Hurricane Sandy Menaces East;Louisville Bests Cincinnati

Hurricane Sandy is only a category 1 storm,yet the fact that it is merging with another storm makes it a major threat to the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions.The monster storm may lash the most densely populated part of the nation with tropical storm force winds,rain and even snow up to 400 miles inland for a sustained period of time,computer models agree.
Heavy snow may occur in the Appalachian Mountains as cold air from a non-tropical system approaching from the West meets Sandy's tropical moisture.Some 50 million people are preparing for a long siege of flooding rains,high winds,power outages and heavy wet snow.
States of Emergency have been declared in several states,enabling governors to call up the National Guard to assist in recovery efforts.All computer models agree that high pressure over Eastern Canada will block Sandy as it moves up the East Coast,causing it to veer westward over the major cities and on to the Appalachians.
First responders and power companies are fueling trucks and gathering parts and gear to deal with expected maelstrom from the superstorm.
In Big East Conference college football,the Louisville Cardinals slipped past the Cincinnati Bearcats in Louisville Friday night  by a 34-31 score on John Wallace's overtime field goal.The Cardinals won the Keg of Nails trophy for the first time in five years,lifting them to an 8-0 record on the season.

Commentary:Overwrought Weather Warnings Blanket Region

There seem to be more alerts and warnings of every sort now than in the past.One can hardly get through a day without being sternly advised about some risk or other.
Thursday morning in the Washington,D.C. area was a case in point.Every five minutes,radio and television broadcasts were interrupted with tornado warnings,many of them redundant.Thunderstorms were under minute scrutiny for signs of rotation,and the least bit of it set off a hyperactive alert apparatus.By noon,you could have been excused for being a jangle of nerves.
Repeated alert sirens and loud taped warnings over a public address system in an outlying town gave a distinct impression of impending doom.In fact,not one tornado materialized there.If you had heeded the advice given,you would have sat in a windowless corner from 4:30 am to noon.
Try that on for cardiovascular or mental health.
The rotation detected in the storms was strictly in the upper levels.It was a potential for materializing,not an actual event.As well,one whole big county was lumped together,when the suspect rotation was confined to only portions of it.A high level of anxiety was produced in a region where killer tornadoes are almost never encountered,if ever encountered at all.Thankfully,the region carried on Thursday and the work of the nation proceeded.
Ironically,in areas typically hardest hit by severe storms,in the deep South and Midwest,they were perhaps not warned vigorously enough today.Hundreds died and more than a thousand were injured by tornadoes and straight line winds.