SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Understand The Consequences Of Climate Change

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Long Islanders should be aware of the projections by Professor Scott A. Mandia of Suffolk County Community College of the consequences if a major hurricane hits Long Island.

“Given public complacency, the amount of people needing to evacuate, the few evacuation routes off Long Island, and the considerable area affected by storm surge, more lead-time is needed for a proper evacuation than in other parts of the country,” says Professor Mandia in a remarkable series of web pages. He is a meteorologist, a Miller Place resident, who teaches courses at the college on weather and climate change. 

The above is on a page where he discusses hurricane prospects for this region. Click on it at http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/mandias/38hurricane/hurricane_future.html

As he details on another of his web pages, which we spotlighted in this space last week, a Category 4 hurricane “inundates” with severe flooding “entire communities” on Long Island. He lists community after community. http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/mandias/38hurricane/storm_surge_maps.html  

Professor Mandia’s pages say the impacts from a major hurricane “point to a likely future disaster in Suffolk County.” 

The key factor causing loss of life and damage from a hurricane is storm surge. And if a Category 4 hurricane hits Long Island, the storm surge, he says, would be more than 20 feet and as high as 28 and 29 feet, in some areas of Suffolk and Nassau Counties.

The Army Corps of Engineers, in charge of protecting the coast of the U.S. from hurricanes, believes it can win against hurricanes. In 1962, when I started out as a Long Island-based journalist, the Army Corps was first pushing its Fire Island to Montauk Point Project, to bolster 83 miles of Suffolk’s south shore to, in large part, ostensibly withstand hurricanes. The scheme is still around as a $1.3 billion project. But the dunes reinforced in the project would rise, at their highest, to 15 feet—about half the height of the worst hurricane storm surge estimated for Long Island.

Until less than 100 years ago, folks on Long Island wouldn’t think of building houses on its barrier beaches. The most they’d put there would be “shacks”—with no expectation of them lasting a long time.

“Resiliency” is the word the Army Corps and politicians have been using since Sandy in 2012 as to what’s needed to protect Long Island. It’s a nice word, but the Army Corps’ Fire Island to Montauk Point scheme is billion buck wishful thinking. 

Complicating things today, as Professor Mandia notes on his web pages: “Unfortunately, in the past decades, the coastal population has also increased substantially which further increases the hurricane risks.”

And then there is the federally-subsidized flood insurance program that “almost rewards people for building in dumb locations,” said Professor Mandia in an interview.   

The gargantuan elephant in the hurricane room now is climate change. Professor Mandia says climate change, global warming, is responsible for the increased severity of major hurricanes. He explains: “All coastal storms are now worse due to sea level rise caused by human activities that are warming the climate. A warmer climate means more ice melt, which adds water to our oceans. Warmer water expands and thus rises upward, a double-whammy for sea level rise. Imagine a basketball hoop ten feet above the floor and consider a dunk to be a storm over-topping a sea wall or other barrier. Now imagine humans have caused that floor to rise by a foot. It is much easier to dunk a basketball now. More flooding just like we saw in Sandy, Harvey, Maria, Florence and every hurricane from now onward.”

Climate change is caused by the use of fossil fuels. Al Gore, who first took on climate change as a U.S. senator and continued as vice president and now a citizen-activist, said in an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek last month: “We’re still treating the atmosphere as an open sewer. We’re putting 110 million tons every day of man-made, heat-trapping pollution into the sky….That’s why the oceans are getting so hot. That’s why Hurricane Florence intensified so rapidly. That’s why there are fish from the ocean swimming in the streets of Miami at high tide—because of the melting ice and sea level rise.”

“The scientists were spot on in warning us about all of those consequences,” said Mr. Gore. “Now the evening news every night is like a nature hike through the Book of Revelations…This is a really critical choice that we have to make. We must change. The second question: Can we change? We have the ability and the technologies to do it.”

We must eliminate the cause of increasingly severe hurricanes by ending reliance on fossil fuel and moving to green, clean, non-polluting sustainable energy led by solar and wind power.  As Mr. Gore says, “We have the ability and the technologies to do it.”

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books.  

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Thinking About A Hurricane On LI Think Storm Surge

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

We all worried last month looking at TV and the westward track of Hurricane Florence about the consequences if it hooked to the north and struck in the upper portion of the Atlantic Coast.  That possibility was suggested by some forecasters, but Florence’s track was unswervingly westward—hitting North Carolina head-on.

And Florence was a Category 1 hurricane when it hit the Carolinas—after days of being at Category 4—and still was a “monumental disaster” for North Carolina, as its Governor Roy Cooper put it. What was routinely referred to as a “monster storm” did equivalent damage in South Carolina.

