Hurricane Sandy 2012

[MuffyBee]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2013/05/20/christie-boardwalks-reopen/2344565/
Sandy-ravaged New Jersey borough reopens boardwalk
May 20, 2013

LAVALLETTE, N.J. -- The borough is open and ready for the unofficial start of summer this Memorial Day weekend. But will the tourists come?

"That's a very good question," said Mayor Walter G. LaCicero, as he waited on the oceanfront to greet Gov. Chris Christie on Monday morning, ahead of a ceremony marking the end of the municipal boardwalk's $1.3 million reconstruction, seven months after superstorm Sandy pulverized all but a quarter mile of the borough landmark.

"I have been having conversations with all the real estate brokers here, I think we're going to be a little bit off initially," LaCicero said. "I know people are anxious to get here. ... People want to be here."

LaCicero told Christie that the borough has about a 75 percent occupancy rate booked for summer rentals. The mayor said he feels more hopeful about July more than he does this weekend or June.
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[MuffyBee]

http://**/nation-world/ci_24242101/red-cross-helping-sandy-victims-still-ny-hotels
Red Cross helping Sandy victims still in NY hotels
October 4, 2013

NEW YORK—The Red Cross has stepped in to help hundreds of Superstorm Sandy evacuees who were thrown into housing limbo Friday after New York City stopped paying to put them up in hotels.
Nearly 300 people displaced by the October storm last year were still staying in 27 hotels at city expense this week, but their last night on the city's dime came Thursday. The city ended its hotel program after funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency dried up this week. City officials said they could no longer afford the rooms, which had an average cost of $266 per night.

As of Friday, people staying in those rooms were to be on their own, but as nonprofit social service organizations scrambled to find alternative housing arrangements, the Red Cross said it would commit to $1 million to extend the hotel stays of many of those families.

Not everyone will qualify for help, and it wasn't immediately clear how many of the 294 people who were in the city's hotel rooms Thursday night would get assistance quickly enough to get back in the same rooms Friday evening.

Greater New York Red Cross CEO Josh Lockwood said the emergency aid is being aimed toward people who had a more permanent "housing solution," somewhere on the horizon. That might include people whose homes are being repaired and just need additional time for the work to be complete, he said, or people who had lined up apartments but couldn't move in immediately.

A social service organization, New York Disaster Interfaith Services, was hurriedly working with The Legal Aid Society to identify and contact people who had been clients of the city program. City officials disclosed the list of hotel residents to The Legal Aid Society only on Thursday, leaving little time to reach out.
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