<p>I think that’s right Sue. I can’t stress enough how low that area is. The car would have taken water very quickly and it would have been impossible to drive on because, as I said, the area lacks sewers and sidewalks and the streets are in such poor condition that they are even lower than they should be. There was no getting off Father Capodanno Boulevard with two little kids once the water rose</p>
<p>'Ms. Moore managed to step out of the S.U.V., taking 2-year-old Brendan in her arms and leading 4-year-old Connor by the hand. But a wave slammed into them, driving her and Brendan into the marsh and breaking her hold on Connor’s hand. Another wave carried him away moments later. "</p>
<p>^ From the NYTimes.</p>
<p>I’m sorry but I find it the story of trying to get into the man’ house with the kids dubious.</p>
<p>Was the man’s house under water then? How can kids be swept away on the man’s patio unless it was also heavyly flooded?</p>
<p>Take a look at the guy’s jacket-
“We Do It All”
The motto of Staten Island FD Engine 159.</p>
<p>Oh, the irony.</p>
<p>The man admits someone was trying to get into his house but insists it was a man.</p>
<p>You have to visualize this as an area right next to and below a large beach</p>
<p>I think CNN sensationalized the story by making it that the boys were dead because of the guy’s refusal to help.</p>
<p>“They were with her on the man’s back patio when they were swept out of her arms by flood waters…”</p>
<p>Fot that to be possible, his back patio should have been under fast moving water 3-4’ feet deep.</p>
<p>There’s a difference between not helping a woman and not helping a mom with small children. If she was alone, throwing a flower pot to break the patio door, it is entirely possible the man thought she was a looter.</p>
<p>Not really. She was trying to hold onto a 2 and 4 year old while at the same time trying to break into the man’s house. I would imagine that for at least part of the time she’d have had to have held both kids’ hands in one of hers. It doesn’t take more than a foot of rushing water to knock a 3 foot tall kid off their feet and over a balcony.</p>
<p>I’m sure it was dangerous out there. I still stand by my assertion that no one here would leave a desperate stranger, male or female, to chance the fates in the middle of a hurricane.</p>
<p>Thank you for your insight into the neighborhood, zoosermom. Ugly is right.</p>
<p>Given that he admits that someone tried to break into his back door, and she independently told the same story, I have no doubt that she is telling the truth. That piece of scum says that he spent the whole night holding the door shut against the “man” who tried to get in. Even if it WERE a man, what kind of pathetic excuse for a human being would not open their door to him under those conditions?</p>
<p>Of course she should have evacuated earlier. But he is scum. All he had to do was open the door.</p>
<p>Sue, I don’t think so. She wouldn’t have put down kids in rushing water of any depth. In fact, I don’t think she could have reached the patio in moving water. Besides, the man’s patio shows no sign of water damage. Wasn’t his patio also closed off with iron fence?</p>
<p>I think we all like stories that are black and white with a clear villain feeding sensational journalism. Is life ever that simple?</p>
<p>Consolation, yes - he should have opened the door, however, imo, this happened well after the kids were swept away when she was looking for people to help her search for the children.</p>
<p>Some of us aren’t physically capable of carrying two kids for any distance.I think she got some water in the car and got out and tried to get into the house – they both agree on that – and in the time all that took, the water came up and they were lost. What youhave to understand is that on some blocks there are marshes quite a ways in, and even streams (or whatever you call ocean water that cuts in through the land), so the water would have been all around her and she probably would have been running round in the dark and may not have known which way was up.</p>
<p>My husband and I were over there this summer while waiting for my son to do an activity at a school and even in the best of times that area reminds me of trailer parks in the deep south.</p>
<p>As much as any mother would hate to admit it, I can’t imagine she could continue to hold two toddlers in her arms for hours while also trying to steady herself in hurricane force winds and break a window/door with a flower pot.</p>
<p>Perhaps she ended up in the water below the house while trying to get to the next house to find someone to let her in. In any case, the broader stories match. Someone was out on the patio trying to get in and he refused to help. The kids were swept away and drowned.</p>
<p>'Kelly (NYC Commissioner of Police) said the 39-year-old mother “was totally, completely distraught” after she lost her grip on her sons shortly after 6 p.m. Monday. In a panic, she climbed fences and went door-to-door looking in vain for help in a neighborhood that was presumably largely abandoned in the face of the storm.</p>
<p>She eventually gave up, spending the night trying to shield herself from the storm on the front porch of an empty home."</p>
<p>[Sandy</a> swept away children in isolated NYC borough](<a href=“http://www.standard.net/stories/2012/11/02/sandy-swept-away-children-isolated-nyc-borough]Sandy”>http://www.standard.net/stories/2012/11/02/sandy-swept-away-children-isolated-nyc-borough)</p>
<p>Of course she was distraught. Many of us don’t truly understand how fast water can become deadly. She was probably completely disoriented too. I read somewhere once that sometimes pilots crash because they can’t distinguish directions. That could have happened to that mother</p>
<p>people who do not evacuate are just plain ignorant. You have to ask yourself…“what will I be able to do if I stay”…and the answer is nothing. You can’t “protect” your house from a storm surge, there is nothing you can do…get the heck away…especially if children are in harm’s way.</p>
<p>I do understand how dangerous moving water is. We go camping often wading rivers. Any water over midcalf is quite tricky to negotiate. I just mentioned the iron fence around the patio to reason that her kids weren’t swept away from the patio. The fence would have stopped them. Can you tell I am watch monk a bit too much?</p>
<p>Of course the mother is distrought. It is very hard to hold onto anything against water.</p>
<p>Ive been evacuated from my home more than once. When I’m told to leave, I leave. But I know when hundreds of thousands of people are being evacuated their are as many stories about why people have not or could not evacuate as their are people. Sure some folks are fools, some have transportation issues, some have run out of gas, some are delusional, some are mentally ill, some are waiting to help other home bound family members, the stories are endless…I think I will save my judgement for now and give those who are going through this the benefit of the doubt.</p>
<p>I’d read earlier that the mom is a nurse. Perhaps she stayed because she was needed. </p>
<p>Re: evacuation…it’s certainly easier for some than it is for others. My family in Long Beach (NY) worked for 3 days (Fri-Sat-Sun) to prepare their homes and cars as best they could. Put cars in and up on jacks, did what they could with sandbags, plexiglass, plywood, etc. On Sunday they had to withdraw to Island Park, which also flooded but not like Long Beach. They’re all adults and able bodied.</p>
<p>I feel like many of the people who stayed in LB were old and housebound without relatives nearby and that kind of thing. Not everyone, of course. And some people will stay to deter looters.</p>
<p>At this point, even if you did stay for the storm you have to leave now, the Nat’l Guard is going door to door and people are being put on buses out. No one can come back until the sewer/water is restored and every single house inspected. The system they are going to use for houses is green-OK, yellow-OK but needs attention before can move back and red-condemned. </p>
<p>At this point we don’t know whether their homes will be red or yellow.</p>
<p>OHMomof2, please accept my prayers for your family and keep us posted.</p>
<p>Thank you zooser. I lived in Staten Island for a year and a half when my dad was the pastor of a church there. I was in 1st and 2nd grade in Richmond. High ground so I’m assuming not as hard hit.</p>
<p>Luckily my family - my kids’ dad and his family - have family in Manhattan and elsewhere on LI. My kids’ dad is on the UWS now, taking the place at work of one who is trying to deal with the houses.</p>