What would be the consequences if a Category 4 hurricane—a level that’s become far, far more frequent these days due to climate change producing warmer water for hurricanes to feed on—smashed into Long Island?

With an analysis of Long Island hurricane impacts is Professor Scott A. Mandia of Suffolk County Community College. He is a meteorologist—with a master’s degree in meteorology from Pennsylvania State University—who teaches courses at Suffolk Community in weather and climate change. He is assistant chair of the college’s Department of Physical Sciences. 

It is not pretty. Indeed, it is downright scary. Click on to see Professor Mandia’s analysis at http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/mandias/38hurricane/storm_surge_maps.html 

His analysis states that it would only require a Category 1 storm for Montauk Point to be “completely cut off from the rest of the South Fork.” If there were a Category 3 hurricane, “Much of the North and South Forks are entirely under water.”

A Category 4 hurricane “inundates”—a term widely used by meteorologists these days to describe severe flooding—“entire” areas of Long Island, says Professor Mandia in his analysis. This would include on the East End: North Haven, Greenport, Montauk, Westhampton Beach and Orient. It also “inundates” Shelter Island “except for a few high points,” along with Plum Island and Gardiner’s Island.

A Category 4 hurricane “inundates” in western Suffolk County the “entire” communities of Amityville, Lindenhurst, Babylon, West Islip and Bay Shore, among other areas.

A Category 4 hurricane “inundates” in Nassau County the “entire” communities of Woodmere, Valley Stream, Lynbrook, Long Beach, Atlantic Beach, Lido Beach, Freeport, Merrick and Wantagh, among other areas.    

Professor Mandia’s analysis is part of a series of web pages he presents. They are headed “The Long Island Express, The Great Hurricane of 1938, Long Island Hurricane Climatology.” He is an expert on the Hurricane of 1938 which ravaged Long Island and much of New England exactly 80 years ago last month. The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, which sets the categories wasn’t in use then, but today the Hurricane of 1938 is considered to have been a Category 3 hurricane when it struck Long Island. 

A Category 4 hurricane is one with a wind speed of 131 to 155 miles per hour; Category 3—111 to 130; Category 2—96 to 110; Category 1—74 to 95.  

Professor Mandia does not make projections for the top category of hurricanes on the Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale, Category 5 with winds of 156 miles per hour and stronger, because there is no evidence that a Hurricane 5 hurricane has struck Long Island. But, he said in an interview, “I wouldn’t be surprised that with warmer water here that at some point this century a Category 5 hurricane will hit Long Island.”

Here, as in the Carolinas, the key issue regarding loss of life and much of damage would not be wind speed but storm surge. Storm surge is defined by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as “the abnormal rise in seawater level during a storm, measured as the height of the water above the normal predicted astronomical tide. The surge is caused primarily by a storm’s winds pushing water onshore.”

It would be, in the case of a Category 4 hurricane, well over 20 feet, as high as 28 and 29 feet, in some areas of Suffolk and Nassau Counties. Click on the map of Long island on Professor Mandia’s analysis and you’ll find the estimated storm surge for where you live.

Professor Mandia says: “Hurricane storm surge causes approximately 90% of all storm deaths and injuries and much of the damage, therefore it is important to residents of Long Island…to be aware of the areas that will be affected by the storm surge. The southern shore of Long Island is most vulnerable to storm surge inundations because hurricane landfall will first occur there and the low elevation will allow sea water to move well inland.”

More next week.

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books.  

Theater Review - 'The Addams Family'

Theater Review – ‘The Addams Family’

Produced by: Theatre Three – Port Jefferson

Reviewed by: Jeb Ladouceur

The strangely appealing musical comedy now playing at Port Jefferson’s Theatre Three has got to be the wackiest production ever mounted on the 160-year-old building’s fabled stage. The show is ‘The Addams Family,’ and if ever there was a more appropriate prelude to the Halloween season, this, my friends, must surely be it!

About fifteen seconds into the macabre play, one finds one’s self wondering if the zany goings on could possibly be the product of the same theatrical organization that gave us ‘The Bridges of Madison County,’ or ‘The Diary of Anne Frank.’ Even the bloodthirsty ‘Sweeney Todd’ seems tame in retrospect when compared to the ghoulish behavior that the morbid Addams bunch substitutes for fun.

It has been observed that all comedy is rooted in tragedy. That being the case, ‘The Addams Family’ can easily be termed the funniest performance ever mounted on any stage, anywhere … including vaudeville. Because to the weird Addams clan, Death is a hoot … Torture’s terrific … and Poison is downright yummy!

The wonder of it is that the resulting unlikely laugh lines (which are spun off in rat-a-tat-tat sequence) all work … to the extent that we hardly have time to catch our collective breaths between belly laughs.

