STAY UP TO DATE FULL-ACCESS STORM COVERAGE WESTCHESTER-PUTNAM on LoHud.com and every mobile platform Find live storm coverage around-the-clock >> Emergency resources >> Video reports >> Share your stories BREAKING NEWS 24/7 AT LOHUD.COM FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2012 SUPERSTORM SANDY >> 11 PAGES OF COVERAGE INSIDE GAS CRUNCH SPORTS: NYC keeps marathon, 1B NEWS: 3 school districts reopen, 9A SPORTS: Playoffs picture clearing, 1B TAX WATCH: Playland battered, 10A Vehicles lined up Thursday to fill up at the Mobil gas station on the Hutchinson River Parkway. CARUCHA L. MEUSE/ THE JOURNAL NEWS Flooded families want fast FEMA aid By Jonathan Bandler jbandler@lohud.com By Ken Valenti klvalent@lohud.com Maria and Armondo Torres, who watched Superstorm Sandy rip shingles and gutters from their New Rochelle house, don't know how much their insurance will cover. So a helping hand from the government would be welcome. "This is our first time, so I have no idea what it's going to cover and what it's not going to cover," said Maria Torres, who was still waiting for an adjuster Thursday. Her husband worries more rain could come, entering the damaged walls and causing additiona damage. Residents whose homes were crushed by falling trees, roofs were stripped by howling winds, and ground floors were flooded by surging waters could be helped by the Federal Emergency Management Agency -- but only if the federal government declares the county in which they live a disaster area, as it has with New York City and Nassau and Suffolk counties. County executives in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam said their areas earned the designation for the poundings they took. In a Thursday conference call, FEMA Administrator W. Craig Fugate See FEMA, Page 4A Port Chester recipients of packaged cubes of dry ice were required to sign liability paper before receiving the cold block Thursday. MELISSA ELIAN/THE JOURNAL NEWS By Jorge Fitz-Gibbon jfitzgib@lohud.com Members of the Army National Guard worked Thursday with New York State Electric and Gas to clear large trees from Bedford Center Road in Bedford Hills in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. FRANK BECERRA JR./THE JOURNAL NEWS INSIDE We apologize to our readers that our Weekend section was printed before many events were canceled, including the George Lopez concert at the Capitol Theatre. For updates, go to LoHud.com. More lines of the commuter rails are back on track. 3A Mourners remember two young victims of Superstorm Sandy. 5A Through readers' eyes: Lower Hudson residents send in their photos. 6A FEMA approves reimbursements for NYC and New Jersey. 11A INDEX >> BUSINESS 16A >> CLASSIFIED 5B >> COMICS Weekend >> DEAR ABBY Weekend >> LOTTERIES 2A >> OBITUARIES 15A >> OPINION 17A WP See GAS, Page 5A Repairs' pace taxes patience of residents Weekend events canceled WEATHER >> 2A Today: Showers HIGH: 56 LOW: 35 Tomorrow: Windy HIGH: 54 LOW: 32 Gas may be on its way to the Lower Hudson Valley but not soon enough for motorists stuck Thursday in lengthy lines to fill their cars and get gas for generators. The crunch prompted Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano to issue an executive order Thursday afternoon rationing gasoline to 10 gallons per customer. He blamed a "huge influx" of drivers from New York City and New Jersey for helping overwhelm local service stations and said at least 10 were out of fuel by 3 p.m. Around the region, many stations remain closed due to power outages. Others closed in recent days after their supply ran out. And the ones that are open worry about when the pumps will run dry because a supply shortage in the region caused by Sandy has left them unsure when they will get their next delivery. new york's lower hudson valley $1.00 FOR HOME DELIVERY PRICING, PAGE 2A Home delivery 800-942-1010 Main Number 914-694-9300 (C) 2012 The Journal News Pressure continued to mount on Lower Hudson Valley utilities Thursday, with more than 250,000 customers still without power in the wake of Superstorm Sandy and work proceeding slowly after the region's electrical systems were devastated by gale-force winds and tidal surges. Elected officials in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties said municipal workers have had to sit idle, waiting for utility crews to show up, while many towns complained that they had just one repair crew assigned to them despite thousands of outages. A growing number complain that local repairs have taken a back seat to New York City, where the bulk of repairs are due to be completed Saturday, more than a week before the vast majority of repairs in the northern suburbs are expected to be done. "If you're the only game in town -- and Con Ed is -- you can't drop the ball. They dropped the ball," Eastchester Supervisor Anthony Colavita said. "The bills that we pay as rate-payers in the Town of See POWER, Page 4A SUPERSTORM SANDY lohud.com The Journal News WP Friday, November 2, 2012 3A Hudson service returns to Metro-North By Theresa Juva-Brown tjuva@lohud.com Not only will MetroNorth Railroad commuters enjoy free rides again today, they'll also get more service. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday evening that trains would return to Metro-North's Hudson Line today between Grand Central Terminal and Croton-Harmon. It's the last of the three commuter rail lines to get service restored. Trains on the Harlem Line, which has gradually been extended since Tuesday, will make trips in both directions from Southeast to Grand Central Terminal. Cuomo also said there would be limited service on the subway's 7 train and workers have cleared the tracks for the 4, 5 and F trains. Officials were still waiting for power to be restored to those line. Cuomo also said one tube of the Holland Tunnel under the Hudson River will be open for buses only. Metro-North's first day of regular service on Thursday got off to a shaky start. Wet leaves on the tracks caused delays for 89 of the 313 trains on the Harlem and New Haven lines. The Harlem Line carried 65 percent of its normal ridership, while the New Haven Line, which ran from Stamford, Conn., to Grand Central, saw a dramatic drop in the number of riders, officials said. Commuters at the Mount Kisco station on Thursday were happy to see trains arrive at all, especially after hellish drives into Manhattan the day before. Jennifer Gracie drove to her family's art and antiques business on 59th Street, a drive that took MANHATTAN BY CAR Cars entering Manhattan via the four East River bridges must contain three or more people. her 3 1/2 hours. Then she walked 45 minutes after parking her car at 125th Street. "It was a nightmare," she said. Gracie normally commutes from the MetroNorth station in Purdys, but didn't mind the extra 25-minute drive to Mount Kisco on Thursday. "This should be a major improvement," she said. "I think everyone's doing the best they can. Hopefully, everyone is good-natured about it." Paul Seeger lives in Sherman, Conn., and usually drives about 30 minutes to the Metro-North station in Southeast. Driving to Mount Kisco took an extra 45 minutes, but Seeger, who runs a company of doubledecker buses and drove into New York City on Wednesday, said he wasn't complaining. "I'm glad to catch any train, so whatever one shows up here, I'm grabbing," he said. Not everyone was feeling relieved, however. Dennis Graiani, a 23year-old who lives in New City, didn't know when service will return to the Pascack Valley Line, which runs through parts of New Jersey that were heavily damaged during the storm. Graiani drove to his midtown Manhattan office at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday to beat the gridlock, but endured a painfully slow trip back in the afternoon. Because of the new carpool mandate to get Commuters wait Thursday for a New York-bound Metro-North Railroad train that is running late. Metro-North resumed limited service after Superstorm Sandy halted all mass transit Sunday. SETH HARRISON/THE JOURNAL NEWS A New Haven Line train leaves the Mamaroneck station for New York about 6 a.m. Thursday. MICHAEL G. MEANEY/THE JOURNAL NEWS into Manhattan, he has been forced to stay home, where he has no power. "I'm probably going to stay home until at least some of the transit will be back," he said. "As they bring lines back, I will have more options." Staff writer Alex Weisler and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Commuters wait Thursday morning at the Rye station. Trains were running again, with delays. LEAH RAE/THE JOURNAL NEWS Mt. Vernon residents angry over Davis absence amid Sandy's worst By Ned P. Rauch erauch@lohud.com MOUNT VERNON -- Mayor Ernest David was attending homecoming weekend at his alma mater in North Carolina while the people of his city were trying to cope with the most powerful storm to hit the region in decades. "He should be here with his local community," said Cory Garcia, who lives in the Fleetwood section, where massive trees still blocked many streets. "I think he let everybody down." Following through on plans he'd made before Superstorm Sandy approached the Northeast, Davis flew Oct. 26 to Greensboro, N.C., to attend homecoming at How to reach us Local content/watchdog editor: Kathy Moore, 914-694-3523, kjmoore@lohud.com. Local News editor, Education, Transportation, Environment, Health, Business/Consumer issues: Liz Anderson, 914-696-8538, ecanders@lohud.com. Life&Style: Mary Dolan, 914-694-5230, mdolan@lohud.com Sports: Sean Mayer, 914-696-8527 Digital Team and Breaking News: Ed Forbes, Liz Anderson, Brian Howard, James Kwasnik, Mike Meaney, Jill Mercadante, Yaron Steinbuch, 914-6945077, digital@lohud.com. Westchester County editor: D. Scott Faubel, 914-696-8569, sfaubel@lohud.com. Northern Westchester and Putnam editor: Robert Brum, 914-666-6579, rbrum@lohud.com. Photography director: Carrie Yale, 914-694-5092, cyale@lohud.com Calendar items: Call 914-696-8298; calendar@lohud.com; www.lohud.com/ submitevent TO REPORT A NEWS ITEM E-mail us at metro@lohud.com; 914-694-5077 nights and weekends only; sports scores after 5:30 p.m.: 914-6968888 >> Photo reprints 914-694-3505 >> Weddings/Engagements 914-696-8231 >> Main switchboard 914-694-9300 North Carolina A&T University and planned to return Monday. Sandy, which devastated the region, prevented him from traveling north until Thursday, when he took a train to Washington and was then driven to Mount Vernon. "It is important that we see each other," Davis said of his former schoolmates at a news conference Thursday evening. Ralph Santana, a Mount Vernon resident who waited in a long line to fill his car with gas Thursday, contrasted Davis' leadership style with that of New Jersey's governor. "I think it's ridiculous he's out of town. Chris Christie's not out of town," he said. "You'd think he'd be here to survey the damage. That's part of the responsibility of being a public servant." Davis and other city officials emphasized that prior to his departure, the mayor held meetings with commissioners and department heads to ensure the city would be able to respond effectively in his absence. "I have been vicariously in the city all of the time," Davis said in a phone interview as he returned to Mount Vernon. Like many communities in the Lower Hudson Valley, Mount