Hurricane Sandy updates

  • #1,521
He may appear a jerk but that does not mean the childrens death was his fault. Trying to blame him is crazy. He is not the one who put them in that SUV and drove into the water.

I'm not saying he caused their deaths.

The boys weren't that far from where she broke down. Chances are they swallowed water & there was nothing anyone could do to help save them. I was not there.

He just seems like one of those people that wouldn't help if you were stranded on a dark road. At the least he could have spoken to her & told her to come inside from the storm. The whole story that she looked like a man is absurd.

so aggravated with stories saying she was desperately driving to seek shelter from the storm when she WAS at a safe place before she started driving. SMH

Pretty sure she's on Staten Island. Someone I know from another board said the water was really bad there. I don't know where her house is located but Staten Island got trashed.

She probably heard how bad the storm was hitting Atlantic City; I was watching various texts coming in as well as FB pages

what about the SUV? did she hit a tree? did it stall? did it fall into a hole? did it get hit by a large wave and fall over? I'm wondering did she lose sight of the road and drive directly into the ocean, or the marsh grass where the kids were eventually found?

If you watch the video I linked to; the road she was driving on is right next to the ocean. The ocean water level rose; flooded the road she was on. A wave knocked into her. They pulled her car out of a large hole

video that shows where she was; her SUV went off the road & into a ditch; looks like it's lower then the street.

Anderson Cooper video
 
  • #1,522
Reckless reporting. A lot of gossip being reported by media nowadays. The man perhaps should file a lawsuit.
 
  • #1,523
Reckless reporting. A lot of gossip being reported by media nowadays. The man perhaps should file a lawsuit.

That's exactly what it is; on both sides from what I scanned.

I stay as far away from the news as I can because you never know what's accurate & what's not
 
  • #1,524
so aggravated with stories saying she was desperately driving to seek shelter from the storm when she WAS at a safe place before she started driving. SMH

what about the SUV? did she hit a tree? did it stall? did it fall into a hole? did it get hit by a large wave and fall over? I'm wondering did she lose sight of the road and drive directly into the ocean, or the marsh grass where the kids were eventually found?

Isn't she being punished enough in knowing she unintentionally caused her children's death? Her actions proved to be a rather bad choice (trying to be tactful) but I don't personally believe she ever thought this would endanger her children.

I think she tried to drive thru flooding on the road that she had no idea could possibly be that deep. With it raining that hard I am sure she couldn't see that well.

This is based only on what I understand to be correct info from the various media stories (I could be wrong since reporting has been so conflicting).

Sent from my cell so please forgive typos and other abominations of the English language
 
  • #1,525
Isn't she being punished enough in knowing she unintentionally caused her children's death? Her actions proved to be a rather bad choice (trying to be tactful) but I don't personally believe she ever thought this would endanger her children.......


i dont know, is that how the law works? if she was a babysitter, would that mean that the parents would have to file a civil lawsuit against her OR would the DA press endangerment / reckless charges? I think she suffered the ultimate punishment, wondering how LE deals with this kind of situation.
 
  • #1,526
Isn't she being punished enough in knowing she unintentionally caused her children's death? Her actions proved to be a rather bad choice (trying to be tactful) but I don't personally believe she ever thought this would endanger her children.

Well we know her home wasn't being flooded. I think I read that the power went out so she was going to drive over to some relatives house.

If she decided to drive to avoid the inconvenience of the power being out well....errrrmmmm.
 
  • #1,527
Well we know her home wasn't being flooded. I think I read that the power went out so she was going to drive over to some relatives house.

If she decided to drive to avoid the inconvenience of the power being out well....errrrmmmm.

I'm not speaking on behalf of this young mother, about whom I know little.

But some people literally have no concept of what a 6' or 12' storm surge might mean, just as they have no idea where they are on a map as they drive down the highway.

It always amazes me, but it's true. Some people navigate by landmarks and simply don't think in terms of units of measurement. I try not to eat their food.
 
  • #1,528
Even though the storm was worse than at other times in history, there is no way she didn't know it was risky to drive them down Father Capadano Blvd. It floods normally. I just don't get her actions at all.
 
  • #1,529
Even though the storm was worse than at other times in history, there is no way she didn't know it was risky to drive them down Father Capadano Blvd. It floods normally. I just don't get her actions at all.

You'd be surprised, Chewy. I live in the Southern California desert and on the rare occasions it rains, people get stuck at the same flooded intersections, year after year after year. Our roads cross through river beds that are normally dry, but you'd think people might expect a little flooding during a downpour. But no. Most people don't realize how little flowing water it takes to pick up a vehicle.

Also, the lady in question was alone with two small children. She may have been out of her mind with panic.
 
  • #1,530
There's a difference between a riverbed or a marsh area, but she was driving them literally a block away from the ocean. There are other ways to get to the bridge where she could have driven UP to higher ground and then over.


