Watch Live: Second House Hearing on IRS Scandal

The 7 Key Moments From Wednesday’s IRS Hearing

Environment

Devastation: Death Toll From Sandy’s Wrath Rises, More Than 8 Million Without Power

Oct. 30, 2012 6:25pm Jason Howerton

People view damage in a neighborhood in the Breezy Point area of Queens in New York on October 30, 2012 after fire destroyed about 80 homes as a result of Hurricane Sandy which hit the area October 29. The death toll from superstorm Sandy has risen to 35 in the United States and Canada, and was expected to climb further as several people remained missing, officials said. Officials in the states of Connecticut, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia all reported deaths from the massive storm system, while Toronto police said a Canadian woman was killed by flying debris. (Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The most devastating storm in decades to hit the country’s most densely populated region upended man and nature as it rolled back the clock on 21st-century lives, cutting off modern communication and leaving millions without power Tuesday as thousands who fled their water-menaced homes wondered when – if – life would return to normal.

A weakening Sandy, the hurricane turned fearsome superstorm, killed at least 50 people, many hit by falling trees, and still wasn’t finished. It inched inland across Pennsylvania, ready to bank toward western New York to dump more of its water and likely cause more havoc Tuesday night. Behind it: a dazed, inundated New York City, a waterlogged Atlantic Coast and a moonscape of disarray and debris – from unmoored shore-town boardwalks to submerged mass-transit systems to delicate presidential politics.

“Nature,” said New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, assessing the damage to his city, “is an awful lot more powerful than we are.”

More than 8.2 million households were without power in 17 states as far west as Michigan. Nearly 2 million of those were in New York, where large swaths of lower Manhattan lost electricity and entire streets ended up under water – as did seven subway tunnels between Manhattan and Brooklyn at one point, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said. The New York Stock Exchange was closed for a second day from weather, the first time that has happened since a blizzard in 1888. The city’s subway system, the lifeblood of more than 5 million residents, was damaged like never before and closed indefinitely, and Consolidated Edison said electricity in and around New York could take a week to restore.

“Everybody knew it was coming. Unfortunately, it was everything they said it was,” said Sal Novello, a construction executive who rode out the storm with his wife, Lori, in the Long Island town of Lindenhurst, and ended up with 7 feet of water in the basement.

The scope of the storm’s damage wasn’t known yet. Though early predictions of river flooding in Sandy’s inland path were petering out, colder temperatures made snow the main product of Sandy’s slow march from the sea. Parts of the West Virginia mountains were blanketed with 2 feet of snow by Tuesday afternoon, and drifts 4 feet deep were reported at Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the Tennessee-North Carolina border.

New York Police Department divers walk through a flooded area on October 30, 2012 in the Breezy Point area of Queens in New York that was hit hard by Hurricane Sandy. The death toll from superstorm Sandy has risen to 35 in the United States and Canada, and was expected to climb further as several people remained missing, officials said. Officials in the states of Connecticut, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia all reported deaths from the massive storm system, while Toronto police said a Canadian woman was killed by flying debris. (Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

With Election Day a week away, the storm also threatened to affect the presidential campaign. Federal disaster response, always a dicey political issue, has become even thornier since government mismanagement of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. And poll access and voter turnout, both of which hinge upon how people are impacted by the storm, could help shift the outcome in an extremely close race.

As organized civilization came roaring back Tuesday in the form of emergency response, recharged cellphones and the reassurance of daylight, harrowing stories and pastiches emerged from Maryland north to Rhode Island in the hours after Sandy’s howling winds and tidal surges shoved water over seaside barriers, into low-lying streets and up from coastal storm drains.

Images from around the storm-affected areas depicted scenes reminiscent of big-budget disaster movies. In Atlantic City, N.J., a gaping hole remained where once a stretch of boardwalk sat by the sea. In Queens, N.Y., rubble from a fire that destroyed as many as 100 houses in an evacuated beachfront neighborhood jutted into the air at ugly angles against a gray sky. In heavily flooded Hoboken, N.J., across the Hudson River from Manhattan, dozens of yellow cabs sat parked in rows, submerged in murky water to their windshields. At the ground zero construction site in lower Manhattan, sea water rushed into a gaping hole under harsh floodlights.

One of the most dramatic tales came from lower Manhattan, where a failed backup generator forced New York University’s Tisch Hospital to relocate more than 200 patients, including 20 babies from neonatal intensive care. Dozens of ambulances lined up in the rainy night and the tiny patients were gingerly moved out, some attached to battery-powered respirators as gusts of wind blew their blankets.

