Hurricane Sandy

[DJ_B_Easy]

Here we goooo...

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11 ... r-gas?lite

Friend of mine living in Hoboken area (pretty badly hit) said that only 1 CVS pharmacy is open in the area and they are running low on medication. Police teams are there now too.

[Dattebayo]

All I can say is "I guess building a house on a sandbar seemed like a really good idea at the time"...?
Are many of those residents very rich? I can't imagine that anyone would have just one house, built on a fricken sandbar?

Those who are inland and got hit would not have seen it necessarily (and my heart goes out to them), but the shore residents had it coming one day and they knew it. Maybe it sounds harsh, but I saw what happened at Galveston Island years ago first-hand, and you'd think people would back off from building houses right on the beach like that...

[ricebike]

That would be the logical and most economical step but we're talking NJ here, home of the infamous and obnoxious NJ DEP (NJ's over-zealous version of the EPA). They may be deem all that sand "contaminated" by sewage and not allow it returned to the beach without some sort of special processing. That's not a joke. They're crazy.

yea, the Gov said to cut the red tape and shovel it out of the way so power crews can get electricity up n running ASAP! ~kickarse~

new area today, Ewing... most power was up & i was done delivering early since no trees were on the road as well

waited only 5 minutes for gas too

[SHIFT_COUPE]

Here we goooo...

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11 ... r-gas?lite

Friend of mine living in Hoboken area (pretty badly hit) said that only 1 CVS pharmacy is open in the area and they are running low on medication. Police teams are there now too.

Awful stuff.

How's everything in your area of NJ Chris?

[DJ_B_Easy]

How's everything in your area of NJ Chris?

Im about 30 miles inland so no major destruction like the coast line, we were very lucky this time around unluck last year with Hurricane Irene. In fact, I have to go back on my previous comments about flooding in my area. It never happened, dont ask me why or how, it just didnt.

The major problems are, have been, and will continue to be lack of electricity and gasoline. Granted people can survive without electricity, but the forecast is calling for temps in the 30s this weekend and we have a very good chance of a snow storm coming in middle of next week. There are literally millions of people without power and all estimates are 7-10 days. Somehow my tiny little condo complex has electricity but is surrounded by blackout. Im one of the very lucky ones.

The post I made above about CVS is the first Ive heard about a lack of supply/food type items. My local supermarket is packed to the gills with all food, including fresh produce and dairy.

Has anyone heard from Bundy26? He lives in a neighboring town 5 minutes from my home. I imagine he does not have power.

Side note: NYC Marathon still scheduled for Sunday. People are LIVID.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

There's a special on just about every channel right now. Bon Jovi is singing.

I'm with Dave on this one. Most people on the coast were pretty well-off, and I'm sure had flood insurance. We all know history repeats itself and that is one of the risks you take building there. Plus its expensive as balls. You gotta pay to play.

Its just a damn shame that a lot of the *really* nice things on the coast that EVERYONE likes to go visit got trashed.

[DJ_B_Easy]

Gov Christie just announced odd/even gas rationing, based on the last number in your license plate. Hopefully this alleviates some mayhem.

I have some thoughts on the above but can't type them all from my cell. Hopefuly back to a desktop tomorrow.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

They just had a story about a neighborhood in NY that lost ~59 people on 9/11, then on 11/12/01, a plane crashed into their neighborhood killing many more, and now the entire place just got flooded and a ton of homes/businesses are destroyed. They interviewed a bunch of the people there too. They seemed really nice. I feel for them... its been a rough decade.

[bigbadberry3]

I never understand why people stay under mandatory evacs....

[ricebike]

I never understand why people stay under mandatory evacs....

to be blunt, they're a bunch of idiots

references: AC mayor & the cast of "Jersey Shore"

i'm awake this early because i'm researching traffic conditions before my driving job yeap, i works on Sat too

i hope they get more power companies from other states to join in on the restoration of power...

maybe truck in some more generators to power up the gas stations that have plenty of fuel in their tanks.

otherwise, start looking up the closest shelters for those without power to weather out the cold.

marathon at this time? wow... go NY!

