Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor. This is just the beginning.
Hurricane Sandy Looting, Fights Plague South Brooklyn
Posted: 10/31/2012 8:16 am EDT Updated: 10/31/2012 10:00 am EDT
Water that had risen six feet high hadn’t completely drained away from the streets of Coney Island in Brooklyn, N.Y., yet looters had already rifled through the remains of vulnerable shops on Mermaid Avenue.
At about 8 a.m. on Tuesday, workers arrived at Mega Aid Pharmacy to find that not only had Hurricane Sandy obliterated the building’s interior the night before, but thieves had broken in and gone through more than 10,000 pharmaceutical items. Most of the stolen goods were prescription meds.
“The water went away and these people started walking down the streets and just robbed stores,” a frustrated worker at the pharmacy, who wished to remain anonymous, told HuffPost Crime.
Pill bottles were scattered — and others stolen — after looting at this pharmacy on Mermaid Avenue near 32nd St. in Brooklyn, Tuesday, Oct. 30. The crime came just hours after Hurricane Sandy struck the New York City area, devastating Coney Island and many other neighborhoods.
“I don’t even know what it’s going to take until we’re operational,” Gutkin said. “This breaks the business. I don’t even know where to start.”
Their story was just one of many on Mermaid Avenue, one of only a few streets in Coney Island on Tuesday teeming with people — and officers. Locals said that the police presence in the neighborhood came after looters stole from banks, pharmacies and other shops with valuables.
It’s a crime that can almost be expected after a disaster. As Hurricane Irene pummeled the Atlantic Coast last year, looting was so prevalent that truTV put together a security footage slideshow of the crime. Shortly after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans was plagued with looting and violent attacks, The New York Times reported.
Solid numbers aren’t yet available for New York City crimes connected to the superstorm. The 60th Precinct, which covers Coney Island, was evacuated and subsequently flooded on Monday night. Though several officers couldn’t say definitively whether there had been reports of looting or other crimes in the area, many were quick to tell onlookers to go home.
“It’s getting dark, and it’s real dangerous out here — that’s why there’s a cop on every block,” one NYPD officer told HuffPost Crime. “You could get your stuff stolen.”
Nearby, at a city housing project called Ocean Towers, a fight broke out in front of reporters and cops. Two women threw haymakers at one another as residents — all still without power — stared and yelled from their windows. Other people threw unidentified objects from their windows at officers, who swarmed in to break up the fistfight.
Dena Wells, 39, a resident of Ocean Towers, had had enough after watching the melee.
“People are turning on each other — they’re attacking each other,” she said, shaking her head. “Even when there’s no disaster, this building is disastrous. But after the hurricane, it just got crazy.
“We have to get out of here.”
Picture Gallery
BUCKHED says:
Parasites feeding on parasites…..blood suckers each and everyone of them…leeching until the tit is dry !
Ah..the shape of things to come…..Something Wicked This Way Comes !
Like or Dislike:
4 
0
31st October 2012 at 11:42 am
Eddie says:
I wouldn’t want to be a NYC cop about now…well, never really..but especially now.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
9 
0
31st October 2012 at 11:49 am
ThePessimisticChemist says:
You say theft, I say small start-up businesses! Every last one of these “thieves” are actually just “wealth redistribution entrepreneurs”!
On a more serious note, this just upgraded my need for a gun from “some day” to “this weekend.” I don’t live in hurricane country, but we do have floods and tornados here and I refuse to fall victim to this sort of stupidity.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
10 
0
31st October 2012 at 12:18 pm
ecliptix543 says:
TPC – You’re a regular commenter on this board and you DON’T have a personal arsenal yet? Shame shame…
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
13 
0
31st October 2012 at 12:36 pm
ron says:
I watched a movie called The Ultimate warrior,it was funny how realistic it was.Broken citys with hungry people with some resorting to eating others.Oh it was an older movie,set in 2012.It had that bald guy from the ten commandments as the star.
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
31st October 2012 at 12:39 pm
JIMSKI says:
Back in 2001 Cincinnati Ohio had some of the worst riots in the US that had been seen in a decade. Cincinnati is also surrounded by other cities and villages. I was working in the city of Norwood which is 7 miles north of downtown Cincinnati and has a border with the city. On the third day of the riot they had pretty much trashed their own living rooms they decided it would be a good idea to try somewhere else.
