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Sigmetnow

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1300 on: October 18, 2017, 06:52:07 PM »
In response to Archimid's comment about donations, I found this link:

SAN JORGE CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION
SANTURCE, PUERTO RICO
San Jorge Children's Foundation is the only private pediatrics hospital in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. It services all pediatric sub-specialties; thus, making it a unique institution in its class.
https://sanjorgechildrens.childrensmiraclenetworkhospitals.org
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Archimid

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1301 on: October 18, 2017, 08:00:34 PM »
Quote
Puerto Rico is the 1st natural disaster (Maria) where @FEMA is still delivering water & food after the 3rd week, & now going into a 4th week

 From my perspective there are various reasons for this.

1. Just before Maria, Irma ravaged many of the smaller Caribbean island. PR lead the relief efforts to those islands. Water and provisions that people stored for Maria was collected and sent to the islands.  I personally know many people that donated all their Irma provisions before Maria hit. I also know first hand that building materials were donated or sold by boatloads. By the time Maria hit there was less inventory than usual.

2. All segments of the supply chain were hit. I know my local walmart, Sam's, Costco, Home Depot and my favorite supermarket all suffered structural damage and water damage. I can imagine the same thing happened to wholesale warehouses. I bet the loses were significant.

3. Trusting the local government to distribute food and water is a huge mistake. Politicians hoard supplies, get their people to package them and stick pictures of the politicians in the boxes and rush them to neighborhoods that do not need them in order to garner favor. In my neihborhood, where most people is middle class or higher and most homes are concrete the local mayor drove trhough with about 20 paid employees  giving away food and water courtesy of the wonderful mayor to anyone that wanted. I guarantee you most people had plenty of food (not water tho). As a result the ones who did lose their houses and probably did need food got only a days worth of food instead of getting a large supply.  I bet the same thing happenning everywhere else.


That last one makes me terribly mad.  by seeing the local devastation, coupled with the lack of access to cash, communication and thin food supplies I'm confident that there must be thousands of people in dire need of food and medicine, yet the food is being delivered as tokens to garner political favor.

I want to.make it clear. There are people suffering terribly from this disaster.  People are drinking water from contaminated streams and wells and dying of Leptospirosis. People less fortunate than me are going hungry for sure. Vulnerable populations, specially the elderly are probably suffering the most. But the distribution of goods is not being done right.
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Neven

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1302 on: October 18, 2017, 08:14:12 PM »
Thanks for the update, Archimid.

Imagine that: People sending their supplies to the victims of Irma, and then getting hit by Maria. Wow.
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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1303 on: October 18, 2017, 08:19:09 PM »
Thank you Archimid. Highly informative for all of us, especially now that the world's media has moved on.

Archimid

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1304 on: October 18, 2017, 08:27:15 PM »
No good deed goes unpunished.
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Alexander555

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1305 on: October 18, 2017, 10:00:11 PM »
They are living in a area that's sensitive for hurricanes. When you have a good water filter you can filter almost all kinds of water. Even with a small one you can get up to 200 liters a day. In case of emergency that's for 100 a 200 people. They filter out everything from viruses, parasites, chemicals, heavy metals.....And finding water is probably not the problem, ground water, rivers , lakes....

Alexander555

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1306 on: October 18, 2017, 10:03:04 PM »
And the ground water is probably not that poluted. If you can filter that they have the best water in the world.

TerryM

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1307 on: October 18, 2017, 10:32:51 PM »
Archimid, good that you're OK, but disturbing to hear of the plight of others. Can you fill us in on the situation with the hospital ship? It seems as though it's being ridiculously under utilized.


Don't rush to answer this, but a line appended to something of more import would be appreciated.
Terry

Sigmetnow

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1308 on: October 18, 2017, 11:34:28 PM »
Typhoon Lan should reach "super typhoon" status on Friday -- equiv to a Cat 4+ hurricane.
Close call for Tokyo on Monday.
     https://twitter.com/ericholthaus/status/920737930959884289
Image below.
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1309 on: October 18, 2017, 11:54:26 PM »
About the distribution of water from a Superfund site.

