Post Hurricane Sandy Post
[AP's State-by-State Look at Superstorm's Effects]
AP's State-by-State Look at Superstorm's Effects
Posted Thursday, Nov. 01, 2012
The massive storm that started out as Hurricane Sandy slammed into the East Coast and morphed into a huge and problematic system, killing at least 75 people in the United States. Power outages now stand at more than 4.6 million homes and businesses, down from a peak of 8.5 million. Here's a snapshot of what is happening, state by state.
CONNECTICUT
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and other state, federal and local officials from Connecticut are scheduled to meet with U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Thursday to review damage to the state caused by Superstorm Sandy. Deaths: 3. Power outages: 345,000, down from a peak of more than 620,000.
DELAWARE
Governor lifts state of emergency and authorizes National Guard to continue cleanup support. Shelters close. Deaths: none. Power outages: 500, down from more than 45,000.
KENTUCKY
The last remnants of Sandy drop more snow in the mountains on top of a foot that already fell. Deaths: none. Power outages: 3,000.
MAINE
Amtrak's Downeaster resumes service. Governor sends forest rangers to New York City to help with recovery there. Deaths: none. Power outages: 3,300, down from more than 90,000.
MARYLAND
Residents return to polls after storm forced cancellation of early voting for two days. Deaths: 3. Power outages: 47,345, down from 290,000.
MASSACHUSETTS
Storm shifted a dead whale that had been left to rot on the shoreline to a spot where scientists can now recover the bones before it is buried. Deaths: none. Power outages: 19,500, down from 400,000.
MICHIGAN
Cargo shipping on the Great Lakes resumes after high waves subside. Deaths: none. Power outages: 10,000, down from 154,000.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Surprise "microburst" from vestiges of storm topples pines onto lake cottages. Trick-or-treating postponed to Sunday. Deaths: 1. Power outages: 16,000, down from 210,000.
NEW JERSEY
Debate rages about whether to rebuild delicate but popular barrier islands a day after President Barack Obama tours them by air. National Guard delivers food and water to people in flooded Hoboken. Deaths: 14. Power outages: 1.76 million, down from 2.7 million.
NEW YORK
New York City subways partially reopen, but streets are still choked with traffic. LaGuardia Airport set to reopen; the city's other two major airports already started limited flights. It could be days before power is fully restored. Deaths: 30, including 22 in New York City. Power outages: 1.6 million, down from 2.2 million.
NORTH CAROLINA
Sea search continues for the captain of a tall ship that sank. Deaths: 2. Power outages: mostly restored.
OHIO
Cleanup begins after another day of steady rains and gusty winds that led to flood warnings along Lake Erie. Deaths: 2. Power outages: 100,000, down from more than 250,000.
PENNSYLVANIA
Utility crews struggle to restore power in state where most damage was driven by wind, not water. Deaths: 12. Power outages: 525,000, down from 1.2 million.
RHODE ISLAND
Power outages and impassable roads mean some residents may not be able to return home for days in some coastal communities. Deaths: none. Power outages: 25,000, down from more than 122,000.
TENNESSEE
Elizabethton businesses close off a street and cover sidewalks for trick-or-treaters as snow falls in mountainous areas. Deaths: none. Power outages: minimal.
VERMONT
Amtrak works to restore service to the state after tracks were damaged in other areas. Deaths: none. Power outages: mostly restored, down from more than 10,000.
VIRGINIA
National Guard winds down most recovery operations. U.S. Navy sends three Virginia-based ships toward the Northeast in case they're needed. Deaths: 2. Power outages: 9,300, down from more than 180,000.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Early voting resumes after being shut down for two days, and hours are extended. Federal workers return, National Mall reopens. Deaths: none. Power outages: mostly restored, down from 25,000.
WEST VIRGINIA
Last remnants of Sandy drop more snow; some areas have seen nearly 3 feet. Eight buildings collapse in Nicholas County; no injuries reported. Deaths: 6. Power outages: 154,000, down from about 271,000.
[Information and Resources]
-Red Cross Safe and Well
-Links to each state's Emergency Management Agencies
-Disaster Aid Programs
There are three major categories of disaster aid:
Individual Assistance
Immediately after the declaration, disaster workers arrive and set up a central field office to coordinate the recovery effort. A toll-free telephone number is published for use by affected residents and business owners in registering for assistance. Disaster Recovery Centers also are opened where disaster victims can meet with program representatives and obtain information about available aid and the recovery process.
