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Ilya Galak, Xenia Grubstein
Mira Saikina, in her 60s, is an administrator at a medical office. She lives on Oceanside Avenue with her husband and her dog. Saikina said the authorities performed well during and after the hurricane, but that they could have thought more about elderly and disabled people.
Ilya Galak, Xenia Grubstein
The Russian experience of preparing for natural disasters differs dramatically: We don’t. Or at least we don’t want to appear to be too prepared. Maybe we would be more likely to have some homemade canned goods. But that’s it. First of all, most Russians do not believe that their meteorologists are highly skilled in predicting weather patterns. Even if they hear about a “perfect storm” or a “snow alert,” Russians don’t pay much attention to potential bad news.
Ilya Galak, Xenia Grubstein
These days, gas stations are hotspots where people congregate. They are desperate to get their cars running. A few days ago they began selling gas at a few particular filling stations, and the lines are like four hours long.
Ilya Galak, Xenia Grubstein
Bus service on the island was surprisingly stable, given that many buildings were destroyed, and some households still have no power.
Ilya Galak, Xenia Grubstein
“A young women knocked on my door and asked, whether I lost any family photographs. She said, she is a photographer and that she will take our family pictures for free. That’s when I lost it,” Lipovetskaya said, beginning to sob.
Ilya Galak, Xenia Grubstein
"Strangers stopped by to see if we needed food, clothes, cleaning supplies. Some lady was driving around offering homemade hot soup to anyone who needed some." She added that a group of about 20 school kids came to help clean their backyard.
Ilya Galak, Xenia Grubstein
Irina Lipovetskaya was moved by the presence of volunteers who came to check in on her and offer help. “The Red Cross and the army were here all the time. I saw them distributing hot pizza in our neighborhood."
Ilya Galak, Xenia Grubstein
“Yes, my property was damaged,” he said, “but not more than everyone else’s. We’ll survive, we’ll get some insurance money – not that it will cover our loss, but better than nothing," said Arkady, a local businessman.
Ilya Galak, Xenia Grubstein
"We escaped to the second floor, but all our appliances, furniture, and lots of other things are totaled. Including all my shoes – for days I haven’t been able to go outside.” She spoke standing in a hallway with no internal walls, while a repairman measured the rooms.
Ilya Galak, Xenia Grubstein
Irina Lipovetskaya, who is in her 40s, lives with her boyfriend on Oceanside Avenue. She recalled the night of October 29: “We were stupid enough to stay at home. Water started coming around 8:20 p.m., and in 40 minutes we had approximately 6 feet of water. Our three cars were floating."
Ilya Galak, Xenia Grubstein
“I heard we were in Zone A and needed to evacuate, but I didn’t know we were supposed to do it ourselves, nor did I know where to go. I don’t use the internet. You know, they stick so many useless papers in my mailbox, but this time they could have really helped us by distributing flyers with shelter information, leaving stickers, making street signs,” said Saikina.
Ilya Galak, Xenia Grubstein
“A friend of mine has been trying to get hold of his insurance company for three days now with no success. They just don’t pick up the phone. And he can’t start re-building things before the adjuster comes and assesses the damage," said Vassily Zayats, a 49-year-old engineer.
Ilya Galak, Xenia Grubstein
In other words, you could have called it a perfect storm. Staten Island residents who have lived here for 70 years told they’ve never seen anything like that.
Ilya Galak, Xenia Grubstein
The water was so high, because on one side there was wind from the ocean, on the other side, the water from Long Island came to the East River and then to us. Plus, the high tide and a full moon.
Ilya Galak, Xenia Grubstein
The day after President Barack Obama was re-elected president, the Staten Island Ferry was running as usual. But Manhattan’s Whitehall Terminal was only half-lit because of the continuing lack of electricity in Battery Park. Once the ferry reached the island, passengers were met by a sharp wind and a nasty wet snowstorm.
Ilya Galak, Xenia Grubstein
Others will point to the release, just four days before the election, of the Labor Department’s unemployment report suggesting that the U.S. economy was on track to recovery, an argument the Obama administration has been making for the past couple of years.
Ilya Galak, Xenia Grubstein
Some will argue that Obama was helped by Hurricane Sandy, which seemed to stop the momentum the Romney campaign acquired coming out of the presidential debates.
Ilya Galak, Xenia Grubstein
On November 7, a day after President Obama was re-elected, our correspondent Xenia Grubstein took the ferry to Staten Island, one of the biggest Russian-American enclaves in the United States. Wuth residents looking for gas, water and pumps more than a week after Hurricane Sandy, few were talking about the election.
