NW NJ Sandy storm damage and impact (pic heavy)

Let's see if I can upload some photos.

First of all, for anyone interested, here's a map of operational gas stations in NJ. http://blog.entchev.com/2012/11/01/...after-hurricane-sandy----november-1-2012.aspx

We're closest to Stroudsburg, PA (of the identifiable places on that map scale). The closest gas to us is in PA, but unless you drive an hour or more, the lines are 3 hours (or more) long. It's going to be a while before life gets back to normal around here.

OK - here's the road the park is on - it was carpeted with debris, and a downed tree it seemed.. about every tree length. :lol3: Now remember - these are trees that survived Irene last year.

The rest are all taken from the roads around us...


We just started at the beginning, stopping to take pics up this little stretch of road, I think you'll see the continuity in the pictures...

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Why we won't have power for a while...

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In many places, whole stands of trees are down. There are a lot of ravines around here, but there's no place to pull over to stop and take pics - but they have trees just tossed around in them - some snapped, some uprooted... This is a field up at the end of the road:

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This was the morning after the storm. This gas station no longer has any gas. The lines are typically 3 hours long now...

That's a lot of trees that have to be removed before they can get the power lines back up.

wow, just as bad there

Glad you are safe!
 

Same here with the gas, there's no gas anywhere and people lined up for hours to get gas yesterday.

So glad you are safe.  Irene was nothing compared to Sandy.  Irene was a mere hurricane, Sandy was a Superstorm, more deadly than a hurricane.

I've been looking at the devastation in New York, particularly Statten Island, where one family opted to stay in their home because they were looted when they evacuated for Irene. As a result, the husband and 13 year old are dead and the Mother is in hospital in critical condition. I just posted about that in the Mews forum IMHO.

I am just so thankful that you, Gary and the cats are all alright. That IS a LOT of damage. I do hope that they get you and the others in your area powered up quickly. Looks like a lot of work. Thank God you are alright. :bigthumb: :heart3:

So glad to hear all of you are OK.  I just got gas yesterday for $3.43 and didn't think even once about how hard it was going to be for so many people to get any at all.  I guess I am just spoiled when it comes to that.  When we have a tornado, it is all over in a short time and clean-up is usually fast.  I imagine it is going to take months to clean everything up there. 

Wow, Laurie. So glad you're all safe.

I'm glad that you're safe, Laurie. I know they were saying that there were areas that looked like a tornado had gone through them. That looks bad.

Wow, scary pics! Glad to hear you guys are all okay!

Glad you are okay...ty god for facebook, today's smart phones and texting, so we were able to find out quickly about family living along jersey shore.

Well, cold weather is on the way as of tonight - freezing or below at night now. And in most Northern NJ counties, gas rationing has gone into effect. You can fill 10 gallons of gas every other day - and no gas cans. This went into effect at noon today. We heard the truck stop on the PA border was going to get a delivery last night between 2:00am and 4:00am. Gary ran out at around 2:00am, and got home at about 4:00am (it's 9 miles from us). He only had to wait in line for about 1/2 an hour after the delivery was made to the station. They would only fill 10 gallons for anyone, but they did fill the gas can.

People are going to have to decide between generators (heat) and being able to drive the car.... and that's assuming they can siphon the gas out of their cars into gas cans to get gas into generators. We still have about 40 gallons in the RV, so we should be OK until power is restored, knock wood, it'll be back inside of two weeks.

We are going to have to drain the water line each night so it doesn't freeze - without electricity for the heat tape, we can't guarantee it won't freeze, and we won't run the generator overnight because of the feral cat shelters around and under the RV.

WOW! So glad you all are okay. Those trees on the power lines look scary!!  I'm glad you were able to get gas!

Those pictures are so scary.    I'm glad you guys are okay.

Hope they get your power back on soon. :cross:

I'm glad you're OK.
Those pictures are amazing and really drive home how powerful this storm was, especially considering how far inland you are. I hope they get the power up soon. It's so inconvenient without it! Ours was only out for 5 hours during Sandy but that was bad enough, I can't imagine a week already!

Insane pictures. Glad you are okay!

I talked with my grandma (she lives in Rockaway, NJ) after the storm. She told me out of 16 trees in her backyard, at least 8 have uprooted and fallen... when she told me the huge one fell over, ripped by the roots, I couldn't believe it. Luckily for her none of them hit her house or caused any damage, but one did fall against her neighbor's house behind her (and since the day after Sandy they've been bugging her because they have zero homeowner's insurance - it broke a window and cracked some stucco finish. She has insurance that will take care of it though). Because I grew up in NJ and went to school there until I was 17, I have a lot of friends on Facebook posting pictures, or updating the gas situation, power situation, and school situation. Crazy stuff... A majority of my hometown is still without power.

I also had a friend travel to Manhattan that same weekend Sandy hit. She'd been waiting for months for the trip, got there and was excited. She got stranded up there because of the canceled flights and it took her until this past Friday to get home.

Such horrible destruction.  Laurie, I'm so glad you and Gary and all the cats are ok.

FYI, ALL of those trees are still there. Power is going to be a while. Gary is betting we get it back between the 14th and 19th. We both hope he's wrong, and it's at least sooner than that! This is a real PIA.

Not until then????   That's way too long to wait for power to be restored!