http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/05/us/hur...ida/index.html
175 MPH winds!
http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/05/us/hur...ida/index.html
175 MPH winds!
Yeah, we're never gonna get that second book
:( be ok melf, we need you to survive!
He's on the safe side of the island maybe? Maybe not? It's not really big enough to slow it down. :( Godspeed!
I hope that his family got out of there. There is no safe side of the island for a storm with wind speeds nearing 175 MPH.
Stay safe Melf and Family.
Be safe Melf.~
You better stay safe.
He needs to check in here like asap.
Be safe, Melf! <3
Could he still be hungover from Dragcon??
Better start boxing up the videogame room ASAP.
Contractor bags and duct tape.
Big bags and a boat.
3 of my wife's sisters live in Destin Florida. I hope they don't get hit too hard.
The good news is that Irma was 30 miles North of Puerto Rico. The bad news is that 1 million people are without power and are still facing the possibility of more flooding.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ic/641637001/i
Melf is making jokes on FB so he's alright.
I guess I can pull my Genesis game fishing net out of the ocean now.
Don't worry. It was Ecco safe.
Fuck Ecco, I hope he's in a tuna can right now.
Thanks for the concern, everyone. We're fine!
I live on the extreme southwest corner, so we were actually the farthest point from the storm. We had tropical storm winds and no power for 48 hours, but no damage. I read most of my comic haul from Dragon Con and played lots of 3DS and Uno with my kids.Quote:
Originally Posted by Doc Holliday
Cool! I was hoping the mountains on the island shielded you. I was there a long time ago and visited San Juan and Ponce. I want to go back and do all the nature stuff I missed.
When I made this thread, I'd seen the eye of the storm heading directly for Puerto Rico. It was fortunate that it made a slight turn North about 30 miles.
Glad to hear your family is safe!
Florida folks are fucked. Cat 5.
Glad you're okay Melf!
Just make sure Melf that if you have to evacuate, to make sure to protect those things that are most precious and important in your life. All those beautiful Genesis games.
Seriously.
And the children I guess.
Meh, you can always make more children.
I need the children to carry Genesis games. They make great pack mules.
Point Melf
You're not off the hook yet Melf.
Maria is on her way!
Poseidon is saying "I'll get you next time, Gadget! Next time!"
This one's only a cat. 3 compared to Irma, but it's heading straight for us. My house is solid cement, so I don't have to evacuate. I do have to secure cars and the yard, though.
The games, Melf. We only care about the games.Quote:
Originally Posted by Melf
Looks at weather map. "How do I get out of this chickenshit outfit?"Quote:
Originally Posted by Some Stupid Japanese Name
Pff..Cat. 3....That's just a slight breeze in your part of the world.Quote:
Originally Posted by Melf
The general consensus of Florida natives is that anything less than a Cat-3 isn't worth changing your routine for.
I live in a completely cement house on a hill, in an area that doesn't flood (with this weather though, who knows?). Georges was a cat 4 that exited through Cabo Rojo and we only had rain coming in through one window. A lot of other places here get completely FUBARed though.
I hope everything remains okay all the same :(
This has really been one hell of a hurricane season. :( Irma and then Maria.
You're in my prayers, Melf. Take care and stay safe.
Thanks guys. I don't think I'll be on FB or tweeting as much, since this one is likely going to keep me without electricity for some time. There are areas on the island that still haven't gotten their lights turn back on after Irma.
Sounds like Maria was bad. I read the Island might be without electricity for weeks or months. Hope Melf and fam are doing alright.
yeah :(
Mad Melf will have to battle the hordes for gas to run his generator and keep the Genesis juiced.
Hope he is alright, no electricity is pretty scary.
I read a short article that talked about mud slides. That's not good. :(Quote:
Originally Posted by Frogacuda
:(
=[
No electricity in PR whatsoever. Terrible.