Desperate Puerto Ricans are drinking water from a hazardous-waste site
Quote
Dorado, Puerto Rico (CNN) Jose Luis Rodriguez waited in line Friday to fill plastic jugs in the back of his pickup truck with water for drinking, doing the dishes and bathing.

But there is something about this water Rodriguez didn't know: It was being pumped to him by water authorities from a federally designated hazardous-waste site, CNN learned after reviewing Superfund documents and interviewing federal and local officials.

Rodriguez, 66, is so desperate for water that this news didn't startle him.

"I don't have a choice," he said. "This is the only option I have."
...
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/13/us/puerto-rico-superfund-water/index.html
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Archimid

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1310 on: October 18, 2017, 11:55:45 PM »
TerryM i would gladly answer any question you, or anyone may have as best as I can.  What I have heard over local news and social media is that hospitals have no idea how to contact the Comfort or how to refer patients. Over the last few days I have heard and seen an effort to diseminate the phone numbers to call to refer patients to the Comfort. Given the horrible state of communications I find that a plausible explanation. 

It could also be that since activity in most of the island is down to a minimum and many patients have been evacuated  local hospitals have enough capacity to handle the patient load. If hear something  with more substance I'll post it.

On a side note as someone who served at a US Army hospital I find the concept of a military hospital ship fascinating. So I'm keeping track of the Comfort anyway.
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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1311 on: October 19, 2017, 12:49:47 AM »
The Comfort's hospital is not the only underused thing there (but well, one birth reported there). Also her water distilling plants seem useless.  (300,000 US gallons (1,100,000 l; 250,000 imp gal) per day)

I suggest using horseback messengers, provided by the Navy, for communication with hospitals on land. And maybe there's a spare helicopter to transport patients.

P.S.: Anybody remember the days of shortwave radio?

And I thought Katrina was ridiculous enough... Luckily the death toll is negligible this time. :(
« Last Edit: October 19, 2017, 01:03:44 AM by Martin Gisser »

Sigmetnow

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1312 on: October 19, 2017, 02:36:23 AM »
Rachel Maddow reported last night that the number of patients being treated aboard the USNS Comfort, with its 1,000 hospital beds, was up to... 40.

One of the people responsible for the disastrous response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was just tapped to head the Department of Homeland Security -- which oversees FEMA. 

Video:  Trump picks leader of failed Bush Katrina response to lead DHS: http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/trump-picks-leader-of-failed-bush-katrina-response-to-lead-dhs-1075692099737
« Last Edit: October 19, 2017, 02:42:16 AM by Sigmetnow »
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Archimid

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1313 on: October 19, 2017, 03:21:11 AM »
Quote
And I thought Katrina was ridiculous enough... Luckily the death toll is negligible this time

Last number I heard was 43. I do not belive that number for one second. If they count deaths of dialysis patients who weren't dialysed in time,  diabetics whose insuline went bad for lack of refrigeration, and other vulnerable populations who didn't receive the care they needed I can see that number go much higher.  Mosquito borne and trash borne diseases are probably going to have an impact soon.   There is also 101 missing people, but I hope most of them are simply incommunicated.
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TerryM

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1314 on: October 19, 2017, 06:57:54 AM »
Thanks for the quick reply.
I just didn't want to squander what ever connectivity and time you have.


The beds and water that Comfort can provide are being wasted either through terrible coordination, or through terrible circumstances. PR was already in a terrible financial situation. If Russia can forgive billions of Cuba's debt, America can do the same for Puerto Rico.