This newest rib-tickler, directed by Jeffrey Sanzel, stars Matt Senese as Gomez Addams, and Tracylynn Conner (the dour Morticia Addams) is his perfect foil. Their counterparts, in what could be called a ghoulish version of ‘Meet the Parents,’ are Linda May and Steve Ayle, who play Alice and Mal Beineke as if born to the roles.

Of course, audiences should not expect anything profound in the plot as the Addams and Beineke families gingerly feel one another out (in the mansion near a graveyard, appropriately) where daughter Wednesday (yes, that’s her name) has chosen her family’s reunion to introduce current boyfriend Lucas (nicely played by an innocent Matt Paredi). It’s hard to tell which family is the more bewildered by the other … the ‘peaches-and-cream,’ All-American Beinekes, or their totally opposite numbers, the ultra-weird Addamses. The contrast only adds to the hilarity.

The songs in this musical are far from memorable, but their clever lyrics serve the goings on well (‘Just Around the Corner,’ for instance, becomes ‘Just Around the Coroner’ … get it? And Uncle Fester Addams does his thing in Act I with a piece titled ‘Fester’s Manifesto.’ That’s the kind of show this is. Writers Marshall Brickman and Rick Elise have grabbed every opportunity to nail down a pun the minute they got a chance.

Under the direction of veteran Jeffrey Hoffman, the Theatre Three orchestra is melodic when necessary, brassy when appropriate, and unobtrusive when the tender action on stage demands. Randall Parsons has delivered a super-functional set, and Lindsay DeFranco’s make-up design (so important to this play) works to perfection.

The costumes and wigs are exquisite … credit designer Chakira Doherty … as is Robert W. Henderson, Jr.’s spot-on lighting which is properly heavy on purple as well as shadow.

The preceding plaudits notwithstanding, I wouldn’t be surprised if the multi-talented members of Theatre Three’s cast and crew were quick to doff their wigs to the comic genius who came up with the ‘Addams Family’ concept in the beginning. Charles Addams had a keen ear for the sort of situations that make us cringe while chuckling and smile while squirming. He deserves all the stars that critics have in their galaxies.

____________________________________________________________

Award-winning writer, Jeb Ladouceur is the author of a dozen novels, and his theater and book reviews appear in several major L.I. publications. His recent hit, THE GHOSTWRITERS, explores the bizarre relationship between the late Harper Lee and Truman Capote. Ladouceur’s topical thriller, THE SOUTHWICK INCIDENT, was introduced at the Smithtown Library on May 21st. The book involves a radicalized Yale student and his CIA pursuers. Mr. Ladouceur’s revealing website is www.JebsBooks.com 

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Is It Real Or Is It A Hoax? Alan Abel's Legacy

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

This is a change-of-pace column about a fellow who was among the funniest people I’ve ever known, Alan Abel. “Alan Abel, Ace Hoaxer, Is (Really) Dead at 94,” was the headline last week in The New York Times of a nearly full-page obituary for Alan.

The “Really” in the headline was necessary because back in 1980 Alan tricked The Times into publishing his obituary. The Times acknowledged last week it was “much-abashed” to have been fooled by Alan. It was another successful hoax by indeed the “ace hoaxer” Alan.

I once was asked by Alan to get involved in one of his hoaxes. I had to say no. He invited me to lunch at the Hotel Edison in Manhattan and there laid out the hoax. We would go to Scotland where I would be billed as an award-winning journalist who had captured the Loch Ness monster. A big flatbed truck would be rented and under a canvas tarpaulin would be a huge object, purportedly the body of the monster.  

A feature of the road trip from Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands to London would be having a red liquid—ostensibly blood from the monster—dripping from under the tarpaulin onto the highways which we would traverse.

This would attract, Alan figured, day-by-day coverage by the British press. Then he would introduce me at a press conference in London… At this point, I had to stop him, explaining that my participation in the hoax would eliminate my future as a credible journalist.

The importance of Alan’s hoaxes, I have told my classes in journalism, is they demonstrate how the press can be manipulated, and reflect, too, on how politicians and government officials at times float information that’s close to hoaxes if not being outright false—and media have provided unquestioning coverage. The press, I tell the students, must be extremely careful to avoid being taken in by mistruths that officialdom dispenses. 

Time and time again, Alan fooled the media—to demonstrate, as The Times obituary related, “a highly personal brand of performance art, equal parts of self-promotion, social commentary. study of the breathtaking naivete of press and public, and pure old-fashioned high jinks.”