The highest point on the island, the summit of Todt Hill, elevation 410 ft (125 m), is also the highest point in the five boroughs, as well as the highest point on the Atlantic Coastal Plain south of Great Blue Hill in Massachusetts and the highest point on the coast proper south of Maine's Camden Hills.



She drove them down to the ocean???

Basically she could have driven them on the main roadway down to the Bridge, she drove them down to the ocean. The fact that her husband was a sanitation worker makes me wonder what was really going on. He would have known that this was a bad idea. Anyone in Staten Island would know this is a bad idea, even the guy who wouldn't let her in was probably suspect because no one in their right mind would drive down there.
 
  • #1,531
  • #1,532
There's a difference between a riverbed or a marsh area, but she was driving them literally a block away from the ocean. There are other ways to get to the bridge where she could have driven UP to higher ground and then over.






She drove them down to the ocean???

Basically she could have driven them on the main roadway down to the Bridge, she drove them down to the ocean. The fact that her husband was a sanitation worker makes me wonder what was really going on. He would have known that this was a bad idea. Anyone in Staten Island would know this is a bad idea, even the guy who wouldn't let her in was probably suspect because no one in their right mind would drive down there.

Chewy, I don't think anyone is arguing with your knowledge of Staten Island. I only know it as far as the ferry terminal.

But my point was that as rational as your route directions sound, the mother in question may not have been able to think clearly enough to reach the same conclusions. A lot of people would think, "Well, I'll be a block from the ocean, so I'll be okay." An SUV also may have given her a false sense of security. We also have testimony from residents that a few inches of water became 10 or or more FEET of water in just a minute or two.

Unless some evidence arises that suggests intent to murder here, I agree with Gitana1: the circumstances were extraordinary, the mother made mistakes that led to a terrible--but accidental--tragedy.
 
  • #1,533
I feel very bad for her but this was like the woman who dropped her two year old in the African painted dog exhibit at the zoo. What is going on with common sense these days.
 
  • #1,534
I feel very bad for her but this was like the woman who dropped her two year old in the African painted dog exhibit at the zoo. What is going on with common sense these days.

Wow....we think much alike Chewy. Darwin is turning over in his grave as we speak.
 
  • #1,535
Wow....we think much alike Chewy. Darwin is turning over in his grave as we speak.

Actually, I believe Darwin must be smiling. (Not because children died; by all accounts, Darwin loved children. But these events have a way of proving his theory, at least in the popular mind.)

Given the destruction of property, I think the death toll from Sandy is relatively small. But there will always be those who, in the panic of the moment, make decisions that the rest of us find absurd with the benefit of hindsight.

I don't know why the mother took the route she did. It may be something as simple as that was the way she was used to driving and, in her panic, she was functioning on "auto-pilot".
 
  • #1,536
Chewy, my point about flooding in the desert is that most people can't really imagine the power of even a small amount of moving water. (IIRC, it only takes a couple of inches of water moving rapidly to lift a large vehicle and sweep it away.)
 
  • #1,537
Nova,
I agree. I think she probably panicked, and made some poor decisions. I have never been in a hurricane, but I have been in very big Earthquakes, and have done some dumb things
myself. There but for the grace of God go I...
 
  • #1,538
Nova,
I agree. I think she probably panicked, and made some poor decisions. I have never been in a hurricane, but I have been in very big Earthquakes, and have done some dumb things
myself. There but for the grace of God go I...

And I. During one of the larger aftershocks from the Northridge quake, I was standing in my office at UCLA next to a floor-to-ceiling plate glass window. The window started vibrating to an alarming extent and my suite mate promptly jumped under her desk.

I stood there within inches of the window (and this wasn't the ground floor), wondering if it would shatter, and thinking of my colleague, "Why, what a good idea, getting under a desk!"

Lots of us do stupid things in an emergency. Or, in my case, don't do anything at all.
 
  • #1,539
I agree that she most likely panicked. What I don't agree with is blaming this man and trying to make him into the villain responsible for the death of these children. I don't think the children were still alive when she got to his house anyway.
 
  • #1,540
And I. During one of the larger aftershocks from the Northridge quake, I was standing in my office at UCLA next to a floor-to-ceiling plate glass window. The window started vibrating to an alarming extent and my suite mate promptly jumped under her desk.

I stood there within inches of the window (and this wasn't the ground floor), wondering if it would shatter, and thinking of my colleague, "Why, what a good idea, getting under a desk!"

Lots of us do stupid things in an emergency. Or, in my case, don't do anything at all.

Uhhh...yeah. You were momentarily shocked and thought about getting under a desk.

You did NOT leave your home, carrying 2 small children to the SUV and strap them in, then start driving along the coast during a hurricane.

A moment of panic is one thing (yes I have screamed involuntarily and thought sheeshers...where did that come from???) however hauling small kids out of a house, loading them into a car, then driving along roads near the ocean (hello uphill?) until the car gets flooded isn't a "moment of panic". It is just plain stupid and can cause one's offspring to end up dead.

Darwin.
 

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