The entire East Coast is bracing for an earthquake Hurricane Irene, currently scheduled to pound American shores as early as Saturday.
If it stays on its current path, Irene could tear through Norfolk, Virginia, Philadelphia, Atlantic City, New York City, Boston and Portland, Maine – impacting more than 55 million people. Governors in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, and New York have already declared states of emergency. Airlines have started cancelling flights. And people have already started to make references to "Come on, Eileen" on the Internets.
Irene bodes particularly worrisome for the 20 million in the Greater New York area, the most densely populated place in the United States. Eight million people live New York City alone, and mostly without cars (there's just no place to park). Any sort of evacuation could be a giant mess as most people rely on public transportation like subways, buses and commuter rails to get around.
New York city officials are considering evacuating residents in low-lying areas near the water, which includes Ground Zero. There's concern about the construction site itself and whether the cranes would be able to hold up against hurricane-force winds.
New York, more known for its sticky summers and winter blizzards, doesn't have much experience in the hurricane department. There have only been five hurricanes on record dating back to 1851 that came within 75 miles of New York City.
We dug up an old school Nightly News piece on Hurricane Gloria from September 27, 1985, which took a similar path up the East Coast. Then Nightly News anchorman Tom Brokaw explained scaffolding was tightened on the Statue of Liberty and the Twin Towers at The World Trade Center were temporarily shutdown, giving 50,000 workers a holiday.
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Actually, I am curious about something that guest host Chris Hayes said today about Florida demanding drug tests of welfare recipients. I am wondering what is meant by the word, "welfare." We know that AFDC and General Assistance are gone; there is the marginal TANF program, though that's actually a subsidy, as recipients are required to work. There is food stamps as well, but I'm not sure where that fits because it is available for low income workers and for Social Security recipients; things like free meals for the elderly are the same as food stamps, but are not considered welfare. Corporations receive an extraordinary amount of welfare, but we call it something else. Nearly all Americans benefit from "government handouts," since we use highways, fire departments, schools, etc. So -- when a politician rails against welfare, about whom/what are they speaking? And when welfare is mentioned on (for example) The Last Word, what program do you mean?
The term "welfare" is an generic word used to describe government programs that reduce homelessness and starvation.
Welfare was originally intended to reduce crime that becomes necessary to support yourself and your family when you have no other source of income. About 15% of the U.S. population is functionally illiterate, and this segment of the population is the last to find work and the first to be laid off.
Over half the prison population comes from this segment of the population.
Functionally illiterate individuals became permanently unemployable beginning when the U.S. shifted from a manufacturing economy to a services based economy as the Internet was integrated into business processes.
The bulk of functionally illiterate individuals form part of the labor force associated with manufacturing and construction trades. The U.S. has lost 3 million manufacturing jobs and about 2 million construction jobs. This is over 3% of the workforce and these job losses are permanent.
At the same time, health care has created 3 million new jobs and technology has created about 2 million new jobs. These gains are permanent and this offsets most of the losses, but these jobs cannot be filled by functionally illiterate individuals previously employed in manufacturing and construction trades.
Information technology allows retail business to eliminate jobs associated with retail inventory and warehousing, which is one of the reasons profits are soaring as unemployment rises. Most of the new health care jobs pay less, like nursing assistant, physicians assistant, and diagnostic imaging.
This shift toward technology and health care professions has not been accommodated by curriculum requirements established by the U.S. Department of Education for compulsory education (primary and secondary schools).
Well, it is beginning to look like the east cost is going for the big 3 of the west coast.
The only thing let to make summer on the east coast seem like a west coast experience is a major forrest fire.
I'm glad the earthquake did not claim any lives. I hope nobody dies in the hurricane.
Reminds me of Genesis 11, Tower of Babel. Here it is re-stated for current times. The Red and the Blue people in Washington tried to build lots of stuff that Godd didn't like. Since they already spoke disticntly different languages, they couldn't be scattered that way. so God, in a loving manner, let them escape the city first, then sent an earthqyuake and a hurricane to discourage them from ever trying stupid things like that again.
NJ Gov. Christie says storm could be a "100 year event." Elsewhere I read it's the strongest Atlantic storm in seven years. Who's right?
I assume he won't be asking the big bad Feds for any assistance.
George- it is a category 1 hurricane that could even be downgraded to tropical storm levels. And in watching MSNBC- it seems like it will hit NYC at low tide.
Yeah, stormpulse.com is predicting it'll hit NYC with winds of 75 mph - barely hurricane. NYC has survived a lot worse in the past with very little damage. Good news.
Still, I had visions of a photo-op with Obama handing Christie one of those giant photo-op-sized checks. Oh, well.
My sincere condolences on your mother. I can just imagine how proud she was of your morals and you are a fighter for all the right reasons.