This time it was no hype. Sandy rampaged through New York, New Jersey and the rest of the Northeast. The damage has been enormous: more than a hundred dead, massive flooding everywhere, collapsed buildings, generator malfunctions in hospitals, multiple fires, city-wide blackouts and explosions in power plants. More »
So it might be a while before New York’s subways regain full strength, but considering that both Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Christie have implied that we could see another Sandy-strength storm soon, public transit is already preparing for the next crisis. Maybe they should look at this giant balloon–fine, “plug”–that was developed by the Department of Homeland Security. The main problem during the Sandy outage was subway tunnels flooding: you can stick one of these 16-foot plugs in the tunnel, fill it with 35,000 gallons of water, and presto, no more unfettered access for liquids. Sure, there are a lot of tunnels to plug up, but a few well-placed ones of these could’ve made the problem a lot less severe.
The only problem is that there’s only one in the world at the moment, and it’s a prototype.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Google Has Already Updated Post-Sandy NY Transit Maps, Sandy cuts a path of destruction, takes out 25% of cell towers,
If you’ve been living under a stone and missing out on non-tech news for the past week, a pretty major hurricane hit the Eastern seaboard including the Unofficial Capital of the World, New York City. Although the storm’s gone, there’s a lot of damage: some are saying that the New York subway could take months to get back to full service, and parts of New Jersey are absolutely wiped. Google’s been trying to help, by putting crisis maps and links to support services on the main page. But today they also updated Maps to reflect the damage done. Satellite photos now reflect the most recent NOAA images.
But here’s something that New Yorkers will especially appreciate: even as Mayor Bloomberg tries to get everyone safely to work in the most confusing way possible, Google is making it easy by updating its transit directions for the city. That means Google’s already added the temporary shuttle buses and subway closings to its transit directions. Thanks, Google!
Oh, and by the way, even after Apple’s most recent iOS 6 update, if you ask for public transit directions from Maps, it will take you to the app store.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Google says iOS Google Maps in App Store hopefully “before Christmas”, Sandy cuts a path of destruction, takes out 25% of cell towers,
Communication has been all too spotty across much of New York City and New Jersey since Hurricane Sandy struck the region, and those who can get through on their cellphones have found themselves on particularly crowded networks. AT&T and T-Mobile are providing some much-needed, if temporary, relief: the two have struck a deal to share their GSM and 3G networks in the area with no roaming fees or plan changes while the networks come back, with the best-functioning network taking precedence in any given connection. A return to the normal state of affairs hasn’t been fixed in stone and will likely depend on many, many factors, but it’s a much appreciated gesture for residents who might not have a choice to relocate for a vital phone call.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, AT&T, T-Mobile
AT&T and T-Mobile temporarily share networks in New York City and New Jersey, shoulder the post-hurricane load originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Oct 2012 15:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sandy was definitely an unwanted visitor on the East Coast, but the tenacity of the human spirit continues to prevail over natural disasters. As for cell towers, those did not fare too well, as Sandy knocked out approximately 25% of cell towers across an area that spread across 10 states in the US. Federal regulators said that this is not all, as the entire situation could end up a whole lot worse sometime down the road.
The remaining cell towers that still function are barely working, thanks to aid from generators. The situation could change for the worse as the generators eventually run out of fuel before commercial power is restored, at least according to the Federal Communications Commission. Good thing the landline phone network (logically) held up better where Sandy made her mark, in a land area that stretches from Virginia to Massachusetts. No idea on the number for folks who are affected by 25% of the cell towers going down, but let us keep our fingers crossed and whisper a prayer that whatever could be done was done, leaving the rest to fate.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: AT&T sells cell tower in a suitcase , Hacker Demonstrates A $1,500 Setup To Intercept Your Calls,
Hurricane Sandy is headed for the east coast. New York City is shutting down. We’re all battening down the hatches, stocking up on nonperishables (I bought Spaghettios), and hoping for the best. And we’ve made a Spotify playlist to keep the cabin fever at bay. More »
Hurricane Sandy is coming quick, and you want to be ready. You’ve got all your gear, and now it’s time to batten down the hatches. But before you do that, there are five common hurricane myths you should know about. More »
Even though this summer’s Hurricane Irene left dozens dead and caused billions of dollars of damage, there was an inescapable consensus that it didn’t quite live up to the hype. As you can see above, meeting expectations appears to be the one thing we don’t have to worry about with Sandy. More »
Everything from space looks beautiful, including the extremely dangerous hurricane Sandy. This video, made by Kevin Ward using images from NOAA and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies, shows the frankenstorm over the Eastern Seaboard through the entire Sunday, October 28, with natural light More »
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