Super Storm Sandy

Downtown Port Jefferson, NY  Monday October 29, 2012 - photo by Erica Jackofsky

Now they are calling it Super Storm Sandy, and things got worse before they started to get better. I spent Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday cutting up and clearing away downed trees. Power was on and off all week. We just got internet back this afternoon. Most traffic lights were down and local businesses were closed for a couple days. Up here on the north shore we had mostly wind damage, which is getting fixed relatively quickly. The big thing now is no gasoline. We had to cancel our show in River Vale, NJ scheduled for this Sunday because we didn't think we would have enough fuel to get back home. On the south shore a lot of the damage was caused by flooding and fire. That will take much longer to get back to normal. At one point over 90% of the three million people here on Long Island were without power. LIPA (Long Island Power Authority) is estimating that 100,000 homes were destroyed or severely damaged to the point where power cannot be safely returned. I think there are still about a million people in Nassau and Suffolk counties without power and it is getting pretty cold. Many on Staten Island and the south shores of Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau, and Suffolk Counties are are in dire straits due to the severe damage to the infrastructure. Disasters like this bring out the best and the worst in people. We are hearing stories of looting and fights breaking out between people waiting on gas lines. So far I haven't witnessed any looting or people fighting for resources, only people helping each other get through a difficult time.