Now the city of Norwood, Ohio is, shall we say, demographically different then the folks Wilding down in Over the Rhine. The police chief called all hands and lined them up with shotguns and rifles. No riot shields no bean bag guns no water cannons and no teargas. The police chief let it be known through the area that the problem would STAY in Cincinnati and would not move north.
No one got shot as they went back home
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
8 
0
31st October 2012 at 12:47 pm
Steve Hogan says:
But Paul Krugman thinks such destruction is a boost for the economy. A Nobel Laureate wouldn’t steer us wrong, would he?
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
8 
0
31st October 2012 at 12:51 pm
BUCKHED says:
PC…better get a gun…NOW . As Charlton Heston said to his buddies who called during the LA Riots inquiring getting a gun from him…aren’t yah’ a little late worrying about it !
Like or Dislike:
3 
0
31st October 2012 at 12:55 pm
ThePessimisticChemist says:
“TPC – You’re a regular commenter on this board and you DON’T have a personal arsenal yet? Shame shame…”
I used to have a 12ga (single shot remington) and an SKS with a scope zeroe’d at 300 yards.
Then my mom pawned them. She also pawned my knives, weight set and books. I’m just now recovering from the economic damage she inflicted on me.
I’ve been saving to buy a house and hopefully a second car so I’ve been loathe to spend money, but dammit all enough is enough. We live in the “poor” part of town, and I know these rat bastards would be more than willing to burn us out for our food if the going got rough.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
8 
0
31st October 2012 at 1:07 pm
AKAnon says:
Some might call the looting victims “looting victims”, but I call the “segregation reparations witholders”.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
5 
0
31st October 2012 at 2:14 pm
ecliptix543 says:
SKS is an exceptional rifle. I have one myself, a Yugo with the regular sights that nails bottle caps at 200m all day long. It’s my fourth SKS and easily the best made. I’ve thought about putting a scope on it a few times, but I keep coming back to the main reason I like them in the first place: rugged simplicity. I’ve got a couple of other rifles that have scopes if I need precise shot placement beyond 200m, which is rather unlikely but not impossible in a defensive situation. Below 350m or so, an SKS is fully capable of dropping FSA or other soft targets.
Like or Dislike:
3 
0
31st October 2012 at 2:30 pm
Hope@ZeroKelvin says:
Katrina – The Sequel.
Like or Dislike:
3 
0
31st October 2012 at 3:00 pm
Thinker says:
Just the start… makes you wonder why these people think the City needs to feed them???
Tempers flare in NJ city where thousands stranded
HOBOKEN, N.J. (AP) — Officials in the city of Hoboken, N.J., are defending their response to severe flooding from superstorm Sandy.
Public Safety director Jon Tooke says at least 25 percent of the city on the Hudson River across from Manhattan remains under water. He estimates at least 20,000 people are stranded and says most are being encouraged to shelter in place until floodwaters recede.
Tempers flared Wednesday morning outside City Hall as some residents complained the city was slow to get food and other supplies out to the stranded.
Tooke says emergency personnel have been working 24/7. He says the “scope of this situation is enormous.”
Like or Dislike:
4 
0
31st October 2012 at 4:16 pm
Llpoh says:
Whatever happened to shoot on sight? Only good looter is a dead looter.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
7 
0
31st October 2012 at 4:18 pm
ragman says:
After Andrew a number of the local Sub-Sahara contingent started looting. They got shot. The POlices told ‘em that if they went into a house or business they could expect to get killed and there was nothing the Authorities could/would do about it. The looting stopped. Unfortunately, the evil govts of NJ and NY shitty make it all but impossible for Citizens to protect themselves or property. Residents should take their insurance money and unass these People’s Republics ASAP.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
7 
1
31st October 2012 at 4:23 pm
Administrator says:
Guard evacuates people, takes in food to NJ city
HOBOKEN, N.J. — National Guard troops delivered food and supplies to residents in this heavily flooded city across from Manhattan on Wednesday as officials sent out a plea for boats, generators and volunteers.
Superstorm Sandy sent the raging Hudson River waters from one side of the one-square-mile city to the other Monday. Two days later, at least 25 percent of the community remained flooded, leaving many residents anxious about whether they could get out and municipal leaders struggling to get assistance to all those who needed it.
