Northeastern USA “Blown Away” by Blizzard Nemo, 9 Dead

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A potentially record-breaking snow storm brought the northeastern USA to a grinding halt and left nine dead. Thousands lost power amidst flight cancellations and a nuclear plant shutdown, as authorities declared states of emergency in five states. A blizzard dumped record snow of 97 centimetres (38 inches) in parts of Connecticut as it continued blowing through Boston and the rest of New England on Saturday. Life was returning to normal in New York City, where up to 31 centimetres (12 inches) of snow fell. New York airports reopened earlier Saturday, after being closed for nearly a day. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, “We were very lucky. We avoided the worst of it”.

In neighbouring Massachusetts, snow tapered off in the afternoon after reaching around 60 centimetres (24 inches), and authorities lifted a state-wide ban on all driving after 24 hours. Instruments recorded wind gusts of 120 kilometres an hour (75 miles per hour) through the night at Boston’s Logan International Airport, which wasn’t expected to reopen before late Saturday. On Cape Cod, the hook-shaped Massachusetts peninsula jutting into the Atlantic, waves up to 6 metres (20 feet) high crashed onto beaches. Jane Miller, a resident of Nantucket Island off the coast of Massachusetts, told reporters, “This has been like a hurricane with snow”. She said that the island was spared heavy snowfall, but surging tides prompted the local government and Red Cross to open a shelter at a high school for people living near the coast who wanted to evacuate. Coastal flooding was particularly bad along Massachusetts’ southern mainland coastline, a stretch that was also hit in the October hurricane-turned-superstorm Sandy. The US Postal Service suspended service in seven states.

In New York State, media reports said that a car that skidded out of control struck a female pedestrian, and a man died in a tractor rollover while clearing his driveway. A Massachusetts 12-year-old died of carbon-monoxide poisoning when he sat in the family car to warm up after helping his father shovel snow. Named Blizzard Nemo by the Weather Channel, the storm’s heavy snow and terrifically-high winds toppled trees, causing caused power outages for more than 600,000 people across Massachusetts, New York, Maine, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Some 400,000 blacked out electric customers were in Massachusetts alone, where the Boston Globe published a photo of total storm whiteout with the headline: “Blown Away”. Late Friday, power outages caused a shutdown of the Pilgrim nuclear power plant in Plymouth MA, according to a local radio station.

According to the National Weather Service, parts of Connecticut appeared to have received the heaviest snowfall, ranging up to 97 centimetres (38 inches) in Milford and 91 centimetres (36 inches) in other areas. The coastal town of Portland ME received a record 74 centimetres (29 inches) of snow. A news crew for CNN reported that the doors of their satellite truck had frozen shut overnight on Cape Cod, and it took them an hour to reopen them. Wind whipped snow drifts more than a metre (40 inches) high in Boston. A city worker told the DPA that it was the worst storm since 1978, when a 36-hour blizzard killed 100 people in Massachusetts and neighbouring Rhode Island. In the 1978 blizzard, hundreds of cars were stranded in the snow, and some drivers froze to death along interstate highways. More than 5,000 flights were cancelled since Friday, and, at its height, the storm shut down all rail traffic from Philadelphia to Boston. The governors of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, and Maine declared states of emergency.

Prime News reported that Russian airlines Aeroflot and Transaero plan to maintain scheduled flights to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on Saturday despite anticipating huge snow falls from snow-storm Nemo. Nemo, which hit the northeastern USA on Friday evening, is expected to be one of the most powerful in the history of New York. Over 4,700 flights were cancelled across the USA due to the storm. Aeroflot said, “There’ve been no changes to our timetable”, whilst rival Transaero reported, “departure is expected as normal”, for its morning flight to New York. Meanwhile, the weather was also making life hard in Moscow, where pedestrians and drivers woke on Saturday to find the city covered in a slippery coat of glass-like ice after freezing rain fell overnight, causing accidents on several main highways into the capital.