Terry


Sigmetnow

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1315 on: October 20, 2017, 07:37:53 PM »
The Weather Channel: 30 days after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, the crisis continues. Today, we devote our site to covering it:

 AMERICA, THIS IS STILL HAPPENING
https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/2017-10-20-puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-by-the-numbers
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1316 on: October 20, 2017, 07:47:38 PM »
Day 30—one month:
81% of Puerto Rico is w/o power
30% w/o running water
Daily life, in a word, is "untenable".
https://grist.org/briefly/one-month-later-most-of-puerto-rico-is-still-utterly-destroyed/
        https://twitter.com/ericholthaus/status/921396695841329152

"At this stage in the humanitarian response, these conditions are unacceptable."
Quote
One month after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, too many are still waiting to receive aid and are relying on emergency supplies to survive.
Local organizations have stepped up with innovative responses, but aid has been slow to arrive and reach those in need, leaving too many still caught in a day-to-day crisis.
More from @Oxfam on Puerto Rico:
https://www.oxfamamerica.org/press/one-month-on-millions-of-puerto-ricans-still-caught-in-crisis/
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1317 on: October 20, 2017, 07:58:16 PM »
More lost power in Puerto Rico this year than the rest of the US combined. Maria is in the running for the biggest blackout in US history.
    https://twitter.com/trevorghouser/status/921421333132484609
Image below.

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Archimid

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1318 on: October 20, 2017, 11:25:49 PM »
There is a huge man made component to the slow restoration of the grid. There  were 17,000  lineworkers ready to travel to PR and get the grid up and running fast. The Puertorican government rejected that alternative. Instead they awarded a 300 million dollar contract  to a corporation with 2 employees called whitefish.

My head spins around trying to understand. This and recalling all mayors at the most crucial time of the emergency makes me think that the Puerto Rican government is being purposedly slow, in order to solve the debt problem together with the devastation of Maria.  But even that would be a terrible plan.   3 million people without power for months will kill the economy (and people but they dont care about that)
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1319 on: October 21, 2017, 03:21:27 AM »
Lan is currently the equivalent of a Category 3 hurricane in the eastern Pacific and Atlantic ocean
     https://twitter.com/breakingweather/status/921524670297509888

Voter turnout may suffer on Sunday as Typhoon Lan threatens Japan with flooding rain, mudslides
https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/voter-turnout-may-suffer-on-sunday-as-typhoon-lan-threatens-japan-with-flooding-rain-mudslides/70003065
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Alexander555

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1320 on: October 21, 2017, 07:26:41 AM »
I think Lan is going to be a high impact typhoon. They had some rain  last week, almost daily. That makes that everything is saturated already.

TerryM

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1321 on: October 21, 2017, 09:53:11 AM »
There is a huge man made component to the slow restoration of the grid. There  were 17,000  lineworkers ready to travel to PR and get the grid up and running fast. The Puertorican government rejected that alternative. Instead they awarded a 300 million dollar contract  to a corporation with 2 employees called whitefish.

My head spins around trying to understand. This and recalling all mayors at the most crucial time of the emergency makes me think that the Puerto Rican government is being purposedly slow, in order to solve the debt problem together with the devastation of Maria.  But even that would be a terrible plan.   3 million people without power for months will kill the economy (and people but they dont care about that)


Stay safe!
The worst may still be coming.
Terry

ghoti

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1322 on: October 21, 2017, 03:17:41 PM »
Apparently Project Loon has launched balloons over Puerto Rico and have begun cell and internet service to remote areas.

https://blog.x.company/turning-on-project-loon-in-puerto-rico-f3aa41ad2d7f

I wonder how people in isolated areas would find out how to connect and use these services.

charles_oil

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1323 on: October 21, 2017, 03:33:39 PM »

Great review about 1/2 hr on the BBC news channel and iPlayer (if you can get it).
Also repeats tomorrow - 22nd Oct see link for times:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b069bw8h/broadcasts/upcoming
Synopsis - The Power of Hurricanes:
From Florida and the BBC Weather Centre, the team examines why this year's Atlantic hurricane season has been so active, resulting in deadly consequences.
2017 has seen one of the most powerful and destructive hurricane seasons on record. In this Weather World Hurricane Special the team looks back at Hurricane Harvey's Texas deluge, Irma hitting Cuba as category five storm and Maria's rampage through the Caribbean.
Tomasz Schafernaker reports from Tampa, Florida when Irma struck. He describes what it was like for him, and his team, to safely experience the tropical cyclone.
"When we first arrived in Florida, Hurricane Irma was battering Cuba around 300 miles to the south of us. Even there we could feel the power of the storm, which just showed how big it was," explains Tomasz. "Later, when Irma reached Tampa and my location it had weakened to category two. It's one thing to talk about wind speeds and pressure but it's a completely different thing to experience it first-hand."
Meanwhile, Nick Miller discovers how rock deposits in Caribbean caves can be used to reveal the frequency of hurricanes hundreds of years ago - and what that could mean for our future.
Plus, Sarah Keith-Lucas explains how hurricanes are formed and what the different hurricane categories actually mean.







