How are our East Coast members doing?

[ol foot]

I was wondering if all have been okay during the storm this week? I know BrianH lives out that way and Fil and Sparky. Hope you guys are okay!

[axeman]

Yah how are you guys?

[fillmore nyc]

For me, Im doing ok... my area still has power, and no flooding, but I've been working in devastation that is truly mind blowing. The company Im contracted to is in full emergency mode, and we've been out in force assisting people that have been impacted the hardest.

One example is East Rockaway, N.Y. The people there had 5ft of water in their homes. In E. Rock, they have a sewage treatment plant that exploded, caught fire and of course, stopped working due to the water level. This caused raw sewage to get forced backwards into their system, and come blowing out of manhole covers which exploded off, shit (literally) coming out into the flood water, and by default, into peoples homes.
To make matters worse, a road near the water, which was undermined by the flooding, collapsed under a town truck, breaking a 12" water main, now allowing sewage to infiltrate the drinking water.

To call this area devastated would be a gross understatement.
I was there in an emergency vehicle with all kinds of documentation to get me down to the affected area (it was otherwise being evacuated by Military Police). We turned off the water supply to hundreds of houses, since it had been compromised by the sewage. People were running up to our trucks crying, looking (in vain) for some sort of answers... there are none. All their belongings are out on their front lawn, just completely fucked up.

We trucked in thousands of gallons of fresh water to these people, but I cant see how the neighborhood is ever gonna recover from this. I mean, shit is behind their walls already, BESIDE the mold from the water level itself.
I worked there all day and night yesterday and thru the day today.

A boat still roped to its dock was on someones front lawn, approx 1/4 mile from the water where the dock was!! One parking lot had 7 boats in it, all of them with the storage shrink wrap still on them... it looked like a demolition derby with boats!!
I saw at least 4 cars blown up in their driveways, undoubtedly from an attempt at starting them when they were shorted out by salt water... a basement with 8ft of water in it, right up to the ceiling... fish in the streets and parking lots.

Its a REALLY fucked situation, and thats just the area where I was working. Im hearing war stories like this from every worker Im running into.

And just to put some icing on the cake, the weather people are starting to hint at a Noreaster storm for next week.

Say a prayer. Its about all the hope some people have left.

[axeman]

FUCK!

[ol foot]

Hey Fil our prayers to you and yours and the people that are affected. Take care of yourself working in all that sewage!

[fillmore nyc]

Hey Fil our prayers to you and yours and the people that are affected. Take care of yourself working in all that sewage!

Thanks, my friend. I have all sorts of protective gear for that, and all of us got hepatitis shots, but thats precautionary... trust me, I wouldnt be within a mile of that area if we didnt have Hazmat protection.

[vanhalen5150]

Watching some of this on local news. I didn't realize it was that bad. We got hit with one 9 years ago. Took a year for things to appear normal.
However, you guys got 10x the destruction we got. Until you've been there, people have no idea what's it's like to suddenly lose basics like electricity and water.
The only way out is for everyone to help each other. Unfortunately, that's not how humans think for the most part.

[NY Chief]

Hang tough, my brothers. Been getting all kinds of bad news from friends and family back home.