New England braced on Thursday for a possibly record-setting winter storm, with forecasts of up to 2 feet (61 centimetres) of snow already causing airlines to cancel thousands of flights and utilities to prepare for power outages. The storm was blowing in from the Midwest where it began dropping snow on the Chicago area on Thursday afternoon. It was due to bring light snow to the Northeastern USA on Friday morning before ramping up to blizzard conditions by afternoon. Alan Dunham, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service, said, “This one doesn’t come along every day. This is going to be a dangerous winter storm. Wherever you need to get to, get there by Friday afternoon, and don’t plan on leaving”.

In Boston, which was expected to see some of the heaviest snowfall, on Friday, Mayor Thomas Menino ordered the city’s schools to close and urged businesses to consider allowing staff to stay home, to reduce the risk of commuters getting stranded. Menino told reporters, “We’re hardy New Englanders, let me tell you, and used to these types of storms. But I also want to remind everyone to use common sense and stay off the streets of our city. Basically, stay home. Stay put after noontime tomorrow”.

City officials up and down the northeastern USA were bracing for the storm, readying fleets of ploughs and salt trucks to keep streets clear, whilst airport officials advised travellers to try to reschedule flights ahead of the storm. The National Weather Service said Boston could get 18 to 24 inches of snow (46 to 61 centimetres) on Friday and Saturday, its first heavy snowfall in two years. Light snow is expected to begin falling around 07.00 EST (04.00 PST 12.00 UTC 16.00 MSK 23.00 AEST) on Friday, with heavier snow and winds gusting as high as 60 to 75 miles per hour (97 to 121 kilometres per hour) as the day progresses. Kim Buttrick, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Taunton MA said, “It’s the afternoon rush-hour time frame into the evening and overnight when the height of the storm will be”. Cities from Hartford CT to Portland ME expected to see at least a foot (31 centimetres) of snow.

9 February 2013

Voice of Russia World Service

http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_02_10/US-northeast-blown-away-by-blizzard-Nemo-9-dead-VIDEO/

Editor’s Note:

There was little disruption here in Albany NY, even though it’s at the geographical centre of the Northeast and it’s the transportation hub of the region (all major roads and trunk rail lines in the Northeastern USA converge on Albany). There was a snow emergency declared by Mayor Jerry Jennings, but he cancelled it before it took effect, as so little snow has fallen. We took a lovely motor through the lower Adirondacks this afternoon after services, and there was little snowfall as far north as Lake George (75 kilometres (46 miles) from Albany). The Lake George Winter Carnival was in full swing, with no problems due to the weather (the Carnival runs during the weekends of February… so, if you’re in the region, check it out). It was a fairly-comfy -5 (23 degrees Fahrenheit), with no biting winds (trust me… it can get MUCH more nastier than that in this neck of the woods; it was a balmy winter day by my lights). My Nicky bought a bumper sticker with three bears on it… so, it was a good adventure. No, we didn’t “suffer” in the least. We had no power outages, no heavy snows, and no disruption to normal life. We lucked out.

BMD

Getting Sick Not an Option for Many American Workers

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Like the protagonist of some cold medicine commercial, Robert said that he couldn’t afford to get sick and miss a shift at the upscale restaurant where he waits tables six nights a week in the American capital. Robert, 31, told RIA-Novosti this week, “It’s expensive to live in this city. You can’t just be missing days”. Robert, who asked that his last name not be published because his employer hasn’t authorised him to speak to the media about this job, actually has more access to paid sick leave than many Americans do. He works in Washington DC, which is one of just three American cities… along with one state, Connecticut… to guarantee paid sick leave for employees. An estimated 40 million American workers have no paid sick leave, which the US federal government defines as a “benefit” rather than a right.

