As I’m sure many of you will have seen reported already, the Tropical Storm Sandy hit the East coast of the US, arriving in New Jersey at 20:00 local time on Monday, causing massive flooding and power cuts for millions of people. A tidal surge of 4m (13ft) hit the coast flooding large areas and, as to you would expect, much of the New York City’s subway systems and tunnels. One, if not more power stations have reportedly exploded, hospitals have been evacuated, and to top it off a large fire has destroyed roughly 50 homes. Sandy has now been downgraded from a hurricane to a ‘super storm’, but President Obama has declared a ‘major disaster’ in the New York state. The storm is now currently heading North towards Canada. (Source: BBC news)
Here’s some incredible footage of the Con Edison power station exploding in Manhattan.
The storm was made a lot worse due to the fact that it coincided with an unusually high tide, and our thoughts go out to the millions of people affected by the storm, not just in the US, but also those on the surrounding islands.
Hear is a lighter look at the situation with some people keeping their spirits up and making the best of a bad situation. It may seem inconsiderate to celebrate the enormous power of the storm, but whilst the media reports the destruction, all the surfers out there will no doubt know that a big storm, means big waves. As the following pictures demonstrate, for the past couple of days there has been some phenomenal waves crashing onto the shores of Florida, New Jersey and Carolina, with some intrepid surfers paddling out to tame Sandy’s power. (Source and more pics here).
Here’s a nice edit from the ‘Pump House’, Florida, on the 27th. The last wave in this vid is epic!
YouTube link: Pump House, Hurricane Sandy
One resident of New Jersey, although being strongly advised to evacuate, decided that it was an ideal time to go for a blast around the streets on a jet-ski!
Whilst a news reporter delivered the latest on the storm, someone took advantage of the deserted streets to get some drift practice in.
There has also been a backlash against American Apparel, who, not being content with sexualised ads and harassment lawsuits, targeted an email to those in the path of Sandy, telling them that they can get 20% off everything for the next 36 hours. While this might sound like a thoughtful gesture, perhaps they shouldn’t have titled the message ‘Incase you’re bored during the storm’, with the coupon code ‘Sandysale’, which will surely land them in hot water… again. But then again, as they say, any publicity is good publicity.
