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NYC Mayor Bloomberg says up to 40,000 may need relocation
Kathy Lahey sifts through her damaged home for items to save November 4, 2012, in the Breezy Point neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. / Getty Images
NEW YORKShivering victims of Superstorm Sandy went to church Sunday to pray for deliverance as cold weather settling in across the New York metropolitan region — and another powerful storm forecast for the middle of the week — added to their misfortunes and deepened the gloom.
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With overnight temperatures sinking into the 30s and hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses still without electricity six days after Sandy howled through, people piled on layers of clothes, and New York City officials handed out blankets and urged victims to go to overnight shelters or daytime warming centers.
At the same time, government leaders began to grapple with a daunting longer-term problem: where to find housing for the tens of thousands of people whose homes could be uninhabitable for weeks or months because of a combination of storm damage and cold weather.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said 30,000 to 40,000 New Yorkers may need to be relocated — a monumental task in a city where housing is scarce and expensive — though he said that number would probably drop to 20,000 within a couple of weeks as power is restored in more places.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on Sunday federal agencies are looking for apartments and hotel rooms for people displaced by Superstorm Sandy, Reuters reports.
"Our goal is to try to get people out of the shelters," Napolitano said at a news conference in New Jersey with Governor Chris Christie.
In a heavily flooded Staten Island neighborhood, Sara Zavala spent the night under two blankets and layers of clothing because the power was out. She had a propane heater but turned it on for only a couple of hours in the morning. She did not want to sleep with it running at night.
"When I woke up, I was like, `It's freezing.' And I thought, `This can't go on too much longer,"' said Zavala, a nursing home admissions coordinator.
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Nearly a week after Sandy slammed into the New Jersey coastline in an assault that killed more than 100 people in 10 states, gasoline shortages persisted across the region, though odd-even rationing got under way in northern New Jersey in an echo of the gas crisis of the 1970s. More than 900,000 homes and businesses were still without power in New Jersey, and nearly 700,000 in New York City, its northern suburbs and Long Island.
With more subways running and most city schools reopening on Monday, large swaths of the city were getting back to something resembling normal. But the week could bring new challenges, namely an Election Day without power in hundreds of polling places, and a nor'easter expected hit by Wednesday, with the potential for 55 mph gusts and more beach erosion, flooding and rain.
"Well, the first storm flooded me out, and my landlord tells me there's a big crack in the ceiling, so I guess there's a chance this storm could do more damage," John Lewis said at a shelter in New Rochelle, N.Y. "I was hoping to get back in there sooner rather than later, but it doesn't look good."
Voting machines in hundreds of locations will be operating on generator power, some polling stations are being moved and there are likely to be delays in reporting election results in a few closely contested races because of extended deadlines for counting ballots cast by mail.
Churchgoers packed the pews Sunday in parkas, scarves and boots and looked for solace in faith.
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At the chilly Church of St. Rose in Belmar, N.J., its streets still slippery with foul-smelling mud, Roman Catholic Bishop David O'Connell said he had no good answer for why God would allow such destruction. But he assured parishioners: "There's more good, and there's more joy, and there's more happiness in life than there is the opposite. And it will be back."
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In the heart of the Staten Island disaster zone, the Rev. Steve Martino of Movement Church headed a volunteer effort that had scores of people delivering supplies in grocery carts and cleaning out ruined homes. Around midday, the work stopped, and volunteer and victim alike bowed their heads in prayer.
In the crowd was Stacie Piacentino. After a singularly difficult week, she said, "it's good to feel God again."
After the abrupt cancellation of Sunday's New York City Marathon, some of those who had been planning to run the 26.2-mile race through the city streets instead volunteered their time, handing out toothbrushes, batteries, sweatshirts and other supplies on Staten Island.
Thousands of other athletes from around the world ran anyway inside Central Park, where a little more than four laps around it amounted to a marathon. "A lot of people just want to finish what they've started," said Lance Svendsen, organizer of a group called Run Anyway.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said New York state is facing "a massive, massive housing problem" for those whose neighborhoods or buildings are in such bad shape that they won't have power for weeks or months.
"I don't know that anybody has ever taken this number of people and found housing for them overnight," Bloomberg said. "We don't have a lot of empty housing in this city," he added. "We're not going to let anybody go sleeping in the streets. ... But it's a challenge, and we're working on it."
The mayor and the governor gave no details of where and how the victims might be housed.
After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita smashed the Gulf Coast in 2005, hundreds of thousands of victims were put up by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in trailers, hotels, cruise ships and apartments across several states for months and even years.
George W. Contreras, associate director of the emergency and disaster management program at Metropolitan College of New York, speculated that large encampments of trailers might be set up at a stadium, in a park or in some other open space in the city — something he couldn't recall being done in New York ever before.
"The amount of actual units the city might have in buildings is probably very limited, so I think people will be in FEMA shelters for a while," he said.
Sandy and food safety
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On a basketball court flanked by powerless apartment buildings in the Far Rockaway section of Queens, volunteers for the city handed out bagels, diapers, water, blankets and other necessities. Genice Josey stuffed a blanket into a garbage bag.
"Nights are the worst because you feel like you're outside when you're inside," said Josey, who sleeps under three blankets and wears longjohns under her pajamas. "You shiver yourself to sleep." She added: "It's like we're going back to barbaric times where we had to go find food and clothing and shelter."