Search for your Disaster Recovery Center
Disaster aid to individuals generally falls into the following categories:
-Disaster Housing may be available for up to 18 months, using local resources, for displaced persons whose residences were heavily damaged or destroyed. Funding also can be provided for housing repairs and replacement of damaged items to make homes habitable.
-Disaster Grants, are available to help meet other serious disaster related needs and necessary expenses not covered by insurance and other aid programs. These may include replacement of personal property, and transportation, medical, dental and funeral expenses.
-Low-Interest Disaster Loans are available after a disaster for homeowners and renters from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) to cover uninsured property losses. Loans may be available for repair or replacement of homes, automobiles, clothing or other damaged personal property. Loans are also available to businesses for property loss and economic injury.
-Other Disaster Aid Programs include crisis counseling, disaster-related unemployment assistance, legal aid and assistance with income tax, Social Security and Veteran's benefits. Other state or local help may also be available.
Assistance Process -- After the application is taken, the damaged property is inspected to verify the loss. If approved, an applicant will soon receive a check for rental assistance or a grant. Loan applications require more information and approval may take several weeks after application. The deadline for most individual assistance programs is 60 days following the President's major disaster declaration.
Audits are done later to ensure that aid went to only those who were eligible and that disaster aid funds were used only for their intended purposes. These federal program funds cannot duplicate assistance provided by other sources such as insurance.
After a major disaster, FEMA tries to notify all disaster victims about the available aid programs and urge them to apply. The news media are encouraged to visit a Disaster Recovery Center, meet with disaster officials, and help publicize the disaster aid programs and the toll-free teleregistration number.
Apply for Individual Assistance
Public Assistance
Public Assistance is aid to state or local governments to pay part of the costs of rebuilding a community's damaged infrastructure. Generally, public assistance programs pay for 75 per cent of the approved project costs. Public Assistance may include debris removal, emergency protective measures and public services, repair of damaged public property, loans needed by communities for essential government functions and grants for public schools.
Learn more about Public Assistance
Hazard Mitigation
Disaster victims and public entities are encouraged to avoid the life and property risks of future disasters. Examples include the elevation or relocation of chronically flood-damaged homes away from flood hazard areas, retrofitting buildings to make them resistant to earthquakes or strong winds, and adoption and enforcement of adequate codes and standards by local, state and federal government. FEMA helps fund damage mitigation measures when repairing disaster-damaged structures and through the Hazard Mitigation.
Learn more about Hazard Mitigation Assistance
APPLYING FOR ASSISTANCE
There are three ways to apply for assistance:
Apply Online at DisasterAssistance.gov
Apply via a smartphone at m.fema.gov
Apply by Phone:
Call (800) 621-3362.
Call TTY (800) 462-7585 for people with speech or hearing disabilities.
FEMA's Help After a Disaster Guide
[Is your home damaged?]
-Housing Resources
-Community Resources
-After the disaster, there are many things to consider. Is your home safe to enter? How do you get financial assistance for temporary housing or for repairing and rebuilding your home? How do you save and clean up your possessions? These resources can help:
Being Safe
-Recovering from Disaster - A great overview on how to get started, FEMA offers some general advice on steps to take after disaster strikes in order to begin getting your home, your community, and your life back to normal.
-Fact Sheets on Natural Disaster Recovery: Flood Cleanup - Occupational Safety & Health Administration has produced a fact sheet for cleanup workers that provides good information if you perform any clean up activities on your own home.
-Prevent Illness and Injuries After a Hurricane or Flood - The CDC provides helpful tips for keeping safe when returning to your home.
-Returning Home Safely - General tips, things to consider before you enter your home provided by FEMA.
Financial & Insurance Support
To qualify for Federal Housing Assistance, homeowners must prove that they owned and occupied their home at the time of the disaster and that the damage was disaster related. Renters must prove that they lived in the disaster-damaged unit at the time of the disaster.
-Tips for Filing an Insurance Claim - FEMA has suggestions on how to make the insurance claims process go more smoothly.
-File a Flood Claim - If you have flood insurance from the National Flood Insurance Program, they explain how to file your claim. You can also contact an agent by calling 1-800-427-2419.
-Mortgage Insurance for Disaster Victims - Section 203(h). The Section 203(h) program allows the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) to insure mortgages made by qualified lenders to victims of a major disaster who have lost their homes and are in the process of rebuilding or buying another home.This program can help individuals purchase a new home or rebuild their house if they are victimized by a major disaster. While HUD does not lend money directly to buyers to rebuild or purchase, FHA-approved lenders make loans through this special insurance program.
