What a relief that the majority of colleges and universities in the mid-Atlantic states, in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut, that lost power due to Hurricane Sandy, and cancelled classes last week, have had their electric power restored and have completed their cleanup operations so that classes will be resuming tomorrow.
My daughter has returned to her college and was "rescued" by relatives who live in New Jersey but who have, yet, to have power restored to their homes and .have been sharing a generator, which they purchased at a Home Depot two days after they lost power. Their neighbors have been cooking on grills and having potluck suppers together and making the most of candlelight.
Now, the temperatures are dropping, so I hope that the electric power gets restored to the hundreds of thousands still without power, and have suffered immensely for six days and nights since the outages, coupled with devastated infrastructure from roads to distribution centers, have resulted in gas shortages with our relatives having to drive daily to Pennsylvania to fuel up a pickup truck and to obtain fuel for the generator.
Now, to add more pain and misery to the affected areas, there is a nor'easter forecast to arrive in the middle of this coming week as is being reported on weather.com
I would like to thank all our friends and colleagues as well as relatives who reached out to us during this time -- even from as far as Europe!
As for all those left homeless because of Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath from the flooding to the fires, know that you are in our prayers and we hope that the donations will help you to rebuild and to recover.