Surviving Sandy

[SoulBlazerFan]

I'm not sure how many of you were in the path of Hurricane Sandy- as I'm sure many of you heard, this "Frankenstorm" hit the east coast hard. I didn't have power until almost an hour ago. I'm personally fine- been a little cold without power or heat- fortunately there has been a very generous movement in Jersey, with food and supplies being offered to those in need.

The worst thing personally was both me and my roommates lost our cars- mine won't start and neither will his- but things look hopeful, my insurance should cover that right up.

The rest of the state didn't get off as lucky as me. My old town- quarter mile away- is covered in sand from the beach. Several houses are submerged under water. Two towns over, Union Beach, was nearly destroyed. Every house is under water. The amusement park in another nearby town, Keansburg, is destroyed. Seaside, where that terrible Jersey Shore show was filmed- is also destroyed. There was a rollercoaster on the pier that is now in the Ocean.

Why am I telling you this? If there is anyway you could help out- a donation, a prayer- something- because the people down here could really use anything they get. Last I heard- two days ago, death toll was around 25 people- and they haven't even started searching yet, as some houses are still underwater. I heard Connecuit got hit just as bad, if not worse.

Thank you all for anything you could do to help, and God bless.

[Jason Tandro]

You're not alone there brother. Virginia got hit pretty bad too, but it was weird. Where I personally am, all we got was some heavy rain and wind and like a dusting of snow. To our east, cities were flooded and without power. To our west, wind and 10 inches of snow, so bad that several cell towers went down in that area (and me being in Tech Support meant a fun couple of days).

I'm just counting my blessings that we weren't hit worse than we were and weren't directly in the storm's path. Hope things get better for you!

[SoulBlazerFan]

Just an update to those of you who were concerned- I'm getting a car. My insurance paid me for the loss on the car, and I'm using the money to buy a car.

We got power back within a week and a half- still no heat. 40 and below days so it's been really cold, but my sister got me a small personal heater so it's not so bad. Been having issues with the property manager which I won't bother you with, suffice to say it's being taken care of.

I'm blessed with a really caring family, because the week after we got power I was sick as hell and several friends and family helped me by bringing me soup and drinks and medicine.

I took a trip around the towns nearby- I was truly blessed to move when I did. The two of the three houses I lived in the past 4 years are condemned and need to be destroyed. One of the houses I lived in basement was so flooded the water got to ground level.

My brother told me a pretty horrific story. A coworker of his was at her house, not really paying mind to anything. Several of her neighbors were packing up their stuff in moving vans, so she decided to leave. Her husband opted to stay in the event of looters. Sometime into the start of the storm, the water got into his house, so we went to the second story.

Not too long after, water began to get up there as well. He moved up into the attic, figuring he was safe. The water started getting up in there, so he went to the roof. As he stood outside beating beaten by powerful winds and rain, he felt the house shifting. He ran and jumped onto the next door neighbors house. He turned around to watch as his house started to collapse and float away. He felt the same thing happening to the house he jumped to, so he jumped to another roof. The second house floated away.

All said, he jumped to three roofs before finally being able to jump to dry land and run off. All four houses were taken away by the flood waters. Its amazing what others have gone through, and I am so lucky that nothing worse happened to me, considering I'm two blocks from the beach. I'm counting my blessings that I got through this relatively unscathed.