Tempers flared Wednesday at a staging area outside City Hall, where a man screamed at emergency officials about why food and water had not been delivered to residents just a few blocks away. The man, who would not give his name, said he blew up an air mattress to float over to a staging area.
City officials defended their response.
“The dimension and scope of this situation is enormous,” Public Safety Director Jon Tooke said. “You have emergency operations at all levels — from local to federal — spread too thin across the city and the state, but we’re working on it.”
Tooke said the estimated 20,000 people still stranded in their homes were being encouraged to shelter in place, and that high-water vehicles would get supplies to them. He said people with medical and other special needs were being taken out by trucks.
National Guard troops arrived Tuesday night, and on Wednesday city officials were issuing an appeal for additional aid. They asked that people bring boats and generators to the staging area at City Hall, which was on dry ground.
“We are doing what we can but we really need more help,” said the mayor’s spokesman, Juan Melli.
Dozens of volunteers answered the call to help go door-to-door to see if seniors and others needed water or other supplies.
Frank Bongiorno, an 80-year-old resident of a senior high-rise, said he walked down 15 flights to get out of his building, then waded through some low water to get to City Hall.
Wearing a sweatshirt too thin for rapidly dropping temperatures, Bongiorno said he needed to get out. “They finally gave us a sandwich today but it was this big,” he complained, pinching his fingers about an inch apart.
Tooke said fuel had been delivered to the high-rise to get its generator back up and running.
This city of 50,000 with many narrow streets still retains its working-class grit, but also has come to be known as a great place for young professional families, including workers on Wall Street just across the river in Manhattan.
Before the storm hit, evacuation orders went out for people living in Hoboken’s many basement apartments and first-floor units.
Many were surprised by the extent of the flooding.
Samuel Scott Cornish, 34, who lives with his wife, Katie, and newborn son, Jack, in a luxury apartment complex on the border of Hoboken and Jersey City, said he was told to move his Subaru to a different area inside his building’s garage for safety before the storm, only to later discover it floating in water. The garage is now filled with water-soaked cars, including a BMW floating upside down.
Cornish said the storm itself was initially a bonding period with neighbors he once only nodded hello to.
But now that residents have been able to get outside their homes and see a bit of dry sidewalk for the first time in days, they are realizing the full scope of the damage and are getting antsy.
Cornish was deciding Wednesday whether to go to his parents’ house in Summit, which had no power.
“I’m debating, no power and a colder house in Summit, or stick it out here with some auxiliary power that will only last until the building runs out of diesel,” he said.
In Cornish’s building, the generators powered only the hallways. He said doors were open and neighbors were sharing; some had refrigerators plugged in hallway outlets or worked on laptops.
At one condo building where power was out, residents decided to celebrate Halloween on Wednesday afternoon, sending children door-to-door in their costumes.
Kathy Zucker, the condo president, said she had three children under the age of 6.
“They are going a little stir crazy,” she said, “but they are hanging in there.”
P.J. Molski, a 25-year-old graphic designer, said his place is dry. But he left his car on a street that flooded, and now it won’t start.
Almost every basement apartment he has seen in the small city is flooded, he said.
“There are just pumps going all over the city of people trying to get the water out of their basement apartments,” he said.
Like or Dislike:
4 
0
31st October 2012 at 4:46 pm
sangell says:
I just watched CNN coverage of Hoboken. The reporter showed the downtown streets flooded then said that citizens waded out into the polluted water and cleared the storm drains such that the water was now gone and local people were out cleaning up the debris. Not a goddamned public employee or FEMAcrat in sight.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
9 
0
31st October 2012 at 4:59 pm
ASIG says:
“Whatever happened to shoot on sight? Only good looter is a dead looter.”
