Politics & Government

PATCH ASKS: Did Bloomberg Overreact to Irene?

Did the city do the right thing by evacuating coastal lowlands and shutting down the subway?

The conversation at a wedding I attended on Monday—rescheduled at great expense from Sunday— was if all the precaution taken in fear of Irene was necessary.

One wedding guest suggested that the great lengths Mayor Bloomberg went through, a mandatory evacuation of , and early on Saturday, were delayed reactions to the —to rehabilitate his image. "Rainstorm Irene," was the buzzword in the event hall.

Footage of friend of Patch riding a bike over a bridge to Rockaway, made the storm seem relatively tame in New York City. 

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But Vermont took a beating, footage shows, as did upstate New York. New Jersey is a disaster zone. The got battered. 

I know an area homeowner who came home from evacuation to find a tree—big enough to crush a car, had fallen in his driveway. It could have been his daughter's bedroom.

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So, should we look around and be grateful that conditions didn't end up differently—that the brunt of the storm avoided our immediate areas? Or should we be annoyed that the media and local governments hyped this storm—either out of folly or for some gain? Was Bloomberg correct to take the extensive precautions he did? Could he have foreseen the kind of force the storm would bang New York City with?


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