RESPONSIBILITY IS SET

The truth will surface!On Monday the Tea Party foe of Sarah Pallin; Congresswoman Michele Bachman, who has been losing ground since evangelist Texas Governor Perry announced his candidacy, informed us as to why we had suffered so much from Irene.  Bachman postulated that Irene was God's punishment to us for electing a Democrat as President.

Perhaps she could be right. When was the last time we had an earthquake that we felt or had a hurricane make landfall in New Jersey? Anyhow, Perry has not issued a rebuttal so he must concur.

Who in his right mind would conceive that an "Irene" would cause such havoc in Vermont.? Yes these are extraordinary times and us poor pragmatists have not come up with a better scenario. Is it possible that either (Bachman or Perry) could be elected? That would not be a natural disaster, it would be a human catastrophe.

The areas still sans electricity by the third night post Irene is still tremendous. If we can believe the figures on the 11PM news PSE&G has done an admirable and better job by far than the other regional power companies. The power loss was not limited to residential zones, but included major commercial areas including local malls. The cost to merchants such as Stop and Shop must run into multiple millions. On Tuesday there was not a refrigerated or frozen item or any other perishable on the shelves, and only emergency lighting was available.

Our local damage probably was not as great as that caused by Gloria in 1985. I believe that was the storm that washed out the edge of Somerset Street in Watchung and if my memory is correct; included a death by flooding in Plainfield at Richmond and South Ave.

Some of the other major hurricanes that have hit in the past 5 decades were:
1955 Hurricanes Connie and Diane, on Aug.12-13 and Aug. 18-19, respectively, dumped heavy rain on the northern half of New Jersey. Record flooding occurred along the Delaware River, with Diane ravaging northwestern sections.
1960 Hurricane Donna on Sept. 12 swept the Jersey shore with hurricane-force gusts and
churned up damaging surf. Gales throughout the state, with several inches of rain. Donna's 80-
mile-wide elliptical eye brushed the shore, providing a brief interlude and glimpse of the sun
before high winds returned.
1971 Tropical Storm Doria produced one of the state's memorable floods on Aug. 27-28.
Princeton collected 10.15 inches of rain. Severe flooding occurred in the Raritan River valley
and elsewhere in central and northern New Jersey. A tornado tracked intermittently about 25
miles from Cape May to Woodbine.
1985 Hurricane Gloria provided a scare on Sept. 27. Winds gusted to near hurricane force
in isolated shore locations and heavy rain was commonplace, but Gloria proved considerably
less destructive than expected.
1999 Hurricane Floyd on Sept. 16 dumped more than 8 inches of rain in 12 of New Jersey's
21 counties. Devastating flooding occurred along the Raritan and other rivers in central and
northern sections of the state.
2004 Hurricanes Ivan (Sept. 17) and Jeanne (Sept. 28) brought heavy rain and significant
flooding, especially to the Delaware River Valley. The Delaware River reached its highest level
since August 1955.