A national debate over mandatory sick-pay grabbed headlines in recent weeks in the USA, which is in the grip of a flu outbreak that health authorities said has reached epidemic proportions. The USA is one of the few industrialised nations that don’t have a federal law mandating paid sick leave, a situation that critics say pressures ill employees to come to work out of fear of losing a pay-cheque .. or their jobs. They say that this results in decreased employee productivity and increased public exposure to infectious illnesses, particularly when workers like Robert and other food service employees… whose jobs involve face-to-face contact with the public… shrug off symptoms and clock in anyway.

According to a 2010 study at the University of Chicago, more than two-thirds of Americans reported going to work whilst ill. According to the study, employees without paid sick-leave are 18 percent more likely to show up at work sick and 10 percent more likely to send their sick children to school or day-care. New York City legislator Gale Brewer told WNYC radio in an interview earlier this month, “I’m sure right now as we speak kids are going to school sick. Their parents can’t take a day off”. Arguably, New York City is the current epicentre of the sick leave debate, with local lawmakers pushing for the nation’s financial capital to guarantee sick pay for workers. Brewer is backing a bill that would mandate that businesses with five employees or more must offer some sort of paid sick-leave; the legislation has received backing from a range of civic and religious groups, as well as celebrities like American feminist writer and activist Gloria Steinem.

However, New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said such that legislation would hurt business during already difficult times, a position that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg expressed as well. New York Times columnist Michael Powell noted with irony that Bloomberg’s opposition to the bill is at odds with his reputation as a public-health activist… an image burnished by enacting public smoking bans and crackdowns on oversized sugary drinks. In October, Powell wrote, “Bloomberg worries a lot about our health; he’s banned smoking in bars and vat-size cups of soda, but suggest that a couple of women should be allowed to take off a day rather than cough bacteria into the chicken quesadillas, and his free-market spine stiffens”.

According to a 2011 study published in the American Journal of Public Health, the lack of paid sick-leave in the USA helped lead to an additional five million infections during the Swine Flu outbreak in 2009. This week, Michael Sinesky, who owns several bars and restaurants in New York City, told the AP that the bill would hurt his operations, particularly in the destructive wake left by Hurricane Sandy late last year, saying, “We’re at the point, right now, where we can’t afford additional social initiatives”. Lawmakers in several other American cities are pushing for mandatory paid sick-leave bills as well, including Portland OR and Philadelphia PA, whose mayor, Michael Nutter, vetoed a bill requiring sick pay in 2011. Joel Mathis, a columnist for Philadelphia Magazine’s website, argued this week that the city should pass paid sick leave legislation in order to protect customers as well as workers. Mathis wrote, “Want the flu with your fries? Some pertussis with your poutine? A cold with your cold beer? Because that’s what the current system is designed to provide”.

25 January 2013

Carl Schreck

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/world/20130124/179003388/Getting-Sick-Not-an-Option-for-Many-US-Workers.html

Editor’s Note:

That’s why I went to work feeling poorly this past week… I lacked sick days as part of my compensation. Of course, according to the rightwing received-wisdom, I’m a “taker”… I deserve nothing but a swift boot in the arse for laziness according to Steve Forbes, Wet Willy Romney (have you seen how quickly the Repulicants dropped their erstwhile standard-bearer?), and James Paffhausen. Then again, Steve Forbes said on 12 October 2012, “Yes, [Romney] will win this election, despite all the claptrap to the contrary”… he believes in crackbrained foolishness such as the gold standard. Romney actually believed his own propaganda (what would one expect with a youthful nappy-wearing incompetent such as Priebus at the head of the RNC (he was white, though!)?)… and Paffhausen actually thinks that he’s a victim of the OCA Holy Synod and that he deserves “compensation”. Not very good for the “makers” of this world, eh? Shitbirds of a feather flock together… never forget that. Yes, taking care of sick people is “Pro-Life”… more so than waving a placard in a bootless “March for Life“. Think on that, if you will…

We need a “new” New Deal… the sooner, the better…

BMD

After School Shooting, What Can President Obama Do?