[Bubba1]

I think Bloomburg's push for the marathon was one of his biggest political blunders. Yes, it would have brought $300 mill in revenue to the city, but really heartless to run a marathon through Staten Island that's still mostly out of power, water, gas and devastated. Then hooking up large portable power generators for the race, while people are freezing a block away from the course because there's no electricity. Plus the hotels that had power were already full from people that had their homes destroyed, many of the subways are still flooded. It would have been insane.

Our little town had some crews from Kansas City working. I spoke with one of them and thanked them while walking my pups. They did a LOT of work in a short time. After almost a week, they're still not done.

As far as the people that insist on defying the mandatory evacuation orders, I don;t think ALL of them are idiots. I think the ones that had the means/options to move inland yet stayed for the thrill, yeah perhaps. But there are a lotta folks that did not have the means to relocate. Also, many were hesitant to go to shelters because they were concerned about having their homes/businesses looted, which in A/C for example, began almost immediately after the evacuation orders.

[DJ_B_Easy]

Friend of mine just has an amazing idea and actually did it. Went to local junkyard and syphoned about 10 gallons of gas for free.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Try and buy some from some car dealerships. A lot of them have fuel on the premises.

[Bubba1]

Friend of mine just has an amazing idea and actually did it. Went to local junkyard and syphoned about 10 gallons of gas for free.

That's interesting. I'm kinda curious why the junkyard owners didn't drain the gastanks themselves when they first received the cars.

[DJ_B_Easy]

Try and buy some from some car dealerships. A lot of them have fuel on the premises.

Another friend tried that and was turned away. Most dealerships around my immediate area dont keep their own, they just go to stations like everyone else.

I'm kinda curious why the junkyard owners didn't drain the gastanks themselves when they first received the cars.

No clue. Maybe it was a new delivery? I dont know how that works, I was surprised as well.

[RCA]

So waiting in line for like 2 hours for gas, I see this huge truck pull up and I say to myself, "good luck getting in here", he then strolls over to the empty diesel pump, fills up, and leaves in 8 mins. Blew my mind, it never occurred to me that owning a diesel automobile in these conditions would so awesome. I waited another hour and a half to fill up.

[bundy26]

Has anyone heard from Bundy26? He lives in a neighboring town 5 minutes from my home. I imagine he does not have power.

You are correct, power went out monday and has not come back since, been here at my brother's house riding this out.
My job at Mount Olive just got power back yesterday afternoon, so atleast I have not used my car. To be honest I can't complain, there are people that have it worse than me. Maybe by tuesday or wednesday I'll be back home, also had a guy come over to give me an estimate about my siding, got pretty messed up.
So if my brother doesn't get fed up and kicks us out of his house we'll be fine.

[DJ_B_Easy]

Boonton, parts of Denville, and parts of Randolph are back up. You might be powered sooner than that.

[bundy26]

Hope so, but there are 3 trees down on power lines a few blocks away from my house, saw a couple of hours ago two vans from Ohio looking at then but they haven't done anything yet.

[Jesda]

I think Bloomburg's push for the marathon was one of his biggest political blunders. Yes, it would have brought $300 mill in revenue to the city, but really heartless to run a marathon through Staten Island that's still mostly out of power, water, gas and devastated. Then hooking up large portable power generators for the race, while people are freezing a block away from the course because there's no electricity. Plus the hotels that had power were already full from people that had their homes destroyed, many of the subways are still flooded. It would have been insane.

Sheesh. I guess you'd have to run the marathon to get water.

[VQpwrdSE-R]

Utility companies have been denied permission to assist in repair due to being non-union. Crews from Alabama were told essentially "thanks but no thanks". It is unfathomable to me that in this time of need NJ would deny assistance. With people without electricity they would slow progress all in protection of the Union. Unions had there purpose in the early 1900s with big business, and the rise of industry and factory jobs and keeping workers in safe conditions. In this century unions only hurt the American worker and force jobs overseas.
http://dailycaller.com/2012/11/02/new-j ... unionized/

[bundy26]

Personally I say f*** unions, why when there is an emergency there are people that try to make the buck instead of really helping, sad.....

