Hurricane Sandy, in my first post, had not yet become what is arguably the worst natural disaster to hit New York in over a hundred years. When I wrote that post Sandy was still a few hours away from making landfall near Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Right before it hit Atlantic City on October 29th 2012 at 8:00pm (0000 GMT October 30th) it was downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm. Not that you would notice: old people living on the Jersey shore said it was the worst thing they had ever seen. Its winds were not as strong as when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and arguably Sandy hit Haiti harder, but in the living memory of the New York region only 9/11 was worse:
- Along the shore it washed away boardwalks, houses, bridges and part of an amusement park. Some people lost everything.
- Over 8 million lost power – a fourth of New Jersey and three-fourths of Long Island, among others. After two days 6 million were still without power.
- Two nights later the Manhattan skyline below 34th Street was still dark.
- It flooded the New York subway and the tunnels under the East River. The last station of the #1 Train in lower Manhattan was filled almost to the ceiling with water.
- Over a hundred houses burned down in Rockaway, Queens.
- The streets of Hoboken are flooded with sewage, making it unsafe for people to leave their buildings.
- In New York 174 schools are too damaged to be opened.
- The stock exchange was shut down for two days – the longest due to weather since the blizzard of 1888.
- It will likely be the deadliest hurricane to hit New York since at least 1821.
Some people were hit hard, other barely touched.
Tons of old people, rich and poor, are stuck in their high-rise apartment buildings in lower Manhattan. If power is not restored soon many could die. FEMA and the Red Cross seem to be nowhere in sight.
After three days part of the subway is working, but not the heart of it in lower Manhattan. Buses are running but are packed. It takes for ever to get anywhere.
Sandy was huge: nearby American states and Canadian provinces were hit too. In Ohio, for example, it brought snow and knocked out power for 247,000 people. It arrived in Ontario with winds still over 100 km/h.
At least 70 have died so far in the north-east. Many were killed by falling trees. Many more were old people living alone who drowned in their homes.
I got my power back after two days, which was pretty quick under the circumstances. It was not till then, when I could see pictures of the destruction on television and the Internet, that I understood how bad it was. Reading about it in the New York Times does not begin to do it justice.
So far President Obama, Governor Christie of New Jersey and Mayor Bloomberg of New York have shown leadership and seem to be serious about helping the region recover, but this thing is far from over.
See also:
- Residents of New York Face a Huge Range of Crises | Alternet
- Hurricane Sandy – before it hit the north-east
- Inside Hurricane Sandy – my own experience of it
- hurricane
- Katrina
- 9/11
- New York
Glad to hear you are alright. It’s a tragedy what has happened in the NE.
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” Abagond,
Tons of old people, rich and poor, are stuck in their high-rise apartment buildings in lower Manhattan. If power is not restored soon many could die. FEMA and the Red Cross seem to be nowhere in sight.”
Linda says,
Abagond, it’s only been 3 days! and not even because the bad weather didn’t really disappear until Tuesday night.
FEMA got to you all up North faster than they’ve ever done in Florida or any other Hurricane state.
There is no magic bullet that will help anyone the first few days after a big storm, it’s every man for himself and everyone who lives in Hurricane states knows this already— no one should be waiting for FEMA or the Red Cross.
They don’t have teleportation devices to beam them past all the water, destruction and wreckage — the roads are not passable right after a Hurricane.
You once made a post about Katrina and I couldn’t understand why everyone didn’t get that after a big storm — you are on your own until the government can get to you and the process is not a fast one.
That means be ready for anything because you have to take care of yourself or evacuate and hope to God your house is still standing.
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The picture with the taxis reminds me of how my neighborhood looked after Hurricane Isaac back in August. It seemed like such a harmless, little storm until we realized how much water it was carrying and all the canals overflowed. The combination of wind and water is no joke.
It’s a hard thing to deal with being blown ‘back to the dark ages’ — it really brings people back to the basics and it feels like months instead of days while the city/county government is doing their thing.
Too many people “poo poo” global warming and climate change but it seems to be making its presence more pronounced more frequently.
A Category 1 storm like Isaac and Sandy would not have been as destructive for states like Florida back in the day because the infrastructure are/were built to withstand Cat 1 storms but lately, even these weak storms seem changed somehow — their barometric pressures are lower and that makes them stronger.
Sandy was about 300 miles off the South Florida coast while it was hitting the Bahamas, and she still managed to rip up the beaches and flood the coastal cities.
I haven’t seen the waves and tides that high in a long time, so I truly believed it when the weather forecasters said you all were going to get your butts handed to you by Sandy.
I feel very sorry for all the people affected up North, it’s a shocking thing to see so much damage — places like New York and New Jersey are not built to deal with Hurricanes and its aftermath. The destruction is very sad to see and I feel so sorry for all the people who died or had their homes destroyed.
