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Sandy Anniversary


QM1to6Ave

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Today is the 1 year anniversary, as I'm sure many of you know. Right around now the worst of the storm was ramming through and giving us quick a kick in the rear. The week that followed was just horrible for me, and I was not even directly hurt by the storm. It was a real terrible time to be a New Yorker, even worse than 9/11 in some ways, at least to me.

 

It is nice to see how much we have been able to recover after the storm, but we still have a long way to go. 

 

Anyone else have any thoughts/memories they want to share? 

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I can share a positive experience - I was volunteering to assist the registered nurses in one of the Zone A evacuation centers set up at Lehman College for a week, in the middle of the hurricane. This was because formally I was working under contract with the NYDOE as a computer support specialist but our building that housed the IT department in LIC was under water. The City Of New York offered me to work alongside the nurses to assist those in need who went destitute or needed special medical care. I was compensated with retroactive paychecks.

 

 From those several days I've put in 12 hr overnight shifts to help those sick during the devastating hurricane I've learned why I really needed to be in the healthcare field. Not just the job security, unionized benefits, job demand, and pay, which is important, but the fact that I have that desire to help others in need. So now here I am in an accredited CUNY Nursing program as I finish up my current contracts with my IT consulting firms I am work for. 

 

As one friend told me in HS a long time ago: Things change so does people. 

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I remember everything... well most of it.

 

We lost power here in East Bumblef*ck NJ the first day of the storm and were without it for about 10 days or more. I was going to go to family in Manhattan where I usually stay the day after, but they lost power for a few days and were without heat/hot water through the week after, plus NJT took a while to start back up. The person I usually stay with actually ended up coming out here with us in the end since Lower Manhattan was completely ruined, nothing was open and people were afraid of looting (which may or may not have happened in the end, can't really remember). But anyway, in my town, despite the downed trees/wires and closed roads everywhere the supermarkets were mostly open, Home Depot/Lowe's as well (all with generators and limited lighting), but damn there was price gouging everywhere from the one pizza place with a generator ($9.95 for an individual plain pie, only item on the menu) to ice in Wegmans ($12 for a bag of ice) and the gas stations that were open had lines 3-4 miles long, and constant fighting on top of it that required cops, state troopers and even the national guard to staff gas stations around here. Wednesday or so we headed for Pennsylvania just across from Trenton, where there were no lines for gas, malls, food (Chick Fil A ftw), hotels (where much of the crews coming up from down south were staying) all open with full power. We got gas, food and everything at normal price with zero hassle aside from crossing the empty bridge and paying the $1 or whatever it is to cross into PA on Route 1, meanwhile just across the bridge in Mercer County the few open gas stations we passed by had miles-long lines. Not that many pi$$ yellow plates around at all in PA either, makes you wonder how difficult it really is for a NJ resident to pump their own gas. We came back to bumf*ck due to a relative in the hospital, slept with no power in a freezing cold house until Saturday when we went back to PA and spent the night in a hotel to shower and enjoy a warm room for the first time in a few days. After that it was off to Manhattan for me, since the power had come back but no heat, and I stayed there through most of the next week until our power came back. I remember going off to that hardware store by J&R and getting 3 of the last space heaters they had to heat the apartment, and thank God the owners didn't price gouge.

 

Later in the week I did go back to NJ, then we lost power again during the snowstorm and I went back to the city. Can't remember how long there was no heat but it was pretty damn long, and it took until early the week after before I could finally head back to bumf*ck and get back to the usual crap. Plenty of stuff I'm missing too, but it was just a crazy experience for us that I'll never forget.

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I can share a positive experience - I was volunteering to assist the registered nurses in one of the Zone A evacuation centers set up at Lehman College for a week, in the middle of the hurricane. This was because formally I was working under contract with the NYDOE as a computer support specialist but our building that housed the IT department in LIC was under water. The City Of New York offered me to work alongside the nurses to assist those in need who went destitute or needed special medical care. I was compensated with retroactive paychecks.

 

 From those several days I've put in 12 hr overnight shifts to help those sick during the devastating hurricane I've learned why I really needed to be in the healthcare field. Not just the job security, unionized benefits, job demand, and pay, which is important, but the fact that I have that desire to help others in need. So now here I am in an accredited CUNY Nursing program as I finish up my current contracts with my IT consulting firms I am work for. 

 

As one friend told me in HS a long time ago: Things change so does people. 

It;s a nice change to hear how the storm led to a positive change in your life!

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I lost power trying to play the storm off on my 360 on the 28th, as well as the rest of my block, but what really pissed me off during the storm was that while my fridge and freezer were gutted because all the food rotted, the people across the street adjacent to my house all had power, food, and everything, and they didn't offer ANYTHING to anybody.  On top of this, a laptop of mine failed the Monday before the storm made landfall in the US and that day was the only day I could drop it off for repair.  The place I bought it from was right off the bay, so you can guess what happened when the storm hit...

