Thoughts on Sandy Part III by Dr. John Plodinec

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“Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional”

John Plodinec– Ernie Broussard, Cameron Parish, LA

Over on the Recovery Diva site, Claire Rubin linked to another sorry tale of political failure in the face of Hurricane Sandy. Mayor Bloomberg in NYC failed to order the evacuation of over 40 nursing homes and other facilities for the care of the elderly, the disabled and the mentally ill. About 70% of these facilities lost power, requiring the rescue of over 5500 residents. To quote the story from the New York Times,

At least 29 facilities in Queens and Brooklyn were severely flooded. Generators failed or were absent. Buildings were plunged into a cold, wet darkness, with no access to power, water, heat and food…

…it took at least three days for the Fire Department, the National Guard and ambulance crews from around the country to rescue over 4,000 nursing home and 1,500 adult home residents. Without working elevators, many had to be carried down slippery stairwells…

Many sat for hours in ambulances and buses before being transported to safety through sand drifts and debris-filled floodwaters. They went to crowded shelters and nursing homes as far away as Albany, where for days, they often lacked medical charts and medications. Families struggled to locate relatives.

After the storm, both Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Cuomo (whose aides also recommended against evacuating) were quick to blame the impacts of the storm on climate change. As if there was some malevolent Great Pumpkin out there – terrifying, unknown and unknowable – that was responsible for all of the terrible things that happened.

As I noted in my previous posting on Sandy, the storm was not unprecedented. The frequency of storms hitting this area is not unprecedented. In fact, as shown in the graph below, the number of hurricanes that have hit the US show no trends that can be attributed to “climate change.”

The politicians blew this one big time, and used the ruse of “Climate Change” to excuse their incompetence. As a result, those among us least able to cope were made to suffer unnecessarily. I hope the voters take the appropriate action next election cycle.

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