Hurricane Sandy's Devastation

As everyone knows, Hurricane Sandy has wrecked New York, New Jersey, and various other east coast states as well as states closer to home. West Virginia was even hit with severe weather. I have posted a widget above, where you can donate to the red cross, to provide relief funds.

Residents of New York, and New Jersey will be without power for over a week. Most residents have fled the state, but many are in shelters. Fema is assisting many states with provisions and volunteers. Both states are considered in a state of emergency. Even President Obama has cancelled his campaign to assist in the tragedy.

Here are some news clips I have found that update you on the status of the ongoing situations.

Associated Press NEW YORK — A huge fire destroyed 80 to 100 houses in a flooded beachfront neighborhood Tuesday, forcing firefighters to undertake daring rescues and injuring three people. More than 190 firefighters contained the blaze but were still putting out some pockets of fire more than nine hours after it erupted. As daylight broke, neighbors walked around aimlessly through their smoke-filled Breezy Point neighborhood, which sits on the Rockaway peninsula jutting into the Atlantic Ocean. Electrical wires dangled within feet of the street. Officials said the fire was reported around 11 p.m. Monday in an area flooded by the superstorm that began sweeping through the city earlier. Firefighters told WABC-TV that the water was chest high on the street, and they had to use a boat to make rescues. They said in one apartment home, about 25 people were trapped in an upstairs unit, and the two-story home next door was ablaze and setting fire to the apartment's roof. Firefighters climbed an awning to get to the trapped people and took them downstairs to a boat in the street. Video footage of the scene showed a hellish swath of tightly packed homes fully engulfed in orange flames as firefighters hauled hoses while sloshing in ankle-high water. Many homes appeared completely flattened by the wind-whipped flames. One firefighter suffered a minor injury and was taken to a hospital. Two civilians suffered minor injuries and were treated at the scene. In September, the same neighborhood was struck by a tornado that hurled debris in the air, knocked out power and startled residents who once thought of twisters as a Midwestern phenomenon.

Here is another Story about the damage done by the hurricane.

NEW YORK – The misery of superstorm Sandy's devastation grew Tuesday as millions along the U.S. East Coast faced life without power or mass transit for days, and huge swaths of New York City remained eerily quiet. At least 33 people were killed, and rescue work continued. The storm that made landfall in New Jersey on Monday evening with hurricane force cut power to at least 7.4 million across the East and put the presidential campaign on hold just one week before Election Day. New York was among the hardest hit, with its financial heart closed for a second day. The storm caused the worst damage in the 108-year history of the city's subway system, and there was no indication of when the largest U.S. transit system would be rolling again. But the full extent of the damage in New Jersey was being revealed as morning arrived. Emergency crews fanned out to rescue hundreds. A hoarse-voiced New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie gave bleak news at a morning news conference: Seaside rail lines washed away. No safe place on the state's barrier islands for him to land. Parts of the coast still under water. "It is beyond anything I thought I'd ever see," he said. "It is a devastating sight right now." The death toll from Sandy in the U.S. included several killed by falling trees. Sandy also killed 69 people in the Caribbean before making its way up the Eastern Seaboard. Airlines canceled more than 12,000 flights. New York City's three major airports remained closed. President Barack Obama declared a major disaster in New York and Long Island, making federal funding available to residents of the area. He suspended campaigning again Tuesday. "This was a devastating storm, maybe the worst that we have ever experienced," New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. Trading at the New York Stock Exchange was canceled again Tuesday after the storm sent a nearly 14-foot surge of seawater, a record, coursing over its seawalls and highways and into low-lying streets. The water inundated tunnels, subway stations and the electrical system that powers Wall Street and sent hospital patients and tourists scrambling for safety. Skyscrapers swayed and creaked in winds that partially toppled a crane 74 stories above Midtown. A large tanker ship ran aground on the city's Staten Island. A fire raged in a city neighborhood Tuesday morning near the Atlantic Ocean, with 80 to 100 homes destroyed but no deaths reported. "This will be one for the record books," said John Miksad, senior vice president for electric operations at Consolidated Edison, which had more than 670,000 customers without power in and around New York City. In New Jersey, where the superstorm came ashore, a huge swell of water swept over the small town of Moonachie, and authorities struggled to rescue about 800 people, some of them living in a trailer park. Police and fire officials used boats to try to reach the stranded. "I saw trees not just knocked down but ripped right out of the ground. I watched a tree crush a guy's house like a wet sponge," mobile home park resident Juan Allen said. The massive storm reached well into the Midwest with heavy rain and snow. Chicago officials warned residents to stay away from the Lake Michigan shore as the city prepared for winds of up to 60 mph and waves exceeding 24 feet well into Wednesday. Curiosity turned to concern overnight as New York City residents watched whole neighborhoods disappear into darkness as power was cut. The World Trade Center site was a glowing ghost near the tip of Lower Manhattan. Residents reported seeing no lights but the strobes of emergency vehicles and the glimpses of flashlights in nearby apartments. Lobbies were flooded, cars floated and people started to worry about food. As Hurricane Sandy closed in on the Northeast, it converged with a cold-weather system that turned it into a monstrous hybrid of rain and high winds -- even bringing snow in West Virginia and other mountainous areas inland. Just before it made landfall, forecasters stripped Sandy of hurricane status, but the distinction was purely technical, based on its shape and internal temperature. It still packed hurricane-force winds. While the hurricane's 90 mph winds registered as only a Category 1 on a scale of five, it packed "astoundingly low" barometric pressure, giving it terrific energy to push water inland, said Kerry Emanuel, a professor of meteorology at MIT. "We are looking at the highest storm surges ever recorded" in the Northeast, said Jeff Masters, meteorology director for Weather Underground, a private forecasting service. Tunnels and bridges to Manhattan were shut down, and some flooded. "We have no idea how long it's going to take" to restore the transit system, MTA spokeswoman Marjorie Anders said Tuesday. New York University's Tisch Hospital was forced to evacuate 200 patients after its backup generator failed. NYU Medical Dean Robert Grossman said patients -- among them 20 babies from the neonatal intensive care unit who were on battery-powered respirators -- had to be carried down staircases and to dozens of ambulances waiting to take them to other hospitals. A construction crane atop a $1.5 billion luxury high-rise overlooking Central Park collapsed in high winds and dangled precariously. Thousands of people were ordered to leave several nearby buildings as a precaution. Reggie Thomas emerged Tuesday morning from his job as a maintenance supervisor at a prison near the overflowing Hudson River, a toothbrush in his front pocket, to find his 2011 Honda with its windows down and a foot of water inside. "It's totaled," Thomas said, with a shrug. "You would have needed a boat last night."

If you can spare it, you can donate to red cross to help the millions of people in need. You can also donate blood, or dried goods at many locations. It would be a great help to people that have lost their homes, power, or loved ones. I'm also looking into it now, but I'm sure there is a place that is helping displaced animals, and I'm sure they could use help too.