In Moonachie, N.J., 10 miles north of Manhattan, water rose to 5 feet within 45 minutes and trapped residents who thought the worst of the storm had passed. Mobile-home park resident Juan Allen said water overflowed a 2-foot wall along a nearby creek, filling the area with 2 to 3 feet of water within 15 minutes. “I saw trees not just knocked down but ripped right out of the ground,” he said. “I watched a tree crush a guy’s house like a wet sponge.”

In a measure of its massive size, waves on southern Lake Michigan rose to a record-tying 20.3 feet. High winds spinning off Sandy’s edges clobbered the Cleveland area early Tuesday, uprooting trees, closing schools and flooding major roads along Lake Erie.

Most along the East Coast, though, grappled with an experience like Bertha Weismann of Bridgeport, Conn.- frightening, inconvenient and financially problematic but, overall, endurable. Her garage was flooded and she lost power, but she was grateful. “I feel like we are blessed,” she said. “It could have been worse.”

The presidential candidates’ campaign maneuverings Tuesday revealed the delicacy of the need to look presidential in a crisis without appearing to capitalize on a disaster. President Barack Obama canceled a third straight day of campaigning, scratching events scheduled for Wednesday in swing-state Ohio, in Sandy’s path. Republican Mitt Romney resumed his campaign with plans for an Ohio rally billed as a “storm relief event.”

And the weather posed challenges a week out for how to get everyone out to vote. On the hard-hit New Jersey coastline, a county elections chief said some polling places on barrier islands will be unusable and have to be moved.

“This is the biggest challenge we’ve ever had,” said George R. Gilmore, chairman of the Ocean County Board of Elections.

By Tuesday afternoon, there were still only hints of the economic impact of the storm. Airports remained closed across the East Coast and far beyond as tens of thousands of travelers found they couldn’t get where they were going.

IHS Global Insight, a forecasting firm, predicted the storm will end up causing about $20 billion in damages and $10 billion to $30 billion in lost business – big numbers probably offset by reconstruction and repairs that will contribute to longer-term growth. Americans can also expect higher gas prices in the short term.

“The biggest problem is not the first few days but the coming months,” said Alan Rubin, an expert in nature disaster recovery.

Sandy began in the Atlantic and knocked around the Caribbean – killing nearly 70 people – and strengthened into a hurricane as it chugged across the southeastern coast of the United States. By Tuesday night it had ebbed in strength but was joining up with another, more wintry storm – an expected confluence of weather systems that earned it nicknames like “superstorm” and, on Halloween eve, “Frankenstorm.”

It became, pretty much everyone agreed Tuesday, the weather event of a lifetime – and one shared vigorously on social media by people in Sandy’s path who took eye-popping photographs as the storm blew through, then shared them with the world by the blue light of their smartphones.

On Twitter , Facebook and the photo-sharing service Instagram, people tried to connect, reassure relatives and make sense of what was happening – and, in many cases, work to authenticate reports of destruction and storm surges. They posted and passed around images and real-time updates at a dizzying rate, wishing each other well and gaping, virtually, at scenes of calamity moments after they unfolded. Among the top terms on Facebook through the night and well into Tuesday, according to the social network: “we are OK,” “made it” and “fine.”

Around midday Tuesday, Sandy was about 120 miles east of Pittsburgh, pushing westward with winds of 45 mph, and was expected to turn toward New York State on Tuesday night. Although weakening as it goes, the storm will continue to bring heavy rain and flooding, said Daniel Brown of the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Atlantic City’s fabled Boardwalk, the first in the nation, lost several blocks when Sandy came through, though the majority of it remained intact even as other Jersey Shore boardwalks were dismantled. What damage could be seen on the coastline Tuesday was, in some locations, staggering – “unthinkable,” New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said of what unfolded along the Jersey Shore, where houses were swept from their foundations and amusement park rides were washed into the ocean. “Beyond anything I thought I would ever see.”

Resident Carol Mason returned to her bayfront home to carpets that squished as she stepped on them. She made her final mortgage payment just last week. Facing a mandatory evacuation order, she had tried to ride out the storm at first but then saw the waters rising outside her bathroom window and quickly reconsidered.

“I looked at the bay and saw the fury in it,” she said. “I knew it was time to go.”

—

Contributing to this report were Katie Zezima in Atlantic City, N.J.; Alicia Caldwell and Martin Crutsinger in Washington; Colleen Long, Jennifer Peltz, Tom Hays, Larry Neumeister, Ralph Russo and Scott Mayerowitz in New York; Meghan Barr in Mastic Beach, N.Y.; Christopher S. Rugaber in Arlington, Va.; Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pa.: John Christoffersen in Bridgeport, Conn.; Vicki Smith in Elkins, W.Va.; David Porter in Newark, N.J.; Joe Mandak in Pittsburgh; and Dave Collins in Hartford, Conn.

