Hoboken Post Sandy Shelter Status: Twitter Lifeline

Hurricane Sandy hit Hoboken with tremendous force, ruining homes, cars, and belongings, leaving many without power and putting residents and their belongings on the street. It's devastating and I wish the best to all those who need to rebuild after the storm.  We were lucky and escaped with minimal damage and only spent about 5 days without power.  In the storm's aftermath, we've been trying to return to work as normal but crazy transit commutes have certainly made that a struggle.  And today we battle yet another storm - one that is threatening wind, rain and possibly even snow.

During the storm, we were one of the last to lose power and I kept up to date with friends and "the boken" on Twitter and FB, learning where the water was, what was flooding, and seeing incredible pictures of the damage.  We found at close to midnight our garage was flooding and ran down to move boxes, bags of soil and old clothes and trees to save the garage. See picture above.  The water came in a lot stronger just after this picture was taken.  Notice our lights were still on.

While on Twitter and FB, I kept tabs on the Shelter since I handle most of their social media efforts. It was really nice to see how many were asking about the Hoboken Shelter and what they needed and if they made it through the storm okay. We've added about 20 new fans who consistently asking what they can do to volunteer and what they can bring by.  We are lucky as a community to have such supportive friends of the Shelter. Fortunately, the Shelter did not have flood damage and they didn't lose power until Tuesday morning.   You can see how many people are asking about food and such below.

In talking to Jaclyn, the ED, after the storm the Shelter did need help . They had gone through many supplies, taking in so many of our poorer neighbors.  And with another storm approaching they need all the help of the community.  Last night I found an article online interviewing Jaclyn about storm prep for Winter Storm Athena as well as what they needed. Mostly coffee and sugar as well as paper goods.  Thanks to the Hudson Reporter for providing the info which you can find here.

Wishing everyone a calmer time in the weeks to come as well as a speedy recovery. #HobokenSandy