Hurricane Sandy – Day 12

FULL DAY OF SCHOOL!!!!! Yes, I’m excited.

This may be my last daily post, as news has slowed down and life is getting more back to normal for those of us with houses that weren’t demolished or flooded.

POWER

As of yesterday, there were still almost 700 Westfield homes without power, down from more than 12,400. Our mayor says power will be back by Sunday for all of town. That will have been 2 full weeks without power. (If you’re still without power, call PSE&G at 800-436-7734). In the company’s service area, there are still 70,000 houses without power, only 4% of those who lost it in the storm (who get PSE&G power). How would you like to be manning the phone lines at PSE&G? They’ve gotten 2.1 million calls since the storm started.

Crews are apparently working 16 hour days, and I know there’s been a lot of love and appreciation shown for them by residents getting their power back (with gifts of coffee, donuts and Halloween candy, in addition to plenty of verbal thanks). And many thanks to those coming in from out of state to work here.

COMMUTING

The commute into and out of NYC hasn’t been fun for anyone. I’m hearing stories of 3 hour one-way trips, people passing out on buses, and people actually being nice to each other in spite of long delays. And for the record, I know this train line isn’t running – see photo here.

Mark went into work today, and I believe their heat has been restored. Progress!

GAS

While our gas lines have gone down (I had no line when getting gas yesterday) and the attendant said they weren’t paying attention to odd/even gas rationing days), New York City is starting to ration. They’ll be doing the same odd/even days that we’ve been doing in NJ. Mayor Bloomberg said that only 25% of gas stations are operating and lines are very long. Some cars will be exempt (taxis, etc.).

Look ma! No gas lines!

BUSINESS

Big businesses have been good about proactively reaching out to say they’ll waive fees for service not received (like Comcast and Verizon for cable/phone). Verizon also said they’ll waive texting and phone charges for customers in affected counties for a certain period of time. This is great for us because we have a pay-per-text plan (yes, we’re so 1999) but have been texting a lot to friends who have been without power and rely on texts for information. So yay!

NJ Transit offered refunds for monthly pass holders for November and October passes are good through today.

BACK TO NORMAL?

Our lives are slowly getting a little more normal. In fact, my neighborhood might have an impromptu trick-or-treating night tonight, organized by one of neighbors.

Life isn’t normal for everyone. My writer friend Cynthia got back into her Rockaway house and shows what it’s like to come back to a flooded home.

I wasn’t the only one who photographed the gorgeous sunset last night – I saw a lot of other pictures of it on Facebook.