The Official Hurricane Sandy East Coast thread

[MJ5150]

Yeah, he needs his power on.

-Mike

[Relic]

Originally Posted by MJ5150

Yeah, he needs his power on.

-Mike

If he's got an extension cord long enough he's covered

[mongo2]

Snow?...Really?!

What's next frogs?...locusts?...the Shark Rriver running red with blood?...already had the mosquitos.

What a mess it is around here at D'Shaw.

We made out OK but still don't have electric or heat after 10 days but at least we've still got a house.

[AnchorHoy]

Originally Posted by Relic

about 3-4 inches. We actually had the power go out for a while but thankfully it was just a few hours, no biggie

Pretty much the same in Boringtown

Only lost power for about an hour. Interesting that Relic lost his at about the same time - we're only about 15 miles apart but get our power from two completely separate power companies

My heart breaks though for those folks who STILL don't have power and have to deal with this ish...

Word

[Gaius46]

4 inches. Lost power again Wednesday morning after getting it back Tuesday night. Came back about 2 hours ago - hopefully this time for good.

[Michael Jewels]

I went to Rockaway yesterday, as most of the area has power again, and found myself on Beach 116 street, which is the main street in Rockaway.

Just before the ocean, is the memorial for flight 587, which crashed about half a mile away 11 years ago today, so I thought it appropriate to post these pictures.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America...nes_Flight_587




This restaurant was the command center when flight 587 went down. Now, it's gone too. Funny how life works.
http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/2012...urricane-sandy


Mike

[AnchorHoy]

A large chunk of my immediate area just lost power for about 30 seconds - and we're in the center of NJ, far from the continuing crises further north and east of here. Daughter happened to be out driving right when it happened and says the lights were out as far as the eye could see. That's the third time this has happened in the last couple of days

Looks like the various Power Companies are still having trouble juggling all the loads on the grid

How is everybody in North Jersey and The Shore making out? Last we heard, you guys are getting your power back steadily but some areas are still dark, dating all the way back to when Sandy came ashore

[Relic]

Originally Posted by AnchorHoy

A large chunk of my immediate area just lost power for about 30 seconds - and we're in the center of NJ, far from the continuing crises further north and east of here. Daughter happened to be out driving right when it happened and says the lights were out as far as the eye could see. That's the third time this has happened in the last couple of days

Looks like the various Power Companies are still having trouble juggling all the loads on the grid

How is everybody in North Jersey and The Shore making out? Last we heard, you guys are getting your power back steadily but some areas are still dark, dating all the way back to when Sandy came ashore

Mine went out just like that this morning around 9. About 60 seconds then back on.

[mc2ny]

Had no power/heat for a week after Sandy hit. Eating out of cans by candlelight. Good thing I had an acoustic

The flood/ocean stopped about 6 buildings down from me, so I lucked out but had a couple 40-ft maples crack in half and come down.

I wonder how many other people besides me went thru BOTH Sandy in NY AND Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans? I'm getting good at it.

[CTC564]

Originally Posted by mc2ny

Had no power/heat for a week after Sandy hit. Eating out of cans by candlelight. Good thing I had an acoustic

The flood/ocean stopped about 6 buildings down from me, so I lucked out but had a couple 40-ft maples crack in half and come down.

I wonder how many other people besides me went thru BOTH Sandy in NY AND Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans? I'm getting good at it.

Jeez...hope all is back to "normal"

[MJ5150]

I'm heading down to the NJ/NY area Thursday morning to do relief work until Sunday night. It should be interesting. The trips I took to New Orleans were life changing, but after a few months I slid back into my life of excess and waste. Hopefully it sticks this time.

If any of you NJ/NY guys need some drywall finish work done, let me know. I don't know yet exactly where I'm staying and working, but I'll find out Wednesday night.

-Mike

[kai_ski]

I spent all day last saturday working as a volunteer with the relief effort in Union Beach. I couldn't believe some of the damage. Houses a few thousand yards from the coast had flooding in the 7-8 foot range. I didn't have much time for pictures but i did snap a few.



This house was washed all the way from the coast.






They said that the swells coming in were 30 feet high.

[mc2ny]

Originally Posted by CTC564

Jeez...hope all is back to "normal"

Someone should do a documentary comparing Sandy to Katrina. I've had a lot of people ask me this, thinking Sandy was much wose since they went through it. My first response has been to point out that the waters from Sandy receeded for the most part in a day or two. In New Orleans in was more like a month that everyone's houses sat in the flood in 100 degree heat. You can imagine how that smelled.

Plus, for the most part, the Northest was all oceanfront upscale damage and Katrina was more widescale. Sandy killed 100 or so, Katrina over 1,700.

