DeLuxe Hit Hard

[sirenwerks]

Hang in there Dave.  Clean up is a pain, need any help.

If you decide to go up from wherever you are in SoMD and can swing by Ellicott City (or meet somewhere off 95), I'd pitch in. Being unemployed I have the time, just not the gas or toll $ to do the trek. PM me and let me know your plans.

Bryan

[Smike]

Sorry to hear Dave, your story is unfortunately too common after Irene. Of course since it didnt happen in NYC it was just an overhyped rain storm....

[davefoxx]

Hurricane Irene hit DeLuxe hard. The water flowed through the building up to over 2 feet deep. Inventory was swept off shelves two high! Theses photos give you an idea what happened. As of 1 am 8/31/11 the phones were still down in Whippany. When they come back, we will not be taking phones calls (our hands will be too muddy!) but if you leave a message we'll get back to you as soon as we can. It will be at least 2 weeks before we are able to ship any orders, longer before things are even close to normal again. Visit our home page to see photos of the devastation:
http://www.deluxetrains.com/index.html

Dave,

So sorry to hear about the flood and your loss.  I can empathize, as I used to work in a kitchen center that was inundated with 30" of water during Hurricane Floyd twelve years ago this month.  The water receded almost as fast as it overflowed the banks of the adjacent creek (bad timing of high tide and storm), but we spent at least two weeks cleaning the mud out of that building.  I will never forget the smell and for the few years I worked there after that, we would move something around in the warehouse and, occasionally, we would get whiff of that odor.

Dave Foxx

[up1950s]

Sorry to hear Dave, your story is unfortunately too common after Irene. Of course since it didnt happen in NYC it was just an overhyped rain storm....

A gazillion storm sewers is what saves the city . Maybe they should put adequate storm sewers in the 'urbs before they sell property , give CofO's , and tax the residents . Or let them live tax free so they can afford flood ins .

[sirenwerks]

A gazillion storm sewers is what saves the city . Maybe they should put adequate storm sewers in the 'urbs before they sell property , give CofO's , and tax the residents . Or let them live tax free so they can afford flood ins .

This whole question of flood insurance has been bopped around my house and it's just funny how different people in different parts of the country have different relations with the earth they live with. In terms of water, when I lived in New Mexico there were NO storm drains; which turned streets into raging waterways in the flash rain storms that would occur during typhoon season (yes, typhoon season in the desert). I learned quick enough to move my light little Toyota pick-up to high ground and off the street when it threatened to rain like that.

When I lived in Eureka California, raging waterways weren't so much dangerous themselves but when mixed with the blue earth of northern California, considerable mud slides (whole large hillsides) were often the order of the day - blocking off access to the town for a few days sometimes, when all three roads into town got hit simultaneously. And when the tsunami warning sirens went off, well that was a potential relationship with water you just didn't want to have at all.

Having grown up in the east I think I am qualified to say, easterners are marshmallow soft when it comes to their vulnerability to Mother Nature. We freak out at earthquakes, even though many of us live on faultlines (the Rampopo runs right through NYC and Jersey), and we cry when a big storm comes (even though we build so many houses in coastal areas) and beg for the government to bail us out (the same one we claimed was too big a week ago). We just have no respect and get soooo upset when something happens to us. We need to suck it up, pitch in,  and remember how shitty Mama can be sometimes.

[DKS]

This whole question of flood insurance has been bopped around my house and it's just funny how different people in different parts of the country have different relations with the earth they live with. In terms of water, when I lived in New Mexico there were NO storm drains; which turned streets into raging waterways in the flash rain storms that would occur during typhoon season (yes, typhoon season in the desert). I learned quick enough to move my light little Toyota pick-up to high ground and off the street when it threatened to rain like that.

When I lived in Eureka California, raging waterways weren't so much dangerous themselves but when mixed with the blue earth of northern California, considerable mud slides (whole large hillsides) were often the order of the day - blocking off access to the town for a few days sometimes, when all three roads into town got hit simultaneously. And when the tsunami warning sirens went off, well that was a potential relationship with water you just didn't want to have at all.

Having grown up in the east I think I am qualified to say, easterners are marshmallow soft when it comes to their vulnerability to Mother Nature. We freak out at earthquakes, even though many of us live on faultlines (the Rampopo runs right through NYC and Jersey), and we cry when a big storm comes (even though we build so many houses in coastal areas) and beg for the government to bail us out (the same one we claimed was too big a week ago). We just have no respect and get soooo upset when something happens to us. We need to suck it up, pitch in,  and remember how shitty Mama can be sometimes.

Well, geez, when you put it like that, I suppose Dave has no room to complain about his business getting whacked.