Benghazi, IRS, AP...What's next? Only TheBlaze TV offers the truth from Glenn Beck, Andrew Wilkow, and Real News from TheBlaze. Get instant access and a free trial here.

Back to The Blaze »

Comments (44)

Frank_Wall
Posted on October 31, 2012 at 10:12am
Terrible tragedy – the damage is startling but it could have been even worse. I think the US learned well from Katrina. Looking through some statistics about Sandy, it looks like a lot of people are still without power: http://www.statista.com/statistics/245302/power-outages-caused-by-hurricane-sandy/

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
justasurvivor
Posted on October 31, 2012 at 8:05am
“Nature,” said New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, assessing the damage to his city, “is an awful lot more powerful than we are.”
____________________________

This is the perfect explanation of why the politically-correct idea of “,manmade global warming” is such a joke.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- G-WHIZ
  Posted on October 31, 2012 at 11:59am
  All the human-race and all the animals to “phartt” at once….2-minutes-later…. “what phartt?”
  
  Report this comment
nedinme
Posted on October 31, 2012 at 6:16am
Have no fear, our “friends and allies” like England, France, Germany, Japan, Israel, So. Korea, etc. will start sending money, aid and help shortly…THEY ALWAYS DO!! RIGHT???????

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- rickc34
  Posted on October 31, 2012 at 7:57am
  Right now America will have to borrow the money from China or Japan to repair the damage done by Sandy. We are in trouble as a Nation when we have to borrow for emergency’s like this. It is time for change in our nation. We cannot survive another four years with the current leadership. Pray for those in these States that have been hit by this massive storm and help if you can by calling The Salvation Army and giving what you can, every little bit will help.
  
  Report this comment
right field
Posted on October 31, 2012 at 2:27am
A great nation cannot use tragedy or transgressions from our enemies as an excuse to retreat from the Constitution and the blessings bestowed upon us. Now we must stand together, stand for freedom and find the personal strength & faith to help others and protect the innocent and truly needy. We are Americans and we are superior to others – that is what makes us free. Vote for freedom next week and
reach out and help all that are truly needy and will be thankful for your assistance.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
REAPER242
Posted on October 31, 2012 at 12:01am
Please every one here on the blaze,I beg you to give what ever you can to help our fellow Americans in need,It doesn’t matter how much you give,as long as we all give or do something to help those who need our help.This is why America and it’s people are so great,because when the chips are down and our people need real help now we always have and always will be the first to answer the call. I know this is not going to be easy and you know it too,but if we all pull together, we can and will get through this!! God bless all of you and God bless America.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
judyaz
Posted on October 30, 2012 at 11:27pm
Does everyone have clean, running water yet? If not, those FEMA-recommended three-day supplies will run out late Wednesday. Then what? The trucks loaded with supplies are not being allowed to enter yet until the roads are safe. For those who followed the three-day disaster preparation guidelines (and not everyone did even that), they may get dangerously thirsty. And they probably can’t boil water yet. Please pray that they get safe drinking water in time.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- loriann12
  Posted on October 31, 2012 at 7:41am
  Yea, and I got made fun of for having 3 months food and a month’s water in my house. I also have a homemade rocket stove and several ways to start a fire. Prepping isn’t looking so stupid, now is it?
  
  Report this comment
- Leslie Anne
  Posted on October 31, 2012 at 3:42pm
  Water was coming out of the taps for many years.
  They could have filled containers before the storm.
  Darwin will thin the herd.
  
  Report this comment
- Leslie Anne
  Posted on October 31, 2012 at 3:49pm
  I keep a one year supply of drinking water, plus a good portable water filter just in case I need more safe water. I also store 3 months of gasoline (properly rotated and stabilized), 3+ years of food and 20+ years of some other items (like toothbrushes, razors, soap, etc.) I don’t like to run low on anything :) Even my cat has his own separate one year supply of kitty litter, water, cat food, catnip, etc.
  
  Report this comment
- Leslie Anne
  Posted on October 31, 2012 at 4:00pm
  The thought of a three-day supply is foreign to me. I can’t understand how people could live on the edge like that. How do they sleep at night? I freak out when I drop below 100 rolls of toilet paper on hand :) The people who’s homes burned up or were washed away or completely flooded have an excuse because any preps they may have had would have been destroyed—but the others, what’s their excuse for not having plenty of food and water on hand? Especially drinking water, which ran from the taps for many years and could have been easily put into containers before the storm hit. It’s just hard to understand why people wouldn’t prepare when they had so much advanced notice.
  