 

For a week and a half LIPA promised to have power by a certain day.  One relative in Malverne had come back from a pilgrimage or something and never lost power; my uncle in West Hempstead only got his back the Wednesday after (the 1st).  In the meantime, I had to deal with the coldest weather, relying on fast food joints in Hicksville, where businesses got power back quickly, while dealing with traffic from gas lines - not because my buses were packed, but because no one accepted the idea that stations only had enough for about a dozen people at a time and kept parking in the middle of the streets.  The power was supposed to come back on the 3rd, then nothing; on the 8th, a crew from WI gave LIPA the all-clear to turn the power to my neighborhood back on.  I left for school just as they were scanning the other half of my block and after almost getting stranded on the Main Line did I get a text from my mom saying that we had power, at least; my phone and cable lines were knocked down by branches.  I emailed CV and they responded promptly, claiming that a tech came by that afternoon while I was at class.

 

The only thing that didn't go wrong was that my water heater worked like a charm the entire time.  I laughed the storm off the week before (right when my laptop died) and look what happened.

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I lost power trying to play the storm off on my 360 on the 28th, as well as the rest of my block, but what really pissed me off during the storm was that while my fridge and freezer were gutted because all the food rotted, the people across the street adjacent to my house all had power, food, and everything, and they didn't offer ANYTHING to anybody.  On top of this, a laptop of mine failed the Monday before the storm made landfall in the US and that day was the only day I could drop it off for repair.  The place I bought it from was right off the bay, so you can guess what happened when the storm hit...

 

For a week and a half LIPA promised to have power by a certain day.  One relative in Malverne had come back from a pilgrimage or something and never lost power; my uncle in West Hempstead only got his back the Wednesday after (the 1st).  In the meantime, I had to deal with the coldest weather, relying on fast food joints in Hicksville, where businesses got power back quickly, while dealing with traffic from gas lines - not because my buses were packed, but because no one accepted the idea that stations only had enough for about a dozen people at a time and kept parking in the middle of the streets.  The power was supposed to come back on the 3rd, then nothing; on the 8th, a crew from WI gave LIPA the all-clear to turn the power to my neighborhood back on.  I left for school just as they were scanning the other half of my block and after almost getting stranded on the Main Line did I get a text from my mom saying that we had power, at least; my phone and cable lines were knocked down by branches.  I emailed CV and they responded promptly, claiming that a tech came by that afternoon while I was at class.

 

The only thing that didn't go wrong was that my water heater worked like a charm the entire time.  I laughed the storm off the week before (right when my laptop died) and look what happened.

I heard some people with Crappyvision in my town (basically everyone, only a few people around here are smart enough to get FiOS and then on top of that there's the HOAs which won't let Verizon wire due to exclusivity contracts with CV) were without cable for weeks. FiOS was up and running for us right when the power was back, and our phone lines continued to work for as long as the battery backup lasted.

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My house was lucky enough to remain powered, but for some reason TWC went down. It was really annoying to hear my FiOS neighbors get stuff back within three days, while I was gone for about a month. If Verizon had just decided to wire one block further...

 

I also remember the free buses.

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I just remember the lonnngggg lines for the shuttle buses... I was having lunch along 3rd Avenue.  When i finished, to walk back to my office, I was amazed at the lines I saw near Grand Central.  They wrapped around Grand Central.  

 

I remember that as well. I remember also riding that shuttle with an ex-B/O friend and seeing all the crowds on the bus... I was glad everything was free though. I was also fortunate because by the 2nd day the (E) and (F) were running into Queens

 

I can share a positive experience - I was volunteering to assist the registered nurses in one of the Zone A evacuation centers set up at Lehman College for a week, in the middle of the hurricane. This was because formally I was working under contract with the NYDOE as a computer support specialist but our building that housed the IT department in LIC was under water. The City Of New York offered me to work alongside the nurses to assist those in need who went destitute or needed special medical care. I was compensated with retroactive paychecks.

 

 From those several days I've put in 12 hr overnight shifts to help those sick during the devastating hurricane I've learned why I really needed to be in the healthcare field. Not just the job security, unionized benefits, job demand, and pay, which is important, but the fact that I have that desire to help others in need. So now here I am in an accredited CUNY Nursing program as I finish up my current contracts with my IT consulting firms I am work for. 

 

As one friend told me in HS a long time ago: Things change so does people. 

 

This is why I want to work in the healthcare field as well... I want the satisfaction of knowing that I have helped people, it is one of the things that we all need in life, and an experience like this makes you realize it a lot. Congrats on your achievements!

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That storm came over right on my birthday...

 

To me, it was a birthday present due to all those subway reroutes, sweet flaps, buses staying in service longer, etc. I was lucky enough I didn't lose power or internet for the storm... Though I really do think about the people who were affected. It must suck to lose your home and everything you've owned, and not being able to replace some of those things. 

 

The thing is, I don't really think of Sandy that much... what I think of is how can New York protect itself against future hurricanes? Just imagine we had a category 2 or 3... It wouldn't be anything like Sandy. 

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I wrote about this in another post. I'm guessing I was driving the last bus out of Port Authority into New Jersey before everything shut down for Sunday. It was a 1AM departure for Dover, NJ, was in at 2:15 AM, nobody on Route 3, 46, no passengers at all. I felt like the sole survivor of a post apocalyptic Earth

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