Vernon was hit hard by the storm. About 9,000 customers were still without power, Davis said. Fallen trees made many streets impassable and gas stations are running out if fuel. Throughout the press conference, which was attended primarily by city employees, Davis, who receives a salary of $143,000 while collecting a $66,557 pension, defended his decision to leave town despite the warnings that Sandy could be terribly destructive, calling it a "nonissue." "I have a good team and they did a great job," he said. Councilman Rich Thomas said he was "disappointed" that the mayor was away and said he would hold hearings looking into the administration's response to the storm, though he commended local emergency crews. City Council President Roberta Apuzzo served as acting mayor while Davis was gone. She praised the city's workers and credited Davis with putting together a strong management team and said he was involved in a "handon, voice-on way," via telephone throughout the crisis. But she, too, said she was "disappointed" he was away. Asked to respond to their disappointment, Davis said, "Tough." Mount Vernon Mayor Ernie Davis, foreground, and Police Commissioner Carl Bell hold a news conference Aug. 3 at City Hall. WILL DAVID/THE JOURNAL NEWS 4A Friday, November 2, 2012 WP SUPERSTORM SANDY The Journal News lohud.com FEMA: N.Y.'s senators push to get Westchester, Rockland aid Continued from Page 1A could not say what other counties might be added to the list. "Right now we have the boroughs that were impacted," he said. "Again, as they assess damages, additional counties could be added on." Gov. Andrew Cuomo is asking FEMA to cover 90 percent to 100 percent of the governments' costs of the recovery in areas designated as disasters. Usually, FEMA provides 75 percent reimbursement for costs, and the state and local governments split the rest. Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino said he met with FEMA team leader Michael Byrne on Wednesday and told him the county is well above the damage threshold to qualify for assistance. "It's going to happen; it's just a matter of when," Astorino said. Both of New York's U.S. senators Thursday urged Fugate to approve a state request to designate Westchester and Rockland counties as disaster areas, and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's office said Putnam also could be added. Putnam County Executive MaryEllen Odell said her county suffered enough damage for federal aid. She said a FEMA representative was working with the county's emergency team. The designation opens up aid for public projects such as roads and public buildings, and for private properties. Federal aid for individuals and families can include temporary shelter for residents of destroyed or heavily damaged homes and grants to replace personal property and cover transportation, medical, dental and funeral expenses. It also can include lowinterest disaster loans for homeowners and renters through the U.S. Small Business Administration to repair or replace homes, automobiles, clothing and other property, and for businesses to cover lost property and economic injury. Other programs cover crisis counseling, disaster-related unemployment assistance, legal aid and help with income tax, Social Security and veterans benefits. Homes along River Street in Stony Point, seen Thursday, were heavily damaged by Superstorm Sandy. PHOTOS BY RICKY FLORES/THE JOURNAL NEWS FEMA representatives on Thursday looked over homes in Stony Point destroyed by Superstorm Sandy. FEMA aid also could include money for repairs to public amenities and infrastructure, including New Rochelle's waterfront parks and Ossining's water filtration plant. Sarah and Gavin Markiet saw their three-family home on Ohio Avenue in Piermont flooded, forcing them and their two tenants out. Gavin Markiet said they might be able to benefit from FEMA rental assistance and from a federal low-interest loan if insurance didn't cover the damages. The house had flooded before, and they had to move out temporarily. Denied town permission to raise the house above the flood level, they've now suffered a bigger loss, they said. "Now we have six feet of water in the house, and we can't move back at all," Sarah Markiet said. "It's a total loss," her husband said. "We lost everything." A FEMA team toured Rockland County on Thursday to determine whether Sandy caused enough damage for the disaster designation. "I'm sure that if they have good eyes, they'll see that we were hurt significantly," said Ron Levine, spokesman for County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef. Zoralys Galarza, 23, spoke with a FEMA representative Wednesday to find out what help she could get replacing the floor and insulation of her flooded mobile home in Stony Point. Dorothea Lang of Garrison said water flooded her house near the Hudson River, coming into the first level of the home. She would welcome any help from FEMA. "All the insulation between the crawl space and first floor is soaked and will have to be replaced," she said. "I don't know what damage it's done to the walls." Staff writers Elizabeth Ganga, Akiko Matsuda and Brian Tumulty contributed to this report. POWER: Utilities criticized Continued from Page 1A Eastchester are the same bills that are paid in Long Island, New Jersey, Manhattan and everywhere else. We pay just as much as everybody else; we should get as much attention as everybody else." But none of the local utility companies has been spared. Clarkstown Supervisor Alexander Gromack, whose town was among the hardest hit by Sandy, with more than 20,000 outages, called the response from Orange and Rockland Utilities "woeful." "The frustration is that we've gone through this scenario three years in a row and each time the response from O&R is, 'This is an unprecedented storm and people need to understand.' This is what we hear every time," Gromack said. "They cannot give people restoration times. All they keep saying is seven to 12 days and people are fed up. This is incompetence to the highest level that they can't tell people when they'll get power back." New York state Director of Operations Howard Glaser called New York State Electric and Gas "the poorest-performing utility in this situation in the state." He said the company's response amounted to "silence, darkness and an utter lack of any NYSEG presence whatsoever," and suggested a new motto for the company: "Lights out. Nobody's home." NYSEG spokesman Clay Ellis has not returned calls seeking comment since the storm struck the region Monday but did say in an email Wednesday that the company expects "steady progress in restoring service," with the "vast majority" of outages fixed by midnight Sunday. The Journal News received an "out of office" reply in a follow-up email seeking comment on Glaser's statements about NYSEG. Utility spokeswoman Cindy Chadwick responded but also did not address the criticism directly. "Our restoration efforts continue in full force. We have increased our number of field crews by 50 percent and are actively seeking more. We will continue to communicate with emergency operations centers in Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess counties until all power is restored," she said. Utility officials said crews from as far away as California and Washington state are working around the clock. O&R and Consolidated Edison, its parent company, deny that workers were diverted to help restore New York City. But all the local utilities note priorities during storm-related re- pairs call for outages affecting the most customers to be addressed first. "We understand the frustration," Con Edison spokesman Alfonso Quirozsaid. "But we are working to restore customers as quickly as possible." Sandy slammed the Lower Hudson Valley on Monday, with wind gusts exceeding 60 mph and tidal surges as high as14 feet. The storm caused unprecedented damage to the New York metropolitan area and caused recordsetting outages for all of the area's utility companies. On Thursday night, 153,897 Con Edison customers in Westchester County remained without power, as did 28,118 NYSEG customers in the county. Rockland County had 68,668 O&R customers without power, while Putnam County reported 21,254 NYSEG customers and 543 Central Hudson Gas & Electric customers without power. But as daunting as utilities say the damage was, locals have shown little patience. "They did not follow through on what I thought we agreed to after the last storm," Lewisboro Supervisor Peter Parsons said Thursday after the daily 3 p.m. conference call with officials from towns in northern Westchester and Putnam counties. "We were to have specific Members of the Army National Guard worked Thursday with Consolidated Edison to clear large trees from Croton Lake Road in Bedford Hills in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. FRANK BECERRA JR./THE JOURNAL NEWS crews in each town to work with us. It just didn't happen." Ramapo Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence was among the local officials who met with O&R, urging the company to speed up repairs. "We're really pounding the table for O&R to get to work on the distribution line," he said. In Yonkers, Mayor Mike Spano said the city had 14 public works crews on standby, but many were unable to begin clearing the streets of wreckage because "we couldn't get a Con Ed crew in our city to just tell us if a line was energized or not." He chided Con Edison's "somewhat slow" response Wednesday but gave the company slightly higher marks Thursday for its efforts to help clean city streets and restore power. "I think they have upped their game a little bit," Spano said. "We'll take it day by day, but they have cleared busy spots for us, and now our crews are out there finishing the job." Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino said Con Edison and NYSEG officials had assured him that they were working aggressively to restore the county's power. "We certainly understand that Con Edison is dealing with an unprecedented amount of storm damage and power outages in our county and in the region," Astorino said. "The county is offering whatever help it can, but we are also pushing to make sure Con Edison is doing everything possible on its end to restore power in Westchester as quickly as possible." According to statements released Thursday, it could take weeks to fully restore service, but power for the "vast majority" of utility customers in the three counties will be restored as follows: >> Consolidated Edison: By Nov. 11. >> Orange and Rockland Utilities: By the end of next week. >> New York State Electric and Gas: By midnight Sunday. >> Central Hudson Gas & Electric: All but 543 customers restored today. Staff writers and The Associated Press contributed to this report. lohud.com The Journal News SUPERSTORM SANDY WP Friday, November 2, 2012 5A Hundreds mourn North Salem storm victims 2 boys killed Monday were inseparable By Rob Ryser rryser@lohud.com BREWSTER -- Hundreds of devastated friends and neighbors of the two boys who died during Monday night's storm when a tree crashed onto their North Salem home lined the streets and crowded into a village funeral home Thursday to say goodbye. The wake for 13-yearold Michael Robson and 11-year-old Jack Baumler of Peach Lake at Beecher Funeral Home Michael was a gripRobson ping reminder of just how gravely Superstorm Sandy has impacted the northern suburbs as national efforts continued to get the metropolitan region back on its feet. Jack Baumler's kindergarten teacher was among those showing support for the family. "He was a wonderful, wonderful boy," said Theresa Stellacci, 28, who now teaches in the Bronx. "He had a smile that could light up the room." Inside the funeral home, adorned with flowers and photographs of the two boys, mothers wiped away tears with tissues, fathers kept their arms around children, and kids walked through the place red-eyed or crying, some pausing to sign memorial posters. The afternoon wake was the first of two visitations scheduled for the two North Salem middleschoolers, who grew up next door to each other on the southern shore of Peach Lake. Their deaths shocked the tightknit lakeside community. The North Salem school district got its grief team ready to counsel students, but the schools have been closed all week. The burden of explaining sudden loss and natural catastrophe to kids has fallen on parents. Teachers and staff will be able to reinforce the messages when school starts. "Jack was a friend to everybody and he didn't judge anybody," Stellacci said. "That is a testament to his mother." Inseparable in life, the two boys will be memorialized at back-to-back funeral Masses today at St. Joseph's Church in Croton Falls. Jack Baumler's service is planned for 10 a.m. Michael Robson's service is planned for 1 p.m. The two had been playing in the Baumlers' family room shortly before 8 p.m. Monday, when fierce winds blew a 100-foot oak from its roots onto the roof, crushing it. Michael Robson's older sister and Jack Baumler's older brother were in the same room but escaped without serious injuries. Mourners console one another at the wake for Michael Robson, 13 and Jack Baumler, 11, at the Beecher Funeral Home in Brewster on Thursday. The two boys died Monday night when a huge tree crashed onto a home in North Salem. PHOTOS BY JOE LARESE/THE JOURNAL NEWS Mourners line up Thursday at Beecher Funeral Home in Brewster for Michael Robson and Jack Baumler. Two funeral Masses will be held today for the middle school students, who were neighbors. GAS: Long lines, rationing in Yonkers Continued from Page 1A "This is the worst I've seen," said Maher Attar, manager of a Mobil station at Mamaroneck and Rosedale avenues in White Plains, where dozens of drivers waited an hour for gas this afternoon. "I will run out - maybe today, but I hope not." Westchester County officials said they received no reports of price gouging. But state Sen. David Carlucci, D-New City, said his office got numerous complaints from Rockland County motorists who claim they have been charged more than $5 a gallon for gas, even though the price at the pump is more than a dollar less. Fuel distribution in the tri-state area was hampered by major refineries remaining idle due to power outages and flooding and ships unable to unload at terminals in New York Harbor. Some of the refineries were to reopen, and the Coast Guard said Thursday that it would open the harbor to barges, though not larger tankers. But Peter Kischak, president of the Service Station Dealers of Greater New York, said the more pressing problem in the Lower Hudson Valley was the number of ships in the Hudson River that were kept from getting to Newburgh to unload. He said it was his understanding that the Coast Guard had agreed Thursday to let the ships proceed. "There's no shortage. The fuel is out there -- it just has to get to the locations," Kischak said. "It's going to take a few days, but now everyone's panicking and filling up and not just getting gas when they need it like they usually do." Patience was in shorter supply than gas at several stations as motorists ended long searches for open pumps with even longer waits on line. Drivers got into shouting matches with alleged line-cutters at Attar's station in White Plains, and things got so heated a White Plains police officer ordered the station to block one of its entrances, Moe Alrobiei uses a head lamp as he helps customer Lori Amandi of Mamaroneck at Deli Mart near Iona College on North Avenue on Thursday. His vendors haven't delivered soda or beer since Monday. SETH HARRISON/THE JOURNAL NEWS For powerless, 'it's all about takeout' Drivers lined up to get gas Thursday at the Mobil station at Midland and Kimball avenues in Yonkers. Tempers flared as frustrated motorists coped with a long wait and cars cutting in front of each other. CARUCHA L. MEUSE/THE JOURNAL NEWS where a second, shorter line had formed. One motorist there, Michael Sullivan, 37, of Harrison, works at his cousin's gas station in Rye Neck, where his cousin shut off the pumps at the station to conserve the fuel that's left. "They told us we can't get another delivery for nine days," Sullivan said. Attar was more fortunate, getting a gas delivery Wednesday night after a three-day delay that depleted his supply. At the Citgo station on Gramatan Avenue in Mount Vernon, the line was 10 cars deep. Along with locals filling up their cars were people from Manhattan and the Bronx. "I was looking around my neighborhood, and all of the stations are closed," said Marta Ortega, 35, of the Bronx. A 90-minute line, extending 120 cars, led up to the Sunoco station on Interstate 87 just north of the toll plaza in Yonkers. "I've got about another hour of gas left," said owner Phil Loguidice, worried as he awaited a new delivery. "I lived through two gas shortages, in the 1970s and 1980s. This is similar, except we're not rationing gas here." By late afternoon, the mayor in Yonkers decided rationing was a solution. As tensions boiled over, city police were sent to keep order at several gas stations after a fist- fight was reported at one in east Yonkers. Spano said his rationing order "will slow the push and keep the gas supply in place -- because none of us really knows how long it's going to take" to replenish the local fuel supply. The mayor's order does not apply to emergency vehicles, school buses or commercial vehicles that transport food, water, fuel or medical supplies to the city. In Rockland County, cars clogged Route 17 in Sloatsburg as drivers came south from Orange County and north from New Jersey to fuel up at the Super Seven, one of a few stations open in that part of the county. Don Kaplan, 41, and a neighbor went on a mission Wednesday night in search of gasoline. It took them very far from their homes in Lake Lucille in northern New City. "I got back around 1:30 a.m. with enough fuel to keep the well running through this afternoon," Kaplan said Thursday morning. "We hit around 20 gas stations from here to Haverstraw to Stony Point to Suffern. We just kept going north until we found one with gas -- in New Paltz." Rumors of price gouging in Rockland drew investigators from the state Attorney General's Office. One, who declined to give his name, visited Murray's Gas and Deli on South Broadway in Nyack, where owner Tim Murray said he had no power for two days and was unable to sell gas to customers. "I have 12,000 gallons of gas, but I can't get it out," he said. The investigator checked the listed prices and appeared to give Murray a pass. In Monsey, Sikorsky gas station on Route 306 had no power and was manually pumping gas for a long line of customers with gas containers. The price? $6 a gallon. Perry Sikorsky, the owner, said the surcharge was for the labor of two men he needed to pump the gas through a 3-foothigh metal contraption. "I have the gas in the ground, but I don't have the power to pump it," Sikorsky said. Donna Greene, a spokeswoman for Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, said the gas supply is one of the things being addressed in daily conference calls with municipal officials. Greene said the county's Consumer Protection Department would visit gas stations to assess issues of pricing and availability. Staff writers Colin Gustafson, Shawn Cohen, Theresa Juva-Brown, Ned P. Rauch, Khurram Saeed, Mareesa Nicosia, Hema Easley, Marcela Rojas and Steven P. Marsh contributed to this report. By Shawn Cohen spcohen@lohud.com Extended power outages have shifted shopping and eating habits, as residents of the Lower Hudson Valley struggle to maintain conveniences they've grown accustomed to in the suburbs. For Debbie Kahn, a New Rochelle mother of two teenage boys whose home remains without electricity, that means traveling to the north side of her city to get fresh pizza and bagels, and buying canned tuna and other nonperishable foods that don't require a working stove. "No lights, no heat, no hot water," Kahn said as she arrived at a shopping plaza on North Avenue. "I had to get rid of everything in my freezer. Now it's all about takeout." The owners of Sun Hing Chinese Restaurant, also on North Avenue, had to throw out their rotting food because of an outage there and reopened Thursday after borrowing a generator and getting their storm-affected vendor to finally deliver ingredients. At Deli Mart, next to Iona College in the city, manager Fadel Albrashi and his staff wore flashlight headbands there Thursday. His vendors haven't delivered soda or beer to his store since Monday because of storm complications. He's also been working the phone all day, trying to find a generator, one of the most hotly sought items in the entire region. Gas is at the top of the list that also includes batteries, fire wood and dry ice. "From South Carolina all the way to Maine, you can't find a generator," Albrashi said. "The only one I found is in Indiana, so I might have to go there." LoriAmandiofMamaroneck brought her 4-yearold daughter there for a pack of fruit Mentos because Halloween in her neighborhood was canceled. Ana Villalva of Spring Valley and her three children are using the Red Cross at Rockland Community College until their power is back on. Everything in her fridge has spoiled, and she said couldn't wait in the long line at Walgreen's just for milk. "It's crazy," she said. In Mount Kisco, Isi Albanese, owner of Bellizzi Restaurant, has been so busy due to Sandy that he introduced a breakfast slice of pizza topped with bacon, egg and cheese for customers who are now eating all their meals away from home. Seymour and Shirley Levine, senior citizens from Scarsdale, spent their Thursday afternoon searching for an open McDonald's. "We were on our way to the McDonalds in Mamaroneck, but it was closed, so we made a detour to come here," Seymour Levine said, pulling into the lot of another closed one in New Rochelle. "I should have known because the traffic lights are out." Staff writer Mareesa Nicosia contributed to this report. 