recovery from Sandy

[Ralph D]

Hi everyone, I want to start off by saying I've never been through anything like this before my life. The storm affected millions of people all over the place. To start off with our shores or totally destroyed. I'm sure by now everyone's seen countless pictures videos of what's happened in New Jersey. I can't say enough number one thanking Jeff and all the thousands of cruise from power companies all over the country that have come to help. You cannot imagine how this storm has affected everyone here. From Cape May, to the entire end the state in Ramsey New Jersey it's just a total disaster. My entire childhood revolved around the shore, and I'm sure everyone has seen photos and TV broadcasts the shore is gone. It is totally surreal. My entire town is still without power, I just thank the heavens above and count all my blessings that my parents who live in toms River right outside the barrier islands are safe and sound pretty crazy they never even lost power, my sisters are also safe and my direct family and myself are okay to. Our house personally got hit pretty hard by the storm and I lost part of the backside of my roof but it could've been much worse, two houses up from me, a huge tree about 6 feet wide and about 100 feet tall cut my neighbors house in too when out of nowhere the tree was pulled out of the ground like a dish towel and fell directly down the middle of his house. Thank God the family at the time was in their basement and no one was hurt. So even though there's no power, supplies of every kind are short especially gas, just today I went to one of the few gas stations even opened in my county and sat on a four hour line to get gas for my car and my generator. we all count our blessings. things will be rebuilt, the Jersey shore will once again be put back together maybe it won't be the way I remember it but one day it'll be a great place for kids and families to come to. I could go on and on but just wanted to take a second, and let everybody know I'm okay and a big thanks to people like Jeff and the thousands of his coworkers I know we will shortly be powered once again,

As for my Christmas display, now after all this I'm not real sure what I will be able to do. First I need to get power back, which should be by the latest I'm hoping Tuesday or Wednesday of next week and then I have to get my roof fixed. I will know more over the next several days, I personally feel I really need to put up my display this year just for the mere fact we all have gone through way too much over the last few days and I feel in a small way I can help even if its just for a few minutes by putting the joy of the holidays into peoples hearts. I don't know that's just me. Even if my roof does not get fixed in time I might have to edit my display a little bit just so I can get it up and maybe not put so much on the roof. I'm working on some ideas now.

All the best everybody!

Ralph

[MCas4380]

Ralph glad to hear your OK. hang in there it will be better fast.

[scubado]

Sounds like you have a good fighting spirit. Our thoughts and prayers are with you. I'm still trying to get a hold of my mom in Allentown, PA to get an update on how everyone is doing.

[Orville]

Glad to hear you fared well Ralph. Now you know what we go through down here in Florida when we get them. Our worst disaster was 2004 when we had 3 of them come in here back to back. But it only takes one to do some heavy and severe damage.

Even though Sandy didn't directly hit Florida, our coastline and some homes decks and rear stairs over in Melbourne Beach and some Florida Eastern coastal areas were completely ripped out and destroyed by the winds they got over there. So from the damage to a large part of Florida's East Coast here they have been calling it a disaster and asking for Federal funds to help rebuild and repair a lot of the damages here as well.

Sandy really put some issues on a lot of folks along the American East Coastline, as well as some other areas.

So good Luck with your display Ralph and I hope you get everything back to somewhat of a normal semblance soon.

Edited November 2, 2012 by Orville

[Ralph D]

Thanks everyone. I just pray for the thousands of folks who have lost so much more and wish I could do more to help. but i know I need to leave it in gods hands, and also to the folks who know what they are doing. so i kind of feel like George Bailey in a little way,

[wrm]

Ralph if I lived near you I would come and help you put up your display

[scubado]

I was able to get a hold of my Mom Saturday morning. They only got about 2-3 inches of rain, but wind gusts of 80+mph. They made it through fine, only had to throw out a dozen eggs.

[GS]

Hang in there Ralph, glad to hear you're ok!

Glenn

[dkoehler42]

Power is slowly making it's way back across Long Island, but there is a tremendous amount of damage.

