Bitching about Boston

Meteorologist to viewing public-

Wusses! Not even 102F

*wrings out the air by hand*

Tornado Alley East has much storm activity.

Long line of storms from the south connected with Tornado Alley East

towns North of Keene, NH are under tornado warning


Yesterday, the meteorologists were speaking about "spin up tornado warning." That is what we have, today.


wunderground map shows the storms are headed for Barre, Vermont

Something forced one line of storms head west, not east.

ISSUED: 3:20 PM AUG. 3, 2018 – NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE
The National Weather Service in Gray Maine has issued a

* Tornado Warning for...
Central Cheshire County in southern New Hampshire...

* Until 400 PM EDT.

* At 320 PM EDT, a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado
was located over Westmoreland, or 8 miles west of Keene, moving
northeast at 25 mph.

HAZARD...Tornado.

SOURCE...Radar indicated rotation.

IMPACT...Flying debris will be dangerous to those caught without
shelter. Mobile homes will be damaged or destroyed.
Damage to roofs, windows, and vehicles will occur. Tree
damage is likely.

* This dangerous storm will be near...
Surry and Gilsum around 345 PM EDT.
Keene around 350 PM EDT.
Marlow and Roxbury around 355 PM EDT.
Sullivan and Alstead around 400 PM EDT.

https://www.wunderground.com/severe/us/nh/keene

Our pickle-girl's old roost in MA was the bullseye on the target this time.

After years of weird "downbursts and "straightline winds," a tornado hit the charming, small hamlet. Being New England, we had our own unique tornado. It was not your typical Mid-West tornado. It was more similar to the wild card tornado that smacked Revere in 2014, put packing more punch. It did the same job a Mid-West tornado does. Ripped roofs, blown out windows, snapped trees, and it even moved granite slabs. Power is out, for them.


Eric Fisher
@ericfisher
·
2m
Update: @NWSBoston survey team has arrived in Webster. Would anticipate more information coming in on tornado confirmation/strength later this afternoon or eve.



Strangely , enough, the tornado that hit Springfield 2011, behaved just like a Mid-Western tornado.

Heard distant big thunder this morning.

Raindrops the size of hummingbirds, came down in our neighborhood. All that hot, wet air is flowing up from the South, all the way to Maine. A path of flooding following it.

The subconscious is an odd entity.

"We will never have law."

"Willie" Gross is giving his speech.

His subconscious tripped him up.

They swore him in.

He is now the Chief of Police.


http://www.wbur.org/news/2018/08/06/willie-gross-boston-police-commissioner

56-year-old "Willie" Gross entered the department in 1985 and has served as its second-in-command since 2014.


Former Chief, Bill Evans will be out at Boston College, wrangling the young people from out-of-town. Gov. "Charlie" Baker and "Marty" Walsh have got their hands full, this year.

4 inches of rain, in a couple of hours, provided some excitement in vacation-land

A couple of towns on the dartboard. Ipswich had a close call. They had too much fun, last year.


Jackie Layer 7News
@JackieLayerOn7
10:55AM: A Flood Warning has been issued thru 1:45PM this afternoon for central Barnstable Co.on the Cape. This includes the towns of Brewster, Dennis, Harwich, Orleans & Eastham. #7news

10:56 AM - Aug 9, 2018



Jacquelyn Goddard

@JacqueGoddard

Power line came down in the storm on Cape Cod. No traffic can travel on Route 6 in #Orleans between Exit 12 and the Orleans Rotary. @MassDOT assisting to post road detour signs.@MaryAnnBraggCCT @capecodtimes @EthanGenterCCT @WBZTraffic


https://whdh.com/weather-blog/lowering-humidity-on-deck/


Lightning from fast moving storm sparks fires on Cape


Areas of the Lower and Outer Cape lost power after several waves of intense weather knocked down trees and damaged utility poles and power lines

Aurora Borealis seen twice this month, on Mt. Washington.

(I had thought this was a wintertime sight.)

Full moon, and Northern Lights, up on Mt. Washington, at the weather observatory.

August 27, 2018

Rare occurrence, but it happened.



Knapp said he has seen the northern lights about three dozen times — but that was over a 12-year span, and he noted that seeing them “is not a very common sight up here.”


https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2...hts-display/SHI0WrZYMj0yCYRl7dB0eM/story.html

Plenty of film footage on TV, of students moving in, and ready to attend local university and colleges. There are always music events for them, before classes start.

