Some people just like to bitch. I have a feeling that no matter what Bloomberg did, or how devastating the storm was, there will always be a chorus of whiny-ass complainers who can never be satisfied.

True.

I'm no fan of the government or Bloomberg, but in this case I respect what he did to protect "first responders" and people that live by the beaches. The media on the other hand went nuts and got us high or just pissed us off, depending on who you ask. People are taking the bamboozlement too serious, it was a big storm regardless of hurricane/tsunami/speedball/drizzle who gives a.... It was good conservative advice to stay inside, if you listen to your masters, sometimes they're sort of right..that's how they became masters in the first place. The warning did save a few people. You know it did. Don't lie and pretend the whole city was just a thunderstorm, that's not true. The storm did some damage in certain places. I think most Manhattan rejects from places other than the NYC area have a death wish and actually hope for the disaster from a film in real life, so they don't have to go on with their miserable lives. If you don't like the media, ignore them, it's easy. They're pretty boring most of time. In this particular occasion, I enjoyed them, since they had my hometown on with a bunch of nerds with microphones getting soaked on our beach. It was pretty funny. Long Beach! Happy our beach is still there. Much better than the Hamptons or Coney Island. If staten island or conneticut got wiped out, I wouldn't be crying. I heard Bloomberg is going for a fourth term, who's voting?

I'm not sure if the city over-reacted, but the local tv stations sure did! They whipped up hysteria and panic while smugly reprimanding anyone who either dared to leave their homes to go into the street,  or not evacuate when given their government marching orders.

 The best was a female reporter for a Long Island tv station who stood in the ocean, yelling at others to get out of the water, then was swept away by a wave and had to be pulled out by those she was scolding. And as I wrote on my blog, the worst was WPIX' Lionel, who was apopletic that we weren't panicking enough, because we're all going to die!

www.newyorkgritty.net 

Hurricane Irene was an INSIDE JOB!

@ Victor Schramm:  Amen to that!

Perhaps this makes me the least hip person in New york City right now, but I am genuinely happy everyone here did not die. That's as far as I care to go with people about this "over-reacting" discussion. It clearly has not pleased many of our fellow citizens enough that the rest of us did not die, and that, I believe, is a root problem of the uncivil spirit of America at this moment. We have too little concern for each other.

I'm glad that so many people got out of harm's way, because if what happened elsewhere had happened in, say, Coney Island, and Bloomberg had not suggested that the people living there should leave, this would undoubtedly be a discussion about under-reacting. 

And I think far too many of us are focused on the evacuation of people who could have afforded to recoup their lifestyles had Irene destroyed them- i.e., Battery Park City, Berry st. in Williamsburg, parts of Tribeca, etc. Let them complain all they want. They can handle a little inconvenience now and then. Too few are recalling that many of those evacuated live in NYCHA housing in Coney Island, Redhook, and Gowanus. What if we would have shrugged our shoulders about this whole thing and left those people to their fate. I, for one, would be as outraged then as I am presently satisfied that we're all safe. In some of those places, day-to-day life is challenging enough.

So have your say, rage if you must against the media and the government (I frequently do myself), but don't forget to breathe and to smile for all of the people who are ok right now.

I like what you express.
I just do not want Bloomie to get too much credit for doing the obvious. Something  he belatedly decided to do and call an emergency for the last snow storm from where ever he was.
Half the trees that have fallen with this storm would not have fell if the city saw it in the budget for decades to maintain them. I still go with neglect for this and past incidents.
The city agencies...MTA and such...I give them credit for being able to follow through on the shut down and restart of our transit.
Evacuating Coney Island was a good thing. Now can they do something about Plum-b Beach when they figure out the proper spelling. Can you believe it ? Rumor has it that 2 agencies (city,state,feds) can't spell it the same and that is why work was stopped. Sand bags are holding up the belt near Knapp St. Unfreaking real.

I wrote about this above.  The needless evacuation of 9000 patients from hospitals around the city did cost lives.  Critically ill patients (infants especially) were given death sentences with the order to move them.

