Hurricane Sandy - One Week Later – More than $210 Million Approved in Individual Assistance

One week ago today, millions of Americans from North Carolina to Maine braced for Hurricane Sandy.  For more than 12 hours, hurricane and tropical storm force winds, storm surge, and flooding impacted 12 states; and more than eight million people lost power. Transportation systems in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Washington, DC came to a halt, and more than 12,000 commercial flights were grounded. And for the first time since 1888, the New York Stock Exchange was closed for two consecutive days because of a natural disaster. But we are a resilient nation:

As of 3 p.m. Monday, November 5, more than 234,000 individuals in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey have registered for assistance, and more than $210 million has been approved in FEMA Assistance. Individuals and businesses should visit www.disasterassistance.gov for more information on how to register with FEMA.  

• Disaster Recovery Centers continue to open in the hardest hit areas. Twelve Disaster Recovery Centers are open in New York, two in New Jersey and three in Connecticut and more continue to open.

• To find a disaster recovery center location, check out the disaster recovery center locator at FEMA.gov/disaster-recovery-centers or by mobile phone at m.fema.gov.   
• To search for emergency shelters operated by the American Red Cross, you can visit the Red Cross website.

• In support of New York and New Jersey, FEMA has transferred resources such as food, water, and fuel to the states to distribute to individuals at Points of Distribution (POD) sites. These POD sites can be located by visiting: http://www.nyc.gov/html/index.html ; www.nyc.gov/html/misc/html/2012/foodandwater.html ; http://nj211.org/hurricane.cfm ; http://statenislandusa.com/ ; http://www.governor.ct.gov  and http://www.governor.wv.gov/Pages/StormUpdate.aspx .

• Specialists from the state, FEMA and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) are on hand to answer questions and provide information on the types of assistance available to survivors.

• FEMA has activated, at the request of the states, its Transitional Sheltering Assistance program for New Jersey and New York. This program allows eligible survivors who cannot return to their homes due to damages caused by Hurricane Sandy to stay in participating hotels or motels until more suitable housing accommodations are available.  

Looking ahead to the winter storm forecasted to hit the East Coast Wednesday evening, FEMA is urging residents to be safe as cold weather temperatures threaten areas impacted by the Hurricane Sandy.  The risk of fires increases with the use of supplemental heating, such as space heaters and any fuel-burning appliances in the home, including furnaces and fireplaces, are a potential carbon monoxide source. Ensure both smoke and carbon monoxide alarms are working and if using a generator keep it as far away from your home as possible – away from doors, windows or vents that could allow deadly carbon monoxide into the home.

Sandy as she hit the coast creating record surge levels on the Jersey shore and Long Island. Inland rain was less than for last year's Hurricane Irene. Sandy was met on the west by a winter storm and thus dumped significant snow in West Virginia. A week later, the area was hit by a Nor'easter, which interrupted recovery operations and caused additional power outages, while dropping temperatures to dangerous levels for those without power.

Requests for assistance in response to Hurricane Sandy can be found on the Current Requests page. Additional resources have been volunteered.  See the Resources Collected page.

Response Notes for Hurricane Sandy have begun to come in. North Carolina was first to file.  Reports have been received also from New York, and two from states outside the impact area offering assistance (Indiana and Illinois). Extracts of these notes will be posted on individual state-experience pages. 

• North Carolina Experience
• New York
• Indiana
• Illinois

If you are responding to - Sandy, please send in a Response Note. 
Select Hurricanes 2012 as the event name.

FEMA got out ahead of the storm in the Disrict of Columbia and the following states (except West Virginia). The President signed Emergency Declarations for DC and states marked (EM).

• Connecticut (EM-3353)  
• Delaware (EM-3357)
• District of Columbia (EM-3352)
• Maine
• Maryland (EM-3349)
• Massachusetts (EM-3350)
• New Hampshire (EM-3360)
• New Jersey (EM-3354)
• New York (EM-3351)
• North Carolina
• Pennsylvania (EM-3356)
• Rhode Island (EM-3355)
• Vermont
• Virginia (EM 3359)
• West Virginia (EM 3358)

November 14 - EDEN's Flood NEIL hosted a second conference call for delegates in affected states. The first call was held November 5. EDEN has created a "Sandy Recovery" collaboration space for document sharing and communication within the recovery group. All EDEN delegates can access the space; only members of the group can contribute. Login is required.

October 28 - EDEN ECOP Liaison, Paul Coreil, offered assistance to directors and program administrators of Extension programs in the affected states. The specific, and unusual, offer was for EDEN to create back-up capability for critial web-based communications and outreach resources for each state, to be used if the member's websites were taken off line by the storm.

EDEN initiated tracking of Sandy on October 23 and newly-installed EDEN Chair, Rick Atterberry, sent a first all-delegates alert on October 26. A second alert was sent October 27 which included the names of the states in which FEMA has initiated response activities:  Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Virginia. Delegates are encouraged to submit Response Notes. 

Flooding is a major concern in the affected areas. See the Floods and Flooding Topic page for information on flood impacts and additional resources.