Irene Blasts New Jersey With Bad Media, Offhand Governance, And Tornados

Just got my power on after some 12+ hours in the dark; and I consider myself lucky as I was about an hour from flood-stage waters in the basement.  A few quick thoughts:

-New Jersey 101.5 (WKXW), is a local radio station that broadcasts on various frequencies from Cape May to the state's northern reaches and is the unofficial "official" radio station of New Jersey, absolutely dominating local coverage (and ratings).  Surprisingly, they went to music at around 12 noon today, as opposed to staying live with road conditions and reports from various townships.  Without internet, with minimal cell phone service (must have had a tower knocked down near me), and with New York radio stations focusing their reporting on city matters, I was in the dark both literally and figuratively.  Very disappointing.

-Also disappointing was Chris Christie's performance today.  Apparently, he made the rounds of the national TV talk shows this morning, but that did little to help get information to the almost 800,000 Jersey residents that were without power, and hence their TV sets.  Christie finally got off the national stage and deigned to talk to local media at around 12 noon. The WKXW jocks sneered derisively - after Christie pushed his 10AM briefing up to noon - that he'd get to local residents after he finished burnishing his national credentials.  And mind you, the aforementioned "official" radio outlet of the state is usually very much in the governor's corner.  Shocking lack of awareness from the usual media-savvy governor.  I was pretty pissed at him myself...

-Here's an approximated Hurricane Irene rainfall totals map by New Jersey county, in case you were interested:

~And here's video of the aftermath of what appears to be a tornado that tore through Long Branch.  Sounds more like a water spout that came ashore and stayed aloft for a few minutes.  Still, the damage is severe, and tornadoes are a somewhat rare phenomenon in New Jersey:




~Although less unusual then they once were - I took this picture a few weeks ago on Route 9 in Old Bridge - it's a tornado attempting to form in a cornfield, at the leading edge of a thunderstorm.  Took the pics from a bus, it was fascinating to watch:

~And finally, back to Irene - here's my home weather station's barometric readings ovder a 24 hour period.  Csan you guess at what point the storm passed through?

Below the charts low-pressure...yowza...