Odd cancellation

The producer, EVP INC, had made the decision to call off the event.

September 1, 2018

A one-day music festival, scheduled for Saturday afternoon (today) on Boston’s City Hall Plaza, was abruptly canceled

A spokeswoman for the City of Boston said in an e-mail that the production company informed the city’s Property Management Department was informed of the change of plans Friday morning, citing a “lack of ticket sales

On Friday afternoon, Young the Giant, the headliner, expressed disappointment about the last-minute cancellation

CONTACT, another band set to perform at the festival, said there was a lot of confusion about the reasons behind calling off the festival. “The promoter just let us know the show is CANCELLED tomorrow. Super vague and sketchy,” the band wrote Friday on Twitter.

“The promoter messaged our manager a cryptic text. we couldn’t believe it and researched all morning,” the band wrote.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2...g-questions/UCRUpgHiQv4HS0KtgN0hgM/story.html

All musicians involved, seemed to be expecting the concert to happen.

Interstate 93

East Littleton, NH area

Grafton

Dangerous storm

Get the fuck to shelter

Now

Storm travelling NH to Maine


WS Gray
@NWSGray
·
53m
Severe Thunderstorm Warning including Lewiston ME, Auburn ME, Brunswick ME until 7:45 PM EDT

NWS Gray
@NWSGray
·
9m
Severe Thunderstorm Warning including Littleton NH, Whitefield NH, Bethlehem NH until 8:30 PM

748 PM EDT MON SEP 3 2018

The National Weather Service in Gray Maine has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...
Southwestern Coos County in northern New Hampshire...
Northeastern Grafton County in northern New Hampshire...

* Until 830 PM EDT.

* At 748 PM EDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 9 miles northwest
of Littleton, or near Saint Johnsbury Vermont, moving east at 30
mph.

HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and penny size hail.

SOURCE...Radar indicated.

IMPACT...Expect damage to roofs, siding, and trees.

* Locations impacted include...
Littleton, Lancaster, Bethlehem, Lincoln, Franconia, Carroll,
Lisbon, Jefferson, Dalton, Whitefield, *****, Sugar Hill and
Monroe.

This includes Interstate 93 between mile markers 111 and 131.

This also includes...
North Twin Mountain, Mount Garfield, AMC Galehead Hut, AMC Zealand
Falls Hut, and South Twin Mountain.

yikes

Exciting night, around Franconia Notch and coastal Maine

Rolling thunder from a distance.

This storm took over the sky in minutes.

The hot, wet sauna that is New England, remains in that condition at 11:00 at night.


My blood is too thick for this.


*instant sweat*


The lightning was active. Burning homes have become commonplace.

September 12, 2018 Hurricaine Florence leaves Bermuda behind, though a ferry was cancelled because of bad weather.

August 1991

A reminder that the hurricaine might not be what causes the most trouble. Massholes endured Hurricaine Bob, and saw the promise behind the threats. What caused a big mess was the storm after Bob.


Hurricane Grace was part of the three system monster that killed Gloucester fishermen out at sea. "The Perfect Storm" came at the end of October, 1991


What is more cruel, is hurricaines in New England during the winter. The ocean is ice-cold.


August 25, 1635

Pilgrims and Native Americans slammed by Category 3 hurricane

Plymouth, MA and Duxbury


https://www.capecodtoday.com/blogs/Blues/2013/08/21/21282-Worst-Hurricanes-Cape-Cod-History

Hey massholes!

Gas Explosions in Andover.

Be Safe!

The company that supplies electric power and gas lines and that looks after the infrastructure (badly) has decided to throw all of their experienced crews out of work. The work crews dared to ask for adequate equipment, sane schedules, safer practices, a living wage, and good health insurance.

The company prefers the inexperienced scabs.

There have been gas explosions while the teams have been on strike over the summer, and while the teams have tried to negotiate.

Thank you, Maine, for sending help

Columbia gas would only issue piss poor reports through news outlets, then changed their minds...

*listens to local news reporters at locations*

Yes ? No ?
Stay ? Go ?
Off ? On ?

Nat Grid, EverSource, and Columbia Gas

"Depending on, if you are talking to the town(s) or the energy companies, you will get different answers."

"The least informed and the last to act has been Columbia Gas," he said. "They're hiding from the problem."


http://www.wbur.org/news/2018/09/14/andover-north-andover-lawrence-gas-fires-day-after

"did not want to foot the bill" (for the fires, explosions, displaced people, injured people, all the firetrucks and first responders, police, police emergency response trucks,- Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine

A bit short-handed, because emergency services were sent out of state, to Hurricaine Florence

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker said the lack of response had forced him to declare a state of emergency and put EverSource in charge of the utility restoration and inspection efforts.

