Hurricane Sandy Check-In

[MoonCat]

One of the smartest things anybody said recently was that "Nature is a lot stronger than we are." If anyone ever doubted it, they have only to look at these photos.

There were death tolls in other disasters that were higher, but that's not the only bad thing that happens. When you look at the number of businesses destroyed---meaning those people no longer have a job---plus the numbers of houses lost, with all their possessions---it's just horrible. I keep looking at that photo of the yellow cabs thinking, that's someone's entire fleet of cars that has to either be repaired (cleaned, etc) or replaced. Even with insurance, it'll be weeks or months before they're in operation again.

I really hope FEMA's got their act together this time.

[wolfie]

I feel sorry for those poor Amish people...

In a way, they'll be the least affected by Sandy. After all, if the power goes out, they probably won't even notice that anything's wrong.

[Greenday]

The death tolls aren't huge. But they haven't seemed to report much about the bodies found in Union Beach and stuff. Plus some people died from running gas generators in their house (carbon monoxide poisoning).

But some towns are completely under water. Monmouth Beach, Seabright, Toms River, Seaside, Belmar. Met someone who had a concrete dock attached to their house. The tide ripped it out along with half their house.

[Seshat]

Seshat, bodies have washed ashore the past few days. Plenty of homes have been destroyed. I know quite a few people whose first floor flooded and now everything on that floor is garbage. It hurts me a lot to see the local areas I've been to so much absolutely devastated. We may be lucky, but there have been multiple deaths and such.

Damn. So the damage assessment and deathtoll hasn't fully come in yet?

My sympathies, and if I goofed, my apologies. Disasters .. well, suck.

[BookstoreEscapee]

And cue the campaign ads and robo calls with "New Jersey is Strong!" I will be so happy when Tuesday is over.

Talked to my best friend today; she's doesn't have much left. Not sure what's salvageable. Some pics from her house. The one of the front porch, the steps should be over where the siding cuts away; the door should be at the far end of the porch, not right next to the steps. She said it shifted about 5 feet. The kitchen table should not be visible in the picture of the kitchen, either, it should be over in the corner right next to the person who is taking the picture. She said the freezer in the garage was flipped and being held up by its open door. They also found the bag from the diaper genie (the white thing laying on the floor in the baby's bedroom) hanging on the fence at the side of the yard...which means it made its way out the bedroom window and across several feet between the house and the fence.

The house is a two family house and the only way to get upstairs is the spiral staircase in her living room, which she said is useable but doesn't feel as stable as it did so they have to be careful...you can see in the one pic where the tree is blocking the outside steps that go upstairs.

[Greenday]

Seshat, bodies have washed ashore the past few days. Plenty of homes have been destroyed. I know quite a few people whose first floor flooded and now everything on that floor is garbage. It hurts me a lot to see the local areas I've been to so much absolutely devastated. We may be lucky, but there have been multiple deaths and such.

[Taboo]

Well, things are still good where I am, but I can't actually get home. There are no subways running right now between Manhattan and Brooklyn. To even attempt it, I'd have to take Amtrak 3 hours to the city, wait over 3 hours in line to get on a shuttle bus, walk about 20 blocks and walk over the bridge, then wait over 3 hours for another shuttle bus. None of my connections are running. So... Realistically I'm stuck here for a while.

[Seshat]

Looks and sounds like wide-ranging damage, but relatively few people actually homeless ('relatively few' in terms of what it might have been, and in terms of the sheer population density of the affected areas); and relatively few (see above) injured or killed.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I was worried it would be a Hurricane Katrina or Cyclone Tracy level disaster.

Edit to add: while that link says only 65 people killed, the population of Darwin in 1974 was about 47 thousand people; so the percentage of people killed vs people in the path of the storm is much higher. Also, while I'd trust the .gov.au site for reliability, the wikipedia site on Cyclone Tracy is more readable.
Links provided because while just about everyone in the States, and most of the rest of us, know the info about Hurricane Katrina, Tracy is probably unknown to most non-Aussies.

