…and NY and Connecticut and…the list goes on.  The pictures of the banshee storm Sandy from space said it all:  don’t mess with Mother Nature.  One scientist with nothing better to do estimated that the storm contained the equivalent of 10,000 of the a-bombs dropped on Japan at the end of WWII.  That impersonal and frightening number can’t begin to match the scenes of damage and destruction so tragically affecting people on a very personal level.

The headline of this post was borrowed from the headline of New York’s Daily News in a special edition filled with disaster photos of the tri-state area.  Probably the worst photo, displayed under a similar headline with NJ replaced by NY, was a view of Breezy Point in Brooklyn where fire, whipped along by winds gusting at sixty plus miles per hour, destroyed over 100 homes, creating a scene reminiscent of Dresden after the allies bombed it in WWII.  The next worst pic on my list was a water tanker lifted up by storm surge and deposited on land in Staten Island, silent testimony to a hurricane’s power.

This was one for the ages, folks.  One positive point: people tended to forget about the election and polarized politics for maybe 24 hours or so.  Even our acerbic NJ Governor Christie complimented Mr. Obama’s leadership on Fox News.  He also reportedly said, in response to a question on whether he would also take Mr. Romney on a tour of the disaster zone after Mr. Obama, that this disaster is beyond presidential politics.  Mr. Obama, on the fly-around and walk-around tour, also complimented Mr. Christie.  Indeed, this disaster is beyond presidential politics.  Federal forms were filled out viva voz, for example, and disaster zones declared.  Mr. Christie, in one speech, however, continued a long-standing feud with Atlantic City Mayor Langford, but that’s state politics, not national.  In Christie’s defense, I understand he set the feud aside and sent people to rescue Atlantic City hangers-on who had taken refuge in shelters there that subsequently flooded.

Some deplorable events also occurred.  First, some stupid were acting in a stupid fashion.  There were the usual idiots who ignored evacuation orders and then found themselves stranded as the storm surge rose.  Some said with a tired voice, “I rode out Irene etc. etc….”  This storm was unlike any other storm in the last 100 years.  NYC was flooded.  The Lincoln Tunnel was the only one functioning.  Subway tunnels were filled.  Hoboken, NJ, across the Hudson, faced and is facing flood waters with raw sewage.  Water filled tunnels in Manhattan and flowed into Brooklyn.

There are always stupid people, of course.  To the guy on the jet ski off Long Branch, Long Island: what were you thinking?  I would have let you drown, but I was afraid you had already procreated and some kid would miss his stupid dad.  Otherwise, let Darwin step in and improve the species.  Our first responders are more generous than I am, of course.  That’s the most deplore thing of all, that these good people risk life and limb to save stupid people who put themselves into harm’s way and end up doing the same to the rescuers.

Another deplorable thing:  People who commute to Manhattan to work every day couldn’t do so on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday.  Pox on those employers who will not pay those employees for those days.  This is the worst kind of capitalism.  There should be a law on the books that fines those employers big time.  The events surrounding Sandy is a national disaster by anyone’s definition.  That employers adopt such extreme measures against their employees is inconceivable—yet it has happened.

Equally egregious are the actions of a few lowlifes who take advantage of the storm to jack up prices when there are shortages; offer services they’re not qualified to give; take advantage of people, especially the elderly and the infirm; and, in the worst case, loot establishments and houses no longer guarded or protected by alarms.  These people aren’t just stupid—they’re evil and don’t deserve to be called human beings.

That’s my op-ed on Sandy and her associated destruction.  Other op-eds will be intermittent over the next few weeks.  Our utility company, PSE&G, promises to have our power back on within 15 days.  For people living outside the tri-state area, with friends and relatives in that area, check on them, but get discouraged if you can’t connect.  It’s going to be a long while before things are up and running again.  Unfortunately, as in all natural disasters, this area will never be the same.

And so it goes…

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