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As parents began Monday to bury the young victims of last week’s elementary school massacre, US President Barack Obama offered more than words of comfort. He offered words of hope and the promise of action on gun control. speaking at a memorial service Sunday for the 20 children and six adults who died at the hands of an armed gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown CT on Friday, he said, “In the coming weeks, I’ll use whatever power this office holds… in an effort aimed at preventing more tragedies like this”. In a country that constitutionally guarantees the right to bear arms, and where gun control is an emotionally-charged political quagmire, the question is, “How much can Obama do on his own?”

The call for immediate action echoed on radio talk shows, social media sites, and media reports from coast to coast. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an outspoken advocate of gun control, called on Obama to make tightening gun restrictions his “number one” agenda. On Sunday, on NBC’s Meet the Press, Bloomberg said, “I think the president should console the country, but he’s the commander-in-chief as well as the consoler-in-chief. It’s time for the president, I think, to stand up and lead and tell this country what we should do”. Joyce Cordi, who covers business and government issues for the blog-sharing platform Policymic, wrte, “President Obama should issue an executive order TODAY that places immediate absolute limits on the type and quantity of ammunition that can be purchased at-retail by an individual”.

However, it’s not that easy. John Hudak, an expert on presidential powers and a fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, a non-profit research organization, in an interview with RIA-Novosti, said, “The president’s fairly restricted in his ability to unilaterally change gun policy in the USA because of existing state and federal law. There’s not much he can do from the standpoint of executive action”. Obama… like all US presidents before him… has the authority to use executive orders, a privilege that originated under President George Washington and allows the commander-in-chief to issue a legally-binding order to federal agencies. However, there are restrictions on the kind and scope of orders a president can issue.

Eric Freedman, distinguished professor of constitutional law at Hofstra University Law School, said in an interview with RIA-Novosti, “He’s supposed to be sure the existing laws are being enforced, but he can’t make new laws. If it’s legal to carry a Saturday night special in a park, then nothing the president can do will make it illegal, but if something’s already illegal, then he can choose to enforce it more vigorously”. The most aggressive actions on gun control… like a ban on assault weapons or large ammunition clips… would require legislation that passes both the US Senate and the House of Representatives before the president signs them into law.

Nevertheless, gun control experts said that there are gun control laws already on the books that have languished, including limits on the possession of guns by felons and mental patients, and the ability to run data checks on people who apply for weapons permits. The president could significantly increase investigations and enforcement that would have an immediate effect, Freedman said. “The president can order the relevant enforcement agencies to ratchet up their priorities and can shuffle funds within those agencies to make it happen. He could have a fairly significant impact because you could get some dangerous people and weapons out of circulation, but also because high visibility campaigns have a deterrent effect and would provide political cover for state officials who want more enforcement without the political risk”. He also said Obama is likely in the coming days and weeks to announce, with some fanfare, enforcement of the existing legislation and push to reinstate the ban on assault weapons that expired under President Bush. Freedman added, “The odds are that he’ll consider this fairly low-hanging fruit”.

Experts say Obama is also likely to mandate a broader national policy on school security measures, and push for a more effective coverage of mental health care nationwide. Hudak said, “Through these smaller steps, he can build momentum for bigger change”. Both Hudak and Freedman said that such changes are likely to come sooner, rather than later.

18 December 2012

Maria Young

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/politics/20121218/178227734.html

Will “Sandy” Save Obama’s Campaign?

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Hurricane Sandy’s hitting of the US East Coast could play a crucial role in the presidential campaign. Analysts believe that the storm can benefit Obama even better than all the members of his campaign team. Sandy can help Obama get a “permission” to reassume the presidency. This could happen during the final and most important stage of the presidential campaign, when less than a week is left before the elections. Until recently, opinion polls showed Obama and Romney sharing almost equal chances to win.