Columbia Gas said it needed to inspect 8,000 individual gas hookups before determining whether they would be safe to turn on.

Columbia Gas customers in Andover and North Andover were told to leave their homes, while all of south Lawrence was evacuated.

What role utility work played in the explosions.

Columbia Gas has been performing upgrades in the towns: on Thursday morning it issued a press release noting ongoing projects, including four in Andover, three in Lawrence and two in North Andover.


https://patch.com/massachusetts/andover/weeks-cause-explosions-known


ColumbiaGas MA and their parent company NiSourceInc

ColumbiaGas MA and BayStateGasCompany

Massachusetts Police Tweeted a Screenshot—and Accidentally Revealed They’re Watching Left-Wing Activist Groups

SEPT 14, 20184

Massachusetts State Police Department tweeted a screenshot of a computer monitor Thursday to help illustrate the extent of a series of gas explosions and fires that had occurred throughout Lawrence, Andover, and North Andover, Massachusetts.



Collin Fisher
@CollinFisher
The Massachusetts State Police deleted a tweet featuring this image, highlighting the houses effected by a gas explosion on the map. Can you tell why it was deleted? The police were spying on Left-Wing groups which you can see on their favorited list.

12:50 PM - Sep 14, 2018



The image appears to be a photo taken by a smartphone of a computer screen at the police department, and the browser containing the map had a row of bookmarks—bookmarks that include pages of left-wing activist Facebook groups. Oops?



https://slate.com/technology/2018/0...eenshot-gas-explosions-activists-twitter.html


Crockford observed that the second map tweet from the state police's account mentioned it was taken at the Commonwealth Fusion Center, an information-gathering nerve center in Maynard.

That center opened in 2005 under Gov. Mitt Romney, with the stated aim of improving the state’s "ability to fight crime and terrorism by analyzing data from a variety of sources."

Crockford said these institutions of "intelligence-led policing" have shown little success in preventing terrorist violence. "But what they have done, unfortunately, is marshal their substantial resources ... to keep track of the activities of perfectly law-abiding organizations that are expressing their First Amendment rights to organize and protest.

http://www.wbur.org/news/2018/09/14...reveal-theyre-keeping-tabs-on-activist-groups


No bookmarks for "favorited" Right Wing groups, that they were watching ?

Pressure Increase Noted In Pipeline
Prior To Explosions


The NTSB's (National Transportation Safety Board) investigation will include an extensive timeline of the events that led up to Thursday's explosions across the Merrimack Valley.

Robert Sumwalt, the chairman of the NTSB, told reporters Saturday afternoon that a pipeline controller's console in Columbus, Ohio noted an increase in pressure in a gas pipe in Lawrence. The pipeline controller will be interviewed as part of the investigation.

https://patch.com/massachusetts/andover/pressure-increase-noted-pipeline-console-prior-explosions

Opinion piece-

Lawrence, The Things They Carried
September 15, 2018


Lawrence is sometimes called the City of Immigrants, and the scene on the Joseph W. Casey Bridge on Friday recalled the huddled masses to which this country once beckoned. But the truth is that most of us are just one big disaster away from packing what we can carry and trudging to safety. A gas main, a hurricane, a market crash: Next thing you know, you’re wheeling your belongings across the sidewalk.


https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2...hey-carried/BMFSw1kyAxdks0oa6SK5YM/story.html


Focus turns to finding cause of fires that struck up to 80 buildings

It is not over, for the neighborhoods that experienced this disaster

Warning for people returning to their homes on Sunday-

The gas explosions destroyed property, damaged appliances

What they had in their homes, might not be functional or be safe, post-explosion


September 15, 2018

"If you smell gas, get out of your home, and call 911!"

"Carbon monoxide detectors should be functional, before you return to your home."

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2...aPP/story.html?p1=Article_Related_Box_Article

24 companies are all working on the problems the gas- related explosions have caused

gsgs comment-They are sending people back into these homes, without utility workers to accompany them ? That does not sound safe. /end gsgs comment

Gov. Baker's mini Katrina


Citizens of Massachusetts, are experiencing a Texas-style pipeline disaster.


