MIAMI HEAT'S D-WADE RIPS NBA VIA TWITTER FOR NOT CANCELLING NBA GAME AGAINST THE NY KNICKS IN WAKE OF HURRICANE SANDY
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| Miami Heat guard Dwayne Wade says game should be cancelled in wake of Hurricane Sandy |
Dwyane Wade took to Twitter to express his feelings over the league’s decision not to postpone the contest between the two Eastern Conference rivals in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.
"3 hour traffic just to get into the NY city.. C'monMan..." Wade tweeted on Thursday night.
Wade clarified his comments later on after deleting that original tweet.
“2 be clear "Traffic tweet was meant 2 say"... We shouldn't B hre 2 play a basketball game when theirs so many families obviously still R affected by #Sandy,” Wade wrote.
Wade further delved into the meaning of his original tweet during the team's shootaround at MSG on Friday.
'This city is dealing with so much. It was like, 'C'mon man, we shouldn't be here to play a basketball game,"
Wade told ESPNNewYork.com
Wade's teammate LeBron James said he was "50/50 with [playing]," noting that he wanted to help take people's minds off the storm but doesn't want to disrupt the hurricane cleanup efforts.
The Knicks’ season opener against the Nets scheduled for Thursday night, also the regular season opening of the Nets’ new Brooklyn home, the Barclays Center, was postponed earlier this week following the massive hurricane which left millions in the Tri-State area without power and has caused food, water and gas shortages.
“I luv playing in the garden but cnt do nothing but think abt all the families that dont have power,food,water etc..ths is a tragic hit 4 ths gr8 city,” Wade wrote.
Wade’s comments come as the city is drawing intense criticism for its decision to carry on with the New York City Marathon on Sunday, utilizing vital resources to make sure the race takes place rather than utilizing them to help those who are suffering from the after-effects of Hurricane Sandy.
OUTRAGE AS GENERATORS POWER UP NEW YORK FOR FAMOUS MARATHON BUT NOT HOMES WITHOUT ELECTRICITY
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| Portable emergency generators providing power to the New York Marathon tent set up in Central Park. |
As hundreds of thousands of Big Apple residents suffer in homes left without power by Hurricane Sandy, two massive generators are being run 24/7 in Central Park — to juice a media tent for Sunday’s New York City Marathon.
And a third “backup” unit sits idle, in case one of the generators fails.
The three diesel-powered generators crank out 800 kilowatts — enough to power 400 homes in ravaged areas like Staten Island, the Rockaways and downtown Manhattan.
As of Friday morning, five generators sat outside of the park along with electrical stations and transformers.
In addition to the generators, a food services truck dropped off hundreds of cases of water, sparking angered responses from hurricane victims.
"I am from Coney Island where everything is flooded and underwater," Yelena Gomelsky, 65, said. "I live 1 block from the ocean where everything is floating. "[Seeing the generators and water] makes me feel so bad. People have no food, no water, nothing.
"They should make all of these runners bring food and water to people's houses who need it. They should bring all of these generators to buildings where old people live and give them power."
Since emergency executive orders have been issued, the governor, mayor — or even President Obama — could take the generators for a more important use, explained Pace University law professor Bennett Gershman.
Such an emergency action would need the approval of the City Council, state Legislature or Congress. And they would have to compensate the owners of the devices.
But plenty in the city wish they had taken such decisive action. After all, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie postponed Halloween for safety reasons, so Gov. Cuomo or Mayor Bloomberg should issue an executive order for lifesaving generators.
Manhattah Borough Preisdent Scott Stringer voiced his opinion on Friday, saying that the city needs to recognize the suffering following "a tragedy of historic proportions."
"New Yorkers in Staten Island, the Rockaways, Coney Island and Lower Manhattan are struggling to keep body and soul together, deprived of basic essentials as temperatures drop," Stringer said.
"For this reason, and after significant deliberation, I believe we should postpone and re-schedule the New York City Marathon in order to focus all of the City's resources on the crucial task of helping our neighbors recover from this disaster. New Yorkers deserve nothing less than to know that the entire government is focused solely on returning the City and their region back to normalcy."
OBAMA VOWS, WE WILL NOT QUIT UNTIL THIS IS DONE
Just six days before the election, President Barack Obama toured storm-ravaged areas with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. He told Garden State residents struggling in the superstorm's aftermath that all of America shares their pain—and their government is there to help.
"The main message I wanted to send is the entire country has been watching what's been happening," Obama said Wednesday during a visit to the Brigantine Beach Community Center. "Everybody knows how hard Jersey's been hit."
("Except my boss," shouted Michael Henshaw, 32, a Brigantine resident who works at an insurance company. "Well, except your boss. If you need me to call, you let me know," Obama replied, drawing laughter from the room. That exchange, and many of the details in this post, are from pool reporter Reid Epstein of Politico.)
The White House told reporters that during the worst of the storm's devastation 200 people were sleeping in the center's gym, though that number has dropped to 50. The center still serves as a spot for people to get meals and take hot showers.
Obama traveled to New Jersey, which bore the brunt of the storm's wrath, with Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Craig Fugate. The president and Christie—an outspoken Mitt Romney backer—traded praise over the response to the devastating storm.
"I want to just let you know that your governor is working overtime to make sure that as soon as possible everybody can get back to normal," said Obama. "We are going to be here for the long haul. We're going to not tolerate any red tape. We're not going to tolerate any bureaucracy."
Christie, wearing a blue polar fleece jacket with "CHRIS CHRISTIE GOVERNOR" in white letters over his heart, echoed Obama's message.
"I just want to tell all of you exactly what the president just said. I know he means it," Christie said. "I want to thank the president for coming here today. It's really important to have the president of the United States acknowledge all the suffering that's going on here in New Jersey, and I appreciate it very much. We're going to work together to make sure we get ourselves through this crisis and get everything back to normal. Thank you for coming, sir."
Aides say the president is focused on doing his job, not on the election, but the governor's praise and the seemingly smooth federal response to the storm could help him in his neck-and-neck race with Romney.
Obama and Christie took an aerial tour of some of the destruction aboard the president's Marine One helicopter before the visit to Brigantine.
In brief public remarks afterward, the governor had said of the president, "He has sprung into action immediately to help. He has worked incredibly closely with me since before the storm hit.
"It's been a great working relationship to make sure that we're doing the jobs that people elected us to do, and I cannot thank the president enough for his personal concern and compassion for our state and the people of our state."
(He also joked about those who ignored his "admonition to get the hell out of here. You are forgiven this time, but not for much longer.")
Obama returned the praise, saying Christie had been "responsive" and "aggressive" even before "this incredible storm. ... The people of New Jersey recognize that he has put his heart and soul into making sure that the people of New Jersey bounce back even stronger than before. So I just want to thank him for his extraordinary leadership and partnership."
The president added that "because of some good preparation, the loss of life was kept lower than it might have been."
He then offered his "thoughts and prayers" to those who lost loved ones. "I speak for the whole country," he said.
Both men cited the urgent need to restore power to the vast areas that lost it during the storm.
Obama, who canceled campaign events on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to take charge of the federal response, said he had instituted a "15-minute rule" for returning telephone calls from governors and mayors. "If they need something, we'll figure out a way to say 'yes,'" the president said.
"We will not quit until this is done," he promised.
JAMES HARDEN OVERSHADOWS LIN IN ROCKETS DEBUT AGAINST THE PISTONS
James Harden scored 37 points and added a career-high 12 assists in his Houston Rockets debut alongside Lin, giving Detroit Pistons defenders fits in his eighth career start. Harden, traded from the Oklahoma City Thunder last week, signed a five-year, $80 million contract extension Wednesday, then made good on his superstar-sized deal the same day.
The Rockets beat the Pistons 105-96 in both teams' season openers.
BOX SCORE: Houston Rockets 105, Detroit Pistons 96
Lin added 12 points, eight assists, four steals and four rebounds in his first regular-season action for the Rockets. But this was all about Harden.
Houston is gambling Harden, the reigning sixth man of the year, has starter-level talent. He does. Harden played 44 minutes and added four steals and six rebounds to his 14-for-25 shooting night. The offense flowed through him, with Lin serving as a very viable second option.