The storm will save Obama’s election campaign. Sounds cynical, doesn’t it? However, being cynical is part of any American presidential campaign. The participants forget all standards of behaviour, given what a great prize awaits the winner at the end. Sandy is a good example. Actually, according to meteorologists, it wasn’t a hurricane when it reached the USA, but a tropical storm. Obviously, it wasn’t the strongest hurricane in a decade. Prominent Russian political analyst Gleb Kuznetsov believes that the Obama team overdramatized the situation, saying, “In advance, Obama turned this hurricane into a catastrophe. Referring to Sandy, the Obama administration used such terms as ‘unprecedented’ and ‘horrible’ as if trying to get people prepared for a possible outcome. Sandy couldn’t have brought Obama any good, only harm. This is what he focused on beforehand, trying to prevent harmful consequences”.

The superstorm offered Obama a chance to use his administration’s potential to its fullest, to prove himself an effective president and rescuer without confronting the risk of facing accusations of politicking. The Obama team seems to have learned a good lesson from the 2005 Hurricane Katrina. Then-US President George W Bush faced blame for his slow handling of the situation, which resulted in his approval rating going down sharply. Pavel Tarusin, analyst for Lomonosov Moscow State University, said, “Voters have already compared Sandy to Katrina. In 2005, the rescue operation was really too late as Mr Bush and the Governor of Louisiana debated for 5-6 days on whether to allocate federal money on the rescue operation or not. In terms of this, Mr Obama finds himself in a better position now… we must admit that he has been quite active in handling the situation”.

Barack Obama cancelled all his remaining campaign appearances, as he’s busy monitoring the rescue operation in the northeatern USA. His schedule for Wednesday, 31 October, features a visit to the worst-affected New Jersey areas. On Wednesday, Republican candidate Mitt Romney is touring Florida, a state that wasn’t affected by Sandy. Can there be a better contrast between the two candidates? One monitors the rescue efforts, whilst the other continues to campaign as the US East Coast is in trouble. Barack Obama declared the states of New Jersey and New York the worst affected by the storm. He ordered the allocation of federal money to help people in these areas to cope with the aftermath of the storm. Even Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie admitted that Obama’s actions were “outstanding”. This certainly placed Mitt Romney in the background of the current political scene in the USA.

Hurricane Sandy, which hit the US eastern coast and Canada, is losing force, but the death toll keeps growing. The raging elements claimed more than 60 human lives in Caribbean countries before making landfall over the US East Coast and Canada on Monday night. preliminary estimates put the overall damage cost is at 20 billion dollars, but Japanese economists feel the cost may well rise to 100 billion dollars and gravely affect American economic growth. The US National Hurricane Centre believes that Sandy was the biggest-scale tropical cyclone in the North Atlantic since tropical cyclones began to be recorded in 1851.

Amidst enormous efforts to get back to normal life, New York City authorities are taking measures against a crime wave that could spill over the city. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg promised “a very heavy police presence” in blacked-out city areas. According to reports from the crippled city, police vans and patrol cars with their roof lights on are all over the streets. Although there’s been little sign of a crime wave so far, officials said that police made multiple arrests in the city on Monday and Tuesday. Charges included burglary, criminal mischief, and trespassing. Media reports say that New York began beefing up police patrols in the wake of Hurricane Sandy’s landfall, which triggered a rise of crime and violence in the city. Some hundred police were deployed to Coney Island to protect looted stores and banks, whilst residents of several blocks in Chelsea in Manhattan hired private security guards. Media reports say that New Yorkers fear that the storm could lead to a spike in crime amidst the power outages.

Russian air-carriers Aeroflot and Transaero cancelled their flights from Moscow to New York due this Wednesday because of Hurricane Sandy. Delta Airlines took similar steps. The situation is extremely involved at John F Kennedy Airport in New York. One runway is non-operational, since its navigation systems are flooded. Most of New York’s alternate airports have been closed. On Monday, Sandy made landfall over the US East Coast, killing more than 50 Americans to date. Some 8 million people are suffering from power outages. The damages are estimated at 20 billion USD. Earlier, the hurricane hit some Caribbean countries, so the overall death toll is about 120. The cyclone is currently moving towards Canada.