6A Friday, November 2, 2012 SUPERSTORM SANDY WP The Journal News lohud.com Through our readers' eyes Flooding Hudson River at 1 Bridge St. KEVIN JOHNSON Bailey waiting for the storm. KATHY MULLEN Boat in Tarrytown. JAIME MARTORANO Closeup of the Ritz-Carlton hotel in White Plains. LIZ COLLINS DPW crews hard at work in Hastings-on-Hudson. JEN CORSO Tree hits a house in Hastings-on-Hudson. JEN CORSO Rose Avenue in Spring Valley. MARTIN COLEMAN Oakwood Avenue in White Plains. TERRY HANSON Stony Point Bay Marina. MARIANNE FRASCO Residents get creative, find ways to adjust to life after Sandy New resident glad for his generator SOMERS -- Mike Junghans moved to Somers in December and decided to buy a generator for his new house. This week, he was happy he got it. "It's the first time we've had to use it," Junghans said Thursday as he filled his gas can at a Mobil station on Route 100 in Somers. "We've been without power since Monday, so we're glad to have it." The gas station was crowded Thursday morning as it was one of the few stations open in town. Junghans, who has New Jersey license plates on the company car he drives, chuckled when asked if he drove all the way from there to get gas in Somers. New Jersey residents have been queuing up for miles to get gasoline after Superstorm Sandy. -- Terence Corcoran Seats at premium at community meeting More than 400 Piermont residents, most of whom were without power, showed up for a community meeting Thursday morning in Village Hall. Chairs were at a premium as the crowd spilled into the hallway. "I wonder how much I could get for this?" one seated woman jokingly asked. "I don't know," a man standing next to her said. "Maybe you could trade it for some electricity." PIERMONT -- -- Khurram Saeed Angel fish survived Irene, but not Sandy RYE -- Scott Williford has weathered other floods in Rye -- including Tropical Storm Irene, which inundated streets and left many without power a year ago. The bond trader prepared to work through yet another power outage the same way he did last year: taking his laptop out to the car and trading from there. But this year, after the power went off, he found his car flooded and inoperable. On Thursday morning, he was heading to work by train, grateful for the chance to return to a bit of normalcy and to recharge all three of his cellphones, which were dead. His wife and children were taking refuge at a hotel, and will face disappointment when they return. Last year, Williford ran an extension cord from the car to run the pump in their fish tank, which held angel fish and other tropical specimens worth about $1,000. This year, he wasn't able to save them. "I was just sitting there, watching them die, one by one. It was so painful," he said. -- Leah Rae Chinese delegation visits Rockland PALISADES -- The U.S. may be falling behind China in hi-tech manufacturing, infrastructure and green technology, but there is at least one area in which America is still No. 1: senior-living facilities. Despite the recent storm damage to the region, a group of about a dozen deep-pocketed Chinese investors toured the Esplanade at Palisades on Thursday as part of a fact-finding mission to retirement communities in San Francisco, Arizona and New York City. The business delegation toured the 95-apartment independent living facility on Oak Tree Road beginning at 1 p.m. Because of longstanding Confucian traditions that encourage filial piety and tightknit family structures, China's senior citizens have traditionally lived out their retirement years at home. But changing attitudes and demographics mean the country needs to find new ways to house its huge and growing senior population, said Connie Lu, 40, of Nyack, who organized the jaunt. Debin Li, 45, a real-estate developer from the southern province of Guangdong, said China has already built highspeed rail lines and skyscrapers. Now it's time to catch up to Western ideas about elder care. "We think this facility is a wonderful example for us to duplicate," he said, speaking through a translator. -- Alex Taylor Hotel strategy fine, if rooms available SOUTH SALEM -- Maureen Jones and her husband were about to spend their first night in their blacked-out home Thursday. The power's been out since Monday. "When we heard the storm was coming, we got hotel reservations in Danbury (Conn.)," Jones said outside DeCicco's Market in Cross River. They stayed at the hotel through Wednesday, when they were told no more rooms were available. So Jones headed to the market Thursday, where she bought some wood for their wood-burning stove. "We're just going to huddle around the stove for warmth," she said. -- Terence Corcoran Visitor determined to run marathon MOUNT KISCO -- More than 4,000 miles away from his home in Munich, Klaus Schruefer waited on the train station platform Thursday morning with a horde of Klaus commutSchruefer ers hungry to get to Manhattan for the first time in days. He arrived in the United States on Saturday for Sunday's New York City Marathon. He is staying in Fishkill in Dutchess County, where he lived for several years. He said he didn't lose power there and spent his week "drinking a lot of coffee, watching TV and just enjoying the time." But he was ready to head into Manhattan, pick up his marathon materials and walk around the city. The city's decision to go forward with the race in the wake of Superstorm Sandy has ignited controversy and criticism, but Schruefer said it's the right one. "I think it's a good sign and it's also bringing a lot of money to the city, which you can use for recovery," he said. "About 20,000 people fly in for the event and it's a high-price event." Schruefer said he spent about $2,000 to register for the event and fly to New York to run the race. "If this doesn't happen, it's bad," he said. -- Alex Weisler Library doubles as shelter after storm NEW ROCHELLE -- With thousands of residents still without power Wednesday, hundreds of them found it at the public library. People of all ages and walks of life -- from students to stranded commuters to retirees -- packed the library, where they watched films, browsed the Internet, charged laptops and phones, and found refuge from the mess left behind by Sandy. Robert and Lois Frost, whose home in the city's North End is without electricity, stopped by to pick up books on traveling to Argentina, check the Internet and find some comfort. "It's warm here," Robert Frost said, "and there's light." Library Director Tom Geoffino said he was pleased to see the library so full and to know that it was providing solace to so many people. "We welcome this kind of usage because we're a community resource," he said. Asked to recommend a book to people who are still trying to recover from the storm, he chose a recent favorite: "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln," by Doris Kearns Goodwin. "He (Lincoln) set an example that I wish more politicians would follow," Geoffino said. -- Ned P. Rauch Pay what you can for 'Awake, Sing!' PLEASANTVILLE -- Axial Theatre is getting into the post-Sandy spirit, recognizing that people may be short on cash due to powerless ATMs, so it's offering a pay-what-youcan policy for today's 8 p.m. performance of "Awake and Sing!" Tickets for the final two performances, 8 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sun- day, are regular price: $20, $15 for students and seniors. St. John's Episcopal Church, 8 Sunnyside Road, Pleasantville. 914962-8828. www.axialtheatre.org. -- Peter D. Kramer School has showers, power -- and cards CROSS RIVER -- Jennifer Blair and Nicole Stone would normally have been working Thursday in their positions as recreation assistants with the town of Lewisboro. But because the building that houses the Recreation Department has been without power since Monday, the two were reassigned to John Jay Middle School, which has been open from 9 to 5 this week for residents to take showers and charge electronic devices. "We had 81 people take showers so far today and 65 yesterday," Blair said. They were joined at the school by friends Rebecca Coldwell and Alison Seedorf -- who brought them lunch -- both of whom were not working because of the storm. After lunch, the four spent a little time playing a spirited game of Uno. "We'll be here (today) and probably through the weekend, too," Blair said. -- Terence Corcoran From left, Lewisboro Recreation Department employees Jennifer Blair and Nicole Stone take a lunch break with their friends, Rebecca Coldwell and Alison Seedorf on Thursday at John Jay Middle School in Cross River. Blair and Stone were reassigned to John Jay, which was open for residents to take showers and charge electronic devices. TERENCE P. CORCORAN/THE JOURNAL NEWS lohud.com The Journal News SUPERSTORM SANDY WP Friday, November 2, 2012 7A Relatives, friends plan help for Chanin family By Tim Henderson and Steve Lieberman slieberm@lohud.com PEARL RIVER -- As the Chanin children move forward, learning to live without their father and with a mother whose recovery is expected to be lengthy, friends and relatives are making plans to assist in any way possible. Before he died Monday when a tree fell through his home, Jeffrey Chanin, 51, was a well-liked man in Pearl River. His wife, Lise Chanin, who works in Chestnut Ridge Village Hall, also is popular and has been surrounded by friends as Jeffrey she recovChanin ers from critical injuries in Nyack Hospital's intensive care unit. Lise Chanin suffered head and other injuries when an 8- to 10-foot-long oak tree trunk crashed through the roof of the family's Robin Street home Monday evening. Chestnut Ridge Mayor Jerry Kobre said Thursday she's well enough to speak with her colleagues at Village Hall, where she has worked as clerk-treasurer. "She sounded good on the phone," Kobre said. "She's planning to get out of bed today (Thursday) for the first time." For the Pearl River High School community, still reeling from the cancer death of junior Tommy Scognamiglio on Oct. 17 and the death of freshman Justin Rogers in a 2010 car accident, the death of Jeffrey Chanin and the injuries suffered by Lise Chanin and daughters Chloe and Danielle Chanin, struck a nerve. Danielle, a 10th-grader, suffered injuries and remained in Nyack Hospital on Thursday. Chloe, a Pearl River High School senior and cheerleader, also was injured but has been released from the hospital. Support for the family poured in from social media -- "Pearl River really has been hit with horrible tragedies, stay strong Chanin family," Kristen Sabino wrote on Twitter. Numerous others in the local community have come out to aid the family in their time of need. Munno's Deli in Pearl River has been collecting cash to help the Chanins and plans to send the children whatever food they In brief Libraries offer help in storm aftermath Westchester libraries with power have been incredibly busy, said Terry Kirchner, executive director of Westchester Library System. There is a link on the WLS site to indicate which libraries are open and have Internet access at www.westchesterlibraries.org/networkstatus. Many libraries have expanded their hours into the evening and weekends to help meet the needs of their communities. "It's wonderful that the libraries are able to help their communities during this particular time of need," he said. In Putnam County, the Mahopac Public Library reports that it had thousands of visitors beginning on Tuesday when it reopened. Crane collapse affects electrician Robert Munoz of Carmel works in the Manhattan high-rise where the crane partially collapsed. Munoz, an electrician with Five Star Electric, said he has no idea when he'll be able to get back to work. "Right now I took a week furlough so that I could collect unemployment. That's the only way I can recoup time," said Munoz, 45. need free of charge this week. Family friend Mike Bosco said Pearl River firefighters also have been raising money, among many other efforts made on the department's behalf, to help the family. "These are just the greatest people," said Bosco, a neighbor dealing with his own home's heavy damage from fallen trees that splintered a deck and part of the twofamily house. "It's a terrible thing." Dorothy Dean, another neighbor, said she also felt the family's agony. "They're the best neighbors I ever had and I'm 70 years old," Dean said. "If anything happened they'd jump right over and help." Their exact conditions and injuries suffered by Lise and Danielle Chanin have not been disclosed by the hospital because of federal privacy laws, Orangetown police Detective James Brown said, adding police have been told their injuries were not considered lifethreatening. A younger son, Tim, was unhurt and called the Orangetown police when the tree fell. The couple's eldest child, Eric, is a volunteer firefighter with the Pearl River Fire Department. He was on duty that night, but was ordered to stay clear of the house. Chloe and her little brother, Tim, were stay- ing with friends Thursday, friends of the family said. Funeral arrangements for Jeffrey Chanin were pending through WymanFisher Funeral Home. Chanin, 51, was a retired New York City police sergeant who sold real estate for Prudential Joyce Realty in downtown Pearl River. 