Sigmetnow

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1324 on: October 22, 2017, 02:30:53 AM »
Day 31:
84% of Puerto Rico is w/o power
28% w/o running water
Yesterday, a surgery was conducted by cellphone light.
An affront to humanity.
https://twitter.com/ericholthaus/status/921747952619663360
Photo at the link.
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Archimid

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1325 on: October 22, 2017, 03:13:57 AM »
At least for my area the worst may be over. I can see light over the horizon  in all directions. Water came back briefly, so maybe it will come back soon.  Yesterday my wife found bottled water, fresh fruits and vegetables and mosquito repellant at the supermarket and the shelves look much better.

Today I talked with my brother who travels the island for work and he says the east side looks much worse than our town. Whole industrial zones were devastated.

I would also like to correct a claim I made earlier. There where not 17000 linemen ready to come and rebuild the grid. Assistance was rejected but the details are sketchy.  The hiring of a 2 people company for 300 million did happen. I still think there is something fishy about it, but the fishiness is much less significant than I thought.

On charities, one of them is doing something trully amazing. Chef Jose Andres created a network of kitchens that collectively served 1.5 million hot meals in a month and  growing.

http://www.grubstreet.com/2017/10/chef-jose-andres-puerto-rico-milestone.html

Serving 1.5 million meals in a month is a huge accomplishment on its own, but given the supply problems, lack of power, water and communications this is quickly falling in the category of a miracle.
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1326 on: October 22, 2017, 03:26:04 AM »
Military commander during Katrina lays it out:

#MariaPR Response still not scaled right Approx:Troops Katrina 60k,PR 14K, Helos220/ 80, Ships20/ 15 Survivors approx 1 Mil / 4.3
https://twitter.com/ltgrusselhonore/status/920797608485859329
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Archimid

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1327 on: October 22, 2017, 04:03:43 PM »
On the Comfort. A groupf Doctors on the radio were saying that the problem is that no one knows how to get patients onto the ship. The phone numbers given over the media lead to the main Puertorican medical center ER and from there they connect you to a phone number that no one picks up. According to them the rumor  is that only the main Medical Center can refer patients to the comfort. This medical center is currently experiencing sporadic blackouts. Doctors have performed surgeries with flashlights in this place.

Again more fishiness.
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TerryM

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1328 on: October 22, 2017, 05:40:06 PM »
Archimid


Sounds as though you and yours are now through the worst, but still some "fishiness". This can't be the first time Comfort has been deployed to a disaster zone, they must have developed some proven protocol for communicating with their prospective patients.


You may be living through the textbook example of how not to react to a natural emergency. One that will be studied for as long as emergencies elicit responses.
Firsthand observations, notes & video might be valuable lesson material as this is dissected & studied.


Stay safe & document what you can.
Terry

Sigmetnow

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1329 on: October 23, 2017, 04:42:31 PM »
List of the 140 names for Tropical Storms or Typhoons in the Western Pacific -- and what they mean.
http://www.jma.go.jp/jma/jma-eng/jma-center/rsmc-hp-pub-eg/tyname.html

From:     https://twitter.com/RyanMaue/status/922246389161218049
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1330 on: October 23, 2017, 04:52:51 PM »
Post-hurricane Houston, Florida, and Puerto Rico. Part 2. Three weeks later…
Posted on October 21, 2017 by William Hooke
"LOTRW last offered a look at recovery from hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria on September 29. Time for another quick look! Three weeks further on, selected vignettes hint at where things now stand...."
http://www.livingontherealworld.org/?p=1685
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Archimid

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1331 on: October 23, 2017, 07:14:31 PM »
I think the comfort is being underutilized because there is only one hospital ( Centro Medico) with the authority to transfer patients to the Comfort. This means the Comfort is only catching patient oberflow or special services from one hospital. There are 200 and some hospitals in PR and there are temporary Army hospitals through the island. I hope at least the Army facilities can refer to the Comfort.