Some evidence would make this more credible.

The only evidence I have is what my wife tells me about the patients in her unit.  One in particular was a newborn with a heart defect that required immediate surgery. Her hospital is the only one equipped in the city to handle such a case. Instead of going into surgery the child was set up for a move to a hospital without the facilities or staff to handle such a case.  The doctors and staff of her unit knew what the situation will turn into for the child when they set up the transfer on Saturday.

The hospital nor NYC Dept of Health and Hospitals, nor the stat will want this public.

and if precautions weren't made and the storm was as bad as they thought it could've been...then what? complain about the lack of preparation? hindsight is pretty convenient.

there's always something people will bitch about. but better to bitch about an overreaction than an under-reaction and more casualties.

Gee,  I could say that about any storm,  no matter how small or gentle,  "precautions need to be taken,  better safe than sorry"!  There's a reason we have well developed meteorological science,  to help decide what precautions are actually necessary,  since unnecessary precautions have unnecessary costs.  Scientist already expected the storm to weaken when the measures were taken,  and it did. 

Obwon

Well the overreaction did cost the child's life. It has been confirmed through word back to her unit.  Tell the parents' they shouldn't bitch.

Why are the major medical centers of NYC on the river (Zone A) without consideration of this?  Why aren't they built to take it.  Also, in the area I am talking about (1st Ave in the 20's-30's) the worst that could happen to them is flooding from the rising waters.  No real surf would make it up the river and water in Lobby would not affect the medical floors while backup power is generated on the roofs, etc. 
 
As for winds, they were just as bad as the other hospitals that weren't evacuated (Lennox Hill, Cornell Med Ctr, etc.)

My issue with this is that Bloomberg and his admin did not really consider the realities of moving patients with little warning, let alone critical urgent cases.  I believe that his strong handed 'preparedness' was partially motivated by the egg on his face after the blizzard last year and no cost was too much to save his reputation.

The worst that could have happened is power outages if they had to shut down some grids - people on life support would have been goners anyway.

better safe than dead

Are we all realllly debating about the validity of Bloomberg's actions here?

NYC is probably the most efficient city west of the Atlantic.  We are lucky enough to live in an area that takes disaster preparedness seriously.  I agree with mattbrownnyc. This was a dry-run for when an actual disaster occurs. It sounds like some people are whining about the correlation of our city's response to Irene vs the actual level of destruction that ensued.  If the magnitude of destruction was equivalent to that of Katrina, then people would've praised the city for its preparedness.   A hurricane is unpredictable, and we are lucky Irene lost momentum. Let's leave it at that, move on, and buck up-- everyone is making the same "sacrifices"-- a slower commute, climbing more stairs than others, dealing with no power, falling trees, etc... The point is this happened, and we make a few sacrifices for a day or two. It's not the end of the world, and if it were-- how many of you can say you weren't "ready" for it?

I wonder if everyone who feels like NYC overreacted doesn't buy insurance because they think it's a waste of money?  Let's not forget that a hurricane hit NYC directly.  The point of the preparation and evacuations is to mitigate risk to lives - both directly from the storm, and over time should people have gotten cut off for an extended period of time.  The fact that the hurricane did not end up as severe does not make the prep and evacuations an overreaction, as the odds were pretty good it just as easily could have been a huge disaster.

Insurance is a waste of money.  Have you ever filed a claim on a policy?   They issue you a surcharge for a set amount of years to pay back what they paid out in the claim.  

Speaking of lives.  My wife is a nurse at a major medical center on the east side, one of the hospitals that were evacuated.  Beyond the ridiculous cost of the moving of 9000 patients all around the city.  No one talks about the collateral deaths of this needless evacuation.  She had critical patients that were sure not to survive the move.  LIves were lost in the moving of all these patients....but that won't make the media.

If it were true, it VERY likely would have.  The Katrina correlation would have been too juicy, if for no other reason.