Hurricane Sandy - "Frankenstorm"

We were very blessed to have only lost power for about 10 hours or so.  The wind picked up significant'y over Monday.  It started to get a little stormy Sunday night/Monday morning but nothing bad.  Monday night about 8pm our power went out.  It came back on around 6 or maybe 7 am Tuesday morning. (School was canceled Monday, Tuesday and Today).  Much of Freeport has been without power for a few days and about a third of Freeport is still flooded.  It was fascinating, sad and a bit scary to head south from our building and run into fallen trees, broken power lines, emergency vehicles, gas venting and then, the water.  We live on Merrick Rd., near the intersection of Long Beach Ave, and West Merrick Rd.  If you look on google maps, just about 2/3 of a mile south from us, the ocean came up almost to Ray st. (below Atlantic Ave.).  Some of our friends evacuated and came back to, at the very least, flooded basements.  Some fires went up along the Nautical mile, about a mile south of us, and because the hydrants were underwater it was about impossible to fight them.  Some homes were completely destroyed in Long Beach, Rockaways and Queens.   The power went out just across the street from us.  Along our street, power was restored pretty quickly and fallen trees were cut up fast.  I can tell the city in general was well prepared for the storm.
Update*  School has been canceled for the whole week.  Maybe they'll start again on Monday.

We don't have many pictures.  Here are a few.  They really don't do justice to show all that happened.