Centro Medico it is the last stop hospital in Puerto Rico in more ways than one. It has the most specialist, and it treats people that can't afford treatment in other hospitals or  At least they are transfered there. Centro Medico is currently experiencing power outages and generator failures, like everywhere else.

There is also the thing about money. Hospitals are mostly for profit facilities who operate most profitably at 100% utilization.  I do not know who pays for the services rendered by the Comfort. If it is the government of Puerto Rico well thats the reason.
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Archimid

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1332 on: October 24, 2017, 02:49:35 PM »
17 births of babies with microcephaly registered last month. That number is only goind to go up. Mankind's oldest enemy and greatest enemy taking it's toll.

http://www.elnuevodia.com/noticias/locales/nota/gobiernonorecopiladatossobrezikadesdehaceunmes-2368373/
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1333 on: October 24, 2017, 05:12:04 PM »
Whitefish....

Day 34:
Tiny Montana firm from [Secretary of the Interior] Zinke's hometown lands Puerto Rico's largest electric grid rebuilding contract....
https://twitter.com/ericholthaus/status/922833021761355777


Small Montana firm lands Puerto Rico’s biggest contract to get the power back on
The unusual decision to hire a tiny for-profit company is drawing scrutiny from Congress
Quote
For the sprawling effort to restore Puerto Rico’s crippled electrical grid, the territory’s state-owned utility has turned to a two-year-old company from Montana that had just two full-time employees on the day Hurricane Maria made landfall.

The company, Whitefish Energy, said last week that it had signed a $300 million contract with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority to repair and reconstruct large portions of the island’s electrical infrastructure. The contract is the biggest yet issued in the troubled relief effort. ...
http://www.denverpost.com/2017/10/24/whitefish-energy-puerto-rico-hurricane-recovery/



In other news:

Puerto Rico is currently considering Tesla’s plan for a series of microgrids, says govt official
https://electrek.co/2017/10/23/puerto-rico-tesla-microgrid/
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ghoti

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1334 on: October 24, 2017, 05:19:21 PM »
Here's a tweet showing a solar plus battery system for Hospital del Niño in PR

https://twitter.com/Tesla/status/922840234143952899

Looks like they are using the parking lot for the solar.

Archimid

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1335 on: October 24, 2017, 06:30:57 PM »
Trump, Zinke, Whitefish, corruption of the worst kind. This is a pay for play scheme. People  will die, billions in economic productivity will be lost but Trump managed to get his share of the disaster. I bet that the governor of Puerto Rico knows about this but he is under threat. If he doesn't play the federal well dries up. 

The saddest part is that this is likely all legal. And anything questionable will be covered up since this is backed at the highest levels.


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Sigmetnow

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1336 on: October 24, 2017, 06:32:16 PM »
Here's a tweet showing a solar plus battery system for Hospital del Niño in PR

https://twitter.com/Tesla/status/922840234143952899

Looks like they are using the parking lot for the solar.

So cool!  :)
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Archimid

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1337 on: October 24, 2017, 08:19:09 PM »
As an Earthling I already felt indebted to Elon. This is just too much for words to describe. In Elon we trust.
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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1338 on: October 25, 2017, 01:20:01 AM »
Says here upper management looted the Puerto Rican national electric company starting in 2014, diverting almost all the maintenance money to a slush fund ...

