[JimC214]

Flushing, Ridgewood, Jackson Heights, Maspeth, Corona, Astoria, Woodside and Sunny Side have all came through unscathed. No power losses and most stores are open. The only effect so far are the trains and gas stations. The gas stations are getting fuel soon so that problem will be taken care of. Most of the city was not hurt from this. But the areas that were, are going to be unlivable for a long time.

[DJ MacWoW]

Well, some happy news and some not so happy news. Let’s pray that new storm fizzles.

[EinNYC]

I dunno about Flushing coming through "unscathed". I walked 2.6 miles today to get some stuff my handyman needed. I didn't want to move my car because (1) it's in a protected parking space, away from the ginormous trees which weakened, are still falling and (2) you can't find gas for love nor money. While my handyman sawed and nailed a beautiful mounting together for my shutters, I made a whole lotta phone calls on his behalf to try and find him a working gas station, as he barely had enough fumes to make it home. One gas station (and I know I dialed the right number...) told me I'd dialed a CEMETERY! Well, things WERE pretty dead, they had no gas. Every call I made, "No gas", "No gas", and "No gas".

As I walked to the hardware store (the clerks were using flashlights to go and find stuff for you and the cash register was running on a noisy gasoline generator), I saw gigantic trees fallen across streets, a car completely pancaked under a giant tree, a giant tree which pulled up the whole sidewalk when it fell, etc. A doctor a block down from the hardware store was frantically asking the florist shop next door if he could run an extension cord to their electricity because he had to access a patient's records.

Whereas it is true that we were not flooded nor had widespread electricity outages, people WERE affected. The buses are pretty much back, but the subways have only partial service. It's still horrible to try and get around. I hope things return swiftly to normal for everyone's sake.

Around here, we don't have deposits of obsidian or flint near the surface to make knives. We don't have deer in the woods that we don't have either. You wouldn't want to eat the fish caught locally. I am very good at scrounging, inventing, and making do. Please don't ridicule the folks who don't have that kind of background or talent. They were never educated in survival skills because this kind of circumstance never happened here before in their lifetime. A lot of people around here (especially in the hard-hit Staten Island and Far Rockaway areas) are really suffering, without food, heat, potable water, and many lost everything they had in floods and fires. I am sure that with the things they CAN do, they are making a contribution to humanity somewhere.