Snor'eastercane Watch 2012 — Page 11

I was in Long Island helping clean out my aunt's flooded house (split open wooden floors and cracked tiles= new first floor of the house). She lived in Oyster Bay that got really screwed up by the storm. There was no power AND no cellphone service. The flood waters were supposedly at 4 feet and there were mandatory evacuations at the time of the storm. The cleanup pretty much turned her street in a single lane drive with scraps on the road for pickup and, I kid you not, a motorboat (owned by senior citizens who schlepped away from the island) got moved from side of the garage to encroaching the street. There was also the bizarre site of a local seaside country club type of establishment in that area not only open with power on a Saturday night with a wedding reception while the side walks to that place had piles upon piles of trash and debris. Guess there was a cancellation fee?

My grandma in Massapequa Park managed to be unscathed but there were trees and wires down in addition to electric polls bending toward the street. Levittown where my other aunt was got really screwed up too, but luckily she just had no power. There were trees uprooted and cars crushed. Both areas had a case of being


Starbucks were crowded with people plugging their phones and laptops into any outlet they could find. Local eating establishments with power were packed.

Nobody knows when the certain spots of Nassau County are getting power back but Oyster Bay and other by the shore places look like they will take the longest. I do know most of the jobs, well, at least the ones that did not get destroyed in the storm, are back to work today. But a lot of people are going to have to apply for federal disaster unemployment assistance.

Metal signs on the LI expressway were split in half. Rest stops all the way up to Newburgh already had intense queues for a gas that had a police presence, but that did not even prepare us for what was going on in the city, LI, or Northern NJ.

The gas station waits in Nassau County were unbelievable. I did not live during the Iran Oil Crisis but this seems to be pretty close if I am to believe my mother. Lines went on for hours, some stations had no fuel, and it seemed to be the place where all sanity was at a loss.

I donated two huge bags of old clothes to the Red Cross through my aunt's church but according to volunteers and people in law enforcement in the area, senior citizens are among the most in need of new articles of clothing.

I may have gotten 8 hours of sleep between those last two nights. I am incredibly exhausted but I didn't want my mother traveling down there alone and I wanted to contribute to helping my relatives rather than just watch it on the news. The one positive I saw was how openly neighbors were helping each other with all kinds of warm gestures. My aunt and her kids are pretty much going to crash at a neighbor for an extended period of time since all the hotels in the area are booked.