IMPORTANT: OFFICIAL HURRICANE THREAD

[malkusm]

Found a pic from this location at the height of the flooding. It's at a different angle, but if you look at the building in the right of the photo below, it is the building in the foreground of the photo above (I was standing right next to that "Do Not Enter" sign to take the above photo). This is approx. 3 blocks from my apartment.



The stairs in the background of my picture about a block away:

[Anti Federalist]

[cajuncocoa]

LOL!!

[kahless]

My power went out while reading this thread late afternoon Monday and luckily finally came back a few hours ago.

I am in northern Rockland County about an hour north of NYC. I am happy have it back since the power company had been generally reporting to expect to wait 7-10 days and for some a few weeks before restoration. There is still 41,000 without power in the county which is more than half of what I remember seeing it that last time I checked the utility site.

We did not get much rain here, the wind was the problem. The sky was lit up Monday night by all the transformers blowing up and down lines. Lots of down trees on lines, road closures, etc but they are making progress.

In no particular order, just some findings.

• Ice to keep Perishables: I luckily was able to get some when my local Stop and Shop first opened before it sold out. However thousands showed up at the local baseball stadium for dry ice yesterday between 1-5 but it sold out in 15 minutes. People waited in long lines to get there only to get turned away.
  
  Today they gave out a 2 bag limit per car of regular ice. I am guessing from the endless long lines of cars when I was there I would say thousands showed up again. About a 45 minute wait in traffic.
  
  
• Food: The grocery stores have no backup power so the fairly large Shop Rite has no non-perishable food since it was all thrown out. Very odd seeing the deli, fish, meat and frozen food section coolers empty (half the store). The other Stop and Shop had power but the deli was completely sold out. Never saw that before. I asked about the next shipment of ice and was told their distribution center lost power so they do not know when they are getting new deliveries.
  
  
• Gas: Seeing unusual lines at all the gas stations in North Rockland with the two gas stations near me that do not normally closed have now closed.
  
  
• Telecom: With my UPS I typically always have cable and internet during power failures. Not this one. Guessing too large of an outrage for Cablevision to power generators as it seems they have done in the past. Verizon Wireless internet was useless and had little to no bandwidth Monday night but got better on Tuesday. Probably over capacity. I have seen this happen before going to events in the area. Cell service gets completely overloaded and useless.
  
  
• Information: Despite the close proximity to NYC for which the AM/FM band is dominated by NYC stations they provided no coverage of Rockland County other than obvious generalized comments about the storm and power being out. It is like we do not exist. Many of them anyway just kept their music formats or simulcast their AM sister stations.
  
  The closest FM station is Westchester's WHUD, a 50kw flame thrower. They continued their lite music format instead of going with live coverage but provided a few news updates and school closings. Early on I found them to be useless and the updates childish. They should be embarrassed by their on air product.
  
  WRCR 1300AM, a low powered daytime AM station which is not easy to receive in the northern part of the county actually provided local coverage. They did not seek out out information at first but took information from callers which included local officials. It was surprisingly my only source of finding out what is going on even though at first the various hosts seemed to make no attempt to gather information. I was able to find out about obtaining ice and information from public officials from them.
  
  Cablevision's local News12.com site was too bandwidth intensive to bring up the page on a limited over capacity cell network. Completely useless.
  The internet and cable is obviously useless when lines are down, no power and problematic wireless etc. A generator or UPS is no help there. I am going to kick and punch my TV if I hear the major media proclaiming how great Twitter and Facebook is which for some reason they promote at risk of losing revenue to their own site. (another conversation)
  
  
• Flooding: For those living along the Hudson river, devastating for boaters and home owners. I am near the river but up high enough not to be effected. My pics did not turn out that well and could not get close enough for better ones since police have it blocked off.

[Anti Federalist]

Jenkinson's in Point made it.

[kahless]

Jenkinson's in Point made it.

I like Jenks and looks like Martells made it to. In the summer I like the bar all the way at the end with the purple roof.

[Anti Federalist]

Mantoloking bridge on the east side is wiped out though, with a new inlet.

Or, actually, an old one.

Cranberry Inlet used to be right around here, back in the 18th century.



Early in the century small settlements were established in Little Egg Harbor (Tuckerton) and Goose Creek (Toms River).

