Sandy refugees say life in tent city feels like prison

Reuters/Reuters - Ashley Sabol, 21, of Seaside Heights, New Jersey looks over her accommodations at Tent City in Monmouth Park in Oceanport, New Jersey November 9. 2012. (REUTERS/Michelle Conlin)


By Michelle Conlin | Reuters

OCEANPORT, New Jersey (Reuters) - It is hard to sleep at night inside the tent city at Oceanport, New Jersey. A few hundred Superstorm Sandy refugees have been living here since Wednesday - a muddy camp that is a sprawling anomaly amidst Mercedes Benz dealerships and country clubs in this town near the state's devastated coastal region.

Inside the giant billowy white tents, the massive klieg lights glare down from the ceiling all night long. The air is loud with the buzz of generators pumping out power. The post-storm housing — a refugee camp on the grounds of the Monmouth Park racetrack - is in lockdown, with security guards at every door, including the showers.

No one is allowed to go anywhere without showing their I.D. Even to use the bathroom, "you have to show your badge," said Amber Decamp, a 22-year-old whose rental was washed away in Seaside Heights, New Jersey.

The mini city has no cigarettes, no books, no magazines, no board games, no TVs, and no newspapers or radios. On Friday night, in front of the mess hall, which was serving fried chicken and out-of-the-box, just-add-water potatoes, a child was dancing and dancing — to nothing. "We're starting to lose it," said Decamp. "But we have nowhere else to go."

The tent city is emblematic of the crisis left by Sandy: the tens of thousands of people who have no place to live. Some are without power and heat - even if the utilities have their power back, their electrics and heating systems in their homes may have been destroyed by the floods. They are the short-termers. Others have a longer-term problem - their houses were made completely uninhabitable by flooding, ripped apart, or burned to the ground. And they pose a far more daunting challenge.

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Why FEMA Isn't working, and why we need it CUT

ON Wednesday night, as a fierce northeaster bore down on the weather-beaten Rockaways, the relief groups with a noticeable presence on the battered Queens peninsula were these: the National Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Police and Sanitation Departments — and Occupy Sandy, a do-it-yourself outfit recently established by Occupy Wall Street.

This stretch of the coast remained apocalyptic, with buildings burned like Dresden and ragged figures shuffling past the trash heaps. There was still no power, and parking lots were awash with ruined cars. On Wednesday morning, as the winds picked up and FEMA closed its office “due to weather,” an enclave of Occupiers was huddled in a storefront amid the devastation, handing out supplies and trying to make sure that those bombarded by last month’s storm stayed safe and warm and dry this time.

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TOP PHOTOS: Hurricane Sandy will undoubtedly hit economic output

Andrew Burton / Getty Images
Cars floating in a flooded basement following Hurricaine Sandy on Oct. 30, in the Financial District of New York.

David Friedman / NBC News

Joe Gallagher carries his aunt Kathleen Fitzsimmons on Thursday, Nov. 1 in Breezy Point, N.Y. Fitzsimmons collapsed after viewing the burned-out remains of the home that had been in her family since 1928. Residents returned to their devastated homes after Superstorm Sandy and a fire there that destroyed over 100 homes.

John Makely / NBC News

John Dellorusso looks over his backyard which now contains the debris from a nearby restaurant, on Thursday in Staten Island. His home, at right, was severely damaged by Hurricane Sandy.

Adam Hunger / Reuters

People walk on the beach past the remnants of the Spring Lake boardwalk which was damaged by Hurricane Sandy in Spring Lake, NJ, on Thursday.

Brendan Smialowski / AFP - Getty Images

People board the NY Waterways ferry with the Manhattan skyline in the background in Hoboken, N.J., on Thursday.

John Minchillo / AP

Seawater from the storm surge of Hurricane Sandy floods the Ground Zero construction site on Oct. 29. Sandy forced the shutdown of mass transit, schools and financial markets and sent coastal residents fleeing.

Andrew Burton / Getty Images

Robert Justh drags a hose while attempting to drain a flooded basement, caused by Hurricane Sandy, in Long Beach, N.Y., on Wednesday.

Spencer Platt / Getty Images

Damage is viewed in the Rockaway neighborhood where the historic boardwalk was washed away during Hurricane Sandy, on Wednesday, Oct. 31, in the Queens borough of New York City.

Hurricane Sandy Aftermath Video: Inside the Chaos of Breezy Point,

Hurricane Sandy Aftermath Video: Inside the Chaos of Breezy Point


Are these the floods that Noah also warned of, that's the only thought other than forces unknown to Western Civilization. There are several maybes that fools are entertained with, which do not characterize the citizenship as a whole as vulnerable, at all times!

Breaking News: Sandy Death toll is now 90

These are the latest reports as of 3:32 PCT


At least 48 dead, millions without power in Sandy's aftermath
Fox News - ‎32 minutes ago‎
NEW YORK - The misery of superstorm Sandy's devastation grew Tuesday as millions along the U.S. East Coast faced life without power or mass transit for days, and huge swaths of New York City remained eerily quiet.


Race Narrows as Campaign Enters Its Final Week
By JEFF ZELENY and MARJORIE CONNELLY
Published: October 30, 2012

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New York The Powerfull Sandy Hurricane


Hurricane Sandy: 'The worst is yet to come' says New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg