Its hard to imagine this much devastation from one storm.  I postulate that urban people have a harder time in the wake of disaster than more rural folks do.  Regardless, these people have lost everything.  It just brings tears to my eyes how there was no dodging this bullet and there but for the grade of God go we….A little further south….and who knows.

Not only are houses gone, it is cold out there.  Even those with generators are running out of gasoline.  Gasoline is hard to come by because there is no electricity in many places.  Those stations with gasoline have cars lined up for literally miles.

What can we do to help?

48 Thoughts to “Open Thread……………………………………………Friday, November 2”

  1. Cindy B

    Grateful my relatives in Secaucus didn’t flood but the aftermath is hitting everyone. Send money to the churches and synogogues up north — the faith communities are always on the front line of helping the hardest hit. Send money instead of holiday gifts this year.

    I’m just grateful for the basics – shelter, heat, food. When I picked up branches in my yard over the last few days, I realized the force of that wind — the limbs were impaled in the ground. I had to pull them out.

  2. George S. Harris

    There will be many “groups” with their hands out so I would recommend you be very careful where you send any money. If you have questions about an organization, I recommend you look at http://www.charitynavigator.com to see if they are listed there. I use it and never give to any group that doesn’t have at least three stars. Many people don’t like the American Red Cross but they do a good job in situations like this. Here are some recommendations from Charity Navigator: American Red Cross, Direct Relief International, Feeding America, The Food Bank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties, Rebuilding Together.

  3. NOVEC did a superior job here on their own homefront.

    Cindy, do you know of any specific churches where the money will do the most good with few middle men?

  4. I can’t crow enough about Dell Service. They have changed and offer the best tech service of any group.

    It is well worth buying a protection package.

    Courteous, professional, lots of follow up.

  5. Lyssa

    How sad we’ve become if this is true. The sad thing is it is likely to be true….the increase in anger and fear is on us.
    _____________________________________________________________

    CNN) — As Superstorm Sandy ravaged New York, Glenda Moore drove frantically across Staten Island in an attempt to get her sons to safety.

    Instead, Moore found herself and her boys — Connor, four and Brandon, two — caught in the full fury of the storm.

    Buffeted by torrential rains and winds of up to 90 miles per hour, her Ford Explorer plunged into a hole. According to the account she would later give police, Moore carried her sons to a nearby tree, gripping branches along with her boys as she tried to shelter them from the storm surge.

    She told police they clung together for hours, before Moore managed to make her way to a nearby property, and pleaded to be let inside. But according to her police account, rather than sheltering the desperate strangers, the occupant refused to let them enter.

    In desperation, Moore told police she then went to the back of the house, and tried to break in using a flower pot, but was unable to do so. As the storm raged on, her sons were swept away by floodwaters.

    The bodies of the boys were found near each other Thursday, about a quarter of a mile from where Moore last held them.

    It’s unfortunate. She shouldn’t have been out though.

    A Staten Island homeowner accused of failing to help a mother and her boysRelatives said Moore was too distraught to speak with CNN.

    Meanwhile, public anger has been directed at the homeowner who allegedly failed to help Moore and her children. The man, who told CNN’s Gary Tuchman that his name is Alan but did not want his full name used, disputed Moore’s account, saying he saw only a man outside.

    “He didn’t come to the door… he must have been standing at the bottom of the stairs,” said the man. “He took a concrete flower pot… and threw [it] through the door.”

    The man at the door didn’t ask to enter the house, he said, but instead asked him to come outside in order to help.

    “What could I do to help him?” he asked. “I had a pair of shorts on with flip-flops.”

    The man told CNN he sat up for the rest of the night, with his back against the door in the kitchen.

    He said he did not know the fate of the children. Told that their bodies had been found, he said the deaths were a tragedy, but implied that the woman was at fault.

    “It’s unfortunate. She shouldn’t have been out though. You know, it’s one of those things,” he said.

    He said there was nothing he could have done. “I’m not a rescue worker … If I would have been outside, I would have been dead.”

    The man said he had given his account to police.

    Legal experts consulted by CNN said that no crime would have been committed by a failure to render assistance.

    1. This is a truly heart-breaking story!

  6. Cindy B

    I don’t, Moon, other than the Episcopal Relief Fund or the Episcopal Church in Secaucus where my husband grew up or the Catholic Church my brother-in-law and his family attend. George has a good point – check it out.

