One of my updates on Tuesday AM said Sandy didn't look as bad as Irene (2011) around here. I take that back. There were no trees down on my immediate street, Merriam Dr. after Sandy while there were 2 after Irene, but the rest of Martinsville and Bridgewater Township is much worse off now.
After Irene I still had power and my neighbor who had Verizon FIOS still had Phone and TV. Everything is out for everyone now.
Our church in Liberty Corner (Basking Ridge) is also out of power, while it did have power after Irene.

As of today, Fri., 4 days after the storm, the main street in front of my house, Vosseller Ave., still has barricades up and if you go around them you can make it thru going around trees and wires taking up half the street.
There is only 1 out of 4 roads that are passable with the ambulance to get down the 1st range of the Watchung Mtns. to the hospital.

However a couple of people on the rescue squad near Mountain Top did get power back today. One neighbor heard it would be sometime next week for us.

Some commercial areas are up, Home Depot, Costco have power. ShopRite is running on generators. WalMart is still closed. Banks in Bound Brook and Martinsville are closed and ATM's are not working.
The Somerville Bank of America is open.

At least I have public water and gas so I can get a hot shower. Many friends are still on wells and cannot get water unless they have generators..

One advantage of being on the rescue squad is we have a nice building with a generator running off of natural gas, a kitchen and FIOS TV and Internet which works. I took the frozen salmon and turkey burgers out of my freezer and down to the freezer at the squad building. I also freeze large jugs of water there and put them in my refrigerator to try and preserve what is left.

I have a couple of 35 AHr 12 V batteries (about the size of a large motorcycle battery) which I can use for my laptop, a few 12 v lights and ham radio at home, However using tethering to the 3G Internet connection in my tablet is very slow.

I do have a 1,000 watt inverter (12 V Battery to 110 V AC converter) I got when I was planning to build a solar backup power system. I put that plan on hold after my friends told me I was wasting my time and I survived Irene last year saying how often can this happen? I may try hooking it to my car battery to run the refrigerator or some lights.

Temperature went down to high 30's last night and the forecast low for tonight is 36, so I'm wearing gloves and ski hat around the house.
I do have a heater I can hook to the propane tank from my BBQ, but need to get new batteries form my CO detector before I try that.

Gas lines are still several hours. (Problem: Gas stations without power, Shortage of supply because of pipeline and port closures and people needing gas for generators.) They just started up the pipeline, opened the ports and suspended restrictions on foreign vessels, so it should get better.

The low gas light just came on in my jeep, so I've got to decide if I can make it to western NJ or further south where there are only 20 min. waits.

See pictures and more at donsnotes.com/emergency/hurricane.html#after

Don