That's a superstar performance. And a giving superstar.
Harden scored 31 points in the first three quarters but spent the fourth, when Houston stormed back and pulled away, passing. Carlos Delfino, who joined Harden, Lin and Chandler Parsons in playing the final 12 minutes, scored 12 points on 4-for-5 shooting in the final stanza. Harden had five assists as the the Rockets held a 33-15 edge in the quarter.
The other big Rockets addition of the offseason, former Chicago Bulls center Omer Asik, contributed 12 points, nine rebounds and two blocks. He was 5-for-6 from the field, but he didn't need to shoot much more.
DELONTE WEST SETS THE RECORD STRAIGHT ABOUT LEBRON JAMES MOTHER…
It’s been two-years since word of Delonte West gettin’ it in with LeBron James’ mother began to spread. Now, the soon-to-be former Dallas Maverick is speaking out, contesting allegations of him smashing the mother of his star teammate.
Here’s what Delonte West had to say about the situation:
“If we want to continue to grow as a human race, what are we teaching our kids if we try to make humor and fun out of stuff like that?
Number one, something like that never happened. I don’t know where they got that from. For a strong black woman like that, for people to try to tear her down, that’s terrible. That’s terrible in so many ways.”
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EX-WWE STAR AMY WEBER RELEASING NAKED PICS AFTER LABTOP GOT STOLEN
Ex-WWE Diva Amy Weber had a full spread of naked photos on her laptop that got stolen last week -- so rather than wait for some lowlife hacker to make money off "leaked" nude pics ... she decided to release them for FREE!!!
Amy's laptop was swiped from her car last Wednesday while she was playing with her kids at an L.A. park -- and she tells us, the computer contained a nude spread she shot for Playboy that never made it to print.
Rather than sit and wait for the pics to surface on some seedy website, Weber tells us, she and her management team decided to release the photos on their own terms.
DQM 2012 FALL/WINTER HAT RELEASES
From its 2012 fall/winter collection, DQM has released four new hat styles.
First off is the Tulsa Camp, a five panel design in brushed twill with a corduroy brim and available in four different colorways.
The second five panel offering is the Bayou Camp cap which features a paisley bandana print in red, blue or black.
The Indian Springs snapback offers a technical twist with the use of nylon fabric, making the hat both water-resistant and crushable.
Last but not least is the Dirty Water snapback which is available in three colors including a striking leopard print with a contrasting blue brim. Grab your hat of choice now at Dave’s Quality Meat in New York or its webshop.
First off is the Tulsa Camp, a five panel design in brushed twill with a corduroy brim and available in four different colorways.
The second five panel offering is the Bayou Camp cap which features a paisley bandana print in red, blue or black.
The Indian Springs snapback offers a technical twist with the use of nylon fabric, making the hat both water-resistant and crushable.
Last but not least is the Dirty Water snapback which is available in three colors including a striking leopard print with a contrasting blue brim. Grab your hat of choice now at Dave’s Quality Meat in New York or its webshop.
THE NORTH FACE PURPLE LABEL 2012 FALL/WINTER HARRIS TWEED COLLECTION
THE NORTH FACE PURPLE LABEL has teamed up with Harris Tweed this season for a range of new outerwear releases as a part of the brand’s Fall/Winter 2012 collection.Featuring a parka and vest, the down-filled outerwear collection boats durable, wind-resistant Pertex textiles with signature Harris Tweed woolen fabrics appearing on the exterior in various plaids. Retailing for ￥79,800 JPY (approximately $1,000 USD) and ￥49,875 JPY (approximately $625 USD), respectively, the parka and vest are each available in a trio of colorways and can be purchased now via nanamica.
HURRICANE TOLL POISED TO TOP $20 BILLION IN DAMAGE
Hurricane Sandy’s economic toll is poised to exceed $20 billion after the biggest Atlantic storm slammed into the Eastern U.S., damaging homes and offices and flooding subways in America’s most populated city.
The total would include insured losses of about $7 billion to $8 billion, said Charles Watson, research and development director at Kinetic Analysis Corp., a hazard-research company in Silver Spring, Maryland. Much of the remaining tab will be picked up by cities and states to repair infrastructure, such as New York City’s subways and tunnels, he said.
