I wiped away the weeds & foam. / I fetched my sea-born treasures home... Ralph Waldo Emerson







Monday, November 5, 2012

Before and After...and a little Voting Rant


Sandy surge Oct 29 6 PM


Hi! First off all...many many thanks to everyone who has contacted me since the hurricane hit the Beach a week ago...just about...NOW:



waves sweep over seawalls and dunes as darkness falls

Yeah, it's out of focus because I was scrambling to get to safety. I have other good pre-storm shots but still cannot get them out of the camera/ tech issues.The good news sort of is that I was able to check my house yesterday and though uninhabitable, due to no electricity and no gas for the car [to get supplies], the structure itself is fine. The huge frightening question is when and even IF power will ever be restored.

On the drive out to the beach I saw NOT ONE Long Island Power/ LIPA truck! Not one. No cars on the road, no gas stations open. Nothing is being done, no public official from Long Island has shoved loudmouth bigshot NJ Gov. Christie aside and said, "Hey, we need help too."

We are forlorn and forgotten. And in the dark, literally and figuratively.

I did see one solitary gas tanker truck under police escort, four NYPD SUVs, on the highway. Here are the tanker ships still waiting to deliver the gas.




11.4.12

This is the cabana park near my home. You can see how it looked a week ago in my post of Oct 23rd. [links not working, sorry]





Dunes, seawall....






Beach as big and beautiful as ever. We had no wind damage, the trees are upright and most have leaves. It was the storm surge that destroyed our lives here.  On the left you can see the American flag that's in all my looking-east pics,  still waving happily yesterday, not even tattered.


o
one week post-Sandy


Here are my dear feral "pet" cats, on my neighbors' back steps yesterday. Kitty and Stripey. I am so thankful they and their babies survived.




They came to my deck as soon as I opened the sliding glass door and I fed them what I could find. My pair of mockingbirds have returned to the front yard. They are the only locally resident songbirds except the flock of small spotty sparrows. Next time I will bring seeds and cranberried for them...whenever the next time is. I hope they can wait for me.

There was a roadblock of state troopers at the entrance to the bridge to my island. They stopped evry single car. Only residents, ID'd with car registrations and drivers licenses are allowed on my island now. Which is a good, safe thing.

This is not a political blog but I have to vent a little and say this:  

If President Obama wanted me to vote for him, he'd have made sure I had electricity to run the voting machines, and gas to drive me to the polling site. Obviously, Mrs Obama was wrong when she ran those ads about "every vote counts." Not if you're one of the homeless Long Island victims of Sandy, I guess. [Not that NYS Gov Cuomo or Mr Romney or anyone else has done more either. What the heck do we pay the highest taxes in the nation for? Dark/ cold/ ignored. Thanks, officialdom. Thanks a heck of a lot. Next time I vote I will remember this day.]


Next post: Gone to the Beach Does NYC! Yay!

love

lizzy

gone to the beach



ps I apologize for less than wonderful pix and graphics/ links. I am working on a tiny netbook, borrowed wifi, marginal photo tolls. Stick with me...

7 comments:

  1. Oh my dear! How I wish I could help. I can feel your frustration and anger. Why oh why is it taking so long to help you guys? I am glad your home is okay. It and your kitties will wait for you. Hopefully you will be back soon. I am keeping you in my thoughts and prayers. Kit

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  2. I hope power gets restored to your area soon, I know it sucks when you live in an all-electric house. Our furnace is gas but it won't work without electricity, either! I guess it pays to have a backup plan. I suppose they're fixing the power to the more heavily populated areas first? Or maybe they're having to go from where power IS and working their way back into the damaged area? It would be nice if they would give updates on that sort of thing.

    I've been reading about the progress made in NYC. They announced the subways were almost all running so people could get to work -- and I'm wondering - where do they work that will run without electricity? Cities confuse me!

    I'll be thinking of you, hoping your power is back on soon! Glad to see the beach and house and kitties are fine. Good luck! Stay warm and dry!

    ~Melody

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  3. I can tell you exactly where they've been--in the swing States! There were three of them here in CO yesterday. Ye gods.

    Glad to here there's security for getting into the island, at least.

    And I hope the power situation is resolved SOON!

    Meanwhile, I so admire your perseverence in posting anything at all.

    Incredible pix!

    Lisse

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  4. Hi Lizzy. So glad you are safe and I know when we got hit last year that it was a week or so before they could get everything up and running. We did not have the magnitude of devastation you did on Long Island, NYC and NJ. I think the area is just too big for them to be able to cover it all at once. Be patient. There are lessons here. You will learn them and be stronger. I will stick with you always. Peggy

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  5. I'm so glad your cats and mockingbirds are safe and your house intact. Hope electricity and gas return to your island soon.

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  6. I feel your pain and wonder why Christie isn't screaming or even in North Jersey in Morris county we need help! still thousands and thousands without power in our county and our town still has more that 60% I think its more then 75% without power it looked like a warzone in our town with all the trees down and you couldn't get around at all
    and well the gas lines forced you to rethink even going out for a hot meal.
    I feel your pain and am in the same boat....like someone said this is a National Disaster and makes Hurricane Katrina look like a thunderstorm.
    the news is not even covering our area its all about south jersey....
    and Obama now that he is not campaigning maybe he can visit again and go to different areas of the metropolitian area and see our devastaion and oh yes still NO power they are hoping by sunday at 1159 pm and yesterday they said 540 more people would have power on , nope not one....... sorry to vent but I knew you would understand :) hang in there
    Kathie

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  7. Lizzy, so glad you are able to be at home now. It is a terrible feeling to be unable to go to your own home; living with friends or relatives gets old very quickly.
    Luckily you did have good sea-grass dunes to break some of the surge. WE have beach-front residents here in Florida who refuse to allow the city to plant Sea Oats or dune grasses, because it may ruin their view (with no though to the fact that they might just save their home at some point in the future. ...duh)
    Restoring power is a complex business. If there is one "weak link" in the connection it could be disastrous, and must be repaired before power can be restored. Still sad if they haven't found or repaired the weak links yet.
    Best of luck to you and all others on the sea board as you continue to recover and restore your communities.
    Wanda517

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Hi! I'm allowing comments from everyone, even anonymous for awhile, to see what happens. With comments moderation. Hopefully the awful porn spammer has gone elsewhere. Or you can always email me! I love to hear from everyone.