Sandy relief bill headed to the Senate following House approval

shortformblog:

  • $50B in Sandy relief funding was approved by the House of Representatives on Tuesday, roughly two weeks after House Republicans shocked the nation by adjourning the 112th Congress without bringing a vote on any sort of disaster relief bill. Early reports suggest that most of the Sandy relief bill’s opposition actually came from House Democrats Tuesday morning, with a combined total of 52 members from both parties voting against the legislation. source
I’m saying right now, anyone from New York or New Jersey who contributes one penny to congressional Republicans is out of their minds, because what they did last night was put a knife in the back of New Yorkers and New Jerseyans. It was an absolute disgrace.
Republican Rep. Peter King • Condemning House Republicans for refusing to vote on a post-Sandy disaster relief bill that was approved by the Senate last week. The bill would have allocated roughly $60.4 billion in disaster relief funding for the areas in New York and New Jersey that were devastated by Sandy last year. House Republicans have responded to the criticism with assurances that a vote is coming in the 113th Congress, and a denial that there is any immediate need for such funding. source (via shortformblog)

(via shortformblog)

shortformblog:

wnyc:

This series of images from the U.S. Geological Survey documents coastal erosion in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. The yellow arrows indicate the same point on each image. 

Images documenting the storm’s impact on the New Jersey coastline are here.

Wow. Dramatic changes.

Source: wnyc

How Michael Bloomberg’s stance on the NYC Marathon evolved throughout the day

shortformblog:

  • first “They’re running this race to help New York City and the donations from all the runners in the clubs will be a big relief to our efforts.”
  • then “You have to keep going and doing things and you have to grieve. You can cry and you can laugh, all at the same time. That’s what human beings are good at.”
  • now “We would not want a cloud to hang over the race or its participants, and so we have decided to cancel it. We cannot allow a controversy over an athletic event—even one as meaningful as this—to distract attention away from all the critically important work that is being done to recover from the storm and get our city back on track.”

The race should’ve been canceled on Tuesday when we emerged from our shelters and realized the shit that had gone down. Would’ve saved yourself the embarrassment of going back on your statement Bloombito.

If you were registered for the NYC marathon, donate your room to a displaced New Yorker.

shortformblog:

There are 47,000 runners registered for the 2012 ING NYC Marathon. In the wake of the devastating hurricane Sandy, many runners will not be able or will be unwilling to get to NYC for the run. Rather than canceling their reservation, we’d like to urge those runners to donate their rooms to NYC residents who have been displaced from their homes. If you’re a runner willing to donate your room all we need from you is your hotel reservation information and we will call the hotels directly to facilitate transferring the reservation. If you’re a New Yorker looking for a place to stay please submit your information and we will grant you a room on a first come first served basis. Media, please help spread the word. Contact us with any questions. And remember, this is literally a race against the clock to ensure that these reservations don’t go to waste, so please act with a sense of urgency!

This is a great idea. Great work by Conley Wingfield Downing, who came up with the concept apparently on the fly.

It’s cold out here ladies and gentlemen - a lot of people would appreciate being able to stay somewhere where they can get a hot shower and sleep in a warm bed (i.e. me if I wasn’t lucky enough to mooch in Brooklyn for the weekend).

Source: mrsbadkrumble

The U.S. military’s working on getting NYC fueled up again

shortformblog:

  • 24M the number of gallons of fuel the Defense Department will send to the NYC region using military tankers. While the city’s port is open and fuel pipelines are about to re-open soon, the problem is that many gas stations are currently without power, limiting the available stock of gasoline in the region. Some parts of central New Jersey may be without power for days — causing more fuel run troubles. source

It’s so ridiculous how little gas there is up here. Gas lines that are over a mile long, people sitting in their cars as stations with nothing for hours at a time hoping that a truck will come along to refuel the station. People getting into fights so bad that the police have to monitor the stations, taking them away from the general clean-up effort. It is MADNESS, both in the city and most definitely out on Long Island.