“I think it is disproportionate going into the public sector side,” Watson said by telephone. The real extent of the damage won’t be known until the flood recedes and workers can inspect subway and utility tunnels.
Sandy, spanning 900 miles, slammed into southern New Jersey at about 8 p.m. New York time and brought a record storm surge of 13.88 feet (4.2 meters) into Manhattan’s Battery Park. U.S. airlines have grounded about 12,500 flights, stranding travelers, and U.S. stock trading is closed again today in the first back-to-back shutdown for weather since 1888.
Record tides from the storm combined with hours of pounding wind and rain to flood electrical substations and shut down New York’s financial district. Consolidated Edison Inc., the city’s utility, killed power last night to parts of downtown Manhattan, including Wall Street, and Brooklyn, as the storm surge, boosted by high tide, sent saltwater pouring into its underground power network.
Katrina Comparison
Before Sandy made landfall, the storm had knocked out power to more than 2.1 million homes and businesses from North Carolina to New Hampshire, according to utility reports. Power blackouts may eventually affect as many as 10 million people in the region for as long as 10 days.
Heavy losses to public infrastructure would in some ways mirror the effects of Hurricane Katrina, which flooded New Orleans in 2005, Watson said. Katrina was the nation’s most costly natural disaster with an estimated $41.1 billion in insured property losses, according to the Insurance Information Institute.
“It kind of reminds me of Katrina, the actual wind damage from Katrina and coastal storm surge damage was easy to pull down,” Watson said. “But once you start getting water going over your protective measures and getting into your infrastructure the numbers start to go crazy.”
Earlier, Eqecat Inc., an Oakland, California-based provider of catastrophic risk models, estimated Sandy would cause as much as $20 billion of economic damage with about $5 billion to $10 billion of that in insured losses.
Economic Impact
With Sandy set to continue as a non-tropical storm throughout New England over the next several days, economists and analysts have varying estimates on the potential damage.
Sandy ultimately may subtract 0.1 to 0.2 percentage points from U.S. gross domestic product in the fourth quarter as spending drops on services such as restaurant meals, according to Mark Vitner, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities LLC in Charlotte, North Carolina. The economy, with annualized GDP of $13.6 trillion, expanded at a 2 percent pace in the third quarter.
“There’s a loss of activity that’s going to be hard to make up,” Vitner said yesterday. “If you’re a restaurant and you’re closed today, people are not going to eat two lunches tomorrow.”
Major Airports
Floodwaters at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport forced it to close late yesterday until further notice. The region’s other two major airports, Newark Liberty International and LaGuardia, are also closed.
Sandy grounded 15 percent of U.S. flights from Oct. 27 through late yesterday, according to data compiled by industry researcher FlightStats.
Boeing Co. (BA), the world’s largest aerospace and defense company, suspended operations at sites in Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania and will determine plans for the remainder of the week on a day-to-day basis. The shutdown includes Chicago-based Boeing’s plant near Philadelphia, where about 6,000 employees build H-47 Chinook helicopters and V-22 Ospreys.
SANDY HAMMERS INTO EAST COAST WITH FIRES,FLOOD,POWER OUTAGES
New York City awakened Tuesday to a flooded subway system, shuttered financial markets and hundreds of thousands of people without power a day after a wall of seawater and high winds slammed into the city, destroying buildings and flooding tunnels.
Scenes of the damage were everywhere. At least 50 flooded homes in Queens caught fire and were destroyed. A hospital removed patients on stretchers and 20 babies from neonatal intensive care, some on respirators operating on battery power.
Where usually bustling crowds and traffic jams streamed through sidewalks, streets and subways, they were largely empty. And high above midtown, the broken boom of a crane continued to dangle precariously over a neighborhood.
"Oh, Jesus. Oh, no," said Faye Schwartz, 65, Tuesday morning as she surveyed the damage in her Brooklyn neighborhood, where cars were strewn like leaves, planters deposited in intersections and green metal Dumpsters tossed on their sides.