The barrier island that Island Beach State Park is a part of was once separated from the Barnegat peninsula by a natural inlet. Cranberry Inlet originally opened, by natural forces, in 1750. It is believed to have been located where modern day Ortley Beach is now found. The Inlet was eventually closed, again by nature, in 1812. The cranberry bogs in the area gave rise to the ephemeral inlet's name. At that time the fruits of the cranberry plant were an important resource for sailing ships. Sailors would collect the preservable cranberries to help prevent scurvy during long ocean voyages.

Cranberry inlet also became part of the history of New Jersey's Revolutionary War efforts. Local pirates were commissioned by the Continental Congress and the colony of New Jersey to prey on British shipping. Ships seized by the so called privateer boats were taken up Cranberry Inlet to Toms River or up Barnegat Inlet to Tuckerton. As a part of these hostilities a British expedition once attacked the Toms River Blockhouse. A compliment of twenty-five local militiamen were stationed there, under the command of Captain Joshua Huddy. The British forces razed Toms River and hung Huddy. A notoriously vicous local outlaw, John Bacon, and his men also carried out the Barnegat Light Massacre during this same period. This heinous crime occured when Bacon and his men slaughtered twenty crewmen from a salvaged British sloop.

By the late 1700s, Toms River and Tuckerton were busy seaports supporting a number of small businesses and homes. Colonists there would willingly purchase contraband goods from England and the West Indies. Tavern owners were especially eager to buy West Indies' molasses so they could make rum. Salt was also an important commodity at that time. It was the center of a small bay industry. Salt was in high demand, in part, because it was needed to make saltpeter, an ingredient of gunpowder

http://www.islandbeachnj.org/History/History.html

[BamaAla]

From my Twitter feed:

@brettadair:

"@JimCantore @4cast4you Huntsville Utilities crews turned away from NJ because they weren't union. They are now heading to Long Island, NY."

[BamaAla]

http://www.waff.com/story/19981857/s...sandy-recovery

SEASIDE HEIGHTS, NEW JERSEY (WAFF) -

The hurricane-ravaged east coast has been receiving north Alabama help, but crews from Huntsville Utilities learned they'll be doing work in Long Island, New York instead of in New Jersey.

Crews from Huntsville, as well as Decatur Utilities and Joe Wheeler out of Trinity headed up there this week, but Derrick Moore, one of the Decatur workers, said they were told by crews in New Jersey that they can't do any work there since they're not union employees.

[Anti Federalist]

http://www.waff.com/story/19981857/s...sandy-recovery

Just goes to show, government is nothing but Tony Soprano with a badge.

[angelatc]

My brother in law is in Wantagh, Long Island. We haven't heard from him yet.

If anybody knows anything about that area, my husband would appreciate the information.

[specsaregood]

//

[mad cow]

From my Twitter feed:

@brettadair:

"@JimCantore @4cast4you Huntsville Utilities crews turned away from NJ because they weren't union. They are now heading to Long Island, NY."

Unbelievable.
I hope the candle makers are union.

[Anti Federalist]

My brother in law is in Wantagh, Long Island. We haven't heard from him yet.

If anybody knows anything about that area, my husband would appreciate the information.

I would doubt anything was flooded too badly, north of Sunrise Highway.

There's some elevation there.

[angelatc]

I would doubt anything was flooded too badly, north of Sunrise Highway.

There's some elevation there.

Thanks. The logical part of me says they're fine, even if they don't have a cell phone or power. But on day 3, the little nagging voice
starts....

The local Patch has some pictures, and it certainly doesn't look like total devastation. The comments had another person who is also looking for MIA family, and a commenter said it's probably ok - they hadn't heard of any injuries.

[Indy Vidual]

My brother in law is in Wantagh, Long Island. We haven't heard from him yet.

If anybody knows anything about that area, my husband would appreciate the information.

Are you prepared for (somewhat) bad news?
WANTAGH, N.Y .-- "Everybody is in panic mode," said Venus Bennett, 37, standing on her front lawn in Wantagh and waiting for her husband to come back with a full gas tank....
...
"It is unbelievable what the storm did," he said. ~Source

[V3n]

That's great news. Hope I find out the same for myself. The waiting is the hardest part. The main highway to my house is still closed.

We haven't heard from libertygrl in over a week.. I'm sure there's a lot more important things going on than this forum - but I'm starting to get a bit worried..

Hope to hear from you soon liberty! If there's anything we can do to help - let us know!