-Disaster Housing Resources - FEMA has information on resources towards repair of your home and temporary housing.
-How to Get Housing Help - There are many resources available to help you find, and pay for, housing. This list of resources produced by HUD will help you find housing services and financing.
-Resources for Consumers for Disaster Recovery and Building Reconstruction - A list of resources from the Department of Energy to help you rebuild a home that's safer, more durable and disaster-resistant, and can help you save on energy bills, too.
-Disaster Assistance - The SBA provides various types of loans for homeowners and renters in the event of a disaster. This includes physical disaster loans, economic injury loans, military reservists' loans, and home and personal property loans. Anyone with questions about disaster loans can call the SBA Customer Service Center at 1-800-659-2955.
-Look for Benefits - Search for benefits using Benefits.gov, the official benefits website of the U.S. government, with information on over 1,000 benefit and assistance programs.
-Disaster Relief Loans - Another resource to check is GovLoans.gov, designed to be your gateway to government loan information. They also provide information in Spanish at GovLoans.gov - Spanish portal.
Clean Up the Damage
-Disaster Recovery and Building Reconstruction - The Department of Energy provides useful clean-up and recovery information including tips for cost-effective, durable, and energy-efficient building reconstruction.
-Wet Recovery - The National Park Service has a number of documents on how to salvage your belongings after flood or water damage.
-Saving Family Treasures Guidelines - Guidelines for the care of some of the more common materials to be affected by a natural disaster or other emergency are provided by the National Archives.
-Dealing with Air, Water and Land Contamination. From the EPA, information about keeping food and water safe, private water wells, mold, debris and other environmental issues that arise when a disaster happens.
-Flood Cleanup - The EPA has publications discussing the air quality issues of mold and how to clean up effectively after a flood.
-Rebuilding Resources - Resources to clean your home and rebuilding smarter and safer from FEMA.
-Salvage - Information on how to salvage household items from fire and water damage from the U.S. Fire Administration.
-Replacing Your Official Documents
[For those who want to help]
-For Those Who Want to Help
-Cash is best: the best way to support survivors of Hurricane Sandy is to make a financial contribution to trusted organization.
-Give blood: numerous blood drives have been canceled as a result of the storm and the Red Cross has a need for blood donations. To schedule a blood donation or for more information about giving blood or platelets, visit redcrossblood.org or call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767).
Donating and volunteering responsibly
-Cash is the most efficient method of donating - Cash offers voluntary agencies the most flexibility in obtaining the most-needed resources and pumps money into the local economy to help businesses recover. Remember, unsolicited donated goods such as used clothing, miscellaneous household items, and mixed or perishable foodstuffs require helping agencies to redirect valuable resources away from providing services to sort, package, transport, warehouse, and distribute items that may not meet the needs of disaster survivors.
-Donate through a trusted organization - At the national level, many voluntary-, faith- and community-based organizations are active in disasters, and are trusted ways to donate to disaster survivors. In addition to the national members, each state has its own list of voluntary organizations active in disasters. If you’d like to donate or volunteer to assist those affected by Sandy, these organizations are the best place to start.
-Affiliate with existing non-profit organizations before coming to the disaster area. Immediately following a disaster, a community can become easily overwhelmed by the amount of generous people who want to help. Contacting and affiliating with an established organization will help to ensure that you are appropriately trained to respond in the most effective way.
-Be safe. Do not self deploy until a need has been identified and the local community impacted has requested support. Wait until it is safe to travel to volunteer sites and opportunities have been identified. Once assigned a position, make sure you have been given an assignment and are wearing proper safety gear for the task.
-Be patient. Recovery lasts a lot longer than the media attention. There will be volunteer needs for many months, often years, after the disaster - especially when the community enters the long-term recovery period.
Volunteer
Volunteer with a recognized organization involved in disaster response and recovery prior to the next disaster event.
Volunteer with a non-profit organization and be trained before the next event to find meaningful volunteer opportunities following a disaster.
There are many organizations and faith-based groups in your community that have active disaster programs and need volunteers
These groups offer a wide range of services following a disaster:
www.nvoad.org
www.serve.gov
www.citizencorps.gov
www.networkforgood.org
Donate Cash
A financial contribution to a recognized disaster relief organization is the most effective donation to make. When the public supports these voluntary organizations with financial contributions, it helps ensure a steady flow of important services to the people in need after a disaster.
-Most needed and the most efficient way of helping those impacted by disaster.
-Allow voluntary organizations to fund response and recovery efforts, obtain goods and services locally, and provide direct financial assistance to disaster survivors to meet their own needs.