In the LA riots there was one Korean owned gun store that no one looted. This store was right in the heart of where all the looting occurred. The reason no one bothered the gun store was because a group of men (the owner and his employees?) were defending the store with guns. They had blocked the front entrance to the store by parking a Dodge van right in front of the door. There were at least two men on the ground with the van that clearly had guns (shotguns) and there were at least three on the roof of the store, all had guns and I distinctly remember one (on the roof) carrying an Uzi. Like I said NO ONE bothered that gun store.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
5 
0
31st October 2012 at 5:28 pm
John A says:
I posted the following comment at the SHTF web site a while back in reference to the article “When The Music Stops – How America’s Cities May Explode In Violence”. I thought you might find this of interest.
http://www.shtfplan.com/emergency-preparedness/when-the-music-stops-how-americas-cities-may-explode-in-violence_10122012
Retired Soldier says:
October 12, 2012 at 5:07 PM
The scenario presented in the above article will probably only happen in the cities if at all, but it is best to be prepared by having your home stocked with things that will provide you and your family for at least 4 to 6 weeks or longer.
A few suggestions if violence comes to your city, town or neighborhood:
(1) Stay in home or in its immediate vicinity. Jumping in your car and bugging out to the woods and elements is not wise. Leaving your home is the LAST option to survive.
(2) Stay out of the way of the police and law enforcement. They will talk to you if they need to communicate. When speaking to the police, be civil and answer their questions.
(3) Prepare for possible electrical power outages. Prepare for cooking in your home and lighting in you home if the power goes off for a few days or week more.
(4) Prepare the best you can for possible confrontations on your property, but don’t go looking for trouble.
(5) If a crisis gets bad enough, cell phones and computer Internet might not work. Understand this and prepare accordingly.
(6) Have at least six weeks of non-perishable food and sealed water in your house. I buy distilled water in gallon bottles. Although tasteless, it is purest water you can buy and it can be easily flavored with a powdered mix like Tang or Tea.
(7) Water is very important for drinking, cooking, washing and bathing/showering. If things get bad for a few weeks, understand that dehydration, sickness and disease from contaminated water can make you and your family sick VERY QUICKLY. Body hygiene is also important especially for children.
(8) Prepare now while necessary items are in the stores and are cheap/available to buy.
(9) Help other Americans especially children. They will need your help if things get bad.
(10) One more thing. Soldiers in uniform are citizens just like you. They will not fire at you unless you fire at them or approach them in a hostile manner. They did not join the military to kill Americans on American soil. Did the US military help their citizens during Hurricane Katrina?
Be safe. Be prepared.
Retired Soldier
Like or Dislike:
2 
0
31st October 2012 at 6:20 pm
Administrator says:
Region Faces Rescues, Looting, and a Rising Death Toll
By JAMES BARRON
New York faced the reality of life after Hurricane Sandy on Wednesday: horror in still-waterlogged neighborhoods, where rescue workers pulled bodies from wreckage, and exasperation elsewhere as more than 3.75 million people entered a third day without electricity.
The storm was blamed for 61 deaths in the United States, including 24 in New York City, 8 in New Jersey and 4 in Connecticut. And Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said initial damage estimates “project up to $6 billion in lost economic revenue” in New York State.
The death toll seemed certain to rise as rescuers checked basements that had flooded, trapping homeowners inside. The wall of water driven ashore by the storm even flooded three police stations, two in Brooklyn and one in the Rockaway section of Queens.
Paul J. Browne, the chief spokesman for the Police Department, said a steamfitter was rescued from one station house as water crashed in. The steamfitter, whom he identified as Kevin Hunter, had been working in the boiler room, two levels below the first floor, trying to shut off steam pipes before the surge of cold water rolled in.
But Mr. Hunter’s leg became caught, and he was “completely submerged underwater, unable to get free,” Mr. Browne said in an e-mail. Another steamfitter, Anthony DiMaggio, sought help, and he and Lt. Peter O’Neill freed his leg and carried him out in chest-high water. With help from other officers, “they literally swam Hunter to Neptune Avenue, where the water wasn’t as high,” Mr. Browne said.
Eventually they loaded him onto a city bus that carried them out of the flooded area, and later into an ambulance that took him to Maimonides Hospital. He was treated for cuts, muscle strains and hypothermia.
Fifteen people in the Far Rockaway section of Queens and nine in Coney Island were charged with burglary and other offenses in connection with looting at stores. Among them was a 29-year-old woman who faced a weapons charge “after the safe she was carrying from a store was found to contain a firearm,” Mr. Browne said.