The storm was once Hurricane Sandy but combined with two wintry systems to become a huge hybrid storm whose center smashed ashore late Monday in New Jersey. New York City was perfectly positioned to absorb the worst of its storm surge — a record 13 feet.
Water lapped over the seawall in Battery Park City, flooding rail yards, subway tracks, tunnels and roads. Rescue workers floated bright orange rafts down flooded downtown streets, while police officers rolled slowly down the street with loudspeakers telling people to go home.
"We knew that this was going to be a very dangerous storm, and the storm has met our expectations," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. "This is a once-in-a-long-time storm."
In Queens, nearly 200 firefighters tried to contain an enormous blaze that consumed 50 homes in the Breezy Point neighborhood. They had to use a boat to make rescues, firefighters told WABC-TV. They climbed an awning to reach about 25 trapped people and take them down to a boat.
Officials weren't immediately able to pin down the cause of the blaze.
Water surged into two major commuter tunnels — the Brooklyn Battery and the Queens Midtown — along with seven subway tunnels under the East River. The agency is assessing damage and will restore the system as quickly as it can, MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota said.
The rains and howling winds left a crane hanging off a luxury high-rise in midtown Manhattan, causing the evacuation of hundreds from a posh hotel and other buildings. Inspectors were climbing 74 flights of stairs to examine the crane hanging from the $1.5 billion building.
After a backup generator failed, New York University's Tisch Hospital began evacuating more than 200 patients to other facilities, including 20 babies from neonatal intensive care, some of them on respirators operating on battery power.
Without power, the hospital had no elevator service, meaning patients had to be carefully carried down staircases and outside into the weather. Gusts of wind blew their blankets as nurses held IVs and other equipment.
About 670,000 homes and businesses were without power late Monday in the city and suburban Westchester County.
In Schwartz's Brooklyn neighborhood of Red Hook, residents who ignored a mandatory evacuation order awoke to debris-strewn streets and a continued blackout. About 2 inches of mucky dirt and leaves covered streets crisscrossed by downed power lines after water sloshed 12 blocks inland.
The doors of the Fairway grocery store were blown out. Several cars left in the parking lot were shifted by flood waters overnight and were left crammed door to door.
Schwartz and her husband rode out the storm on the third floor of the residences above the Fairway and said white-capped flood waters reached at least 3 feet around the building.
"It was scary how fast the water came up," she said.
The facade of a four-story Manhattan building in the Chelsea neighborhood crumbled and collapsed suddenly, leaving the lights, couches, cabinets and desks inside visible from the street. No one was hurt, although some of the falling debris hit a car.
The city shut all three of its airports, its subways, schools, stock exchanges, Broadway theaters and closed several bridges and tunnels Monday as the weather worsened. By evening, a record 13-foot storm surge was threatening Manhattan's southern tip and utilities deliberately darkened part of the borough to avoid storm damage.
It could be several days to a week before all residents who lost power during the storm get their lights back, Miksad said.
On Tuesday, the New York Stock Exchange was to be closed again — the first time it's been closed for two consecutive days due to weather since 1888, when a blizzard struck the city.
At 4 a.m., few people were out on the streets. Times Square was lit but empty of people. Round-the-clock restaurants and bars that would have been wrapping up after last call were closed. Only a handful of taxis plied the streets — but there was an abundance of emergency and police vehicles.
Uptown, windows of apartments and businesses glowed. But to cross through midtown was to be swallowed by darkness. Only a few emergency or backup lights appeared in buildings.
Late Monday, an explosion at a substation at 14th Street and FDR Drive contributed to the power outages. No one was injured, and ConEd did not know whether the explosion was caused by flooding or by flying debris.
Earlier in the day, another 1 million customers lost power in New York City, the northern suburbs and coastal Long Island, where floodwaters swamped cars, downed trees and put neighborhoods under water.
At least six people were killed in the New York City area, most by falling trees. The dead included two boys, ages 11 and 13, who were killed when a tree fell on a home in suburban Westchester County.
On coastal Long Island, floodwaters swamped cars, downed trees and put neighborhoods under water as beachfronts and fishing villages bore the brunt of the storm. A police car was lost rescuing 14 people from the popular resort Fire Island.
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