8A Friday, November 2, 2012 WP SUPERSTORM SANDY The Journal News lohud.com Generators, stoves pose health hazards The Journal News Firefighters evacuated 30 residents from a Port Chester apartment building Wednesday night due to high levels of carbon monoxide from a generator being used in a store at 138 Irving Ave. "One of the owners was running a generator so his inventory wouldn't go bad," Fire Chief Kevin McFadden said. The engine was running next to the building and sending exhaust into the apartments. A second generator was being used by a neighboring restaurant in an alleyway. Firefighters used fans to ventilate the building before letting residents back in. The firefighters had responded earlier in the day to a North Main Street store where a generator was being used indoors, causing dangerously high levels of the gas. McFadden recommended keeping generators 25 feet away from buildings, "the farther the better." Operators of the machines should make sure to use a ventilated area, and check that power cords do not overheat or burn. Here are additional tips from health and safety officials about staying safe in the wake of the hurricane: Generator, cooking and fire safety >> Operate generators, camp cook stoves, barbecue grills and chain saws outdoors. They produce carbon monoxide and can be a source of CO poisoning that can kill you in minutes. >> Do not exceed the rated capacity of your generator. Overloading your generator can damage it and any appliances connected to it. Fire may result. >> Be sure to follow the manufacturer's instructions. Fuel spilled on a hot generator can cause an explosion. If your generator has a detachable fuel tank, remove it before refilling. If this is not possible, shut off the generator and let it cool before refilling. >> If you use a fireplace, wood stove or portable kerosene heater to stay warm, be sure there is adequate ventilation to the outside. Without enough fresh air, carbonmonoxide fumes can build up in your home. >> Never use a natural gas or propane stove/oven to heat your home. >> If you use a kerosene heater, use 1-K grade kerosene only. Never substitute with fuel oil, diesel, gasoline or yellow (regular) kerosene. >> Never add fuel to a space heater when it is hot. The fuel can ignite, burning you and your home. >> Keep the heater away from objects that can burn, such as furniture, rugs or curtains. >> If you have a fire extinguisher, keep it nearby. >> Never leave candles burning in an empty room. >> Keep children away from space heaters, fireplaces and wood stoves to avoid accidental burns. Source: Westchester County Department of Health Food safety >> Use dry or block ice to keep the refrigerator as cold as possible. Fifty pounds of dry ice should keep an 18-cubic-foot, fully stocked freezer cold for two days. >> Refrigerated food should be safe if power was out for no more than four hours. Discard perishable food that has been above 40 degrees for two hours or more. >> Do not eat any food that may have come into contact with floodwater. Do not eat food in waterdamaged containers or home-canned foods or drink beverages in containers with screw-caps, snap lids, crimped caps (soda bottles), twist caps or flip tops if they have come in contact with floodwater. These containers cannot be disinfected. >> Undamaged, commercially prepared foods in all-metal cans or retort pouches can be saved if you remove the labels, thoroughly wash the cans, rinse them, and then disinfect them with a sanitizing solution consisting of1 tablespoon of bleach per gallon of potable water. >> Discard refrigerators that have been submerged in floodwater. Source: U.S. Food and Drug Administration lohud.com The Journal News SUPERSTORM SANDY 3 school districts hold classes; many closed Tarrytowns, Pleasantville, Elmsford reopen By Gary Stern gstern@lohud.com At least three local school districts became the first to reopen Thursday, as many districts will remain closed today because they lack power. The Elmsford, Tarrytowns and Pleasantville districts Thursday morning welcomed back students and teachers, many of whom lack power at home. White Plains plans to reopen today. "A lot of the kids don't have power at home and they were excited to be back," said Laura Birchman, a third-grade teacher at the Washington Irving School in Tarrytown. "They've been very talkative, all smiling and laughing. Not a single kid has been upset about being back." Meanwhile, in Albany, the heads of the state Legislature's education committees said Thursday that they expect to consider legislation -- likely at a special session this month -- that would alleviate schools' requirement to have classes for 180 days because of Superstorm Sandy. Allowing schools to hold fewer than 180 days of classes is not unprecedented. That was done this year for parts of upstate that were hampered at the beginning of last school year after tropical storms Irene and Lee. In Tarrytown, Thursday was a crowded day at Washington Irving because the district's Winfield L. Morse School was without power and remained closed. Secondand third-graders from Morse are joining the Nina Lyppens, a first-grader at the Winfield L. Morse School in Sleepy Hollow, reads Thursday while waiting in the auditorium for her next class activity at the Washington Irving School in Tarrytown. Morse students joined children at Irving because their school had no power in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. TANIA SAVAYAN/THE JOURNAL NEWS third, fourth and fifth grades at Washington Irving until their lights are back on. Second-grader Joseph Llivicura was fine with it. "I like to stay here," he said with an ear-to-ear grin. Most districts have not been so lucky. All eight districts in Rockland County and most in Westchester and Putnam counties planned for students to stay home today because they didn't know when their buildings would get power. Several districts canceled or rescheduled SATs that were to be given Saturday. Most districts plan to alert parents over the weekend whether schools will reopen Monday. Tarrytowns Superintendent Donald Smith said his district was fortunate that school buildings were not damaged. "Our buildings are fine, and Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow are pretty navigable," he said. "We did not have a problem getting buses to kids or getting kids to schools. Attendance is good." The Elmsford schools were without power from Monday to Tuesday and needed Wednesday to clear trees and branches from the school grounds. But the district was ready to go Thursday, said Susan D'Angelo, assistant superintendent for instruction and pupil personnel services. "We have minimal absences from teachers, many of whom do not have power," she said. "It was a credit to them that they got in. We are lucky we didn't have as extensive damage as some neighbors." Pleasantville's schools never lost electricity and had minor damage. It helped that the small district does not use buses. Superintendent Mary Fox-Alter spent the morning greeting parents and students. "All the parents were very grateful for a return to normalcy," she said. "Kids were happy to be back in school and people were thankful to be in a warm building." Albany Bureau Chief JosephSpector contributed to this report. WP Friday, November 2, 2012 9A WP Friday NOVEMBER 2, 2012 WWW.LOHUD.COM 10A Boardwalk seems risky rebuild David McKay Wilson THE TAX WATCHDOG For the second time in 20 years, the historic boardwalk at Westchester County's Playland Amusement Park has collapsed under the Atlantic Ocean's fury. It was a sorry sight Tuesday, the day after Sandy smashed into the Rye shoreline with such ferocity. In a cove by the Playland Plunge ride, several hundred feet of boardwalk lay in a jumble of twisted metal and splintered wood. One section, with two benches and a pair of lamplight stanchions intact, floated forlornly in the cove's swirling waters, where water from Playland Lake funneled into Long Island Sound. Sandy left several trashed seaside boardwalks in her wake, including in New Jersey. The famed Atlantic City boardwalk had 2,000 feet washed away. Spring Lake's boardwalk, replaced a year ago after Tropical Storm Irene, was torn asunder. The Seaside Heights boardwalk, along with its historic roller coaster, disintegrated under Sandy's power. In Rye, Playland's historic Dragon Coaster survived. But the park's Ice Casino, so close to the shore, was inundated by seawater, which submerged the basement pumps that freeze the ice. The Casino's aging roof, already in need of repairs, took a further hit. The boardwalk's destruction comes at a crucial time for the publicly owned amusement park. County Executive Rob Astorino, looking to reinvent the park for the 21st century, last month chose Sustainable Playland from a dozen private concerns that competed for the right to manage, and invest, in one of Westchester's grandest public A portion of the Playland Amusement Park boardwalk damaged by the effects of Superstorm Sandy, seen Tuesday. MATTHEW BROWN / THE JOURNAL NEWS spaces. Over the next three months, Astorino and the nonprofit hope to craft an agreement to run the park for the next decade in a manner that Astorino says will protect county taxpayers and preserve the park for future generations. Opening up the waterfront - by the destroyed boardwalk -- is seen as a centerpiece of Sustainable Playland's plan, which looks for both financial and environmental sustainability for the 100-acre park. Whether to spend hundreds of thousands of public dollars on a new boardwalk could well become an issue in the upcoming talks. The boardwalk was last rebuilt in 1993 as part of the $4.5 million restoration project at Playland and the county's Glen Island Casino, following the nasty December 1992 nor'easter that destroyed it. "We will rebuild the Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino briefs the media Tuesday. MATTHEW BROWN / THE JOURNAL NEWS boardwalk," Astorino declared Tuesday as he spoke with