Hurricane Sandy Check-In

[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/

[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!

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[Crossbow]

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.

Too many people forget that we're just along for the ride. Or, to use one of my favorite quotes, "The first rule of Nature: Nature Rules."

[Greenday]

Seems like everyone is getting power but me. Some cop drove down my street and said we were getting power today. But naturally, the downed power line and broken pole aren't priorities. No, really, I love hanging in my house when it's in the forties without heat. /sarcasm

Oh and it appears they are using the National Guard for night gas station duty.

[Seshat]

There were death tolls in other disasters that were higher, but that's not the only bad thing that happens.

Flood mud is nasty stuff, too. Just FULL of potential disease-causing organisms.

And in a flood, critters that usually live underground are flooded out, so they've moved to higher ground, then gone back to often find their dens choked. There was a photo from last years' Australian floods, showing a cluster of taipans living in one of those little holes where electricians access the wiring in underground-wiring neighbourhoods.
So if your electricians are slow to restore power, it just might be unexpected wildlife!

Another common consequence of floods - at least here - is building rot.


But yeah - we're just residents here. Nature's in charge.
Sometimes after a disaster I overhear people saying 'well they shouldn't be living there', where 'there' is 'near a volcano' or 'in an earthquake zone' or whatever.
Where are they supposed to live? I can think of nowhere on the planet that isn't in some sort of potential disaster zone.

All we can do is brace for impact, and support each other.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Seems like everyone is getting power but me. Some cop drove down my street and said we were getting power today. But naturally, the downed power line and broken pole aren't priorities. No, really, I love hanging in my house when it's in the forties without heat. /sarcasm

Oh and it appears they are using the National Guard for night gas station duty.

I got mine back last night. One of my friends in East Windsor still doesn't have power, but it seems everyone around her does and she can't get any info from JCP&L. She's not sure if she needs to call an electrician or not. Worst part is her heat and hot water are electric (I actually saw that place in my search when I was househunting and that was a big reason I didn't even look at it).

One of my facebook friends posted a pic of a utility truck from Nebraska, taken on Rt 36 in West Long Branch.

There is a National Guard Armory across the street from my complex and they are using it as a fuel station, with a tanker truck in the back parking lot. The line yesterday was huge.

Also, a friend of mine posted a site on facebook for finding open gas stations, http://findgas.org/. Apparently the station I usually use near work is open, so I'm going to try that tomorrow (can't get gas today because of the even/odd rule). I have enough gas to get to work and back for a day or two, so I want to fill it asap in case I wind up waiting forever.

[BookstoreEscapee]

And finally home...never been so glad to hear the noise of my heater!