Low income community on the New Hampshire border, is the hardest hit, town inhabited by mostly legal immigrants. A former historic factory town, bordered by middle class neighborhoods, and some wealthy residents. A prep school is tucked in, safely distanced from the center of disaster.

The well-to-do parents must be having hysterics

September 17, 2018


Like any American disaster, the gas explosion disaster at the border, will take weeks or months to fix, depending on where the house was located.

A bad sign, was Gov. Charlie Baker trying to explain what resources people could look for, to help them recover.

Baker mentioned agencies. But, spoke of community based help funded by contributions.

Columbia only sends documenters for a few hundred to one neighborhood corner ? WTF ?


Columbia did not want to foot the bill, for all of the man hours other companies contributed, by doing their work!

"Ultimately, Columbia will pay for it," Gov. Baker said.

What about now ? At least 80 houses had explosions.

One house was completely destroyed and is burned splinters.

The firefighters were busy putting out fires in many locations.


Someone with a functional brain must have spoken up, because they mentioned the fact that people were put out of business because of this. But, the agencies are failing on their first day. Not enough people to fill out paperwork for the victims. Lose another day at work, because the temporary office could only serve a few hundred people. The victims must come back. Tomorrow the office will be in another location.

Who is responsible ?

The company was previously known as Bay State Gas and merged with the big Indiana utility NiSource Inc., in 2000. A corporate reorganization in 2010 resulted in Bay State Gas and other NiSource gas operations unified under the Columbia Gas name.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2...mprovements/NwGz8lgz9jGHz0kPNqXb2J/story.html


Columbia Gas on Sunday turned away hundreds of Lawrence residents who wanted to make damage claims because it couldn’t handle the deluge, The Boston Globe reported. The company told residents, many of whom waited for several hours, to come back Monday.



http://www.leadertelegram.com/News/...ns-probe-focuses-on-pressure-sensors-div.html


Economic Impact Of Merrimack Valley Gas Fires Hard To Measure
Fixing Merrimack Valley will cost millions

https://patch.com/massachusetts/andover/economic-impact-merrimack-valley-gas-fires-hard-measure

Greater Boston, on Boston's PBS, WGBH

September 17, 2018

Short discussion about why Gov. Charlie Baker was able to call other energy companies in, when Columbia pulled a disappearing act. Our Massachusetts legislators put regulations and provisions into law, after incidents of a similar nature. They gave him the power to act, and he used it.


It was clear that Columbia was floundering, and were not prepared to give a sufficient effort, despite 8 years of accident experience in MA.

A former worker said some of Columbia's gas workers were inexperienced.

September 17, 2018

Columbia will replace the cast iron and bare steel pipeline system with what it calls "state-of-the-art plastic distribution mains and service lines, and modern safety features such as pressure regulation and excess flow valves at each premise.

Utility company Columbia Gas says it will replace 48 miles of gas pipeline in Andover, North Andover and Lawrence.

The company says the effort — speeding up a modernization program that was already underway — is the best way to make sure the system is safe before gas is turned on.

http://www.wbur.org/news/2018/09/17/columbia-gas-pipelines-explosions


Donations needed to help gas explosion victims, displaced people

http://www.wbur.org/news/2018/09/14/andover-north-andover-lawrence-gas-fires-day-after

JeanneSager
@JeanneSager
·
Sep 19
Replying to
@JaclynReiss
Has a more Boston thing ever Bostoned ?

The 2018 Red Sox division title banner went missing for about 48 hours this week, before it could even be hoisted at Fenway. In a puzzling sequence of events, a 44-year-old Malden man says he found the precious banner on McGrath Highway in Somerville Monday

Asked whether they wanted cash from the Red Sox, Iacuzzi at first said, “Yes, financial [compensation], maybe some tickets, we want something. We don’t know what we want. We want to return it, 100 percent, but we would like to get something.”

If I didn’t pick it up, a hundred people would have ran over it,” he said. “I don’t want a million dollars. I don’t need a million dollars. All I wanted was to maybe bring my family, my friends to a [expletive] baseball game, maybe meet a player. . . . The flag is back home with the Boston Red Sox.”


https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2...ille-street/8GZmeXh5TVkEyyocd2vWiO/story.html

Tony Lafuente, a former Somerville alderman who owns Flagraphics, the company that made the banner.



Later in the interview, Lafuente said flatly that “these guys stole my banner” and “should be ashamed of themselves. This is not Boston.” He did, however, concede that his drivers sometimes use McGrath Highway during normal business hours.