  Report this comment
Eternal
Posted on October 30, 2012 at 10:42pm
We do not help those who have rejected God time and time again. We shake the dust from our sandals and leave.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- TheCalmOne
  Posted on October 31, 2012 at 6:20am
  What an utterly disgusting comment. There is a special cubicle reserved for you in hell.
  
  Report this comment
- justasurvivor
  Posted on October 31, 2012 at 8:36am
  If that were true, the thief on the cross wouldn’t have stood a chance. Jesus gave BOTH thieves the chance to be saved in the last moments of their life. God wishes ALL to be saved (from sin AND from trouble). We help others because we are God’s hands and feet.
  
  Report this comment
thegreatcarnac
Posted on October 30, 2012 at 9:07pm
Well….Looting should start by tomorrow are the next day. Soon as the water recedes down to almost nothing…they will be out kicking in store fronts. Oh…those funny looters. Let’s see the police stop them.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- Eternal
  Posted on October 30, 2012 at 10:38pm
  Care not about the blue states. Not very Christian, but why bother.
  
  Report this comment
Anonymous T. Irrelevant
Posted on October 30, 2012 at 8:39pm
“Nature,” said New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, assessing the damage to his city, “is an awful lot more powerful than we are.”
———————————————
Why don’t the libs ever use that line when discussing MMGW?

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
KingCanon
Posted on October 30, 2012 at 8:26pm
I truly believe all of this is happening for two reasons and two reasons only… America has turned her back on the nation of Israel and morality is at an all time low. We are nothing more at the present time than an electronic Sodom and Gomorrah.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
meisterman41
Posted on October 30, 2012 at 8:18pm
Heard Shep Smith today(on Fox) say something about the storm this afternoon more or less stating the weather is worse than all time! He should study the 1934 Hurricane and the deaths that resulted! If that storm happened today people would of been warned well in advance, but I will state now more people would of died today than did in 34! Why? More people live along the coast today then they did in 34 which I think was a cat 3 storm. So Shep go read History and forget your Global Warming Bull Crap! People cannot control Nature! So Shep go have a drink with Al Gore!!!!!!

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
OperationNorthwoods
Posted on October 30, 2012 at 8:13pm
The numbers for those who lost power represent customers. Unless they are all single and without children then the real numbers without power is much higher.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
ricanpatriot
Posted on October 30, 2012 at 7:58pm
I’m sure the looting has begun. This storm making landfall and the reports of damage are just the beginning of this story. Of course, by tomorrow, after they’re done blaming Romney/Bush/Reagan, the lefty media will move on to the next story, and we won’t hear about the looting, crime, etc.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Proverbs17-12NLT
Posted on October 30, 2012 at 7:54pm
This is all obamas fault, he directed the storm towards DC cause his re election is fading fast. We all live in an obama economy.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- Tipdog
  Posted on October 31, 2012 at 5:51am
  I’ll agree with you if Palpatine signs an executive order postponing the election.
  
  Report this comment
SteveNC
Posted on October 30, 2012 at 7:49pm
My thoughts, hopes and prayers are with all who were affected by this powerful storm. A reminder of natures fury.
I sincerely hope that all of the folks (You know who you are) that made so many terrible remarks about the City of New Orleans after Katrina will now have an opportunity to rethink the ideas that some areas of our country should be abandoned because of their geography and potential to flood. It’s easier for areas where these horrible storms frequent to recover, but every so often we are reminded that a larger power is at work.

Good luck and gods speed to all affected by this terrible storm.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- SolitudeBliss
  Posted on October 30, 2012 at 8:09pm
  Hear hear !!!!!! Well said, and for those that were lucky enough to escape such a fate, thank your lucky stars and be grateful to be warm and dry. :-)
  
  Report this comment
ricanpatriot
Posted on October 30, 2012 at 7:44pm
I was born and raised in NYC, so my thoughts and prayers are with all my friends and family there, and anyone affected by this storm. Having said that, hurricanes are reason #1209 why I don’t miss it, and would never move back.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
bonesiii
Posted on October 30, 2012 at 7:20pm
“The moment when the rise of the ocean is slowed.” Echoes of the memory of a mere man infected with delusion.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Salamander
Posted on October 30, 2012 at 7:15pm
This is the first ‘barrier island’ storm to devastate large sections of waterfront real estate along the East Coast. Imagine if this storm rolled up the coastline as a Cat II or Cat III storm, nailing every seacoast community from mid-Florida through Maine! Rather it stayed a Cat I, albeit a very large one, almost 1,000 miles across, and flew like a boomerang, only hooking toward the coast as it approached the Philadelphia to New York corridor! The Breezy Point fire looked like the wildfires of California! Now, are we going to use this as a guide for the pros and cons of rational coastal/coastline development, or will it be ‘every man for himself’ in putting things back like they were, only denser, bigger, ‘better’? It will be interesting to see! Thank God for the U.S. Weather Service, which can be credited for keeping the focus on this storm, even as people discounted its ferocity!