[Ralph D]

thank you everybody, first thing I would like to say is of course I'm worried about my family... Who are all perfectly fine thank God. I'm more concerned for what I can do for others, whether it be food needs clothing whatever it might take and whatever I can to do. The only way we are all going to make it through this devastation is by working together being there for each other and doing whatever it takes to help. And that's what I'm doing right now. Here is a quick note to everybody before I go outside and hunker down for the next battle between me and mother nature. Got our power back yesterday thank God, homeowner insurance inspector was here the day before yesterday and FEMA showed up yesterday. The inspector trying to break the ice with me said oh the front of your roof looks great where is the damage, then I escorted him behind the house to the backside and I said taDa! within about 10 min. he found that I had an I-beam that was cracked, and he said to me the entire roof had to be replaced, my first thought was holy crap. My second thought was am I going to have to cancel my Christmas display. Long story short. My sister had her roof replaced recently and used a fantastic contractor who I called immediately. Unlike all contractors I've ever dealt with he was here within one hour. Put a tarp over the bad part of my roof took a look at all the damage and I got an estimate the e-mail this morning. I talked to the insurance agent again this morning because I was a little confused on how this would work. So even though after a long conversation I still did not know what the insurance company was going to grant me for helping me with the damage to my roof, the inspectors said you need to have this work done as soon as possible. Now back to the rooffer, I think Santa is looking out for me. The roofer had a job that he had scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday reschedule and has an opening for this coming Tuesday and Wednesday so he says he's stopping by tonight to explain to me everything is going to be done how it's going to work and also show my wife and I some samples of shingles for us to choose from. so I'm still in a state of disbelief, but if everything goes well it looks like my home will be repaired by possibly Thursday of next week, which only pushes back my display set up by four days, which with everything we are all going through is great news.

Over the last several days leading up to the hurricane my wife and I were in heavy conversations with each other about the pluses and negatives of even doing the display this year. My father's health, my wife's health, lack of help this year, not being able to afford a lot of new lights that I need and so on. So for the last few days I was actually feeling okay about taking a year off. But then as I was out and about talking to people in town and friends who ice have stopped and talked to even people that were totally devastated in my town by trees blowing through their homes with nothing, said to me they would wish I would reconsider, they all had the same point in mind that my display makes children and adults of all ages feel-good, brings them a little happiness. Even when I went to vote last night one of the people behind the counters was a good friend of mine and asked me about the display now keep in mind that was probably a couple of hundred people in the room last night at the point I was there. I told my good friend does a really good chance I wasn't doing the display and I was more focused on what I could do to help people in town. Within about a minute and a half people were saying you're that Christmas guy you have to do the display it brings everybody such joy and so many other great comments and I immediately started getting stories from families in the room telling me what it does for them and their children and now in particular because of everything that's happened they would love to see it more than ever. So for a few minutes I felt like a politician, I had a circle of about 40 to 50 people all standing around me telling me their stories it was unbelievable I was really taken back by all to the point where my eyes were filling up. I knew then that this was it, this is the way I could help the community in some little way.on top of me helping friends and people in need by physically going out and helping this is what I have to do. So at this point my wife thinks I'm nuts. But she totally understands. This is my way of giving back, as crazy as it sounds I am more excited than ever. So my display might not be up by Thanksgiving, but my display is going up, if my contractor falls behind and doesn't get things done on time it's okay I will edit my display. If I get no extract help from people in town or friends I understand. It doesn't matter to me anymore I just want to help in my special little way. So Christmas on Manhattan will be on again this year to what degree I have no idea. But it's going up! I wish everyone in our awesome little community the very best, for those of you in New Jersey or any of the coastline areas that were touched by the super storm we are all praying for you and hoping God speed that you get all the help you need. I've got a lot to do all by myself so I don't know how often I will touch base with everybody. But understand all the kind words I've gotten e-mails I've received and then what happened yesterday means the world to me.

A special thank you to Jeff! again, I know you're working your absolute hardest to help people in your area and the surrounding areas in New Jersey I have nothing but respect for you and all your cruise no matter how many people start to complain because they're frustrated trust me we all know how hard you guys are all working right now. Thank you buddy you're absolutely the best!

So I'm on a mission, I will start doing hopefully the bushes on Monday and work around the contractors when they come as best as I can, my real goal is to have everything up as close as I can to Thanksgiving and if it doesn't happen that way it's okay. I will be back and update as much as I can. Talk to everybody soon and stay safe out there!

Ralph

[k6ccc]

Ralph, I'm glad that things are working out for you on getting the storm damage repaired. Sounds like you are going to get off far better than many others.

As for the community support for you getting your display back up this year, I fully understand. After any disaster, having something that is back to "Normal" is huge. Even if it's something that really has no physical benefit (such as getting utilities restore, clearing roads, removing debris, etc), the emotional benefit of having SOMETHING that is back to normal is very reassuring. You may find that members of the community that you may not even know will see you out doing the setup and stop to offer to help. Take them up on the offer - even it's just moving material around or steady a tall ladder while put something up. Not only will it give you some grunt labor, but it will give them a sense of accomplishment towards "Normal".