[Misty]

Reporting from southern Connecticut. Here's a breakdown of my Sandy experience:

Monday October 29: Ominous winds and storm clouds are sending out huge signals. I run to the supermarket to grab some last minute supplies, which include a gallon of milk and frozen pizza; these choices will prove to be quite poor when the power goes out a 6:10pm, though not as poor as mom's decision to do the laundry.

Tuesday October 30: Walked around the neighborhood to get a handle on the extent of the damage. Just down the street there were two downed telephone poles, with wires all over the street. It was a real mess, though not the worst of it by a long shot; any hopes of getting power restored quickly were dashed.

Wednesday October 31: After two days with no TV or internet, I finally reconnected with the outside world thanks to the local library. I had to sit on the floor because lots of people were there looking for a place to go online, or recharge their cell phones, or just get in out of the cold. Halloween has been postponed until further notice, but on the plus side, the library has some pretty awesome sandwiches!

Thursday November 1: The gas shortage rears its ugly head. Cars are lined up around the block at whatever gas stations haven't been sucked dry. The whole town is turning into a Mad Max-style badlands; by some miracle I managed to get a full tank by winning the sympathies of a Shell Station Overlord. Others aren't so lucky.

Friday November 2: I'm sad and angry as I walk home from work, dreading another dark and cold night in my apartment reading by candlelight. I'm walking through my apartment complex when suddenly it lights up like a Christmas tree! The euphoria is instantaneous; my neighbors are cheering, honking their horns, and crying "Hallelujah!" And me? I'm just standing there filled with elation, thinking that somewhere some higher power looked down at some poor self-pitying slob and said, "What the hell, let's give her a break."

I got off easy. And I got to catch up on my reading (by candlelight). I hope everyone gets back to normal as soon as possible!

[BookstoreEscapee]

The curfew has been lifted for my town. Don't know about the rest of the county. My favorite bar is open until 7.

Can't find a definitive answer on that question for here; my dad said it's still on, though.


Edit: Pictures from my area(ish).

Seaside Heights/Belmar NJ (Notice the amount of sand in the streets of Seaside...); also, Belmar used to have a boardwalk...
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/new...ights/#slide=1

NYC area:
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/new...-city/#slide=1

Others:
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/new...e-NYC/#slide=1

One more: Flooded NYC
http://gizmodoemergency.wordpress.co...f-flooded-nyc/

[Kheldarson]

Kabe and I got power back yesterday afternoon after over 48 hours without and just got internet back now. Snow's all gone now too.

[Greenday]

The curfew has been lifted for my town. Don't know about the rest of the county. My favorite bar is open until 7.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Some hightlights:

http://www.foxnews.com/weather/slide...elated#slide=1

(The Seaside, NJ pics are probably closest to me.)

I took some pics around my complex; mostly trees down and some siding and shutters. I'll post them when I can get them off my camera (can't even power up my computer to pull them off since the battery is old and won't charge anymore).

My work just shut down warehouse operations again a little while ago; apparently the state commandeered our diesel load for the generators. Office people are staying for now since we're not using that much power, relatively speaking at least.

[Greenday]

Dunkin Donuts is open on 35 but the line is huge.

[BookstoreEscapee]

No major damage* but still no power. Posting from work (first day back and we are still on generators. Was told to stay home yesterday because they wanted to keep office staff as light as possible and I'm not involved in getting orders in and out of here which is their priority right now...the store in my town isn't even open yet...and neither is the Starbucks next to it ). I have hot water at least, but no heat. Stayed at my parents' house last night because they at least have a fireplace, so the living room was relatively warm and I slept on the couch.

*There is a piece of siding just under my living room window that looks like someone pulled it from the middle but the ends did not detach. It should be under the window frame but is bowed out in the center. No damage inside, though, and I don't own the outside so the association will be responsible for fixing it. That didn't happen until after dark; I heard a "new and disconcerting noise" (as I told my dad) but I couldn't tell what it was until the next morning when I went out to look around.