For those who did not have basements that flooded or buildings that slipped off their foundations, there were lines at the gasoline stations that have power to pump fuel for generators and for cars. In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie’s office warned drivers to be careful because lines were so long that they had stretched onto the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike. One Twitter feed that had been following the hurricane on the Jersey Shore began sending out updates about where to buy gas.
A wide stretch of Lower Manhattan remained dark, as did the Jersey Shore, waterfront neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens, and most of Long Island.
But the first section of Manhattan that lost power on Monday night, after an explosion and fire at a substation on East 14th Street, had had its lights turned back on, a Consolidated Edison executive said. Doing that restored power to about 2,000 of more than 220,000 customers below 39th Steet in Manhattan. The rest will probably have to wait until Friday or Saturday, said John Miksad, Con Ed’s senior vice president for electric operations.
Power also returned to the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn. But repairing all of the downed wires in other boroughs and in Westchester County could take another week, Mr. Miksad said.
In New Jersey, executives at Public Service Electric and Gas Company said 900,000 customers were still without power, down from a peak of 1.7 million on Tuesday. Some of the company’s main lines, carrying power to substations for local distribution, still needed to be repaired, officials said. But they said electricity was on again in Newark, Elizabeth and parts of Jersey City, and they expected to have all power restored by Nov. 9.
Another big utility, Jersey Central Power and Light, said nearly 950,000 customers did not have electricity. About half were in Monmouth and Ocean Counties along the shore.
Connecticut Light and Power reported that more than 318,000 customers were out, including about two-thirds of its customers in Greenwich and New Canaan and 9 out of 10 in Weston.
Mr. Cuomo said restoring power to Long Island, where the storm knocked out power to 90 percent of the Long Island Power Authority’s customers, posed particular difficulties. He said 1,800 utility workers from other areas, mostly upstate, were being sent there to provide extra help.
It was clear that it would be a while before many of the small businesses that were so much a part of the city — visually, with their kaleidoscope of street-level storefronts, and economically — recovered. It was just as clear that it would be days before many restaurants reopened. Some lost large inventories when the power went out and food in their walk-in refrigerators began to spoil.
Some lost more than food. Before the storm, Andrew Carmellini, the chef at the Dutch in SoHo and Locanda Verde in TriBeCa, rented a car for around-town transportation. He left it on West 23rd Street. “The car got destroyed in the flood,” he said. “The water went over the dashboard.”
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said his evacuation orders remained in effect for low-lying communities from Coney Island in Brooklyn to Battery Park City in Manhattan. Mr. Bloomberg said they would not be lifted until the Buildings Department had had time to inspect buildings in those areas. “I know it’s annoying to everyone,” he said at a briefing, “but we don’t need more loss of life.”
Would the city be back to normal? Perhaps, he said — but not for families who were missing a child, a parent, a brother, a sister.
“For all we do to recover, it’s fair to say we can’t replace the lives of the people lost in the storm,” he began, speaking in a softer voice than he had used at earlier briefings. “Any loss of life is tragic; sadly, nature is dangerous, and these things occur. The best thing we can do for those who did die is make sure this city recovers for those who come out of this and build a better life for those left behind.”
Like or Dislike:
2 
0
31st October 2012 at 8:46 pm
flash says:
“Among them was a 29-year-old woman who faced a weapons charge “after the safe she was carrying from a store was found to contain a firearm,” Mr. Browne said. ”
Looting a safe and carrying it down the road? WOW.. ..must’a been Laquasha the Fried Chicken Queen fer’ shure.
Like or Dislike:
3 
0
31st October 2012 at 8:59 pm
Administrator says:
MUST BE THOSE LAWLESS ASIANS
15 charged with looting NYC neighborhood
NEW YORK — Fifteen people have been charged with looting businesses in a Queens neighborhood in the aftermath of the storm.
District Attorney Richard Brown says the suspects broke into numerous businesses on the Far Rockaway peninsula. The businesses included a liquor store, clothing stores and a Radio Shack.
The area was badly damaged by flooding and high winds. Residents were told to evacuate but many didn’t.
The suspects range in age from 16 to 42.
They were charged with burglary and other charges.
Brown said the city “has zero tolerance for looters who would exploit a natural disaster like Hurricane Sandy for their own personal gain.”
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
5 
0
31st October 2012 at 9:04 pm