Everyone had a story. Mine might be the most unusual: we lost cable and Internet access for a day. Other than resetting the clocks on the radios it was a normal day.
For the neighbors and the county, however, the storm lived up to its billing. There were huge trees down in some of the wealthier neighborhoods. Houses on the South Shore of Long Island were flooded or knocked off their foundations.
We'd muddled through about a week without power when hurricane Irene came through last year. I anticipated that Sandy would finally convince me to buy a generator. It has. What Sandy has also done will be seen in subsequent years. I expect:
- People will stock up on gasoline for their cars and generators prior to storms.
- Insurance policies will get another evaluation. Sandy was not technically a hurricane. The damage caused by a storm surge is not damage caused by a flood. Some insurance policies are written so that no payout is necessary for coincident events. Expect the courts to be littered with split hairs.
- Someone who loses everything becoming unhinged and do something terrible to an insurance agent or adjuster. It'll make for interesting reading, a tragedy for those involved, and have no deterrent for insurance companies to write policies accurately described by Tom Waits in his song "Step Right Up" on his album "Small Change":
the large print giveth and the small print taketh away
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