Life after Sandy in NJ

[Sprat]

I should note I am a florida resident with a business office/Apt in the Jacksonville area and a second florida home in Ft Myers. I grew up in NJ and have a office and rental properties and sister's along the coast less than a 1/16 of a mile from the beach. my duaghther and husband live in NE Philly
I do a fair amount of Business in NJ, PA, DEL, & NY.

My wife & I arrive at my office/ rental which is currently empty, the afternoon after Sandy struck the Jersey Shore
this neighborhood was devastated, my rental had ocean water up to the porch, but luckily not in the house, the office was also spared. I have oceanfront boardwalk on my front lawn, all of my neighbors have substantial damage we have no electric or cable. my wife drove to my daughters home, they have elctric cable and gas. I stayed behind loaded and the sig sauer.
I have natural gas and land line phone, new phones don't work neither does the cell service ( thought it does now) water and sewer are rationed because both have been compromised though slightly functional I still shower daily. I heated the first night with the gas oven and plenty of blankets, food was still frozen, I had ice still till friday all the frig food had to be thrown out ( we keep small amounts of perishables in the frig) the next day my brother in law and I sood in line for 3 1/2 hours for a 3000 watt generator that never came?, the gas stove is a old one, so I could cook and boil water for tea
( small miracles) all my neighbors left and Martial law is imposed 7pm curfew even for residents to 7 am, helicopters all over the sky, no cars or planes, very eiree. I also have a surplus NV scope i bought from Copes ( Thanks Misty) so I can see in the dark, the wife and son-in-law got us a generator 6,500 to 8000watt generac xg7000E if Blade blade is reading this or if someone can direct him to this post i need the name of the company that sells conversion parts to convert this gas powered generator to Natural gas
I was able to hook up the gas heating system to the generator, also the lights and old vcr, i also kept a old rotory dial phone which works, so i have land line communication.
This morning i rigged the office computer to Dial up, gas has been a bitch to get, but there is gas in Pa and western jersey, my wife and son-in-law have been meeting me with loads of 15-20 gallons of gas. I have to do two things now, one is protect the generator and the gas, they are both being stolen at alarming rates. in fact mine is chained to a steel post with a battery operated motion detector. last night I had my first warm meal in a warm house with cable,
I returned to the land of the portable generator at 6pm last night only to be met by armed national guard troops and police, i was allowed back because i could prove i was a property owner and I am on friendly terms with the current chief of Police ( who was standing there) I was stocked with food provisions, gas, NJ compliant Ar, soon as the power comes on i will return to florida next week
so if you want to know what it is like to live without most comforts re -read this post, make sure you have plenty of extension cords, batteries, water, gas or propane, a generator ( this is a must),
I have plenty of MREs and wise lite and mountain house plus we have canned goods here I have not yet needed to eat that stuff yet and we have a nor easter storms coming wednesday evening these can be worst than hurricanes

so as of today no electric power, cable, mobility is limited, banks are closed, i got cash last night

more to come, got to go. I get e-mails via my phone as the cell sevice was restored saturday
I should have stayed in ireland

stay safe and don't forget to vote I alread did by absentee ballot

thank god for dial up and my for thought to have included on my computer here
Sprat