I had been in San Juan once on a Royal Caribbean cruise last year with Navigator of the Seas. It was nice visiting that place and checking it out, and I wouldn't have minded another stop there someday. Seeing PR such a wreck on my local newspaper's front page choked me up. Damn Maria (and Irma, which pretty much set the stage for Maria to land a KO blow on the power grid). :( Thank God TS Lee didn't make it. On top of what hit already, that mudslide threat is bad enough. This hurricane season officially sucks.
Weather Channel: PR faces long road to recovery
Yulín Cruz says the total power outage is expected to last about 4-6 months.
And the PC, at least for TNL.Quote:
Originally Posted by kedawa
Be well, Melf. May the electric come back sooner rather than later.
We should do something for Melf and his country. I think I saw a care package program on a friend's Facebook wall. I'll find it and post the info.
Considering my family is from there I obviously want to do something. I have one uncle still on the island and he's ok but everything is fucked up.
All these charities are shady though. I feel burned after a bunch of them.
Yeah, I'm worried about that, too.
I am absolutely down for that but are they even able to receive mail?
I like to donate through www.globalgiving.org/aboutus
From what I've read, they ensure money is put to good use in relief efforts by working with organizations/people on a local level.
Example, the earthquake/tsunami in Japan awhile back -- https://www.globalgiving.org/project.../reports/#menu
I've heard that donating to American Red Cross isn't the best option. A lot of that money doesn't go towards relief.Quote:
Originally Posted by Diff-chan
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-w...ctly-to-harvey
The problem is these organizations have a certain infrastructure for a certain amount of revenue and programs. Then a hurricane gets a lot of press and they get 1000x that number and don’t know how to process it efficiently so it gets wasted.
Everyone has heard the stories about hurricane clothing drives and people donate their old sweaters to go to the Caribbean or food drives that get six year old canned corn. The sad thing is that I’m not sure donating money is any better.
One of my best friends is a professional fundraiser, (like, he's contracted out for multiple non profits to raise money for a variety of causes) and money is the best thing you can donate from a distance, guaranteed. If it's a local situation (florida, etc) volunteering and blood donation is greatly welcomed.
And yet I donated money to a bunch of disaster shit and a year later I hear about how 98% of the money is unspent.
wait, source on that? I've never heard that.
Ah, interesting! I wasn't sure why people were all of a sudden bitching out the Red Cross, but this makes sense.
I think any federal response is going to be a bit slower because it’s an island. You can’t load up 50 big rigs full of shit and drive it down. The ports were damaged too.
Still PR was teetering on the edge before this. It’s not good.
If it hasn't already the Navy needs to park a couple of Marine Corp landing ships off shore and just start ferrying aid over the island.
It's so fucking enraging to see a guy who's been in bankruptcy four time chide PR for their debt, all while preparing to add a trillion dollars to our own debt for his tax legislation.
So you're saying Puerto Rico's debt problem isn't a big deal?
edit: to note, the territory did what Trump did and declared bankruptcy. It's pretty huge, and a good preview for what is going to happen in Illinois and New Jersey before long.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/03/b...debt.html?_r=0
Yeah it's a big deal and that's why they all deserve to die sry dudes.
Bad Diff is out again.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...a37f68f687.jpg
What does the debt have to do with the hurricane response?
I think Frog's point was that the official US response to this is "PR is in bad debt! SAD! low energy, I like US territories who aren't in debt/don't get captured" when a) most presidents would probably have a response that had nothing to do with that, b) the current president has had all sorts of financial issues and c) he's doing some other dumb shit to add to our debt
I don't know, ask the president as he seems to think it is related.Quote:
Originally Posted by Diff-chan
Except that’s not the response.Quote:
Originally Posted by Joust Williams
oh :(
The infrastructure was in terrible shape before the hurricane hit thanks to the fiscal crisis. The hurricane is bad and it’s on an island disconnected from the rest of the country, and it came on the heels of 2 other bad storms, all things considered the response seems to be about as good as can be done. Yea it’d be great if it was farther along but nobody is a magician here unfortunately.
