A NASA shot of Sandy making landfall… that red circle is Atlantic City, NJ.
I spent some time following the photos and tweets on Hurricane Sandy yesterday and I’m sharing the standouts with you.
We keep seeing that social media is a huge game changer for natural disasters. You get literally millions of local reporters on the ground and the pictures were by turns amazing, frightening and downright funny.
You can go to Twitter and follow #Sandy to see the more serious ones like:
@andrewzimmern: NOAA has officially upgraded #sandy from Tropical Storm to Shitstorm. Trees in friends houses in NJ, power out all over eastern seaboard.
@wallacejnichols: A shark in the front yard. The new normal. #Sandy (photo from Kevin P McCarty) http://yfrog.com/movumudj (below is the yfrog photo)
This is FREAKY if it’s real.
Then there were the less serious ones:
@nerddad: #Sandy‘s beginning to remind me of the Kardashians. Big, wet, and willing to blow the entire East Coast just to get on TV.
@NYMag: RT @germanotes: Text from my dad: “rename the storm A-Rod and it won’t hit anything.” #sandy #arod
@nytdining: Hemingway would have known how to ride out #Sandy. Hint: his methods involve alcohol: http://nyti.ms/PD71VG
@DeathStarPR: If you lose power, don’t think of it as being caught in a blackout, think of it as temporarily falling to the Dark Side. #Sandy
@Flatgrlprobz: I could probably build a flood barricade with all of my bombshell bras #Hurricane #Sandy (Flat Girl also asked Sandy to blow some bigger boobs her way.)
@sandyhuricane_: IF YOUR EMERGENCY HURRICANE KIT AINT GOT ALCOHOL & CONDOMS IN IT, YOU AINT DOIN IT RIGHT!
@sandyhuricane_: What if gangam style was actually just a giant rain dance and we brought this hurricane on ourselves? #Sandy
@juliasegal: I want everyone to stay safe but if all the supermodels in NYC blow away I am available for photo shoots. #sandy
And my all-time favorite Hurricane Sandy tweet (so far):
@sandyhuricane_: I’M SNATCHIN ALL THESE BITCHES WEAVES OUT #Sandy pic.twitter.com/e6QBvxRo
I laughed so hard when I saw that photo, I started choking.
What was your favorite natural disaster tweet? Is Hurricane Sandy affecting you and your loved ones? (If so, please let us know if we can help!) Enquiring minds always want to know these things here at More Cowbell!
Jenny
Jenny Hansen's Blog 
Ohmigawd, these are a riot! It’s nice people have a sense of humor during a natural disaster, that really is the only way to do it!
Shark in the front yard. Yeah, if that’s real, it is totally freaky! Thanks for the super early AM giggle.
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I cannot believe you get up this early, Tameri!! That being said, I’m happy to pass on the huge giggle-snorts that so many of these tweets gave to me.
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p.s. Kathy Owen said the shark’s not real. I am delighted to hear that.
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Jenny, you’ve got me snorting my coffee again!
My sons were complaining that Sandy wasn’t exciting enough last night (they called her a tease). I’m glad she was a polite young lady in our neighborhood, anyway. The wind was howling all night, and I haven’t peeked outside yet, but I suspect we are very lucky, Lots of people in our town lost power, and my heart goes out to those who have lost loved ones.
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Coffee-snorting is good for you, Elizabeth…it’s like getting a caffeine wedgie in your nose. 🙂
My heart is going out to the people in New Jersey and New York City – they got hammered.
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Dark humor gets you through everything, even shitstorms. You always find the best things, Jenny. Thanks for the laugh. The shark picture really freaked me out, though.
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LOL…thanks Reetta! I think it would be more accurate to say that these things find me. 🙂
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Who knew there could be so much humor in such a crazy storm?! I followed one of my EC friend’s tweets. She’s from NOLA, so she knows how to prepare. Her crazy neighbors didn’t bring in all their deck furniture or Halloween decorations. *shakes head* I do not miss living on the coast and sitting storms out. Thank goodness we never had a shark in the front yard!
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I know! And haven’t they heard how many injuries occur from projectiles?? Hello…take in your deck furniture!
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I feel bad now. I hadn’t really kept up with this hurricane (a storm that wasn’t hitting the Gulf Coast for once), but I knew Sandy was coming to the NE Seaboard. I was chatting with a friend yesterday, and she asked, “Is it still a category one?” I freaked. “A category one??!! All this hoopla and the hurricane’s just a category one!!!” That’s pretty much nothing for a hurricane. Yet, it is true that one of the worst disasters down here was caused by a tropical storm because of massive rainfall.
Looking at the pics, hearing from friends in the area, and seeing those tweets makes me pray harder for the people up there. I love that in the midst of chaos, people find humor to get them through.
I did find this tweet on the TIME.com website: “Please, before you evacuate take a moment to check on undecided voters in your neighborhood. They are totally helpless.” from @pourmecoffee
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That’s a priceless tweet, Julie!
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Julie, it wasn’t the hurricane aspect of the storm that made it so nasty. It became large and powerful – worse than a hurricane, in some respects – when it combined with a nor’easter and the jet stream forced it to hook left and stall right over the northeast corridor. Rain (snow/blizzard conditions for W.VA) and wind over a huge swath of 15 states. In the coastal areas, it coincided with high tide (and it was a FULL MOON high tide, making it even worse), and the storm surge was breaking all kinds of records.
