Halloween canceled, Marathon canceled, NYC/NJ in a Serious State

I have been procrastinating getting back on the blog because NYC has never ever been in this kind of state, super-storm Sandy kicked our ass six-ways-to-sunday and I'm just in shock. I try to never write about scary or sad things on my blog but this is my home and this is the second natural disaster I've been in 2 years. You have to understand I grew up in NYC and have seen it go through a lot of bad and good and this might be the worst. In the history of this city the power and subways have never been out of service for this long. The subway tunnels were flooded with water. NYU hospital lost power and patients had to be transferred. Breezy Point was flooded then burnt to the ground, 111 houses lost. Staten Island is devastated with the highest death toll. People have been without food, water, power and heat and the temperatures are starting to be truly Fall temperatures. The list is massive of the damage Sandy caused and the loss of life keeps rising.
Across the river, our neighboring state, New Jersey had the largest loss of power, in their history also, over a million homes. Only 25% has returned. My parents, sister and friends have been without power for almost a week and its getting really cold. A dear friend since childhood had her home ruined and had to make a mad dash with her small children and husband away from the rushing waters of the Hudson river coming down her street the night of storm. She was originally told they needn't evacuate, but she prepared bags and the first floor of her home anyway. During dinner she had the fire department knock on her door and told them to evacuate to shuttle buses waiting down the street, the flood was coming.
Here in Brooklyn I am very fortunate to live on high ground and the floods didn't reach us, our neighbors in Red Hook weren't as fortunate and they had terrible flooding and so many people lost their businesses.
The Mayor had enough sense to cancel the Halloween parade and now the NYC Marathon, I know canceling the marathon was a hard choice but a necessary one. People need all the help they can get and don't need that help diverted to a marathon or parade. There are also lots of animals that have lost their homes or have been transferred from wrecked shelters to NYC and are on kill lists so please please if you can foster a dog or a cat please go here for more info