-Make a financial contribution to the voluntary organization of your choice.
-If you need help in determining who to give to, National Voluntary Organization Active in Disaster website has a list of major Non-profits that are active in disaster work or you can make your offer through the National Donations Management Network.
Donate Goods
Confirm what is needed BEFORE taking action!
-Donate in-kind goods that are specifically requested or needed by recognized organizations.
-Unsolicited donated goods such as used clothing, miscellaneous household items, and mixed or perishable foodstuffs require helping agencies to redirect valuable resources away from providing services to sort, package, transport, warehouse, and distribute items that may not meet the needs of disaster survivors.
-Confirm the needs by contacting the voluntary organization of your choice before starting to collect.
-If you have a quantity of a given item or class of item to donate, and you need help in determining which organizations to give to, you can make your offer through the National Donations Management Network.
For More Information
-When disaster strikes… How to donate or volunteer successfully!
-Managing Spontaneous Volunteers in Times of Disaster: The Synergy of Structure and Good Intentions
NVOAD - National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster
National Donations Management Network
Volunteer to Help
New York:
New York Cares
Long Island Volunteer Center - Important note:
If you are not already affiliated and trained by American Red Cross, Salvation Army and CERT, please do not attempt to just show up at a location to help. First responders are specially trained for initial efforts. After the first responders handle the immediate situation, the disaster relief agencies evaluate the specific needs for specific locations. They in turn will notify LIVC and specific volunteer positions will be posted.
As community needs are surfaced, volunteer opportunities will be identified by organizations that need support. You will be contacted once these needs have been expressed. Please be patient with the process as needs assessments are now being confirmed. Thank you for your willingness to donate one of life's most precious assets, your time, to help build community and help your neighbors in need, especially during this unprecedented situation.
Please check back on this page periodically, and once Disaster Recovery volunteer opportunities have been identified, we will feature them here on the home page with links so that you can sign up to help.
For now, it will help us if you fill out your volunteer skills profile so we will know more about you and how you can help.
New Jersey:
Jersey Cares
1-800-JERSEY7
Rhode Island:
Serve Rhode Island
Massachusetts:
Boston Cares
[Your Job & Finances]
Your Finances:
-HUD Disaster Recovery Assistance - HUD can provide critical housing and community development resources to aid disaster recovery and has Disaster Recovery Teams located in offices throughout the country.
-Disaster Assistance - The Small Business Administration provides various types of loans for businesses of all sizes and homeowners and renters in the event of a disaster.
-More Tips from the FDIC: Replacing IDs, Checks, Cards and Other "Things" Financial - If you are forced to evacuate without IDs, credit and debit cards, checks and other documents that may be needed to conduct your everyday finances, here are some tips to begin the process of re-establishing your financial life.
-Helpful Banking Tips from the FDIC for Hurricane Victims - Produced by FDIC during Hurricane Katrina and is still applicable today, this Web site provides telephone numbers on how to access your bank accounts, lost records, ATM cards, direct deposits or how to reach your bank.
-Tax Relief in Disaster Situations - Information from the IRS about special tax law provisions may help you recover financially from the impact of a disaster, especially when the president declares your location to be a major disaster area. - NOTE - the relief hasn't been announced yet, so check back later for updates.
-Disaster Assistance and Emergency Relief for Individuals and Businesses - Special tax law provisions may help taxpayers and businesses recover financially from the impact of a disaster, especially when the president declares their location to be a major disaster area.
-Recovering Financially - From the American Red Cross, a comprehensive list of action items to pull your financial life back together.
Your Job and Pension
-Disaster Unemployment Insurance - Disaster Unemployment Assistance provides financial assistance to individuals whose employment or self-employment has been lost or interrupted as a direct result of a major disaster declared by the President of the United States. If you lost work because of the disaster, you may qualify for DUA.
-State One-Stop Centers - From the Department of Labor, a link to state information for job seekers who may have lost their job either temporarily or permanently.
-Benefits.gov - Your benefits connection. Benefits.gov is designed to provide information on over 1,000 benefit and assistance programs.
-Contact Information for Employee Benefit Plan Sponsors Located in the Hurricane Disaster Areas - The Employee Benefits Security Administration developed this database to provide up-to-date contact information for those benefit plan sponsors whose operations have been disrupted by the disaster.
-Small Business Administration
-Business/Farm Resources
[Coping]
-Your Mental and Physical Health After a Disaster
-Coping with Disaster
-Helping Children Cope
-Resources for Children and Schools
-Helping Pets
How is everyone doing?