The only good thing about times like this is that it brings people closer together and neighbors speak to each other probably for the first time in years.
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Abagond, be well and take care
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Is this really America? You have go to be shitting me.
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My prayers go out to all affected by this storm. But realistically it’s just been 3 days since the storm went through. Water and trees and rubble makes it all but impossible in some cases to get through. The National Guard is there. Fema is there. Food and water is there. Some power is back on already, but until they can remove some of that debry, it will be longer in some cases. It’s really surviving from the basics and people helping each other and knowing how to pray and depend on God.
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@ Linda
Fair enough.
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what about a discussion of climate change?
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The picture of all the devestation with just the holy relic remaining is thought provoking and striking. My prayers go out to all those affected by the storm. This is why I keep a stash of wood, a wood burning stove, canned goods, blankets, books, (weed and prescription drugs), a rifle and ammo in a secret spot in my attic. You must be prepared. Yah helps those who help themselves. Besides, I’m not trying to go out and “loot” food while white people are “finding” food.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/van-jones/black-people-loot-food-wh_b_6614.html
Too many angry Europeans out there with their camouflage outfitted offspring trained to snipe shoot Trayvon Martin cut outs. Nope. I’ll stay right here, barricaded and well supplied. After the Katrina fiasco, waiting for Fema to rescue you is an exercise in futility.
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I must admit, I underestimated the impact of this storm, but looking at the pictures, I see that it was more destructive than I thought. My heart goes out to the people.
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In my immediate area there were a few uprooted trees and broken branches etc. No electrical blackouts, no flooding or no extensive damage. The minor damage to my own property was mainly due to a structure on my property which wasn’t as securely affixed as it should have been and actually needed replacing anyway. Basically, the only unexpected damage to my property was to a glass pane of one storm window. Venturing out on Wednesday to pick up a little food, there were a few traffic light and street light outages, long lines extending out into the street for gas (I made sure to fill up before the storm), heavy traffic, scanty variety of food in the supermarket etc, other than that, folks in our immediate area pretty much just road out the storm as a blustery day (Monday with very little rain), as after Monday, the hurricane had, thankfully, pretty much petered itself out for us.
Hopefully those areas with stranded / housebound citizens, property damage, flooding and electrical outages will receive aid very soon.
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Darn Abagond this storm is worse than Katrina. Hope yous are OK in NYC. I’m working in LIttle Egg Harbour NJ on a terrible flood damaged home. First my truck mount almost caught on fire extracting water. The extraction system is side mounted on a cargo van that you access from the side door. We didn’t take out all of the drying equipment because the home owner said there was looting. A cardboard box that was close to the muffer on the machine caught fire if the guys working next door doing the same thing we are didn’t run in and tell us there was a fire the whole truck would have exploded it runs off gas of the truck from the gas tank. Then today I cut the hell out of my arm. It’s not far from AC. Next we go to long beach island NJ which is further north on the bay side I heard there is petroleum and sewage in the water so we have to be fully suited up as FEMA will check on water damages from time to time to make sure we have the right PPE(personal protection equipment) respirators, tyvec suits, safety goggles etc. I saw an old man get out of his car at the bank drive through line about to attack another old couple. the gas station peops were yelling at each other. Crazy stuff.
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We have to all find our inner “Rocky” this isn’t propaganda now that i’ve looked at what i’ve posted I see it could be misconstrude as such. I saw people displaced from their homes first hand this is a tribute to them not me.
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Reblogged this on Zion Is Rising and commented:
It’s good to be aware of what’s going on in the world. It’s situations like this that bring people to their knees, unable to cope. What can we do to help?
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“FEMA and the Red Cross seem to be nowhere in sight.”
That’s surely the pinnacle of American entitlement. The richest nation in the world, who had weeks to prepare, asking the Red Cross to help them. No. Just “no” multiple times over. The Red Cross should do absolutely nothing in the US.
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The US is NOT the richest country in the world; and YES the AMERICAN branch of the Red Cross absolutely should help those in need in the US..
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Check this out. It’s beyond sad:
http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/11/black_moms_neighbors_refused_to_help_as_sandy_swept_two_sons_away.html
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Reblogged this on Mbeti's Blog.
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America is a super power like the Punisher, all it has are guns. When those aren’t needed, everything falls apart.
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[…] Reblogged from Abagond: […]
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@legion… I was a part of the relief effort for Hurricane Sandy as a contractor. I’ve yet to be paid a dime. All of the homes I worked on had insurance, but they haven’t paid out anything yet. Hopefully soon. See all of the bigger Mitigation companies like “Serv Pro” , “Service Master” , sign contracts that they will wait till the customer gets paid by the insurance so I must follow the trend and do the same to get contracts down there. Problem is i’m a small start up business and I don’t have the resources or the time those bigger companies have. Unfortunately I will have to go after the home owners if their insurance doesn’t pay out soon.
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