  7. I did check around. I call ed 2 different churches who weren’t doing any relief work. I did call a third one on Staten Island and got an address where people were taking clothing, blankets and non perishable food:

  8. blue

    This may not be politically correct, but I understand that the LDS welfare system, in addition to providing direct support to communities – from food to reconstruction supplies, is also the world’s largest single contributor to the Catholic Relief Fund, the Red Cross and others. Basically, they decide if they think they can do it better and more cost effectively and, if not, seek out another provider. The part I like is that there is no overhead cost and very little labor cost taken out, as its all done with member volunteers.

  9. @blue

    I dont know–they sure provide a lot of relief without asking for anything in return. (that I am aware of)

    I called a few churches (not Mormon) in NJ and Staten Island today trying to find some church helping a neighborhood….you know, feeding them. I came up empty.

    No judgement–just stating facts. I gave up and will do whatever is on TV.

  10. punchak

    I don’t believe most churches are set up to give relief in dire situations like this. Congregations, I suppose, consist of people like us, who have no experience to go out and help. Most likely we’d be in the way. Why not give to Red Cross and be done with it?

    Hope you had a chance to watch the fund raising TV program tonight. It was very good.
    Loved Sting!

    1. I had no idea he could play like that! Puncak.

      As for churches being set up to do that…I dont think they are but if they are in the neighborhood, I thought it would be a good place to start. I guess not.

  11. SlowpokeRodriguez

    @Emma
    You know, that particular confession from Biden? That’s a Big F*&(in Deal!!!

  12. SlowpokeRodriguez

    Truth of the matter is, I’m almost more interested in this stupid Maryland casino than I am the Presidency! There has been a LOT of money poured into both sides of that issue!! I don’t even have a dog in that fight, and I’m interested to see how it turns out!

    1. I am all for gambling. Maryland has slots and that other game that starts with a K. I dont know why they are being so prissy about table games. Right now everyone is headed to Atlantic City or over to Charlestown in West VA. Maryland is losing millions in gambling money.

      I know there is addiction and that crime is associated with gambling. Its already there.

    2. I am interested in that one too. I dont have a dog in the fight either. Virginia took a million years just to get horse racing betting in. (can’t spell it this late)

  13. Starryflights

    The Post’s View
    Mitt Romney’s campaign insults voters

    By Editorial Board, Nov 02, 2012 04:34 PM EDT

    The Washington Post Published: November 2

    THROUGH ALL THE flip-flops, there has been one consistency in the campaign of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney: a contempt for the electorate.

    How else to explain his refusal to disclose essential information? Defying recent bipartisan tradition, he failed to release the names of his bundlers — the high rollers who collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations. He never provided sufficient tax returns to show voters how he became rich.

    How, other than an assumption that voters are too dim to remember what Mr. Romney has said across the years and months, to account for his breathtaking ideological shifts? He was a friend of immigrants, then a scourge of immigrants, then again a friend. He was a Kissingerian foreign policy realist, then a McCain-like hawk, then a purveyor of peace. He pioneered Obamacare, he detested Obamacare, then he found elements in it to cherish. Assault weapons were bad, then good. Abortion was okay, then bad. Climate change was an urgent problem; then, not so much. Hurricane cleanup was a job for the states, until it was once again a job for the feds.

    The same presumption of gullibility has infused his misleading commercials (see: Jeep jobs to China) and his refusal to lay out an agenda. Mr. Romney promised to replace the Affordable Care Act but never said with what. He promised an alternative to President Obama’s lifeline to young undocumented immigrants but never deigned to describe it.

    And then there has been his chronic, baldly dishonest defense of mathematically impossible budget proposals. He promised to cut income tax rates without exploding the deficit or tilting the tax code toward the rich — but he refused to say how he could bring that off. When challenged, he cited “studies” that he maintained proved him right. But the studies were a mix of rhetoric, unrealistic growth projections and more serious economics that actually proved him wrong.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mitt-romneys-election-campaign-insults-voters/2012/11/02/69fcc1fc-2428-11e2-9313-3c7f59038d93_story.html?hpid=z2

  14. SlowpokeRodriguez

    David Axelrod, Obama’s senior strategist, said he’s never seen President Obama so “exhilarated,” adding that the energy the president is exuding comes “from his loins.”

    Does this excite you?

    1. Yes. Fired up. Ready to go.

      Does that gross YOU out?

  15. SlowpokeRodriguez

    It makes me wonder seriously about Obama’s relationship with Axelrod!

  16. And does that wondering excite you?

    @pokie

  17. Joe Biden in Sterling on Monday. 10 am rally Heritage Farm Museum

    Also in attendance: Senators Warner and Web and Tim Kaine. Jill Biden will also be there.

