By Ann Campbell
“You hoped it wasn’t going to be this bad.” FEMA administrator Craig Fugate said about Hurricane Sandy on CBS this morning. Yet Sandy gushed a 13 foot surge of seawater into Manhattan Monday night, causing extensive flooding and winds in excess of 100 miles per hour. At least 7.3 million have lost power due to the storm.
Early in the night, a building collapsed in Chelsea leaving an open-faced dollhouse view into the apartments. Power was preventively shut down in lower Manhattan to avoid more damage to the already flooded subway system. NYU Medical Center lost power and backup generators failed due to flooding. The hospital was forced to evacuate over 200 patients at the height of the storm. Fires destroyed over 80 homes in Breezy Point at the tip of Long Island. Wind whipped flames from a live wire to home after home through a long row of houses in this beach community.
Governor Cuomo tweeted this picture of Whitehall Station this morning. It is unclear when the 108 year old subway system will be functioning again, but it is likely to be a gradual process. Closure of New York metropolitan airports remains, as the tarmacs flooded at the height of Sandy’s surge.
In the height of chaos, Governor Chris Christie praised Obama for his response to Hurricane Sandy. Long Island and New York City were declared major disaster areas.
It will take days for the subways to become operational, and for power to be restored. Overall, a measured and well-planned response carried, despite a much greater storm surge than anticipated.
If you need help, please use the following resources:
Find a shelter: http://www.google.org/crisismap/2012-sandy-nyc
Report Damage: http://www.nyc.gov/html/oem/html/nycsevereweather/damage_form.shtml
Volunteer to help clean up after Sandy: http://manasquan.patch.com/articles/volunteer-to-help-post-sandy-clean-up-efforts-a447682a for New Jersey and http://bayridgejournal.blogspot.com/2012/10/public-advocate-calls-for-cleanup.html for New York
Red Cross: http://www.redcross.org/
If you know of other volunteer efforts underway please post, and I will update this post as the day goes on.
Stephen Helmke / October 31, 2012
As bad and surprising as the effects seem – keep in mind that his was a relatively mild hurricane (albeit monster-sized) and that there was NOT a direct hit to New York Harbor. As ocean temperatures rise, more and more Atlantic based tropical storms will decide to track north, rather than entering the gulf of Mexico — so the probability for a repeat of Sandy (or worse) is increasingly likely….
Steve Helmke (not a metoerologist, but a Louisiana native)
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