My street-that-never-floods turned into a river, but otherwise we’re fine

Can’t say the same for all of my neighbors. The waters stopped rising literally inches from entering my garage, but one of my best friends, a few doors down, got flooded.

There were a lot of downed trees in my area - some fell on cars and a lot fell on houses. Luckily no one died. The flooding was clearly unexpected. Everyone parked their cars to avoid trees, but around 9pm on Monday as the high tide crested, there was suddenly this scramble of people, including my dad, attempting to move their cars to marginally higher ground. It helped in our case and saved my parents thousands of dollars. Next door neighbors, not so lucky. This photo floating around of how deep the flooding was in the East Village? Good approximation of what I saw. Our street is kind of U-shaped, with the road itself at the bottom, so any cars up on lawns mostly made it through while those on the street foundered. 

There’s still no power out on Long Island, no gasoline, either near my house or in neighboring parts of Queens that do have power. Our grill works, so that’s something, but none of the stores have food, so it’s not much. I escaped to Brooklyn today because the LIRR is kinda working - had to tag along with my dad to Jamaica on his way to work first.

I’m just so grateful that I didn’t experience things on the scale that people in Long Beach and the rest of the true South shore coast did. It’s absolutely devastating. The boardwalk is gone. So many houses were completely destroyed in a place that’s maybe 15 minutes away.

I don’t know how long this mess is going to take to clean up, but we’ll bounce back, New York always does.

apsies: winstonwolfe: Medical workers assist a patient into an ambulance during an evacuation of New York University’s Tisch Hospital, on October 29, 2012. The hospital is moving out more than 200 patients after its backup generator failed when the power was knocked out by Sandy. (AP Photo/ John Minchillo)  How do you even begin to say thank you? Again, heroes.
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apsies:

winstonwolfe:

Medical workers assist a patient into an ambulance during an evacuation of New York University’s Tisch Hospital, on October 29, 2012. The hospital is moving out more than 200 patients after its backup generator failed when the power was knocked out by Sandy. (AP Photo/ John Minchillo) 

How do you even begin to say thank you?

Again, heroes.

Source: winstonwolfe

thedailyfeed:

There are some amazing photos of Hurricane Sandy floating around the Internet that are a little too amazing — ones that online sleuths have exposed as Photoshop fakes. Can you guess which are real?

(via brooklynmutt)

Source: thedaily.com

bulletinaweave: THE ‘OTHER SIDE’ OF SANDY NOT SEEN ON TV OR IN NEWSPAPERS. Sandy also struck CUBA, HAITI AND THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC Images that you will not see in the newspapers or on TV. There are now many more homeless people in Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic Csuffering from the ravages of hurricane Sandy passing through their respective nations, prior to the hurricane also pummeling the east coast of the United States. In solidarity with all people, in light of the loss of their homes and loved ones, we must also speak out for them. Pain and suffering does not care about borders and true compassion has no flag to wave. Our hearts are with all who are impacted by this international tragedy. Please become more informed and support the efforts of groups attempting to help lives everywhere, who know no borders. Image of Orlando Barria (EFE) in the La Barquita, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, October 26, 2012 (A.E.L.L.A.)
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bulletinaweave:

THE ‘OTHER SIDE’ OF SANDY NOT SEEN ON TV OR IN NEWSPAPERS. Sandy also struck CUBA, HAITI AND THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC Images that you will not see in the newspapers or on TV. There are now many more homeless people in Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic Csuffering from the ravages of hurricane Sandy passing through their respective nations, prior to the hurricane also pummeling the east coast of the United States. In solidarity with all people, in light of the loss of their homes and loved ones, we must also speak out for them. Pain and suffering does not care about borders and true compassion has no flag to wave. Our hearts are with all who are impacted by this international tragedy. Please become more informed and support the efforts of groups attempting to help lives everywhere, who know no borders. Image of Orlando Barria (EFE) in the La Barquita, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, October 26, 2012 (A.E.L.L.A.)

(via googledocsandcoffeeshops)

Source: facebook.com