City Hall Plaza protest calls on Senator Flake to reject Kavanaugh for Supreme Court

October 1, 2018

wow

It is that time of year, again.
Young people, everywhere.

Demonstrators rallied outside City Hall Plaza in Boston Monday to demand that Senators reject Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanuagh’s bid for a seat on the nation’s highest court, citing decades-old sexual assault and misconduct allegations leveled at the appellate judge.

Protesters began converging shortly before 10 a.m. on the plaza, where Arizona Senator Jeff Flake, a key figure in the nomination battle, was slated to appear later in the day as part of the Forbes Under 30 Summit.

Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley, a Democratic congressional candidate who’s also a sexual assault survivor, thanked the women who confronted Flake in an elevator in the Senate building on Friday. Pressley also maintained that Kavanaugh is not entitled to a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court.



https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2...preme-court/xPzjW6IIq40Lc9QwAdH0lN/story.html

Woburn is a town that has been through the worst. Chemical companies caused deaths, poisoned communities long term, and ruined people's lives. Superfund came and went. The poison remains.

Why is an energy company victimizing Woburn ? Same reason they victimized a small town on the border. Financially stressed, struggling communities make less than ideal agreements, in order to survive. It is not as if the Dover Hunt Club is nearby. These towns do not have the resources to sue the pants off of these companies. These towns need all the good will they can get.

Many towns in NH, and towns on the MA border resisted high pressure pipelines and liguid gas storage centers.


Small Towns, Huge Pressure

October 08, 2018

Petition Opposes Lebanon Pipeline


A natural gas line running through three towns north of Boston became overpressurized and up to 70 structures were destroyed or damaged (“Panicked Neighborhoods Evacuate: Gas Blast Destroys Homes” (Sept. 14). Many residents are now facing a winter with useless gas furnaces

Meanwhile, Liberty Utilities has proposed a natural gas pipeline through the heart of West Lebanon and Lebanon toward Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, a targeted potential customer of the line. A depot would be built on Route 12A south of the Lebanon landfill near the junction of Trues Brook Road, to which fracked liquefied natural gas would be trucked, re-vaporized and introduced into this pipeline


On Oct. 17, Sustainable Lebanon plans to present a petition to the City Council with more than 1,000 signatures requesting the council take a stand against this pipeline

https://www.vnews.com/Forum-Oct-9-20741597


Individuals in the area also spoke during the hearing, a majority of whom opposed granting Liberty a franchise. Jonathan Chaffee, a retired executive director of the Lebanon Housing Authority who lives in West Lebanon, testified that Liberty will have difficulty attracting customers for its proposed natural gas service. He said he argued that Liberty “misrepresents the actuality of natural gas.”

“It says that it’s clean, it says that it’s green, it says that it will always be cheap,” Chaffee said.

http://www.thedartmouth.com/article/2018/03/natural-gas-service-approved-for-hanover


Manchster NH was suspicious


Salem, NH could not remain un-involved

http://www.nhpr.org/post/salem-becomes-staging-area-mass-gas-explosion-cleanup


Billions in Profit for National Grid, but not enough to provide fair share


National Grid workers were out on strike during the summer. It is October, and National Grid is not willing to negotiate. Another scare, at the MA/NH border.


A news mouth said 12 thousand still on strike. Did they mis-speak ? 1,200 plus was tge number I have seen in print.

WTF caused an over-pressurized line in Woburn ?

A worker, Nat Grid said.


October 9, 2018

National Grid held a news conference in Woburn on Tuesday after a worker created a potentially dangerous situation in the town on Monday night.

The worker unintentionally allowed gas lines to overpressurize. The recent gas explosions in Merrimack Valley were reportedly caused by overpressurized Columbia Gas lines.

http://www.wbur.org/radioboston/2018/10/09/gas-woburn-national-grid

National Grid has fucked up-

In a statement, an Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs spokesman said that the Department of Public Utilities moratorium order will remain in effect pending the results of the department's review of National Grid's safety practices. The department is also requiring National Grid to have an inspector on location for "all work that could lead to abnormal pressurization until this review is complete," spokesman Peter Lorenz said.



Last week, the DPU reported that it had found 29 instances in which National Grid may have violated federal gas pipeline safety regulations since early July, and regulators said further investigation or other action may be necessary.

The DPU said the "information and evidence" of the alleged violations came from "concerned citizens," though the claims overlap with a list of roughly 100 alleged violations that the unions representing locked-out National Grid gas workers have submitted to the DPU.

WBUR Boston University Radio