reporters at the park. "I think it is one of the things that makes Playland Playland." Astorino seems so intent on rebuilding the boardwalk that he's prepared to dip into the county's reserves to fund it, rather than spreading the costs over several years through the sale of municipal bonds. In the short run, Playland could become a bigger drain on county finances. The destroyed boardwalk curves around the park's northern cove, where Sustainable Playland wants to create what it calls The Great Lawn, an expanse of shoreline property now taken up by two water rides. Sustainable Playland would remove the rides and develop a lawn there, opening the waterfront to visitors who want to experience the seaside up close. Engineers have yet to estimate the cost to replace the boardwalk. But as the county undergoes its Playland reinvention, it might be time to take a hard look at what kind of promenade it wants on the park's northern sector, and whether rebuilding what has been demolished twice in 20 years makes good sense from an economic and environmental perspective. "It's something we want to look at seriously," Sustainable Playland spokesman Geoff Thompson said. "We want the waterfront to be more of a focus for the park. We don't want to lose that. But we need a hard look at what the approach will be to rebuilding the destroyed section." One possibility would be a less-costly walkway built on the ground along the shoreline, instead of being elevated high on pilings that drop down into the water that gets pounded by surf. Another possibility, says waterfront structural engineer Kathy Dunne, would be to sink extremely deep anchorages and accept that the wooden planks would be washed away in severe storms. "You'd write off the boards themselves," she says. "But the base structure would stand up." No matter what the plan, the reality of rising seas and our increasingly violent weather makes building structures at the water's edge more and more risky, says Radley Horton of Garrison, an associate research scientist at Columbia University's Earth Institute, who was running his home off a generator this week as his Putnam County hamlet recovers from the superstorm. An Earth Institute report predicts that global warming will cause the sea level in the New York region to rise from 1 to 2 feet over the next century. Even without extreme storms, the higher sea level makes waterfront structures, such as the Playland boardwalk, more vulnerable. "It's like raising the floor of the basketball court without changing the height of the rim," he says. "You get more dunks." MTA claims deadline extended due to Sandy By Cara Matthews clmatthe@lohud.com Today is the three-year anniversary of when the first payment on the payroll commuter tax was due in the 12-county region served by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Originally, it also was the deadline for businesses to file "protective claims" with the state to get refunds in case the levy is ever found unconstitutional. But due to the impact of Superstorm Sandy, the Department of Taxation and Finance has extended it until Nov. 14. Self-employed workers have until April 30, 2013. So far, 165,000 businesses have submitted claims through the online process, spokesman Geoffrey Gloak said. Those businesses won't have to file again. If employers miss the Nov. 14 deadline, they can file for future quarters within the three-year statute of limitations. Several lawsuits have been filed against the unpopular tax that lawmakers enacted in 2009 to help bail out the financially troubled MTA, which is used by 8.5 million people a day. In August, a state Supreme Court justice ruled in one of the cases that the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation Mobility Tax is unconstitutional. The state Court of Appeals, New York's highest court, said in October it would not immediately hear the appeal by the state and the MTA and sent the case back to the Appellate Court. "There have been four cases in the past that were all decided in favor of the constitutionality of the tax," Gloak said. "We fully expect that that's going to be the case going forward as well as with this decision when it's reached." The August decision was on a lawsuit filed by Nassau County and joined by Putnam and Westchester counties, among many others. The MTA region includes New York City and seven suburban counties. CURRENT PAYROLL TAX The Metropolitan Commuter Transportation Mobility Tax of 34 cents per $100 of payroll originally applied to all businesses with quarterly payrolls of more than $2,500. Since April 1, the threshold has been $312,500, and rates have been scaled back for all but the largest employers. Current rates for every $100 of quarterly payroll are: >> Between $312,501 and $375,000, 11 cents >> Between $375,001 and $437,500, 23 cents >> $437,501 or more, 34 cents Rockland County filed one of the four cases that was dismissed. The MTA also thinks the Nassau County ruling will be overturned, spokesman Aaron Donovan said in a TAX WATCH BLOG Keep up with news on taxes from the Lower Hudson Valley and beyond. From the Yonkers budget to Rockland probation costs, Our Tax Watch blog has you covered. Visit http://taxes.lohudblogs.com. statement Thursday. The authority's top priority is restoring service in Sandy's wake, and at this point, "no one here is tallying the costs of this enormous undertaking, but our need for capital funding to keep the lifeblood of New York running was substantial even before the hurricane," he said. Without the payroll tax or another stable and reliable funding source, the MTA would have to make extreme service cuts and fare hikes, Donovan said. "Removing more than $1.8 billion in revenue from the payroll mobility tax and other fees affected by the ruling would be catastrophic for the MTA and for the economy of New York state," he said. Rockland County is proceeding with an appeal of the decision in its case and thinks the outcome in Nassau County bolsters its chances, said Ron Levine, a spokesman for County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef. The Rockland Business Association has been encouraging members to file protective claims, said Al Samuels, president of the group. The damage Superstorm Sandy caused to the MTA's infrastructure doesn't change the association's opposition to the payroll tax, he said. "Constitutionality and need are not necessarily the same," said Samuels, who applauded the filing extension by the state. Amy Allen, managing director of advocacy for the Westchester County Association, said Sandy has underscored the need to be proactive in investing in infrastructure in general, not just the MTA. Infrastructure needs to be rebuilt, and "not just with Band-Aids," she said. "We think the time is right for some discussions about public-private partnerships," she said. THE TAX TEAM David McKay Wilson, Cara Mathews and Dwight R. Worley are on the trail of your money, from how it's collected to where it's spent and everything in between. Have a tip for them? Send them an email at taxes1@lohud.com. DATABASES Search for detailed information on how your tax dollars are spent in our Tax Watch databases. We update them as fast as the numbers come in, so check back and see what's new. Begin your search on the Tax Watch page at LoHud.com/taxwatch COMING SUNDAY Toppling trees damage homes, cut power in region When Hurricane Sandy hit the region, most of the damage was done by the stately trees that give our communities their unique flavor. lohud.com The Journal News SUPERSTORM SANDY Schumer: FEMA to pay initial NYC, L.I. cleanup No word on U.S. plans to aid the Hudson Valley By Joseph Spector and Jon Campbell JSPECTOR@Gannett.com ALBANY -- FEMA indicated Thursday that it would pay for the total initial costs of restoring power to New Yorkers and immediate transportation costs, Sen. Charles Schumer said. The news came a day after Gov. Andrew Cuomo asked FEMA and President Obama to pay for some of the costs associated with Superstorm Sandy. Cuomo, in his letter to the president, said the state may face up to $6 billion in economic impact. "This is a good first step on FEMA's part, and an indication that they know how serious the damage from the storm is," Schumer said in a statement. "This was not a New York disaster, or a New Jersey disaster or a Connecticut disaster, but a national disaster, and FEMA and the federal government should be providing help to the region to the full extent they can." FEMA has more than $7 billion to pay for disaster relief nationwide, Schumer said. President Obama pledged his support to affected states Wednesday during a visit to New Jersey. Schumer said FEMA agreed to reimburse New York City and the state for the cost of emergency public transportation and restoring power to New York City. It applies to the areas already declared a disaster area: New York City and Long Island. It covers expenses from Tuesday through Nov. 9. It doesn't include the hard-hit Hudson Valley, which has yet to be declared a federal disaster area. Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand urged the federal government to include Rockland and Westchester counties. The power outages in New York dropped from 2.1 million earlier this week to 1.5 million as of 5 p.m. Thursday, Cuomo's office said. The outages included 653,164 on Long Island; 605,4618 in New York City; and more than 280,000 in the lower Hudson Valley. Cuomo issued a warning to the state's utility companies on Thursday, saying that poor performance restoring power in the aftermath of Sandy could result in major penalties. During a briefing, Cuomo said he believes "most companies are working very, very hard to restore the power." Still, he warned against being satisfied with good progress when so many are still without power. "Their performance in this operation I believe is germane to their regulatory status," Cuomo said. "If the state believes they were not diligent and aggressive in their abilities to restore powers, they could be subject to monetary penalties. They could even lose their certification." State Director of Operations Howard Glaser sent emails Wednesday and Thursday to the president of New York State Electric and Gas Corp., blasting the company for being "woefully unprepared and not performing." The utility provides service to northern Westchester, Putnam, Dutchess and Ulster counties. "In the northern half of (Westchester County) -- served by you -- there is silence, darkness and an utter lack of any NYSEG presence whatsoever," Glaser wrote in an email obtained by media outlets. "And your company seems utterly unable to communicate with local officials or residents, much less the Governors office." NYSEG reported about 78,300 total outages as of Thursday afternoon, down from a total of 292,000 caused by the storm. "As we continue to make repairs to the backbone of the electricity delivery system -- our transmission lines and substations -- and continue to bring additional resources into the locales where service is interrupted, we will see steady progress in restoring service," NYSEG President Mark Lynch said in a statement. Lines for gas grew in the downstate region Thursday. In Yonkers, Mayor Mike Spano signed an emergency order to limit gasoline sales to 10 gallons per customer because of a gas shortage. "As