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OT: Superstorm Sandy 10 years later

Moved into our new house in Ramsey the week before, and lost power for 10 days after the storm. No damage thankfully but what a first couple of weeks in the new place.
The only good/lucky thing about our experience was that it was before parenthood. Would have been even tougher with little ones around.
 
l the highways were dark, and 99.9 % of the traffic was utility trucks from far-off places.

After 5 days without power I got .y 83 y/o mother with mobility issues into respite care at a Woodcliff Lake facility. Drove through Saddle River to visit. One day saw an ONEOK crew (Oklahoma ute) working outside 3 million dollar homes I figured their stereotype of NJ had just been blown up.
 
I completely disagree. Im across the street from Cranford in Clark. I’m also 64 and Sandy was by far the most intense storm I’ve lived through. You probably got flooded in Irene due to intense rainfall, Sandy didn’t produce a lot of rain. As a wind event it was on another level. The amount of trees knocked down , damage and overall disruption was the worst by any measure that I’ve been through.
All disasters are local, I guess. Irene had far worse inland flooding, due to far heavier rains, than Sandy, but Sandy had far greater coastal flooding from storm surge (even into NYC subways and up every tidal river 5+ miles, which is why major power stations "inland" at places like Sewaren and Jersey City were destroyed), and far higher winds for much longer, even inland 50-100 miles, leading to far greater levels of downed trees/wires and power outages.
 
The worst part for me was the couple days not knowing if my home was still standing. Finally got word from a friend who had a friend who worked for the town that it was still there. Other than garage doors there was little exterior damage. When we were finally allowed to check on our homes, inside was a different story. The water had risen as high as 5' on the 1st floor.
Exactly why I was glad we stayed
 
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