On Staten Island, New York, a large ship is grounded on Front Street, Tuesday, October 30, 2012, as residents assess damage after Hurricane Sandy. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/MCT / October 30, 2012)

latimes.com - by Deborah Netburn - October 30, 2012

The TV networks will give us the big news stories, but what about getting information on a hyper-local level — like, did your apartment flood, and do you have heat?

To start, keep close tabs on Facebook and Twitter for updates from your social network. It will give you a sense of how the people closest to you are faring without you needing to waste their valuable cellphone battery time.

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http://google.org/crisismap/2012-sandy

Sandy is a major storm, previously a hurricane, that has caused extensive flooding, power and transportation outages, and physical damage to the US East Coast and Caribbean. More than 100 deaths have been linked to the storm.

A cooling tower is seen at the Salem nuclear power plant known as Artificial Island. (Mel Evans/AP Photo)

ABC News - by Mark Schone - October 30, 2012

The nation's oldest nuclear plant declared an alert and a second plant just 40 miles from New York City was forced to shut down power as five different nuke plants in Hurricane Sandy's path experienced problems during the storm.

Indian Point in Buchanan, New York, on the Hudson River north of New York City, automatically shut power to its unit 3 on Monday night "as a result of an electrical grid disturbance," according to Entergy, the plant's operator.

The connection between the generator and the offsite grid was lost, and the unit is designed to shut down to protect itself from electrical damage.

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Residents in Little Ferry, N.J., were rescued from flood waters. (photo: Adam Hunger/Reuters)

huffingtonpost.com - by George Lakoff - October 30, 2012

Yes, global warming systemically caused Hurricane Sandy -- and the Midwest droughts and the fires in Colorado and Texas, as well as other extreme weather disasters around the world. Let's say it out loud, it was causation, systemic causation.

There is a difference between systemic and direct causation.

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Flood waters rush in to the Hoboken PATH station through an elevator shaft

Power out + backup generators have failed tonight at NYU Hospital, one of NYC's largest. Patients/staff being evacuated.

Ladder 169 evacuating 300 people from a Nursing home via boats. Coney Island Ave and the Belt Pkwy

The water level at the Battery in #NYC has reached 11.25 feet, surpassing the all-time record of 11.2 feet set in 1821.

U.S. Declares 'Alert' At Oyster Creek Nuclear Plant In N.J.

Hoboken, in Disarray, Calls for National Guard Help

National Guard evacuating hundreds in Greenwich, CT who did not heed warnings

People stand on the beach watching the heavy surf caused by the approaching Hurricane Sandy, on Sunday, October 28, in Cape May, New Jersey. Hurricane Sandy is expected to hit the New Jersey coastline sometime on Monday, bringing heavy winds and floodwaters.  Getty Images

cnn.com - October 28, 2012

(CNN) -- States up and down the East Coast are preparing for Hurricane Sandy, which has sent rain to portions of North and South Carolina. Sandy could strike the U.S. coast anywhere from the North Carolina-Virginia border to Connecticut, a 700-mile stretch where state and local authorities are rushing to prepare for potentially devastating effects.

From north to south, here is a look at how coastal states are getting ready:

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The Weather Channel

NBC 10 (Philadelphia, PA)

Fox 5 (New York City, NY)

ABC 7 (New York City, NY)

FOX 5 (Washington D.C.)

ABC 2 (Baltimore, MD)

Resources - from Humanity Road - Links to Evacuation Maps and Information, Animal Resources, Utility/Power Outage websites, State Office websites, Transportation, Shelter, Emergency Management, Facebook Pages and much more . . .
http://www.humanityroad.org/Sandy.htm#.UIst7Z8CbT8.twitter

Google Crisis Map
http://google.org/crisismap/sandy-2012

ndbc.noaa.gov - October 28, 2012

The National Data Buoy Center has recorded a Significant Wave Height (WVHT) of 30 feet.  This data was recorded at Buoy Station # 41001 - EAST HATTERAS - 150 NM East of Cape Hatteras.

Significant wave height (meters) is calculated as the average of the highest one-third of all of the wave heights during the 20-minute sampling period. See the Wave Measurements section.

Recording - Station 41001
http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/show_plot.php?station=41001&meas=sght&uom=E&time_diff=-4&time_label=EDT

Information on Station 41001
http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_history.php?station=41001

About Wave Measurements
http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/measdes.shtml

cbsnews.com - October 25, 2012 - Updated 9:48 PM ET

WASHINGTON An unusual nasty mix of a hurricane and a winter storm that forecasters are now calling "Frankenstorm" is likely to blast most of the East Coast next week, focusing the worst of its weather mayhem around New York City and New Jersey.

U.S. government forecasters on Thursday upped the odds of a major weather mess, now saying there's a 90 percent chance that the East will get steady gale-force winds, heavy rain, flooding and maybe snow starting Sunday and stretching past Halloween on Wednesday.

Meteorologists say it is likely to cause $1 billion in damages.

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CSIS - The Global Health Policy Center

Friday, November 2, 2012

submitted by Paul G.Kaplan

A drying corn field in southern Minnesota. Bad weather has resulted in a poor harvest this year. Photograph: David I. Gross/ Corbis

As the UN and Oxfam warn of the dangers ahead, expert analyst Lester Brown says time to solve the problem is running out

guardian.co.uk - by John Vidal - October 13, 2012

Brandon Hunnicutt has had a year to remember. The young Nebraskan from Hamilton County farms 2,600 acres of the High Plains with his father and brother. What looked certain in an almost perfect May to be a "phenomenal" harvest of maize and soy beans has turned into a near disaster.

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Book - Full Planet, Empty Plates
http://www.earthpolicy.org/mobile/books/fpep

Oxfam Report - 'Our Land, Our Lives': Time Out on the Global Land Rush
http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/our-land-our-lives-time-out-on-the-global-land-rush-246731

google.org - Flu Trends

We've found that certain search terms are good indicators of flu activity. Google Flu Trends uses aggregated Google search data to estimate flu activity.

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ethicalcorp.com - by Mallen Baker - October 4, 2012

Mallen Baker argues that it’s irresponsible not to make contingency plans, especially when the potential failures concern the fundamentals – such as food

Imagine your critical business systems depend on one computer server. This server is huge – it has immense capacity – but you have grown into that space and now every single day you are pushing it to its limit. . .

. . . Now let’s substitute the global food system for the server. Here we have a system that is operating at full capacity. Any hiccups in normal production can lead to serious problems. This year we have seen such hiccups.

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