Quote
4. PREPA’s non‐labor operations budgets are poorly allocated
http://energia.pr.gov/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Expert-Report-Revenue-Requirements-Fisher-and-Horowitz-Revised-20161123.pdf

A major component of PREPA’s operational spending lands in Administrative and General
(A&G)  functional  area,  and  that  spending  in  this  area  has  increased  in  recent  years  for
unexplained causes. A review of PREPA’s records shows that PREPA spent the astonishing
figure of  $165 million in  A&G in  FY2016,  of  which  $134 million fell into  an undescribed
discretionary fund
. To give this figure context, PREPA spent the equivalent of more than a
third of its entire capital budget on discretionary A&G spending. 

Problematically, PREPA describes that it is “an inefficient bureaucracy” that is “overly staffed
with  non‐value  added  administrative  personnel,”  and  that  “the  executive  directorate  and
executive  team  is  oversized.”13  It  is  difficult  for  us  to  overstate  how  concerning  this  is.
Moreover, we have absolutely no further information about what, exactly, PREPA spent these
funds on...

Wow, these are decent hourly wages by Puerto Rican standards, all going to outside contractors as if they didn't have enough of their own idled lineman standing by: $2840 a day plus $412 per diem food and lodging. That adds up when the crew is standing around waiting for a broken crane and material to arrive.

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The two-person Montana company Whitefish [owned by a Brazilian company] from Secretary Zinke's home town was awarded a $300 million dollar no-bid contract over the phone. One of the two employees thre is just the spokesperson. Whitefish could be paid as much as $300 million for up to two years of work.

Under the contract, the hourly rate was set at $330 for a site supervisor, and at $228 for a “journeyman lineman.” The cost for subcontractors, which make up the bulk of Whitefish’s workforce, is $462 per hour for a supervisor and $319.04 for a lineman. Whitefish also charges nightly accommodation fees of $332 per worker and almost $80 per day for food

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/small-montana-firm-lands-puerto-ricos-biggest-contract-to-get-the-power-back-on/2017/10/23/31cccc3e-b4d6-11e7-9e58-e6288544af98_story.html?utm_term=.6a48667b5ea0

Sigmetnow

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1339 on: October 25, 2017, 02:57:37 AM »
The NWS in Puerto Rico just posted a heartbreaking island-wide tour after Hurricane Maria.
Drone video and photos over somber piano music.

Video captures Hurricane Maria’s terrible impact on Puerto Rico.
http://grist.org/briefly/video-captures-hurricane-marias-terrible-impact-on-puerto-rico/

Makes it clear why many places are unreachable by road.
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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1341 on: October 25, 2017, 11:50:16 AM »
After Typhoon Lan, Tropical Storm Saola is heading for Japan as well:

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Former Typhoon Lan struck Japan Sunday into Monday resulting in at least seven deaths and leaving widespread flooding and travel disruptions.

While Lan is no longer a threat, a new tropical storm is expected to take a similar track this week and could bring another round of flooding this weekend.

Tropical Storm Saola brought gusty showers to Guam as it passes south of the island early this week and will next set its sight on Japan's Ryukyu Islands before threatening the remainder of Japan.


https://m.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/saola-to-strengthen-target-japan-following-deadly-typhoon-lan/70003095


Sigmetnow

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1342 on: October 25, 2017, 08:02:13 PM »
Puerto Rico:

Day 35:
75% w/o power.
25% w/o running water.
Classes began at 9% of Puerto Rico's public schools yesterday.
Today, the heat index is 103°F
https://twitter.com/ericholthaus/status/923244491468926980

Update:
Heat index in San Juan is now up to 106°F [41°C]  ...
https://twitter.com/ericholthaus/status/923245112309813249
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1343 on: October 26, 2017, 01:15:52 AM »
The people at Whitefish Energy seem really polite and determined to help Puerto Rico get their power back as quickly as possible.
#Not

San Juan mayor calls for canceling 'alarming' contract for Puerto Rican power repairs
https://www.yahoo.com/amphtml/news/san-juan-mayor-calls-cancelling-alarming-contract-puerto-rican-power-repairs-132636239.html
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1344 on: October 26, 2017, 02:06:46 PM »
[9 hours ago]: @WhitefishEnergy apologizes to San Juan Mayor @CarmenYulinCruz saying comments tweeted today “does not represent who we are”
https://twitter.com/davidbegnaud/status/923377708079316992
Text image below.
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1345 on: October 26, 2017, 02:10:42 PM »
Boston:
The signal for an ‘outlier’ event is showing up in computer models, which is a reason to watch this one closely. ...
A tropical connection, tied in to a very dynamic setup, could yield unusual results here in the Northeast.


