Personal Update on Sandy from New Jersey

We live in northern New Jersey and by some miracle we did not lose power at all during Hurricane Sandy.  We endured hours of unbelieveable howling wind and were prepared with extra food and batteries. We did not lose power although 80% of the people in our town did.  It seems like almost everyone we know except our immediate neighbors lost power including  ALL of my family.  My daughter, her husband and my three year old grandson have been staying with us since Monday.  Thursday night when it began to get very cold, my niece came to stay with us too.  We also have been a place to take a hot shower and recharge your cell phone.

I do sorely miss my neighbors' huge pine tree which I can see from my office.  I watched it sway and sway and then crack...it filled their yard and hit their house but thankfully did no damage.  Here is a picture of my daughter and grandson with the tree before it was removed.

 

And then Zach posed in front of the truck that would remove the tree and leave a big empy space fo us to get use to.

 

Now it’s Sunday.  My daughter still does not have power.  My son-in-law spent five hours on a line to get gas for his car.  My niece has had power restored and gone home. 

If you'd like to contribute to the disaster relief in NJ here are two of the best ways:

 

The Red Cross – The Red Cross is the premier organization for dealing with disasters.  They have the infrastructure and know how to be efficient and do the most important things first.

Community Food Bank of NJ – The Food Bank is part of the Feeding America network and is a huge operation with locations in North and South Jersey. They have been working with the Red Cross and Salvation Army to distribute 100,000 pounds of food a day.  The Community Food Bank is volunteer powered who are usually stocking shelves and filling bags.  But this week they are cooking up a storm (No pun intended)  to be distributed throughout the state to those affected, and the workers and volunteers who are working around the clock to bring some sanity to the lives of millions.

I hope all of you have safely made it through the storm, have power restored and can get back to leading a normal life as soon as possible.

 

If you work for a nonprofit that is involved in disaster relief I invite you to post a comment here about what they do and how readers can contribute.

 

Marion