Every time I see or hear any of the Sandy victims on TV saying that they are "waiting for FEMA, their insurance company, some utility company, mortgage bank, city/state/ocal government" to come help them...I just shake my head and feel for them. The big lesson I learned from Katrina is that NO ONE has your back. It is all a big lie. You can do all the right things, pay your bills, have insurance, etc, but, when the "big one comes"...be it hurricane, flood, terrorits attack or whatever....you are on your own. There will ne lots of talking heads in the media all saying they are doing an excellent job but they do not. They are only covering their own butts while the spotlight is shining brightly on them.

In reality, a large percentage of the victims will not recover. The insurance companies will try every trick to weasle out of paying for damages and pay pennies on the dollar. They will jack the rates up insanely on everyone else in the areas Sandy hit and cancel those affected. The local governmants will do what will save them money...post vague notices on the victims' buildings to demolish them without the owners' permission...then collect Federal money and go on with politics as usual. A large percentage of the businesses hit will never recover and many will not return. There is a huge ripple effect in dollars and also emotions. The long-term death toll from Katrina was more than double the immediate number and I imagine the same will happen with Sandy.

I am actually heading down to New Orleans for Thanksgiving, in part to get away from the weeks of dealing with Sandy. Rather ironic to be escaping a hurricane by going to New Orleans.

Pre-Katrina I had six supermarkets close to from my house in New Olreans. It took five years just to get ONE back. A quarter mile from my house it still looks like a nuclear bomb went off where hundreds of houses washed away. A good part of the population never returned and the City is only now getting liveable again but still nothing like it was before. My property taxes are TEN TIMES what they were before Katrina, despite having lower ammenities and worse conditions....hey, fewer taxpayers to support everyone means you get rewarded for rebuilding by paying more. Same for insurance and utility rates..all skyrocket. Same for food price, etc. Not to mention the banks/CC/mortgage companies that red line you after a disaster and cancel your CC's, etc. simply because you were a disaster victim and then deem you as a "credit risk," even if you still paid them on time. Nothing returns to as it was.

In a more musical reference...All of the formerly great music scene of New Orleans scattered when Katrina happened. The recovery was so long that many took roots elsewhere. Some of the foremer venues never reopened or changed owners when the former ones threw in the towel. The formerly cheap rents that were musician-friendly also skyrocketed, making it hard for those who did try and return. A lot of players lost their gear. The music is back but much of the scene was crippled. I still have a photo of Fats Domino's house that isn't too far from my place, after it flooded out in Katrina. I'd stopped there while mountain biking thru the neighborhood to access the storm damage. The guy lost a liftime of priceless musical memorabilia and his pianos.

There are three surreal things that still stick out in my mind from Katrina.

One was going into one of the huge airplane hanger-sized warehouse where they store some of the Mardi Gras floats...and most of the roof had been torn off and the flood waters had washed all the floats into one huge pile of rubble over on one side -- giant heads of The Beatles and other huge brightly colored faces smiling at me.

Another was moutain biking thru one of the shipping warehouses that sit on the Mississippi River along my neighborhood. About one third of the city block-long building had burned during Katrina after looters broke into the produce warehouse next to it and then torched it. The bay doors in the warehouse were all open to the riverside and the New Orleans skyline sat there looking just fine. It was six months after Katrina at that point but the area was still as quiet as a graveyard. Inside the warehouse were tens of thousands of packages still wrapped but never shipped. I looked at the cancellation dates and they were all stamped tha day of Katrina...all from various shippers who had long written off the stuff to insurance. Everything from new pickups trucks in cargo containers to computers to industrial machine parts....just sitting there in the silence and the light coming in from the open bay doors.

The third scene that sticks in my mind was as I was down in the Lower Ninth Ward on my bike and search crews were still pulling out dead bodies even six months after Katrina. Every bulding in the City was marked with a big "X" spray painted on it with various markings in the four opengings of the "X", designating which crew did the search and when and what they found. The ones with "body inside" stuck with me the most. And on the day I was there, a New Orleans jazz funeral procession passed by...the black, horse-drawn funeral carriage with the glass sides pulling a coffin with one of the bodies that had just been turned over by searchers to relatives...with a line of mouners walking behind with musicians wearing black tails and slowly playing a sombre dirge in 100 degree mid-day sun. And just as they were passing me a big yellow school bus came rolling down the dried mud road thru the destroyed houses....and around thirty little girls in Catholic School uniforms got out with a couple of white, Yuppie women teachers, who started pointing and taking pictures just feet away from the procession. I thought I was in a Felini movie. But, in a way, that summed up the whole Katrina thing for me in one instant.

Sandy is just a replay for me...or a continuation. Rather hilariously, I had gotten a cancellation notice from my homeowners insurance company days before, stating they were canceling my insurance after 20+ years. Mind you, I'd never had a claim on my house there in all that time but, since Katrina, I am on some crazy "red line" list where they just keep chopping away as if I did something wrong by being flooded. You would think that if I didnt flood in the "storm of the century" or make a claim that I'd be OK? Nah!