we enter day five of dealing with the impact of Hurricane Sandy, it has become clear that our gas supply is diminishing," Spano said in a statement. On Wednesday, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg limited passenger vehicles into New York City for the rest of the week to vehicles with three or more people. Subway lines and commuter rail was coming back on line today. The death toll in New York from the storm was 46, including 38 in New York City, officials said. FEMA is required to pay 75 percent of certain storm damages, but can pay up to 100 percent. www.twitter.com/gannett albany WP Friday, November 2, 2012 11A A Friday NOVEMBER 2, 2012 WWW.LOHUD.COM 12A A boat washed inland by Superstorm Sandy sits on the road Thursday in Ship Bottom on Long Beach Island, N.J. ROBERT RAY/AP Jersey Shore residents return home Daunting cleanup effort begins for many By Wayne Parry Associated Press POINT PLEASANT BEACH, N.J. -- Bill Goldberg's first reaction upon entering his flood-damaged home in this popular Jersey Shore resort community was unprintable. His second was that life as he knew it had just been turned upside down -- along with his refrigerator, freezer, and his kitchen and dining room furniture. "Now it's a matter of figuring out whether I have anything left," he said Thursday, as he scraped a thick layer of mud from his home. Similar scenes were playing out up and down the Jersey Shore as many residents were allowed back into their neighborhoods for the first time since Hurricane Sandy hit Monday night. Some were relieved to find only minor damage; others were wiped out. "A lot of tears are being shed today," said Dennis Cucci, whose home near the ocean in Point Pleasant Beach sustained heavy damage. "It's absolutely mindboggling. "The worst part is the mental damage from not knowing what comes next," he said. "We're ready to start doing something, but what? What do you do first? When should you start doing it? Where can you put damaged stuff? When can you put it there? We're just waiting for someone to say something." In the meantime, the shock from the storm was wearing off and the realization that this would be a long, sloppy slog was setting in. "We're running out of clean clothes," Cucci said. "This is the last pair of dry shoes I have. It took the storm two days to wreck all this, and it's going to take well over a year to recover from it." About half of Point Pleasant Beach's famous mile-long boardwalk was either destroyed or seriously damaged by the storm. But a large central section of the boardwalk, lined with prime tourist attractions, including beachfront bars and restaurants, as well as custard stands and pizza joints, emerged unscathed. And most of the boardwalk's kiddie rides, the heart of the family-friendly appeal of Point Pleasant Beach, already had been dismantled for the winter before the storm hit, raising hopes of at least a semblance of summer tourism in 2013. Public works crews were dealing with the aftermath of the storm much as they would a major snowstorm: Plow trucks and bulldozers plowed the sand to the curb, where front-end loaders picked it up and deposited it into huge dump trucks that carried it away. Crews were particularly busy removing sand from the intersection of Water Street and Ocean Avenue, whose names until recently invoked no irony. While some residents were able to start assessing damage, others were still being kept away from their homes. On Thursday afternoon, officials announced that residents of Brigantine Beach, Margate and Longport could go home. But Atlantic City and Ventnor, on the same barrier island as the others, remained under a mandatory evacuation. About 400 people were sheltered Thursday at the high school and middle school in Pleasantville, on the mainland just in from Atlantic City. Casino cook Tracy Jones, 51, and his wife, Konnie, 47, were anxious to get back into their Atlantic City apartment. He said he'd seen one group of men claim to be a tree crew to get back to their homes. "We're not essential personnel or lying about it," he said. "So we can't get on the island." Communities did little to prepare for flooding By Thomas Frank and Brad Heath USA Today Many coastal cities and towns slammed by Hurricane Sandy have done little to protect themselves from flood damage, ignoring federal incentives even as they have been flooded repeatedly, a USA Today analysis of federal records shows. More than 100 municipalities in areas declared a federal emergency this week have received the worst ratings from Washington under a program that rewards communities for trying to minimize flood damage. The program, run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, evaluates communities in 18 areas and gives discounts on flood-insurance premiums in towns that take steps such as telling the public about flood risk, requiring higher elevations for homes and removing development from property that floods frequently. FEMA, which provides the insurance, created the program to reduce flooding risks. Roughly 1,000 communities across the U.S. have won discounts of 10 percent or more for their property owners through the program. But in New Jersey, for example, coastal communities such as Sea Bright, Lacey, Barnegat and Ocean Township get no discounts because they took either minimal or no flood-prevention action and received the worst insurance rating, federal records show. Those communities have more than 6,000 insured properties worth $1.4 billion, records show, and have sustained major damage over the years. Property owners in the four towns have filed 2,500 claims against FEMA's floodinsurance program since 1978, receiving $26 million in payments, the records show. Atlantic City, which was hit hard by Sandy and is one of the biggest cities on the Jersey Shore, has the secondlowest insurance rating, earning 8,100 property owners a 5 percent discount. Sea Bright Mayor Dina Long said her community's rating doesn't reflect its recent floodmitigation efforts, but nothing would have protected it from Sandy. An exclusive listing of FIRST DAY classified ads. HOT OFF THE PRESS! What's in it for you? For more listings, check the Classifieds section. For rates & details, call 914-694-5111 Healthcare Careers What's in it for you? The best place to buy and sell stuff. The best place to buy and sell stuff. ANTIQUE GUNS SWORDS AND HELMETS Civil War, all military Items Wanted. Single item or entire collection. High Cash Prices Paid! Confidential. 914 -980-8678, 914-723-2361 The best place to buy and sell stuff. 50-90% off local dining, shopping, and more sign up today at Sign up now at Commuters wait to board buses into Manhattan on Thursday in front of the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. The line stretched twice around the arena, and wait times of one to three hours for a bus were reported. SETH WENIG/AP Exasperation builds in storm-stricken NYC By Meghan Barr Associated Press NEW YORK -- Frustration -- and in some cases fear -- mounted in New York City on Thursday, three days after Superstorm Sandy. Traffic backed up for miles at bridges, large crowds waited impatiently for buses into Manhattan, and tempers flared in gas lines. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the city would send bottled water and ready-to-eat meals into the hardesthit neighborhoods through the weekend, but some New Yorkers grew dispirited after days without power, water and heat and decided to get out. "It's dirty, and it's getting a little crazy down there," said Michael Tomeo, who boarded a bus to Philadelphia with his 4-year-old son. "It just feels like you wouldn't want to be out at night. Everything's pitch dark. I'm tired of it, big-time." Rima Finzi-Strauss decided to take a bus to Washington. When the power went out Monday night in her apartment building on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, it also disabled the electric locks on the front door, she said. "We had three guys sitting out in the lobby last night with candle light, and very threatening folks were passing by in the pitch black," she said. "And everyone's leaving. That makes it worse." The mounting despair came even as the subways began rolling again after a three-day shutdown. Service was restored to most of the city, but not the most stricken parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn, where the tunnels were flooded. Bridges into the city were open, but police enforced a carpooling rule and peered into windows to make sure each car had at least three people. The rule was meant to ease congestion but appeared to worsen it. Traffic jams stretched for miles. With only partial subway service, lines at bus stops swelled. More than 1,000 people packed the sidewalk outside an arena in Brooklyn, waiting for buses to Manhattan. Nearby, hundreds of people massed on a sidewalk. When a bus pulled up, passengers rushed the door. A transit worker banged on a bus window, yelled at people inside, and then yelled at people in the line. With the electricity out and gasoline supplies scarce, many gas stations across the New York area remained closed, and stations that were open drew long lines of cars that spilled out onto roads. WP Friday NOVEMBER 2, 2012 WWW.LOHUD.COM 16A Storm-hit New York airports reopen But travel by car, rail still a challenge than moving by rail, subway or car. By midday, about one-third of all scheduled departures from LaGuardia and nearly one-third from Newark, N.J., had been canceled, according to tracking service FlightStats.com. There were 192 canceled departures at LaGuardia, 188 at Newark, and 82 at John F. Kennedy International, or about one in every seven scheduled takeoffs for the whole day and evening. That's nothing compared to earlier in By Scott Mayerowitz Associated Press NEW YORK -- Planes were getting up to speed faster than trains and automobiles in the storm-stricken Northeast. The region's major airports were all open once New York's LaGuardia resumed flights Thursday morning. While there were more canceled flights and the tri-state air space was still relatively empty, flying was closer to normalcy It was a middle seat. "I would take anything at this point," Childs said. As for other modes of transportation: >> Intercity buses were the best option. Greyhound, MegaBus and Bolt Bus were running nearly normal schedules. >> Amtrak ran trains Thursday between Boston and New Haven, Conn. and from Newark, N.J. to Washington. >> Commuter trains also crept back to life but on limited schedules. >> Those who couldn't take mass transit were stuck on clogged highways and in long lines at gas stations. the week, when the airports were virtually ghost towns. Airlines scrapped nearly 8,000 flights on Monday and another 6,500 Tuesday. Thursday's cancellations were about 1,000, according to FlightStats, bringing the total from Superstorm Sandy to more than 20,000. Travelers like Kate Childs were just happy to be heading home. She works for Random House and was in New Orleans for a lunch party for Karen Marie Moning's new book "ICED." Her company's travel department managed to snag her the last seat on a Delta flight Thursday night. Storm spending may hurt stores' holiday sales Retailers see 5% gains in Oct. By Anne D'Innocenzio Associated Press NEW YORK -- Americans spent briskly in October