Potent Storm Approaching This Weekend
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2017/10/25/potent-storm-approaching-this-weekend/

Image:  7-day QPF, in inches.
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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1346 on: October 26, 2017, 04:19:46 PM »
Boston:
The signal for an ‘outlier’ event is showing up in computer models, which is a reason to watch this one closely. ...
A tropical connection, tied in to a very dynamic setup, could yield unusual results here in the Northeast.


Potent Storm Approaching This Weekend
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2017/10/25/potent-storm-approaching-this-weekend/

Image:  7-day QPF, in inches.

A classic Nor'easter. Cold front barrels into an extratropical storm. One would expect that these spectacular storms which occur in the fall and winter and often deliver unbelievable amounts of heavy wet snow should become even more spectacular as we load more energy into the atmosphere.

Since the Northeastern U.S. usually gets hit the hardest, a person should be forgiven for thinking this is where the name comes from. The name comes from the fact that these storms are characterized by strong northeastern winds coming off the Atlantic.
« Last Edit: October 26, 2017, 04:25:17 PM by Shared Humanity »

Sigmetnow

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1347 on: October 26, 2017, 07:24:44 PM »
Big signals showing up for a potential flash flood and river flood event in New England Sunday. #nbcct
     https://twitter.com/ryanhanrahan/status/923558362670825472
Image below.

Current (12Z) GFS model is forecasting similar amount of rain as fell during Hurricane Irene (2011), one of the worst floods in NE history.
Irene devastated the Catskills region of New York and many places in Vermont, causing billions of dollars of damage and years of cleanup.
Water temperatures just offshore New England are among the most unusually warm anywhere on the planet right now. That will help enhance rain
https://twitter.com/ericholthaus/status/923590846892707840
Image below.

The NWS is saying this weekend's storm could be among the strongest on record for October in New England.
https://twitter.com/ericholthaus/status/923597953536847872
Text image at the link.


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Sigmetnow

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1348 on: October 26, 2017, 07:39:29 PM »
Day 36:
Puerto Rico's government says, as of today, 78% of the island has running water.
The reality is much worse:  https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/policy-and-politics/2017/10/25/16504870/puerto-rico-running-water

https://twitter.com/ericholthaus/status/923593284601163776
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Hurricane season 2017
« Reply #1349 on: October 27, 2017, 12:15:52 AM »
FEMA Had a Plan for Responding to a Hurricane in Puerto Rico — But It Doesn’t Want You to See It
The disaster-relief agency, under fire after Hurricane Maria, won’t release the plan, even as a comparable document for Hawaii remains public.
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The Federal Emergency Management Agency, citing unspecified “potentially sensitive information,” is declining to release a document it drafted several years ago that details how it would respond to a major hurricane in Puerto Rico.

The plan, known as a hurricane annex, runs more than 100 pages and explains exactly what FEMA and other agencies would do in the event that a large storm struck the island. The document could help experts assess both how well the federal government had prepared for a storm the size of Hurricane Maria and whether FEMA’s response matches what was planned. The agency began drafting such advance plans after it was excoriated for poor performance and lack of preparation in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

ProPublica requested a copy of the Puerto Rico hurricane annex as part of its reporting on the federal response to Maria, the scale and speed of which has been the subject of scrutiny and criticism. More than a month after the storm made landfall, 73 percent of the island still lacks electricity.

Early last week, a FEMA spokesman said he would provide a copy of the plan that afternoon. It never came. ...
https://www.propublica.org/article/fema-had-a-plan-for-responding-to-a-hurricane-in-puerto-rico
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