[CTC564]

Originally Posted by mc2ny

Someone should do a documentary comparing Sandy to Katrina. I've had a lot of people ask me this, thinking Sandy was much wose since they went through it. My first response has been to point out that the waters from Sandy receeded for the most part in a day or two. In New Orleans in was more like a month that everyone's houses sat in the flood in 100 degree heat. You can imagine how that smelled.

Plus, for the most part, the Northest was all oceanfront upscale damage and Katrina was more widescale. Sandy killed 100 or so, Katrina over 1,700.

Every time I see or hear any of the Sandy victims on TV saying that they are "waiting for FEMA, their insurance company, some utility company, mortgage bank, city/state/ocal government" to come help them...I just shake my head and feel for them. The big lesson I learned from Katrina is that NO ONE has your back. It is all a big lie. You can do all the right things, pay your bills, have insurance, etc, but, when the "big one comes"...be it hurricane, flood, terrorits attack or whatever....you are on your own. There will ne lots of talking heads in the media all saying they are doing an excellent job but they do not. They are only covering their own butts while the spotlight is shining brightly on them.

In reality, a large percentage of the victims will not recover. The insurance companies will try every trick to weasle out of paying for damages and pay pennies on the dollar. They will jack the rates up insanely on everyone else in the areas Sandy hit and cancel those affected. The local governmants will do what will save them money...post vague notices on the victims' buildings to demolish them without the owners' permission...then collect Federal money and go on with politics as usual. A large percentage of the businesses hit will never recover and many will not return. There is a huge ripple effect in dollars and also emotions. The long-term death toll from Katrina was more than double the immediate number and I imagine the same will happen with Sandy.

I am actually heading down to New Orleans for Thanksgiving, in part to get away from the weeks of dealing with Sandy. Rather ironic to be escaping a hurricane by going to New Orleans.

Pre-Katrina I had six supermarkets close to from my house in New Olreans. It took five years just to get ONE back. A quarter mile from my house it still looks like a nuclear bomb went off where hundreds of houses washed away. A good part of the population never returned and the City is only now getting liveable again but still nothing like it was before. My property taxes are TEN TIMES what they were before Katrina, despite having lower ammenities and worse conditions....hey, fewer taxpayers to support everyone means you get rewarded for rebuilding by paying more. Same for insurance and utility rates..all skyrocket. Same for food price, etc. Not to mention the banks/CC/mortgage companies that red line you after a disaster and cancel your CC's, etc. simply because you were a disaster victim and then deem you as a "credit risk," even if you still paid them on time. Nothing returns to as it was.

In a more musical reference...All of the formerly great music scene of New Orleans scattered when Katrina happened. The recovery was so long that many took roots elsewhere. Some of the foremer venues never reopened or changed owners when the former ones threw in the towel. The formerly cheap rents that were musician-friendly also skyrocketed, making it hard for those who did try and return. A lot of players lost their gear. The music is back but much of the scene was crippled. I still have a photo of Fats Domino's house that isn't too far from my place, after it flooded out in Katrina. I'd stopped there while mountain biking thru the neighborhood to access the storm damage. The guy lost a liftime of priceless musical memorabilia and his pianos.

There are three surreal things that still stick out in my mind from Katrina.

One was going into one of the huge airplane hanger-sized warehouse where they store some of the Mardi Gras floats...and most of the roof had been torn off and the flood waters had washed all the floats into one huge pile of rubble over on one side -- giant heads of The Beatles and other huge brightly colored faces smiling at me.

Another was moutain biking thru one of the shipping warehouses that sit on the Mississippi River along my neighborhood. About one third of the city block-long building had burned during Katrina after looters broke into the produce warehouse next to it and then torched it. The bay doors in the warehouse were all open to the riverside and the New Orleans skyline sat there looking just fine. It was six months after Katrina at that point but the area was still as quiet as a graveyard. Inside the warehouse were tens of thousands of packages still wrapped but never shipped. I looked at the cancellation dates and they were all stamped tha day of Katrina...all from various shippers who had long written off the stuff to insurance. Everything from new pickups trucks in cargo containers to computers to industrial machine parts....just sitting there in the silence and the light coming in from the open bay doors.