Anything from Melf yet?
no....I posted a message on his Facebook. I know that doesn't help for shit but I hope if someone sees it they can either respond or let him know that we're worried.
Get fucked, the Jones act should have been suspended before the storm even hit.Quote:
Originally Posted by Diff-chan
And lightly impact American business profits when the only benefit is saving American lives? What kind of anti-capitalist monster are you?
I keep checking this thread for word on Melf and hoping he'll somehow manage to check in online somewhere.
Jones Act is a meme. It will be more relevant when the island is back on its feet and people start buying stuff again.Quote:
Originally Posted by icarusfall
The problem isn’t even supplies, it’s a lack of people to transport them and roads to transport them on. All this shit is connected and takes time.
http://www.newschannel5.com/news/nat...co-s-main-port
Because of the statutory peculiarity in Puerto Rico that forces them to prioritize debt payment over essential services.Quote:
Originally Posted by Diff-chan
That's what makes PR's situation so dire. It's not the mere existence of debt, it's that they are unable to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy because of an amendment to an unrelated bill inserted by Strom Thurmond in 1984 for reasons lost to the sands of time.
Those two factors (and the obvious severity of the immediate crisis) make PR's debt situation much more serious than just a dollar amount. It's a situation that requires a swift response from Congress.
And again, might I remind you, that Trump is proposing a MASSIVE deficit hike with his upcoming tax legislation. It's a bad time to be lecturing PR anyway for obvious reasons of optics but it also seems like a hypocritical moment to be debt hawking, don't you think?
Jones Act is waived.
Congress did pass something about Puerto Rico (PROMESA). They’re not getting a handout nor should they as it would just be a handout to make a bunch of shitty hedge funds whole, not unlike Obama’s actions on TARP.Quote:
Originally Posted by Frogacuda
Federal debt and state debt are different so I don’t see it as hypocritical, sorry.
Nothing direct, but his brother posted a message on FB yesterday saying he had finally gotten word that Melf and his family are OK.Quote:
Originally Posted by YellerDog
YayQuote:
Originally Posted by Bacon McShig
That's great!
What kind of products support the economy of Puerto Rico, agriculture?
Hooray!!!! That’s so good to hear.
Yeah!
That's really good to hear. Next up, stories of the apocalypse!
Pharma I think.Quote:
Originally Posted by gamevet
Good to hear that Melf is ok.
Didn’t hear about the message. Glad to hear he’s alright, whatever constitutes alright for him down there though.
Glad Melf is fine. :)
Very happy he's ok. I was seriously worried for a while.
BK Is PSO DuPeR!Quote:
Originally Posted by BonusKun
Glad to hear Melf is okay. Hope he's got power or at least enough batteries for some portable gaming. Hope he's got food as well.
Great news to hear about Melf!
Yay melf
Holy shit matt! How have you been dude?Quote:
Originally Posted by MVS
Yeah he said the home isn't damaged and his stuff/games are ok and he has food, but no electric.
WISE FWOM YO... hurricane?
Thanks for the concern, guys! My family and I are safe, and there was no damage to the house or my games. There's no power, and we just got water back on Friday. Only one cell phone company (Claro, the PR version of Verizon) works, but I have power and Internet at work, it seems. I'll be posting from there, I guess. I've been reading a shit ton of comics and playing lots of 3DS, which I charge in the car or at work.
The problem here has been politics. The response time for restoring power and water has been delayed because the governing party (pro-statehood) is giving priority to those towns that have pro-statehood mayors and basically using the crisis as a massive photo-op. The fucking national guard had to come and restore power to the local ice factory because the government wouldn't (the owners are big contributors to the opposing commonwealth party. Coincidence?), That's how low the government is willing to stoop. Also, the governor STILL hasn't visited my side of the island. It's completely gotten out of his hands, and this comes after he nearly broke his arm from patting himself on the back for his "terrific" response to Irma, which barely touched us.
YAY!
yay melf!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The politics stuff sounds insane. I had no idea that PR experienced that level of corruption still. That is appalling.