DAY 3 POST SUPERSTORM SANDY: HANG IN THERE JERSEYANS
It’s only been a couple days since Superstorm Sandy played some vicious Halloween tricks on New Jersey and now my fellow Jerseyans are picking up the pieces like empty candy wrappers in a Trick-or-Treat bag. As of Thursday evening, 1,818,200 New Jersey residents are without electricity and that means no computers, TVs, lights and other necessities. Many are without heat or hot water. Take a walk through our towns on the Hudson River waterfront and it feels like the Wicked Witch of the West blew in and destroyed Munchkinland.
I live in Weehawken on Boulevard East facing the New York Skyline and although most of us prepared for the hurricane, buying extra food, water, candles and flashlight batteries, I don’t think we took the warnings seriously enough. Many of us figured it would be a heavy rain and lots of wind, but did we think the morning after and the days after that would leave us feeling helpless and worried? It’s hard not to feel concerned about how we’ll get out of this pickle jar. How do we pay our bills if the companies we work for shut their doors for lack of electricity? How do we buy groceries when the supermarkets’ shelves are empty? How do we fill up our gas tanks when the gas pumps are dry?
It was good to see President Barack Obama and Gov. Chris Christie tour the aftermath in Atlantic City, this morning, but it took Gov. Christie until today to visit Hudson County. The same goes for the mayors of our waterfront towns affected by the hurricane. A little reassurance would certainly go a long way.
It would be the right thing to do for our Hudson mayors to get out from behind their desks – and in some cases, step away from the TV cameras, walk the streets of our towns and talk to their constituents. Offer a smile, a sympathetic ear and some helpful information – anything to help us feel they really care.  Even if there’s nothing new to report for now, seeing them out on the street would certainly help us cope a little better. We rely on our community leaders to be there for us especially during a crisis and we will likely remember the ones that hid from us when Election Day comes around. We voted for you to lead us and right now we aren’t hearing anything from you—our connection has died along with the refrigerator.
In this blog, I will keep you up-to-date with how we are staying afloat in this leaky boat we’re in and how people in our community are helping each other through the aftermath. In the meantime, for those of you who haven’t been affected by Hurricane Sandy, the American Red Cross is sponsoring a fund drive for people in New Jersey and our neighboring states in need of relief. Just call 1-800-REDCROSS.
And to everyone affected by Hurricane Sandy, hang in there gang, we’re in this together!