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Just_Us2
Posted on October 30, 2012 at 7:13pm
When the sun goes down and the looters come out, prayer will be all they have to protect them as their gun rights have been denied.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- thegreatcarnac
  Posted on October 30, 2012 at 8:51pm
  You said a mouthful…very good post.
  
  Report this comment
ClaudeRains
Posted on October 30, 2012 at 6:50pm
If Bush was in office, Sandy would be his fault.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- RamonPreston
  Posted on October 30, 2012 at 7:05pm
  It is Bush’s fault. Ask Obama. I’ll bet these people wish they has Tesla’s wireless electricity about now.
  
  Report this comment
- lexington_green
  Posted on October 30, 2012 at 7:06pm
  now it’s romney’s as far as the MSM is concerned.
  
  Report this comment
- Saff SGT
  Posted on October 30, 2012 at 7:07pm
  I agree no Ray nagin
  
  Report this comment
john vincent
Posted on October 30, 2012 at 6:47pm
-Bless God while you help your neighbor-

-Recognize the goodness of GOd while surveying such devastation-

-Be thankful that a hurricane left you alone, while you pray for the afflicted-

-Understand the power of natures’ God, while you reject the notion of so called global warming-

-Be prepared to answer the infidel, atheist, agnostic, of all the baseless charges they will hurl, blaming God for a creation that has run amok.

-Witness the genuine humanity of men and women tirelessly working to help those trapped in water, fire, snow, or despair.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- Eternal
  Posted on October 30, 2012 at 10:40pm
  We do not help those who have rejected God.
  
  Report this comment
- john vincent
  Posted on October 30, 2012 at 11:54pm
  eternal-
  
  I’m certain I speak for thousands who know your head is in the sand. You are supposed to HELP those in need, WHILE there is a need, THEN preach if you are called. Your legalism blinds your eyes to common sense. You would probably not throw a raft to a man drowninbg….
  
  Ever heard of the lost coin?
  lost sheep?
  lost son?
  
  The GOOD Samaritan (He who chose not to go by the wayside of prejudice) bound up the wounds of a hurt man…paid for his care…and looked after his recovery….all the while keeping quiet as to preaching, for you see, there were a million words uttered in silence.
  
  Accept this mild correction, and go your way.
  
  Report this comment
Dont-hate-on-me-2
Posted on October 30, 2012 at 6:41pm
I posted earlier that my family and I have been and will keep praying for all those that are affected or have lost thier life. We also pray for our country every day. Don’t lose sight or be blinded by these events. They are the things that test mens (and womens) souls. God be with you.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
  Posted on October 30, 2012 at 6:46pm
  Indeed, the people come first and foremost; all of us should be united in prayer for their sake. God will take care of things true, we have our part in his plans to carry out as well.
  
  Report this comment
- Polarized America
  Posted on October 30, 2012 at 8:06pm
  I’m glad you came around from your first post & thought ” Pastor William ”
  I had a lot to say to you but i decided not to bring it to a public setting so i sat on them for an hour & a half…but i will say this….No Pastor can give a Pastor like yourself a bad name, only you can do that
  
  anyway… a long time ago i found this site & thought of you …enjoy
  http://www.googleartproject.com/collections/
  
  Report this comment
IMCHRISTIAN
Posted on October 30, 2012 at 6:33pm
My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of the dead and the injured. It was a horrible storm for all involved and also a prayer for those that have been displaced and need to repairs or have to start rebuilding again. May God be with you all.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on October 30, 2012 at 6:32pm
Expect at any time for Obama to cancel the elections.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- lexington_green
  Posted on October 30, 2012 at 6:54pm
  the minority voter suppression narrative is now being pushed hard by the msm to justify the riots and make it look like romney stole the election via the storm. jeez.
  
  Report this comment

It appears that you have Javascript Disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser preferences for a better user experience on TheBlaze. You can not comment without Javascript enabled.