This is what parts of Mamaroneck, NY looked like after hurricane/tropical storm Ida came through for its visit. Much of Lower Westchester could be described as places that "You can't get there from here." And looking at the picture above, it is easy to understand why this is so.
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Right now, there is a lot of finger pointing going on. After any major storm, politicians will make a lot of noises and do a lot of nothing. In the case of Ida, images should be a wake up call that major upgrades to our infrastructure are needed to deal with the effects of global warming. Unfortunately, this takes money - something we don't have enough of.
My current path to work goes through areas which could get flooded out. However, I was lucky, as that the only traffic jam I encountered was less than 2 miles away from my office. Even then, there were no floods blocking my path to work. Instead, other people's paths to work were blocked in front of me, and the cars going in the opposite direction from me prevented me from speeding off an exit ramp, then making a right turn to make it the last mile to work. So I drove on the shoulder to do this, and made it to work only 5 minutes late. Not much for me to get frustrated about. But I can only imagine how it was for the man who hired me - he had to come from Jersey....
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But things could be worse than to have a bad commute to work - One could have had to drive home in the middle of this storm. There are some people who are not "emergency personnel" (Firemen, Police, Doctors, etc.) who had to be at work and do not have the option to work from home. An example of this class of worker is a New York City based sportscaster covering an out of town ball game from his hometown ballpark. When the 83 y/o John Sterling left Yankee Stadium after the end of the game against the Angels, he drove home during some of Ida's worst rains. Due to floods, he got stuck in his car somewhere in Edgewater, NJ. Luckily, Spanish Language announcer Rickie Ricardo (I couldn't but chuckle at the name, given classic TV shows) was able to rescue Sterling safely and deliver him home.
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Hopefully, my local readers made it through the storm safe and sound, with minimal property damage.
