I thought I got somewhat used to all the disaster crap as it happens far too often down here, and most of the times due to the ignorance of builders and councils - like putting new housing estates on former wetlands and wonder why a big two week rain let's most houses sink in...
But seeing on the web and in the US news to what extend Sandy damaged the country is a whole new level.
If nature strikes hard like that, there is nothing humans can do about it except start over once the sky is clear again.
All the lives lost, all the privates stuff an photos, videos and other things of the family gone, my sister had it too after the last bushfire.
You whole world collapses, you are dependent on other people for the most basic things like food, water and shelter.
Apart from the material stuff she lost her two horses, her cats and her prices reptiles.
So I can imagine hard it will be for many people in the US, especially the elderly ones in these weather conditions, many will loose not their stuff but also the will to go on.
I was thinkin about before, but now I guess the time is right to ask here:
What do think about testing the real potencial of NT and it's userbase by setting up some sort of help fund?
There must already be some system in place in the US where people can donate money and I though if we start a big call, collect the donations on a weekly base and transfer them to one of the good help funds in the US we might be able to make a little difference !?

Thanks for the offer DU but there have been millions of dollars already donated. The Red Cross has received a lot of money. Corporations have [are] donated food and fresh water. Amazingly, there are reports of gas companies giving some of their supplies to competitors so that motorists can go to other places to ease the lines. Last night, I had one of my regular golfing buddies come over who lives nearby to get a hot meal and take a hot shower. He has nothing turned "on" yet. He would do the same for me if the situations were reversed. We as humans MUST help those other humans in time of need.

You might have heard of "tornado alley" here in the US or seen a tornado on TV. Those folks see damage and heartache on a more frequent basis. To see a forceful tornado coming at you has got to be possibly the scariest thing on the face of the Earth! There is VERY little warning. Only the possibility of conditions can be forecast. This is why there are "storm chasers."

Again, thanks for thinking of us.

chas521 wrote:You might have heard of "tornado alley" here in the US or seen a tornado on TV. Those folks see damage and heartache on a more frequent basis. To see a forceful tornado coming at you has got to be possibly the scariest thing on the face of the Earth! There is VERY little warning. Only the possibility of conditions can be forecast. This is why there are "storm chasers."

I have lived in "tornado alley" my entire life. I have been in 1 & seen the distruction from many more. Add to that the almost annual distruction done by hurricanes on the gulf coast. You can't imagine the monetary, material & physical help that pours in from all over the US, as well as foreign countries.
As I said in an earlier post, volunteer Disaster Relief Teams, from all over the country, will be pouring in to take care of the more personal needs of the affected area residents.

Update: I just read this!!!

With coastal communities in New York and New Jersey still reeling from the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy, the last thing the area needs is another storm. But that's exactly what it might get.
A nor'easter is predicted to potentially hit the East Coast next Wednesday (Nov. 7), and beach erosion experts are concerned about further damage to shorelines devastated by Sandy.

tendriver wrote:
With coastal communities in New York and New Jersey still reeling from the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy, the last thing the area needs is another storm. But that's exactly what it might get.
A nor'easter is predicted to potentially hit the East Coast next Wednesday (Nov. 7), and beach erosion experts are concerned about further damage to shorelines devastated by Sandy.

OMG, I heard that too and I just don't want to think about it.

EDIT: Does anyone know what we did to irritate the person in charge of the weather?

The problems with the hurricane just went from bad to worse. We just got hit with a second storm that dropped 7 inches of snow on us. Please give us a break Mother Nature!

I've been watching this. OUCH!!

I waited 45 minutes in line today to get gas. The weekend is MUCH worse.

****, nature can be cruel :(
If it helps, jump in a plane and come down, it's war and sunny here and I'm sure I can find a spare bed somewhere.
Wireless is working, so you can bring your Laptop as well ;)
But jokes aside, it is hard to see that after all that destruction there is no end to see yet.
Those already hit hard just get one kick in the butt after the other now, can't really imagine how lost some people must feel now.
I also thing that Sandy was one of the big reasons why Obama got elected again, now we have to wait and see if he can bring his promises to reality.
The longer it takes to get everyone back into a normal life the harder it will be for those poor people to get on with their normal life.
On the "funny" side: why do you think 45 min is a long wait for some fuel? This is the standard before every long weekend here, and on most petrol stations it takes me about 10 minutes just to fill my tank.
What about work? I wondered how/if people are still getting work on top of the chaos ? I could not concentrate on any work if my home is lost, my stuff gone and the worls basically collapsed around me....

DU,
Mother Nature has finally decided to give us some sort of a break [I hope]. Believe it or not, she is going to increase the temperature here every day melting the latest snow. It is expected to be in the 60s [F] by this weekend. Yep, that is a little higher than normal for this time of the year but she owes us.

As for the gas, there is NO shortage. There is NO rationing. It's just a problem of getting the gas to the stations. Normally, you just pull into a station [at any time], get gas and you're on your way after 5 minutes. But right now, you have to get on line and that took 45 minutes yesterday. NY just started with odd/even gas today. This means that license plates that end with odd numbers or letters can get gas on odd numbered calendar days and even on even numbered days. Should decrease the lines.

I'm sure that your news doesn't show the utter destruction of those homes and property of those people who live near the water. These people have NOTHING. It will take months to return to normal. This is like a bad TV show!

News and infos over the TV IMHO is censored here,
you only get to see what is considered to be of interest and for bad things like Sandy or some violent "king" in Africa you often only get a side note or news ticker.
For some weird reason, so called disturbing news are limited to a rating suitable to match the 15+ rating for DVD's and games.
That means that you rarely see any real suffering on TV, only shot footage of the destuction ov dead bodies that are already covered.
Even during the bushfires last season they only showed the fire and some burnt out properties, only later due to the pressure of the people involved they started sort of a documentary showing the full extend.
Sandy is completely out of the news here, even for the US news on the international channel.
Australians are strange in some way as they don't really want to know about problems unless they affect themself.
If you would go on the streets here and ask about Sandy you most likely have to ask 100 people to get 5 that know what Sandy was and what damage and devastation still remains.

Things like Sandy show us how much we depend on the modern life and all the good things like power, gas and running water.
Most people take it for granted and only if nature strikes hard they realise how lost they are.
Once this initial shock is over they have to come to terms with their personal losses and the problems of starting from scratch.
It is during those hard times that you get to know your real friends and make new friendships that last a lifetime.
Nature does not need us to survive, but we need the nature to be ok to have a "normal" life. But how are we treating the world that makes life possible for all of us???

I don't know if there will be anything online but these are a few areas that were hit bad:

Staten Island, NY
Long Beach, NY
Rockaways, NY

There are many others unfortunately but these are only a few.

Unfortunately here there's a huge child abuse scandal sucking up all the air time, so there is no news about the hurricane at all.

Downunder35m wrote:Things like Sandy show us how much we depend on the modern life and all the good things like power, gas and running water.

OH SO TRUE!! If you want to start & win a war in 1 week, with a minimal loss of life, knock out your enemy's power grid & computer networks!!!!

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It is hard to imagine such destruction!!