<p>A lot of towns are without power in the north jersey area, even in my town it looks like a lot of people lost power and still don’t have it, official estimates say it maybe be a week-10 days for power to be restored in all areas…we lost power for 16 hours or so, we were lucky, turns out a branch took out a connection at the end of the street and a survey team fixed it quickly. Worse, before the storm we had mild temperatures, now the temp has plummeted and it is getting pretty cold. In some ways we were lucky where i live, there wasn’t a lot of rain (my big concern was my basement flooding, bought a generator specifically to keep that going, ironically it remained literally bone dry, go figure), if we had had drenching rains like they predicted originally, it would have been a lot worse. </p>
<p>From what I know all the utilities in NJ had roughly 80% of their customers without power at the peak of this mess, it tells you how hard it is going to be…</p>
<p>Hopefully with the rebuilding people are going to start taking the fact that major storms are a reality, and that the NYC area is going to get a lot more of these kind of events going forward. The fact that a hurricane got this far north in October says a lot about temperatures (the water temps I am seeing, from years of doing fall fishing, are Sept levels at the end of October) and about what can happen. Apparently this event was caused by the hurricane hitting a cold front, but a third factor, a storm stalled off Greenland, prevented the storm from heading north which caused it to veer to the west.
All I know is this is the third ‘once in a century’ storm in 14 months…</p>
<p>This is going to be a long haul for everyone, here’s to hoping it goes a lot easier and faster then they are saying and more importantly, we learn lessons from this storm.</p>
<p>We didn’t lose power – lights flickered for a while, but power stayed on. Monday night we lost cable (which means no TV or internet) but I made it in to the office – fortunately, we’re on a grid that didn’t lose power.</p>
<p>Spoke to a flood insurance agent. He said he got 50,000 claims. He said from his perspective, this is worse than Irene.</p>
<p>Where we are in Virginia, we had more damage with Irene than we did with Sandy this time. Had to file a claim with flood insurance with Irene for about $15,000 worth of damage. When they get so many claims (like the 50,000 Classof2015 mentions), it can be awhile until an adjuster gets out to look at the damage. But major water,electrical damage can’t wait. We had to start work immediately. It was days before the adjuster came to our house. My husband took lots of pictures, we kept evidence of saturated ductwork and insulation, contractor estimates and receipts,etc. So sorry that this storm has been so destructive. All the best to anyone dealing with this.</p>
<p>Ucdmom, not sure if you’ve heard from your family. I’ve had some contact with my family in the Basking Ridge area. Land lines are down and cell service is very spotty. Hotel rooms are very difficult to find. One brother got a room( just for tonight) about 40 minutes away. There are very long lines for gas. It all sounds grim.</p>
<p>I did not even think about the College Board stuff. A co-worker is supposed to run the NYC Marathon on Saturday. It is still on, apparently. I like the idea of rescheduling Halloween. </p>
<p>My D was pretty unaffected in school in MD. She used her two bonus days off to do some work and hang with friends. I am so grateful she was safe. I wonder if some academic calendars will be affected (NYU is off all week, I hear). I hope not, as many have bought airline tix already. Small worry, comparatively, though.</p>
<p>MN utility workers are heading en masse to W VA to assist. We have the trucks and skills to deal with ice and snow issues causing those power outages. Hopefully, other help is heading to NYC and NJ.</p>
<p>Hugs to all experiencing issues. Very happy to hear about Sieclan’s good news.</p>
<p>One problem with the SAT is that College Board probably isn’t priority for schools that don’t have power. They don’t want to force a move if they might be able to host, and if they’re bad enough that they know they can’t host, those in a position to notify CB might even be aware it needs to be done. One of our high schools should be a test site, but they have a huge hole in the roof - the rest of the schools went back today, they hope to open Friday. They could still end up relocating to our other HS (which was a host last month, but isn’t this month).</p>
<p>The insane thing is that they expect students to print a new ticket showing the new test site - how many of these kids will be lucky to find out about the relocation, and make it to the test. They can check the website with the smartphones, but they can’t print an admissions ticket.</p>
<p>Let’s say one’s DIL was in NYC (Brooklyn) but spared any power outage or flooding in their apartment. Thank goodness!</p>
<p>But now she can’t get to work (teaches children with autism, going into their homes throughout the city, on assignment from private agency) because the subway system is kaput.</p>
<p>Do you think there may be any program that offers relief for the many people who cannot get to per-diem type jobs, because of the subway closings in NYC? Or is that just the way it goes…?</p>
<p>The College Board main office is in New York City. Two of the regional offices are also in areas affected by Sandy. I expect that the other offices are scrambling.</p>
<p>It’s good that MD wasn’t hit as hard as expected. This frees up the OOS utility crews our power companies had pre-reserved, as well as our own utility crews once they’ve fixed things here.</p>
<p>paying3tuitions-- I have two loved ones who one time or another have been affected by fires, floods or hurricances and have not been able to get to work. As you say, that’s just the way it goes. The trials of the self employed are many.</p>
<p>BIL, SIL, niece and FIL are in Bayonne, a block from the west side of the bay. Bayonne is completely without power and schools are closed “until further notice.” Cell phone coverage is spotty, even for BIL, who does business continuity for AT&T and has a priority line. We told them they were welcome to come down early (they were supposed to come visit this weekend anyway), so we’ll see if they take us up on it.</p>
<p>We didn’t lose power; PEPCO did a lot of aggressive trimming/tree falling in our area after Irene and the derecho, as we are in an area that has a history of extended outages in these storms. Old trees + above-ground utility poles = many days of darkness. The cherry picker trucks were at the county fairgrounds and Holiday Inn near us on Sunday in anticipation. I hope those trucks have since headed to NJ and NY where they are sorely needed.</p>
<p>Thoughts and prayers to all in the affected areas. DH is from the Bronx and we lived in PA and NJ before moving to MD, so many of these places are familiar.</p>
<p>At home, no power, no internet. At work today, power but no internet. My library is wonderful, so here I am for just a bit until DH and I will hopefully eat a good meal in a decent restaurant, instead of cold meatloaf by candlelight.</p>