I consider our area VERY lucky to not have borne the full brunt of it, as did NY and NJ. My prayers are with those folks.
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I agree, Kathy. This was a nasty, nasty storm.
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You shouldn’t feel bad! You’re down in Houston, you were probably happy to know there was one storm you didn’t have to worry about. Sandy is affecting a ton of people that I know because it covered more than 700 miles.
Now I’m off to go follow @pourmecoffee on Twitter!
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I’m always so amazed that, in the midst of a shitstorm, people are clever and pithy!
In a disaster, I consider myself clever if I don’t crap my pants…
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I know! It was amazing, and very humbling.
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I saw that Gangham style tweet and loved it! There were some good ones yesterday…
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I’ve seen you dance, Susie…I know you’re rocking the Gangnam Style. 🙂
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This post is pure awesome.
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Thanks, Gilliad!
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LOL, Jenny! Loved the Kardashian tweet. Another upside of the storm, besides tweets like this: less political blather.
We were very fortunate with this storm, being on the southern edge of it. Our neighborhood kept power, and from what I can see so far, the nearby trees held up. But it was tough sleeping last night – the wind was HOWLING, and the rain was pounding the house. I kept wondering when one of our trees would be blowing in – or Dorothy and the Wicked Witch, LOL.
By the way, the shark photo was definitely photoshopped. Here’s another (hope the link works): http://www.elevatorworld.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/6-22.jpg
Thanks for the much-needed laugh!
Hope you’re feeling better,
Kathy
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I’m so glad you guys are fine, Kathy!! And, there’s someone below who said the shark is real…who knows. I just know it FREAKED ME OUT. 🙂
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Jenny, this is wonderful and it really helps me “get” the idea of Tweeting. I’ve felt kind of “HUH?” about it so far. Looks like NYC got hammered and hope the Atlantic City residents who thought they didn’t need to leave are okay
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Mona, I’m so happy! So many of us LOVE Twitter that we want you to love it to so we can chatter with you over there. 🙂
There’s a whole lot of funny that can be packed into one tweet.
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I want to know if that shark is for real!
We’re fairly far inland where I live, but we actually got hit with it and are still having rain and high winds. Our house was rattling so hard from the wind last night I couldn’t sleep. If you find the Great Lakes on the NASA photo, and look at the tip of Canada that pokes down into the US, that’s where I am. You can see the storm covering us. It hasn’t been nearly as bad for us as for the people on the East Coast though, so I can’t complain. My mother-in-law lives in Virginia near DC and they’ve been hit much harder there. She missed work yesterday.
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Are you between Michigan and New York, Marcy? You’d be getting effects from the hurricane, plus what was forecast for the Great Lakes…which sounded like some pretty impressive wave activity. Hope things have calmed down a little now.
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Marcy, I’ve heard yays and nays on the shark. I don’t know if it’s real.
I’m SO glad you’re OK. Your area got hit hard too, just not as hard as the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S. That was brutal.
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ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!! OMG luv it!!
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I knew you’d love the weave. 🙂
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That picture is great–I just showed my husband, and we cracked up. Being from New Jersey, I keep thinking that this is bad karma for airing “Jersey Shore.” It really is a mess, so it’s nice to find sense humor in the midst of the storm. They say the 1900’s was a century of war, and this century will be a century of natural disasters. So far, I’m not refuting that theory. Thanks for the laugh.
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What a thought about the century of natural disasters, Katherine! God, I hope not…
I’m delighted to make two Jersey residents laugh – you made my whole day with this comment. 🙂
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I keep forgetting about Twitter when things like this happen. Thanks for the reminder and the chuckles! We have to keep laughing.
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OMG, Patricia…Twitter was AWESOME yesterday. It was informative and entertaining and I was on there for about a solid hour (which is why I started copying tweets into this post). 🙂
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p.s. How are those nasty shingles doing? Hope you are feeling better!
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Funny you should ask because today, I FINALLY woke up without a raging headache. It was the first time since October 12th and I got so excited. 🙂
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I’m sorry to say that I’ve just been following this on the Weather Channel website. One of my closest friends lives near Philadelphia, so I’ve been pretty worried about her. Another lives in VA, but she’s getting the hurricane-effect snow (lucky brat!). Sure will be glad when Sandy is a distant memory.
But thanks for the fun stuff, Jenny. I LOVED the Kardashian tweet, and especially the ones from Flatgrl. Talk about a great sense of humor! 🙂
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Yep, I totally followed FlatGirl Problems. She slayed me. 🙂
I hope your friend is fine and continues to stay safe. I’m on the West Coast so it’s been an armchair event for me too.
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The response to Sandy on both Twitter and Facebook reminded me of the good that we can do, as a people, and as individuals.
From what I read, the shark was real, but many thought it was Photoshopped.
We got lucky, really lucky. I got my marathon in before Sandy hit land, and though we got a ton of rain and wind, we did not lose power.
Have a great night!
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I’m so glad you got your marathon in (I would die and all those runners would leap over my carcass)! And I’m most glad that your family is doing fine. 🙂
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Bombshell bras?!? LOL Too much, Jenny, and a very fine post. 🙂 The first thing I did once Sandy struck was make sure my brother in Brooklyn was safe and well. He was, and still is, thank goodness. Such a crazy week. It’s important to have reasons to ponder the seriousness, and laugh. Thank you!
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Yep, you gotta laugh. I’m so glad your brother is doing great. 🙂
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