On Staten Island, emergency management officials distributed leaflets urging people to take shelter from the cold. But "people are apprehensive and don't want to leave their houses. It's a definite problem," said Fred Melendez, who helped run a shelter at Tottenville High School that was nearly empty of storm victims Sunday afternoon.
Fearing looters, Nick Veros and his relatives were hoping to hold out in their storm-damaged Staten Island home until power was restored. He figured the indoor temperature would plunge into the 40s.
"If we get two consecutive below-freezing days, I'm probably going to have to drain the water out of the pipes," he said, "and then we'll have to get out of the house."
To help victims of Sandy, donations to the American Red Cross can be made by visiting Red Cross disaster relief, or you can text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation. You can also make a donation to the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City by visiting here.
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(1) Survival instinct should focus on food, clothing and shelter with consideration of permanent relocation.
(2) Clear roadways in order to restore natural gas and electric lines and haul away trash. Provide for transportation needs. . . . whether gasoline availability or mass transit via busses.
(3) Construction of seawall with any new construction near water's edge on stilts . . . unless new construction is environmentally banned . . . or financially prohibitive due to market-based insurance.
Where Have All the Flowers Gone = Peter, Paul and Mary @
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7btcIj3p4-I
When will they ever learn?
I heard it from the Obamamedia.
Isn't partisanship amazing?
Shouldn't have the Red Cross, FEMA, etc. been waiting in the wings to be on-site as soon as the storm moved on?
Why didn't people fill up with gas since they also had fair warning about the magnitude of the storm?
Earthquakes and tornados sneak up on us, and we need to learn to be better prepared, but there was ample warning for Sandy for victims as well as help.
.
Obama's books:
In a sane world, having the following comments out in print via Obama's racist books would have knocked him out of the running for president of the United States.(they would have crucified a white candidate for far less)
From Dreams from My Father," I FOUND A SOLACE IN NURSING A PERVASIVE SENSE OF GRIEVANCE AND ANIMOSITY AGAINST MY MOTHER'S RACE". Barack Hussein Obama
From 'Dreams from my Father',The emotion between the races could never be pure, even love was tarnished by the desire to find in the other some element that was missing in ourselves. Whether we sought out our demons or salvation, THE OTHER RACE (WHITE) WOULD ALWAYS REMAIN JUST THAT: MENACING, ALIEN, AND APART." Barack Hussein Obama
From Dreams from My Father:"THAT HATE HADN'T GONE" he wrote, BLAMING "WHITE PEOPLE — some CRUEL, some IGNORANT, sometimes a single face, sometimes just a faceless image of a system claiming power over our lives." Barack Hussein Obama
From 'Dreams from My Father',"There were enough of us on campus to constitute a tribe, and when it came to hanging out many of us chose to function like a tribe, staying close together, traveling in packs," he wrote."It remained necessary to prove which side you were on,to show your LOYALTY TO THE BLACK MASSES, TO STRIKE OUT and name names" Barack Hussein Obama
"Dreams From My Father," page 101 (paperback, ISBN 978-1-4000-8277-3
Dreams From My Father: To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The MARXIST PROFESSORS and structural feminists"Dreams From My Father," pages 99-100
Then there is his love of Islam:
Quote from Barack Obama's book, Dreams Of My Father:
"THE PERSON WHO MADE ME PROUDEST OF ALL, THOUGH, WAS MY [half brother], ROY..HE CONVERTED TO ISLAM".
From 'Dreams of my Father',"IN INDONESIA, I SPEND TWO YEARS AT A MUSLIM SCHOOL""..I STUDIED THE KORAN.."
From 'Audacity of Hope:"LOLO (Obama's step father) FOLLOWED ISLAM...."I LOOKED TO LOLO FOR GUIDANCE".
From 'The Audacity Of Hope,"I WILL STAND WITH THEM (MUSLIMS) SHOULD THE POLITICAL WINDS OF WAR SHIFT IN AN UGLY DIRECTION.."
.
From The Audacity Of Hope,"WE ARE NO LONGER JUST A CHRISTIAN NATION, we are also a Jewish nation, a MUSLIM NATION, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers."
__________
Don't believe it? Think these comments taken 'out of context'? Here it all here in his own works;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6zM5ldO35A
__________
Still need convincing?
Race: http://theobamafile.com/obamarace.htm
Islam — early years: http://www.theobamafile.com/_Islam/ObamaIslamEarlyYears.htm
Islam — candidate: http://theobamafile.com/_Islam/ObamaIslamCandidate.htm
The best Obama exposure site on the net:
The Obama File ...
http://www.theobamafile.com/index_next_personal.html
The United States Library of Congress has selectedTheObamaFile.com for inclusion in its historic collectionof Internet materials
http://theobamafile.com/LibraryOfCongress.html
Just a few of the pages:
http://www.theobamafile.com/index_next_politics.html
http://www.theobamafile.com/BarackObama.htm
http://www.theobamafile.com/_family/FamilyPage.htm
http://www.theobamafile.com/ObamaEducation.htm
http://www.theobamafile.com/ObamaPsychology.htm
http://www.theobamafile.com/ObamaReligion.htm
http://www.theobamafile.com/ObamaWife.htm
http://www.theobamafile.com/_associates/ObamaAssociates.htm
http://www.theobamafile.com/ObamaIconography.htm
Your energy would be better spent actually helping those whose circumstances have deteriorated so dramatically. Or failing that, do what I did; send some money to an organization (any reputable one will do) to help defray the cost of this disaster.