before Superstorm Sandy hit the Northeast on the tail-end of the month. But the question is whether they're still willing to buy an iPhone for Christmas if they plunked down hundreds on a generator for Sandy? Twenty-one retailers from club operator Costco to department store Macy's reported that sales in October through last Saturday were up 5 percent compared with the year-ago period, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers. That beat the DOW 13,232.62 S&P 500 1,427.59 p p trade group's estimated growth of 3.5 percent to 4.5 percent. Results were not hurt by the storm because it hit the East Coast on Monday, two days after the reporting period. But analysts worry that the strong sales in October could spell trouble for the upcoming holiday shopping season in November and December, a time when many retailers make up to 40 percent of their annual revenue. The fear is that many Americans in some of the nation's biggest cities who bought generators, bottled water and other emergency and cleanup supplies before and after the storm will be less inclined to spend over the NASDAQ 3,020.06 +136.16 CRUDE OIL $87.09 +15.43 1,480 Close: 1,427.59 Change: 15.43 (1.1%) 1,400 holidays. For example, Kathleen Nicholson, a Yardley, Pa., resident, said Thursday that because of Sandy, she's likely to spend a little less than the $900 she dished out for holiday gifts last year for her children who are ages 12, 13 and 17. The reason? She and her husband have to foot a $1,500 bill for re- p p 6-MO T-BILLS .14% +42.83 30-YR T-BONDS 2.90% +.85 related to the presidential election, Sandy just gives some another reason to cut spending. The storm, which for days disrupted business activity from North Carolina to Maine, is expected to cost retailers billions in lost sales. October's sales reports don't offer a complete picture of the storm's impact. It includes sales up until q p -.01 Foreign Exchange CLOSE CH. +.04 USD per British Pound 1.6125 Canadian Dollar .9962 USD per Euro 1.2939 Japanese Yen 80.18 Mexican Peso 13.0296 -.0005 -.0040 -.0023 +.42 -.0553 Close: 3,020.06 Change: 42.83 (1.4%) 2,960 MAJORS 6MO. 1YR. -.03% 1.6220 -.40% .9852 -.18% 1.3228 +.52% 80.21 -.42% 12.8824 %CH. 1.5962 1.0168 1.3715 78.33 13.5845 10 DAYS Israeli Shekel Norwegian Krone South African Rand Swedish Krona Swiss Franc 3.8766 -.0099 5.6838 -.0187 8.6459 -.0174 6.6591 +.0282 .9321 +.0008 -.26% -.33% -.20% +.42% +.09% 3.7811 5.7159 7.7327 6.7225 .9079 3.6619 5.6601 8.0676 6.6117 .8863 1,500 3,200 Commodities 1,450 3,100 1,400 3,000 1,350 2,900 FUELS Crude Oil (bbl) Ethanol (gal) Heating Oil (gal) Natural Gas (mm btu) Unleaded Gas (gal) CLOSE 87.09 2.40 3.03 3.70 2.63 PVS. 86.24 2.44 3.07 3.69 2.76 %CH. +0.99 ... -0.95 +0.19 +0.12 %YTD -11.9 +8.9 +3.4 +23.8 -2.0 1,300 2,800 METALS Gold (oz) Silver (oz) Platinum (oz) Copper (lb) Palladium (oz) CLOSE 1714.10 32.23 1573.20 3.56 611.65 PVS. 1717.50 32.29 1577.00 3.53 609.00 %CH. -0.20 -0.19 -0.24 +0.79 +0.44 %YTD +9.5 +15.6 +12.4 +3.6 -6.7 1,250 M J J Stocks Recap NYSE Vol. (in mil.) Pvs. Volume Advanced Declined New Highs New Lows NASD 3,717 3,510 2332 695 205 28 1,824 1,761 1605 850 96 48 Local Stocks A DOW DOW Trans. DOW Util. NYSE Comp. NASDAQ S&P 500 S&P 400 Wilshire 5000 Russell 2000 S HIGH 13273.71 5167.62 479.52 8311.68 3021.94 1428.35 1003.57 14947.63 828.48 2,700 O LOW 13099.11 5070.47 472.38 8231.67 2984.22 1412.20 978.80 14773.07 818.43 52-WK RANGE NAME TICKER 52LO 52HI CLOSE Acadia Rlty Tr AKR 18.28 0 26.05 25.64 Acorda Therapeutics ACOR 20.24 5 27.74 23.89 Atlas Air Worldwide AAWW 32.64 6 57.00 45.55 Avon Products AVP 14.45 2 23.58 15.77 BioScrip Inc BIOS 5.05 9 9.80 9.21 Bunge Ltd BG 55.64 0 71.23 71.58 CMS Bancorp Inc CMSB 6.50 6 9.20 7.99 Cablevision Systems CVC 10.76 9 18.86 17.46 Capital One Fncl COF 39.30 0 61.33 61.40 Citigroup C 23.30 0 38.72 37.95 Coca-Cola Ent CCE 24.20 0 32.55 31.73 Con Edison ED 56.07 4 65.98 59.73 Drew Industries DW 19.91 0 32.56 32.00 Entergy ETR 62.97 9 74.50 72.35 GAMCO Investors GBL 38.69 8 52.32 49.07 Gannett Co GCI 10.29 8 19.99 17.26 HSBC Holdings PLC HBC 35.37 0 49.94 50.35 Hitachi HIT 50.31 9 66.99 63.70 Home Depot HD 34.58 0 63.20 62.26 Hubbell B HUB/B 56.86 0 87.37 86.10 Hudson Tech HDSN 1.22 9 4.40 3.88 IBM IBM 177.06 6 211.79 197.15 JPMorgan Chase & Co JPM 28.28 8 46.49 42.84 Jarden Corp JAH 28.66 9 55.77 51.29 Jones Group (The) JNY 8.13 7 13.98 11.79 Keycorp KEY 6.60 8 9.12 8.50 MBIA Inc MBI 7.10 5 13.50 9.97 MELA Sciences MELA 2.50 2 6.05 3.12 MVC Capital Inc MVC 10.88 7 13.39 12.40 Mack Cali Realty CLI 24.16 4 29.80 26.31 Macy's Inc M 28.69 9 42.17 40.52 MasterCard Inc MA 333.36 9 486.08 468.69 Mondelez Intl MDLZ 22.31 8 28.48 26.80 Morgan Stanley MS 12.26 6 21.19 17.61 NavgGp NAVG 41.67 9 54.22 52.77 M CLOSE 13232.62 5167.49 472.93 8311.36 3020.06 1427.59 1003.57 14943.56 827.85 1YR CHG %CHG %RTN -.04 -0.2 +27.4 -.06 -0.3 +9.7 -9.44 -17.2 +42.8 +.28 +1.8 -10.2 +.02 +0.2 +41.4 +.55 +0.8 +16.6 -.01 -0.1 +5.5 +.04 +0.2 +25.6 +1.23 +2.0 +32.2 +.57 +1.5 +18.5 +.29 +0.9 +19.5 -.65 -1.1 +8.5 +.33 +1.0 +31.8 -.23 -0.3 +9.7 +.07 +0.1 +7.6 +.36 +2.1 +50.4 +.99 +2.0 +18.8 ... ... +23.1 +.88 +1.4 +74.7 +2.38 +2.8 +42.7 -.12 -3.0 +203.0 +2.62 +1.3 +7.1 +1.16 +2.8 +23.2 +1.49 +3.0 +55.7 -.02 -0.2 +7.5 +.08 +1.0 +21.5 +.07 +0.7 +12.5 +.03 +1.0 -46.2 +.04 +0.3 -0.6 +.32 +1.2 -1.0 +2.45 +6.4 +27.0 +7.76 +1.7 +33.1 +.25 +0.9 +20.3 +.23 +1.3 -0.3 -.31 -0.6 +16.4 J CHG. +136.16 +82.46 -6.47 +89.97 +42.83 +15.43 +23.12 +170.46 +9.12 P/E 57 cc 11 27 6 12 dd 20 11 12 14 17 22 10 19 9 22 17 14 14 9 15 cc 9 5 dd q 32 13 28 dd 17 J A %CHG. +1.04% +1.62% -1.35% +1.09% +1.44% +1.09% +2.36% +1.15% +1.11% DIV 0.72 ... ... 0.92 ... 1.08 ... 0.60 0.20 0.04 0.64 2.42 ... 3.32 0.20f 0.80 2.05r ... 1.16 1.64 ... 3.40 1.20 ... 0.20 0.20 ... ... 0.54f 1.80 0.80 1.20 0.52 0.20 ... S Saturday. And only a handful of retailers representing about 13 percent of the $2.4 trillion U.S. retail industry report monthly results. Home improvement chains like Home Depot, the world's biggest retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and other stores that might have been impacted by the storm don't report sales. Strong economic news pumps up stocks EUROPE/AFRICA/MIDDLE EAST Nasdaq composite 3,040 10 DAYS moving two pine trees that fell in her backyard. "We didn't plan for it," said Nicholson, a journalism instructor whose husband is a consultant. "I think we're going to have to have a pretty frugal Christmas." At a time when Americans already are dealing with a slow economic recovery and uncertainties For updated stock quotes, send a text message with STOCKTICKER (e.g., MSFT) or FUNDTICKER (e.g., AGTHX) to 44636 (4INFO). 3,120 S&P 500 1,440 People shop at an Apple store inside a mall in Cheektowaga, N.Y. Americans spent briskly in October before Superstorm Sandy hit the Northeast, but the question is whether those who bought generators, bottled water and other emergency and cleanup supplies before and after the storm will be less inclined to spend over the holidays. AP O WK s s t s s s s s s MO QTR YTD t s +8.31% s s +2.94% t t +1.78% t s +11.16% t s +15.93% t s +13.52% s s +14.15% t s +13.30% t s +11.73% NAME Nokia Corp TICKER NOK Interest Rates PRIME RATE 3.25 YEST 3.25 FED FUNDS .13 YEST .13 6 MO AGO 6 MO AGO 1 YR AGO 1 YR AGO 3.25 .13 TREASURIES YEST NET PVS CHG 1YR AGO 3-month T-bill 6-month T-bill 52-week T-note 2-year T-note 5-year T-note 10-year T-note 30-year T-bond .09 .14 .22 .28 .74 1.73 2.90 0.11 0.15 0.21 0.28 0.72 1.69 2.86 -0.02 -0.01 +0.01 ... +0.02 +0.04 +0.04 .01 .03 .16 .23 .88 1.99 3.01 52-WK RANGE 52LO 52HI CLOSE 1.63 3 7.07 2.85 P/E DIV 0.26e Northeast Cmty Bncp NECB 7.29 5.18 -.26 -4.8 -5.8 52 0.12 Novartis AG NVS 51.20 8 64.07 60.83 +.37 +0.6 +11.5 15 2.46e PepsiCo PEP 61.56 7 73.66 69.44 +.20 +0.3 +13.3 19 2.15 Pfizer Inc PFE 18.15 9 26.09 24.55 -.32 -1.3 +33.6 15 0.88 Presidntl Life PLFE 8.59 0 14.05 13.98 ... ... +43.4 23 0.25 Prestige Brands PBH 8.40 0 17.95 20.60 +3.21 +18.5 +64.4 28 ... Progenics Pharma PGNX 2.38 1 11.34 2.77 -.08 -2.8 -56.6 dd ... Provident NY Bancorp PBNY 6.10 9 9.24 +.17 +1.9 +34.8 21 0.24 Regeneron Pharm REGN 49.58 9 166.39 146.37 +4.07 +2.9 +157.3 75 ... SL Green Rlty SLG 60.01 7 85.74 76.11 +.81 +1.1 +10.6 49 1.00 Sears Holdings Corp SHLD 28.89 7 85.90 64.54 +1.87 +3.0 -10.7 dd Siemens AG SI 77.88 8 108.95 102.01 +1.10 +1.1 -1.2 115.21 8 164.17 152.55 +.34 +0.2 +21.7 31 4.40f -.13 -0.3 +4.5 17 1.25f Simon Property Gp SPG Starwood Hotels HOT TAL International Gp Teva Pharm 5.00 1 1YR CHG %CHG %RTN +.18 +6.7 -57.7 9.92 0.33t 4.04e 43.34 5 61.09 51.72 TAL 24.61 6 42.00 33.85 -.29 -0.8 +30.8 9 2.48f TEVA 36.88 5 46.65 41.31 +.89 +2.2 +0.8 12 0.99e 16 Tompkins Financial TMP 35.82 7 43.13 40.50 +.40 +1.0 +6.3 Toronto Dom Bk TD 65.20 8 86.56 82.00 +.66 +0.8 +11.9 1.52f 3.08f UPS class B UPS 66.46 5 81.79 73.90 +.65 +0.9 +7.5 19 Unitedhealth Group UNH 43.42 8 60.75 56.95 +.95 +1.7 +18.3 11 2.28 0.85 Verizon Comm VZ 35.17 8 48.77 45.14 +.50 +1.1 +26.2 42 2.06f Watson Pharm WPI 55.00 0 89.90 87.71 +1.76 +2.0 +28.0 71 ... WellPoint Inc WLP 52.52 5 74.73 61.73 +.43 +0.7 -9.4 8 1.15 Wells Fargo & Co WFC 23.19 9 36.60 34.06 +.37 +1.1 +33.0 11 0.88 Dividend Footnotes: a - Extra dividends were paid, but are not included. b - Annual rate plus stock. c - Liquidating dividend. e - Amount declared or paid in last 12 months. f - Current annual rate, which was increased by most recent dividend announcement. i - Sum of dividends paid after stock split, no regular rate. j - Sum of dividends paid this year. Most recent dividend was omitted or deferred. k - Declared or paid this year, a cumulative issue with dividends in arrears. m - Current annual rate, which was decreased by most recent dividend announcement. p - Initial dividend, annual rate not known, yield not shown. r - Declared or paid in preceding 12 months plus stock dividend. t - Paid in stock, approximate cash value on ex-distribution date. PE Footnotes: q - stock is a closed-end fund - no P/E ratio shown. cc - P/E exceeds 99. dd -loss in last 12 months. By Daniel Wagner Associated Press It's only been a day, but November on Wall Street is already looking a lot better than October. Strong economic data and corporate news converged Thursday to give U.S. stocks their best day since mid-September. Positive signs about the job market and soaring sales figures pushed stock futures up before the market opened. A half-hour into trading, reports on manufacturing and consumer confidence added another log to the fire. The Dow Jones industrial average had already risen 100 points when the mid-morning reports came out. The data -- including news that manufacturing grew for the second straight month -- pushed it up as much as 177 points. It fell back some, but held a steady gain for the rest of the day. The 10 a.m. surge came after the Institute for Supply Management said factories are seeing more new orders and increased production, an encouraging sign about the health of corporate America. Before that, manufacturing had decreased for three straight months. The Conference Board said Americans' confidence in the economy surged last month to the highest level in nearly five years. Many were encouraged by an improving job market, the group said. Also setting the tone Thursday was anticipation of the Labor Department's October jobs report, which is due out on today.