[wm3798]

Bryan's pretty spot on about east coast attitudes, and I don't think Dave is complaining as much as lamenting that he's got a lot of work ahead of him, and a lot of the work behind him is either lost or will have to be sold at a ridiculous discount... (or perhaps at a premium?  Pre-weathered DeLuxe trailers anyone?)

Here on the Eastern Shore, we're a little more intertwined with Mother Nature, being dependent on her for our agriculture and seafood.  Those of us who have been here for awhile are amused by the "come heres" who don't bring any patience with them, or any common sense.  To them we ask, if you're going to complain about everything, then why the hell did you come down here?

Dave, we all wish you the best, and hoping that you'll be fine when the clean up is done.
Lee

[FrankCampagna]

Having grown up in the east I think I am qualified to say, easterners are marshmallow soft when it comes to their vulnerability to Mother Nature. We freak out at earthquakes, even though many of us live on faultlines (the Rampopo runs right through NYC and Jersey), and we cry when a big storm comes (even though we build so many houses in coastal areas) and beg for the government to bail us out (the same one we claimed was too big a week ago). We just have no respect and get soooo upset when something happens to us. We need to suck it up, pitch in,  and remember how shitty Mama can be sometimes.

Sure. Right.

Frank

[Dave Ferrari]

Thank you everyone for your replies, I just can't answer each one at this time. I'll keep you all up to date here as I can. Unfortunately, the river ran higher than the storm sewers this time!
Dave

[Smike]

Well I can say this (being a born and raised a Nor Eastern’er.) The places that got whacked hard with Irene have never seen destruction on scale that Irene has delivered. Never..  so it’s hard for people in those area’s to realize what could happen if it’s never happened before.


With that said, I’m fully prepared for the possibility, sorry… likelihood, or near certainty of a meteor hitting earth in the next 30 years.. 

[sirenwerks]

Well, geez, when you put it like that, I suppose Dave has no room to complain about his business getting whacked.

Like Lee, I didn't feel Dave was complaining, but giving a head's up. And if the transportation situation works out, I'd like to go up to NJ to help him out, which I believe is where our energy should be directed at times like this.

I think my statement was more born out of frustration for the repetitive news coverage which has hammered into my psyche complacency. Or maybe I had the 'luxury' of living in Ellicott City during hurricane Agnes, a town severely damaged by the flooding of the normally placid Patapsco River on a scale like Vermont saw, where several other nearby towns were wiped off the map never to return.

Mother Nature is taken for granted here in the east, as if she's been tamed. As an armchair student of sociology I've gained respect for how in the west the attitude is more of nervous partnership. I'm the sort of wonk that still keeps an emergency bag in his car - having been stopped on the road twice in May blizzards while driving between Denver and Santa Fe I've actually used it. I know the odds of needing it now, living off of 95, are greatly minimized but I like my odds better having it. And given my propensity towards devil's advocacy, I look for disaster before it strikes wherever I am. Maybe I should work in risk assessment, or take over Chicken Little's job?

[DKS]

I think my statement was more born out of frustration for the repetitive news coverage which has hammered into my psyche complacency.

Well, I can see part of the problem. With no cable or other television service, I'm pretty much insulated from the noise generated by the admittedly hysterical news media. However, I'm not seeing anyone here on Railwire bellyaching over the effects of Irene in the manner to which you object, so I'm not quite sure what your post accomplished, other than to perhaps get a pet peeve off your chest.

[FrankCampagna]

Mother Nature is taken for granted here in the east, as if she's been tamed. As an armchair student of sociology I've gained respect for how in the west the attitude is more of nervous partnership. I'm the sort of wonk that still keeps an emergency bag in his car - having been stopped on the road twice in May blizzards while driving between Denver and Santa Fe I've actually used it. I know the odds of needing it now, living off of 95, are greatly minimized but I like my odds better having it. And given my propensity towards devil's advocacy, I look for disaster before it strikes wherever I am. Maybe I should work in risk assessment, or take over Chicken Little's job?

 

Thank you Smike, yeah it was kind of bad.

Frank

[jnevis]

Sorry Dave/ Bryan, I have been tasked to be the Duty EMS Supervisor for part of the air show so I won't be able to get there any time soon.

[ljudice]

What's hard to understand about this storm - unless you're on top of it - was that most of the damage was inland. As it was happening it didn't seem even like a particularly bad storm (we had a straightline wind just short of a tornado hit the house 10 years ago and knocked the tops off every tree on our property). We get Noreasters that make you think the house is about to rip off its foundation several times a year.

My brother and sister both own shore houses - one on Long Beach Island - and they never even lost power!

On the other hand - we're 80 miles from the shore in Hunterdon County and 10000 homes were still without power this morning...  A lot of substations were built near rivers - nobody expected them to rise to the level they did - and you know the water + electricity thing...

In short - not a lot of massive damage in one place - but tremendous amounts of moderate damage over a wide area...