Life in New York is getting back on track after Hurricane Sandy hit the US East Coast on Monday night. The authorities said that the after-effects of the hurricane are unprecedented. Water in worst-hit lower Manhattan has receded, so housing and municipal services crews got down to repairing the storm damage. Groceries, cafés, and restaurants have reopened in downtown New York, with owners jacking prices up for top-selling goods.

Officials say the death toll from Superstorm Sandy has reached 50. There are widespread power outages in lower Manhattan. Utility officials say it could be days before power is restored and the subway system is running again. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said there was “no timeline” for when the subway would restart, but he hoped buses could begin running again on Wednesday. All New York area major airports were closed as their runways are flooded, but John F Kennedy Airport and Newark Airport in New Jersey are due to reopen at 06.00 EDT on Wednesday, with reduced service. Bloomberg said that it’s likely to be two or three days before power is restored to most of the city. Storm-caused deaths were reported in Connecticut, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. A Toronto resident, a woman, also fell victim to the hurricane.

According to the UN press service, the United Nations Headquarters in New York remains paralysed for the third day, as does the city itself after being hit by hurricane Sandy last Tuesday night. On 31 October, all meetings at the UN were cancelled and the UN’s website is also down. According to the authorities, Hurricane Sandy killed at least 16 people in New York and over 600,000 households were left without power. The restoration of power and public transport may take several days.

US President Barack Obama pledged to do everything possible to quickly deal with the effects of Hurricane Sandy. He stated that the difficulties were felt by the entire country and said that assistance would be provided free of red tape and bureaucracy. Obama also called on US citizens to be generous and donate aid to the victims of the hurricane through the American Red Cross. President Obama noted the courage of rescuers and authorities in New York, the city that suffered the most severe consequences of the storm. On Wednesday, US President Barack Obama cancelled all campaign events due to Hurricane Sandy making landfall on the East Coast. Obama was to hold a meeting with voters in Ohio, but decided to stay in Washington to coordinate the actions of the government forces in the aftermath of the disaster. Obama said his priority now is the early transfer of resources to local authorities. Meanwhile, rival Mitt Romney, said that his campaign will resume on Wednesday in Florida. According to his press office, the Republican is in Ohio, where he opened an endowment fund to victims of the hurricane. Earlier, Romney said that he considered it necessary to cut funding for the US Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Television reports said that Hurricane Sandy killed more than 30 people in seven northeastern American states. According to New York Mayor Michel Bloomberg, New York City was the worst hit with at least ten people reported dead. The total storm-related death toll in the state of New York is 17. Three people were killed in Pennsylvania and three in New Jersey. One of the reactors at the Salem 1 nuclear power plant in New Jersey was shut down because of the storm after four of its six coolant pumps stopped working.

31 October 2012

Vitaly Radnayev

Andrei Fedyashin

Voice of Russia World Service

http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_10_31/Will-Sandy-save-Obama-s-campaign/

Editor’s Note:

One of the more fluky “October Surprises” on record fatally damaged Willy’s campaign. There’s nothing that Willy can do of it… nothing. All that Barack Obama has to do is to attend to his duties and look “presidential”… and that will tilt most “undecideds” his way. After all, he made George W Bush look foolish, and everyone knows that Willy is nothing but Bush Redux. At present, Romney’s call to reduce or eliminate FEMA looks ridiculous. There’s nothing to do, the money of his fatcat supporters can’t help him. Barack Obama came across as cool and dispassionate… he hasn’t made a wrong move yet.

In short, the Romney campaign is going full-tilt for the abyss… it’s no horse-race. Most statistical researchers give the Prez a 70 to 80 percent chance of re-election. He has to fuck up royally to lose… and he’s not a gambler like John McCain was. The hurricane was an “act of God”… in more ways than one…

BMD