The third scene that sticks in my mind was as I was down in the Lower Ninth Ward on my bike and search crews were still pulling out dead bodies even six months after Katrina. Every bulding in the City was marked with a big "X" spray painted on it with various markings in the four opengings of the "X", designating which crew did the search and when and what they found. The ones with "body inside" stuck with me the most. And on the day I was there, a New Orleans jazz funeral procession passed by...the black, horse-drawn funeral carriage with the glass sides pulling a coffin with one of the bodies that had just been turned over by searchers to relatives...with a line of mouners walking behind with musicians wearing black tails and slowly playing a sombre dirge in 100 degree mid-day sun. And just as they were passing me a big yellow school bus came rolling down the dried mud road thru the destroyed houses....and around thirty little girls in Catholic School uniforms got out with a couple of white, Yuppie women teachers, who started pointing and taking pictures just feet away from the procession. I thought I was in a Felini movie. But, in a way, that summed up the whole Katrina thing for me in one instant.

Sandy is just a replay for me...or a continuation. Rather hilariously, I had gotten a cancellation notice from my homeowners insurance company days before, stating they were canceling my insurance after 20+ years. Mind you, I'd never had a claim on my house there in all that time but, since Katrina, I am on some crazy "red line" list where they just keep chopping away as if I did something wrong by being flooded. You would think that if I didnt flood in the "storm of the century" or make a claim that I'd be OK? Nah!

Thanks for recounting your experience...

I'm in Toms River area and my sister (full time resident of Seaside Park) has been displaced...this storm has been very surreal in so many ways...thankfully, we were blessed to escape the storm with only a 2 day power loss but I know many who've lost so much.

All the best to you

[Michael Jewels]

Originally Posted by MJ5150

I'm heading down to the NJ/NY area Thursday morning to do relief work until Sunday night. It should be interesting. The trips I took to New Orleans were life changing, but after a few months I slid back into my life of excess and waste. Hopefully it sticks this time.

If any of you NJ/NY guys need some drywall finish work done, let me know. I don't know yet exactly where I'm staying and working, but I'll find out Wednesday night.

-Mike

Mike, please post where you'll be when you're down here.

Thanks for doing this.

Mike

[MJ5150]

My assignment is in Far Rockaway, NY doing cleaning and sanitation. We will be there all day Friday and Saturday.

-Mike

[smperry]

Originally Posted by MJ5150

I'm heading down to the NJ/NY area Thursday morning to do relief work until Sunday night. It should be interesting. The trips I took to New Orleans were life changing, but after a few months I slid back into my life of excess and waste. Hopefully it sticks this time.

If any of you NJ/NY guys need some drywall finish work done, let me know. I don't know yet exactly where I'm staying and working, but I'll find out Wednesday night.

-Mike

Originally Posted by MJ5150

My assignment is in Far Rockaway, NY doing cleaning and sanitation. We will be there all day Friday and Saturday.

-Mike

Thanks so much for helping out around here!

[MJ5150]

Day one in the books. I am tired. The wife and I spent half the day in Tyvek hazmat suits cleaning inside peoples homes, the second half outside picking up debris.

This is back breaking work. It's the work nobody wants to do, the grimy, gross, messy clean-up work. The mess keeps going on and on and on. Every room, every yard, everything is a mess. But you know what? It is extremely satisfying and gives you a great warm and fuzzy feeling inside for helping people who truly are down and out. We met a family of four living in a shelter. They have a few suitcases, and that is all. I felt like such a punk standing there with my cell phone and latte.

I strongly encourage anyone who has the time and means to get to this area to come on out. Even for just one day. You'll be tired, but you'll feel awesome.

-Mike

[MakiSupaStar]

Originally Posted by MJ5150

Day one in the books. I am tired. The wife and I spent half the day in Tyvek hazmat suits cleaning inside peoples homes, the second half outside picking up debris.

This is back breaking work. It's the work nobody wants to do, the grimy, gross, messy clean-up work. The mess keeps going on and on and on. Every room, every yard, everything is a mess. But you know what? It is extremely satisfying and gives you a great warm and fuzzy feeling inside for helping people who truly are down and out. We met a family of four living in a shelter. They have a few suitcases, and that is all. I felt like such a punk standing there with my cell phone and latte.

I strongly encourage anyone who has the time and means to get to this area to come on out. Even for just one day. You'll be tired, but you'll feel awesome.

-Mike

Good job Mike.

[GregC]

Originally Posted by MJ5150

Day one in the books. I am tired. The wife and I spent half the day in Tyvek hazmat suits cleaning inside peoples homes, the second half outside picking up debris.

This is back breaking work. It's the work nobody wants to do, the grimy, gross, messy clean-up work. The mess keeps going on and on and on. Every room, every yard, everything is a mess. But you know what? It is extremely satisfying and gives you a great warm and fuzzy feeling inside for helping people who truly are down and out. We met a family of four living in a shelter. They have a few suitcases, and that is all. I felt like such a punk standing there with my cell phone and latte.

I strongly encourage anyone who has the time and means to get to this area to come on out. Even for just one day. You'll be tired, but you'll feel awesome.

-Mike

You rock, buddy. Next time you hit town, beer's on me.