Breakfast links: Storm stories

Sandy hits the Northeast hard

At least 40 people have died as a result of Hurricane Sandy, and millions are without power. In the DC area, 115,000 still have no electricity. (Post)

Climate change does cause Sandy-like storms

The Presidential campaign has ignored climate change, but Sandy reminded everyone; it’s indeed fair to cite climate change for the kind of weather we’ve had. (Post)

Pepco does a bit better

The much-maligned Pepco performed better in this week’s hurricane than the summer’s derecho. Total outages among Pepco customers peaked below 42,000, compared with 483,000 in June’s storm. (DCist, Post)

Why Sandy didn’t flood Bloomingdale

Bloomingdale actually didn’t flood during Sandy. Is the flooding problem fixed? No, it’s just that regular drainage could handle the sustained, less-intense rain we had, but not sudden heavy downpours. (City Paper)

Teleworking: why just in storms?

One-third of local federal government employees telework during storms like Sandy. But less than 8% do so on regular days. Why can’t more telework in good weather? (Post)

Region still faces risk of flooding

The region is returning to normal today, having avoided the worst effects of Sandy. But waterways which received millions of gallons of sewage overflow still pose a health risk, especially if they overflow. (Post)

More storm stuff

Though the subway closed, New York’s dollar vans stayed in operation during Sandy. (WSJ) … Rock Creek Parkway and Beach Drive flooded. (DCist) … The storm caused a serious blood-donation shortage. (WAMU)

Parks get more private money

Donations are on the rise to fund urban parks, including some record gifts to major cities’ most significant parks, but many more parks remain woefully underfunded. (NAC)

Housing recovery doesn’t reach everywhere

Some metropolitan areas, including DC, have housing prices almost double 2000 levels, while many other metros are still below their prices in 2000. (Atlantic Cities)