  18. The tickets are white tickets.

    I was reading another blog and saw something totally ignorant and intentionally stupid.

    There are those who are trying to make a big deal out of the color of the tickets.

    The Obama people have 2 different colored tickets. The white tickets are for general admission.

    This is a good thing since some folks have to print out their own tickets rather than picking them up. The campaign workers are sometimes offered special tickets that are a different color, depending on event. The Rally tonight has special seating in a blue color.

    Unless you have done campaign work, you get general admission. They are white.

    Even on the dark screen, the spin meister knows that it has nothing to do with your ethnicity.

  19. Cato the Elder

    SlowpokeRodriguez :
    Truth of the matter is, I’m almost more interested in this stupid Maryland casino than I am the Presidency! There has been a LOT of money poured into both sides of that issue!! I don’t even have a dog in that fight, and I’m interested to see how it turns out!

    Hell to the yeah. Question 7 is also table games, and I’m sick of driving to AC to play cards.

    1. I thought that Charlestown WV had table games now?

  20. Cato the Elder

    They do but the dealers there are absolutely pathetic. I mean they’re so bad you can’t get a decent game. Plus it draws every yahoo within a 50 mile radius, and there’s nothing worse than a blackjack table where half the players are doubling down on hard 15s. Hopefully the National Harbor thing will draw better players.

    1. Ben Tribett would probably agree with that. I Won’t go up there any more but not over table games. The horses are not well cared for.

  21. This is my worst case prediction for Tues.

    Electoral Map:http://www.270towin.com/2012_election_predictions.php?mapid=bfRo
    House stays GOP.
    Senate stays Democrat.

  22. SlowpokeRodriguez

    Moon-howler :
    And does that wondering excite you?
    @pokie

    I do love it when you keep up!!

    1. I will resist making a very vulgar comment. All it would take is one little tiny word…..:mrgreen:

  23. If you don’t write the menu, you will probably end up ON the menu.

  24. SlowpokeRodriguez

    Moon-howler :
    I will resist making a very vulgar comment. All it would take is one little tiny word…..:mrgreen:

    I’m afraid you’ve lost me…..I’m just a kid.

  25. marinm

    While I have no want to wish devastation on anyone it’s interesting to see how the people are uniting against a threat and in the absence of government policing are taking the law into their own hands and arming themselves.

    Good for them!

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2227307/Hurricane-Sandy-Lawlessness-outer-boroughs-New-York-enter-sixth-day-power.html

    1. It probably a good idea when there are those with dishonorable intentions. I would do the same thing.

    2. Scumbags seem to always try to take advantage of a natural disaster or manmade disaster. I would cry no tears if they got shot.

  26. Please tell me that Bloomberg can’t run for office again. And if he does, and NY elects him again, they get what they deserve. First it was the Big Gulp idiocy. Then police check points to prevent cars with less than three people in them from coming into the city. Then the Marathon idiocy…

    Now, he’s banning the National Guard.
    http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/11/bloomberg-refuses-national-guard-entry-into-brooklyn-because-they-carry-guns/

  27. @Cargosquid
    Did you have a burning desire to bash democrats again?

    I feel certain that people from both parties have violations in that department.

    The question is, will all the voting laws in various states prevent voter fraud from happening. that should be the focus, not bashing.

    I agree with that made up guy, by the way.

  28. Steve Randolph

    “Two days before the election, this is no longer a battle
    of persuasion but of participation.”
    George Will

  29. @Moon-howler
    I didn’t even mention the party. Its not my fault that he’s a democrat. This was only to counter the media claims that there is no voter fraud.

  30. Lafayette

    @Moon-howler
    You’ve got mail! 🙁

    1. Thanks Steve, I hope he is correct with the first 2 at least/

      Ben Tribbett NLS calls the same thing other than Virginia will go blue. (If I read him right)

    2. I just saw Larry Sabato on TV. He said that Virginia was a dead heat according to the polls so they flipped a coin to call it.

      It came up red. He said it could just as easily go the other way.

  31. Who saw Seal Team 6 last night? It was engaging, even though you knew the outcome.

    I find it disturbing that there are people out there who would rather have that bastard still alive and on the loose rather than give Obama credit for the kill. I don’t care who killed him, just so he not longer exists. It was team effort. George Bush started it and Obama ended it.

    What is WRONG with people like that?

    On a side note, When Obama announced the kill, he hardly had any gray hair, now he is easily a 75% gray. That was only a year and a half ago.

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