Thousands were without power on the U.S. East Coast on Friday night as roads flooded in some coastal New Jersey communities, the first major signs of a powerful nor'easter that’s already forcing ordinary people to absorb the damage while the institutions around them scramble to manage it. Tens of millions of people were in the storm’s path, and the National Weather Service said dangerous flooding was expected along the Mid-Atlantic coast, particularly near New Jersey and Delaware.
Who Pays When the Storm Hits
In Surf City, water with waves rippling along its surface flooded the streets and inundated some homes. About 34 miles up the coast in Manasquan, where some roads were also flooding, Mayor Mike Mangan said he expected “a lot of water in the streets for a long time.” A voluntary evacuation had already been issued in some low-lying areas of the community. That’s the familiar arrangement: people in the lowest places, with the least room to move, are the ones told to clear out first and wait for the weather and the system to decide what happens next.
Brian Kelly, the mayor of the tiny New Jersey beach community Sea Bright, said the borough was bracing for winds up to 50 mph and flooding that could reach up to 6 feet on some streets. Officials expected the flooding to start Saturday and worsen by midday. Kelly said, “It’s going to be worse than average. We do have probably one or two flooding events a year, sometimes more, sometimes less, but I think this one will be closer to an Irene-scale flooding event.” He added, “I hope I’m wrong, but that’s my gut feeling.” Kelly said he hoped hundreds of residents living in low-lying areas would consider evacuating, and he said the town would open its recreation center for evacuees.
That recreation center is the kind of stopgap local officials lean on when the weather and the built environment collide. It’s not a solution. It’s a holding pen for people pushed out of their homes by conditions they didn’t create.
The Storm Meets the Infrastructure
Peak wind gusts could approach 60 to 65 mph on Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket on Friday night and Saturday, compared with about 50 to 55 mph around Boston and 35 to 40 mph farther inland, according to Matthew Belk, a meteorologist with NWS in Norton, Massachusetts. Belk said, “It’s definitely going to be a case of the closer to the coast you are, the more impacts from the storm you’re likely to see.” He said nor’easters are not unusual as New England moves into fall, but one concern this early in the season was that leaves remained on the trees, creating more wind resistance. That could increase the risk of downed limbs, which in turn could cause power outages and leave debris in roads.
Along the Atlantic coasts of New Jersey and Delaware, wind gusts could reach 60 mph, according to NWS. In southeastern Connecticut and eastern Long Island, New York, gusts could get almost as high, potentially downing tree limbs and power lines. The storm doesn’t need much help to expose how fragile the setup is. A few hard gusts, some saturated ground, and the whole thing starts to buckle.
More than 200 flights to and from airports in Boston, Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard and New York had been canceled Friday, and more cancellations were already in place for Saturday. Concerts were canceled, along with dozens of flights going into airports in Boston, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard on Friday and Saturday. Several airlines were offering to waive some change or cancellation fees for some East Coast flights through the weekend. Even the fee waivers come wrapped in the usual corporate logic: a little relief, carefully rationed, after the disruption has already been dumped on the public.
The Red Sox announced their weekend series against the Chicago Cubs would be adjusted. The team moved the Sunday afternoon game to Friday to create a split doubleheader. Separately, Ed Sheeran announced that his high-profile Friday and Saturday shows at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, would be canceled due to the storm. Big-ticket entertainment can be shuffled, rescheduled, or scrapped. People living near the water don’t get that luxury.
What People Do Without the System
The public ferry service connecting Cape Cod with the islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard was experiencing widespread cancellations Friday due to strong winds and choppy water. In Rhode Island, ferries were also canceled for Block Island. The disrupted ferry service was expected to spill into Saturday. For people who regularly travel to and from the islands, the possibility of getting stuck on one side or the other is “part of life,” said Sean Driscoll, a spokesperson for the Woods Hole, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority. Most people have backup plans in place for when boats are canceled. “It’s a nuisance, but you know, we know what to do with this kind of stuff at this point,” he said. “This is not out of the realm of ordinary.”
That’s the quiet language of adaptation. People build their own workarounds because the official machinery can’t guarantee anything except disruption.
Ashley Destino of Gloucester, a coastal city in northern Massachusetts, took her two young children for a beach stroll on Friday afternoon before preparing to hunker down at home during the storm. “We came to the beach on Friday afternoon because we knew we were going to be inside all weekend,” said Destino, who had Legos and arts and crafts activities prepared to entertain her two children, ages 7 and 4. She also prepared by securing her boat with additional lines, and her husband pulled out a generator in case the electricity goes out. That’s the real emergency response here: families improvising, securing what they can, and waiting out the damage while the storm and the institutions around it do what they do best.