[Jesda]

The story is still foggy. IBEW is denying that they rejected them for being non-union, but after waiting a day and dealing with red tape the crew from Alabama moved on.

So, there was some kind of holdup, but over what is uncertain.

[nissangirl74]

Here's an updated report

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-575 ... -from-n.j/

"Upon arriving at a staging area in Virginia, crews were held in place pending clarification of documents received from IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) that implied a requirement of our employees to agree to union affiliation while working in the New York and New Jersey areas. It was and remains our understanding that agreeing to those requirements was a condition of being allowed to work in those areas.

"As we waited for clarification, we became aware that Seaside Heights had received the assistance they needed from other sources, To be clear, at no time were our crews "turned away" from the utility in Seaside Heights.

"In connection with state and regional public power associations, Decatur Utilities attempted to contact other areas that needed assistance. However, based on the uncertainty of union requirements that we could not agree to and the uncertainty of whether a resolution could be reached, we ultimately made the decision to return them to Decatur after being stalled in the Virginia area most of the day on Thursday."

Sounds like a lot of spin. I'm guessing they were turned away but were told to sugar coat the details. I'm sure the residents of Hoboken, regardless of their union affiliation, would have gladly accepted help from the Decatur Power Company since they STILL don't have power and it doesn't look like they will for a while.

[Jesda]

Something similar happened in Seattle-Tacoma during an ice storm. The union threatened to stop working if non-union utility workers were hired.

[nissangirl74]

That's when I, as the mayor of those towns, would get on the phone and call everyone I knew to bring them in to work the storm and tell the union workers to suck it. I worked for a union once before as a data entry clerk. I have seen some of the s*** those people pull and it is down right repulsive.

[Dattebayo]

While I'm sure there was some sort of chain-of-command and structure issues, mostly, those union requirements would be due to the safety requirements for PPE, safety harnessing and ANSI equipment standards. The IBEW has *very* strict guidelines for high-voltage electrical work. The union was probably trying to work out a deal, but I would guess the other company didn't want to spend tens of thousands suddenly on that kind of equipment in order to be compliant.

[LongBeachCoupe]

Hey guys...
I lost the LBC and my wife's civic to the water, and my apt building is currently being reviewed by the city to see if it is going to be condemned.

As of now no one is allowed to stay there, but only allowed to remove belongings..
I lived at franklin blvd and shore rd in long beach in an apartment building on the boardwalk... 7th floor. What I was able to safely carry down 7 flights of stairs is limited to the things that cannot be replaced (wedding album, hard drive, some clothes). From what the engineers told me that I was able to speak with, water will not be restored for around a month, electric should be around a month after the water is restored (this is for my building specifically).

There was around 3 feet of sand in my lobby when I left on Monday morning, I was there yesterday and National Guard had removed all the sand and water from the lobby, the whole building smells like a rotting fishtank.

National Guard is distributing water and MREs infront of the supermarket and city hall has setup a makeshift operation in the supermarket parking lot.

As of now I have 2 rental cars and I am trying to find a decent car (I am thinking about using NICo to help me find a solid car out of state) that will be almost covered by my insurance check ($TBD).

I am staying in Floral Park with my mother-in-law, in a 8x10 room with my wife and Moe (cat), with 6 taxidermy animals hanging in the room lol. We have hot water and gas, but no heat or electric.

Tuesday I waited at home depot for 7 hours to get a generator, then waited in line for gas, only to find that the generator is defective. Working on getting another one...

For the most part, the boardwalk is destroyed, much of it got washed down the street... it looks like Beirut...

[WDRacing]

Hopefully the Ins doesn't take forever to pay out buddy.

[sx moneypit]

Glad to hear you ,the wife and cat are OK !
Hang in there !