A Personal Account of Hurricane Sandy from New Jersey

After wreaking havoc on the Northeastern seaboard, people from North Carolina up to Boston are cleaning up the mess left behind Hurricane Sandy. Houses, cars, whole towns have been devastated with destruction, damage, and lost lives. The storm did not pour too much water in the area, but the high winds which reached up to 100mph destroyed big chunks of our cities.

The only time I can remember this amount of chaos and confusion amongst people was during 9/11, where bridges, roads, etc were being fully shut down, cars diverted, etc.  I hope this post can shed some light to MuslimMatters readers and provide a brief glimpse into how Sandy wreaked mass havoc, chaos, and destruction in the North Jersey/New York City area.

• The storm has now been blamed for 157 deaths.

• Trees have been uprooted and thrown onto the street. Many streets are closed. I personally saw three trees just on my block which gridlocked drivers. Many trees came down on houses while bringing dozens of power lines with them!

The following video was taken by Sameer Sarmast of SameerEats.

• I took a drive on I-80 W from Teaneck to Paramus. Though the NYC skyline shined bright, every town I drove through was pitch black. As of now, most people (including me) have been out of power since Tuesday night. Close to 5 million people were reported to be out of power because of Hurricane damage. I personally saw the sky go green numerous times because of transformers blowing out as far as in Manhattan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYC7sV1Kj9o

• On the night Sandy touched down, ALL airports including Newark International, LaGuardia, and JFK grounded any and all incoming or outgoing flights. Newark and LaGuardia JUST opened up today after being closed for almost three days. These are some of the busiest airports in the country.

• All crossings between New York and New Jersey were closed. This included the George Washington Bridge, Lincoln and Holland tunnels, and the Tappan Zee Bridge. No one could enter or leave New York even if they had to.

• Little Ferry, NJ, a town only about 6 miles from where I live (Paramus) is 75% submerged in water. Boats are being used to rescue people from submerged houses and cars.

• Most gas stations throughout New York City and New Jersey are out of gas or have nonoperational pumps. This has led to dozens of cars piling up at gas stations to either fill up a tank of gas for their generators or simply get a full tank to go to work in their cars!

• Schools and businesses have been closed for a full week now. Most will be reopening in on Monday. Most tolls were suspended in the initial wake of Sandy.

Though the devastation and destruction has inconvenienced us, as a community in New Jersey and New York we are pulling through! I can list many more occurrences of the storm, but it’s important to know that we’ve had storms before, though not at this level, we have always rebuilt and come out on top. Please keep us in your prayers!

Editors Note: Nihal is an MM blogger who lives in New Jersey; he took refuge in the local masjid along with others in his community.  The Muslim community has been active in volunteering and relief efforts throughout the New York/New Jersey area. Zakat Foundation, ICNA Relief, Islamic Relief, ICNYU have all been working to get the people the aid that they need. On a happier note the Mayor of Teaneck, NJ , Muhammad Hameeduddin and his wife were blessed with a baby boy, Zain Hameeduddin, the night of the hurricane. All Power and Might belong to Allah.