Even Newsday, which like The Times tries to make sure what it reports is real, was taken in by Alan.  There was “Omar’s School of Beggars,” a school for panhandlers which supposedly opened in Manhattan. Newsday did a multi-page piece in its then weekly magazine on it, featuring “Omar”—actually Alan—his head cloaked in a black hood with openings for eyes and mouth, giving a lecture to “pupils,” in fact, buddies of Alan.  

I first got to know Alan after he launched the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals or SINA, which I thought was especially hilarious. Alan’s friend, Buck Henry, later to co-write the movie The Graduate and regularly host Saturday Night Live, was president under the name G. Clifford Prout, Jr. of this purported organization. Alan was vice president.

photo credit Hoaxes.comA magazine was printed with on its cover a rendition of a horse—in boxer shorts. There was this statement: “We fight for the future now; Let’s clothe every pet and animal/ whether dog, cat, horse or cow! G. Clifford Prout, our President/ he works for you and me. So clothe all your pets and join the march/ for worldwide Decency! S.I.N.A., that’s our call/ all for one and one for all. Hoist our flag for all to see/ waving for Morality. Onward we strive together/ stronger in every way, All mankind and his animal friends/ for SINA, S-I-N-A!”

“A nude horse is a rude horse,” SINA maintained.  

Alan and Buck would visit a zoo and then go to the newspaper office in that city to complain that the animals at its zoo weren’t clothed. This garnered attention.  

One of the most interesting parties I’ve gone to was at Alan’s and his wife Jeanne’s house in Westport, Connecticut. Some of the party extended to a red caboose that Alan somehow got transported to its yard to serve as their daughter Jenny’s playhouse. 

Alan and Jeanne, who loved his sense of humor, joined in a campaign to elect Yetta Bronstein, purportedly a Jewish grandmother from The Bronx, president of the United States.  Jeanne was Yetta. “Vote for Yetta and things will get betta,” was the campaign’s slogan. 

Related last week’s obituary in The Times: “A master psychologist, keen strategist and possessor of an enviable deadpan and a string of handy aliases, Mr. Abel had an almost unrivaled ability to divine exactly what a harried news media wanted to hear and then give it to them, irresistibly gift-wrapped.”

Alan, with Jeanne, produced two films: Is There Sex After Death? and The Faking of the President. He authored books: The Great American Hoax and The Confessions of a Hoaxer and Don’t Get Mad…Get Even! A Manual for Retaliation. In it, Alan gives his solution to how by telephone by claiming to be a doctor one can “get through to a V.I.P” said to be unavailable. “I recommend a pattern of dialogue as follows: ‘Who is calling?’ ‘Dr. Abel…’  ‘I’m sorry, he’s in a conference…’ ‘But I have his x-rays.’ ‘I’ll put you right through.’”

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books.  

Wanted A Partner For Smithtown's Animal Shelter And Adoption Center

 By Stacey Altherr

The Town of Smithtown is looking for a partner for its Animal Shelter and Adoption Center.

A recent Request For Proposal was advertised on the town’s web site, looking for a third party to assume the “day-to-day operation” of the shelter.

A town official said the proposal was “purely exploratory,” calling it a way to lessen the cost for taxpayers and work toward getting more animals adopted from the shelter.

“One half of the town’s population is happy to spend the budget money,” said town spokesperson Nicole Garguilo, “and the other half feel we are wasting taxpayers’ dollars.”

“If there is a group that will partner with us, we can do more work getting animals adopted,” at no additional cost. 

Garguilo noted that animal groups have a wide network that would help the town in that effort.  Town shelters cannot call themselves “no-kill” but Smithtown has worked to not euthanize any healthy animals after years of protest in the way some animals were handled. “We never want to neglect the animals,” she said. “With this administration, we want to go forward.” 

No employees would lose jobs- there are about four-to-five animal control officers and four-to-five shelter attendants at any one time – and the volunteer group would help with the daily operational tasks, which are needed 24 hours a day and seven days a week.

The town would maintain the buildings, and still deal with animal control issues, such as a dog or cat hit by a car or abandoned animals.

The partnering organization must have experience with no-kill shelters.

No groups have contacted the town yet, but officials do think at least some organizations, and one in particular, will be interested. If there are no proposals by the closing date of the RFP, Sept. 27, it most likely would be extended, said Garguilo.

Interested groups can contact the town’s purchasing department.

Stacey Altherr is a former Newsday reporter now living in Sarsasota, Florida. Her beats included Smithtown, where she covered governmental affairs.  She now runs a café in Longboat Key near her home and writes freelance. Altherr has won many awards, including a 2010 Society of Silurian Award for community service journalism for a multi-part series, “Heroin Hits Main Street,” and a third-place National Headliner Award for public service for a multi-part year-long investigation on spending at fire districts on Long Island.