The Jersey Shore and the Northeast Corridor is reeling from the punch of Superstorm Sandy. Millions are still without power, airports are all messed up, and subways are still offline. First responders and aid workers are in operation around the clock to get their cities back online.
New Jersey and New York are the worst off — the rail operations center in New Jersey got hit by 8 feet of water, and the emergency generator was completely submerged. New York’s subway system is now projected to be offline for another few days. The bus schedule is returning to some state of normalcy, but there’s no way that’ll be enough for millions of New Yorkers.
New Jersey’s transportation system is weeks away from coming back online. Over two hundred rail cars were damaged by flooding. Philadelphia managed to avoid too much damage — their metro’s coming back online today.
West Virginia is still in plenty danger. Over three hundred thousand residents are without power, and they also have to contend with continuing snowfall, which can damage powerlines. Oh, and it’s frickin’ cold. Let’s not forget that. More snowfall is expected out there, and because of the winds, the snow’s going to fall sideways. That’s just lovely.
Out in Maryland, there’s a sewage spill due to loss of power. They’re spilling 2 million gallons of sewage an hour.
Loss estimates are projected to be somewhere between $10 billion to $20 billion. Many are confident that things will be rebuilt along the East Coast, but they’re also coming to terms with the fact that many iconic landmarks — such as Seaside Heights’ roller coaster that’s just washed out into the sea — are just plain gone.
It’s going to be rebuilt, all right. But it’s coming back different. It almost has to, at this point.
So we here at SourceFed just want to implore you folks out there to stay safe and stay warm as our disaster relief workers try to get civilization back in order.
Question: Are you out there? How’s it looking on the ground?