SIXTEEN DEATHS IN SEVEN STATES REPORTED DUE TO HURRICANE SANDY............

Hurricane Sandy, which is being called the most powerful natural disaster ever by meteorologists, is now downgraded to being a tropical storm cyclone, has exacted massive destruction in fifteen Mid-Atlantic and NorthEastern States of the USA, including a reported 16 Deaths of persons in 7 States.    Wind gusts exceeding eighty miles an hour struck much of the eastern seaboard, including New York City and Atlantic City, New Jersey; with water flooding to twelve feet high in many places and fires burning throughout the affected areas.  It is leaving more than 7 million people without electricity, with the likelihood their power will be out for three to ten days before restoration.  Extensive evacuations of residents occurred in the days prior to the landfall, and patients, including the most critical, and  neo-natal, i.c.u. infants and children. had to be removed from two hospitals in New York City, after back-up generators failed; taking ten hours plus to accomplish, with 115,000 persons evacuated in New Jersey alone and an estimated 14,000 flights in the United States cancelled as a result of the tragedy.  Since sunrise this morning rescue of the stranded in the wake of super storm Sandy and initial clean-up efforts have begun.  While the voluminous rains and freezing cold caused by the Hurricane / Cyclone, with a continuing array of rain, sleek and snow, has brought inordinately large snowfalls to 7 States from North Carolina and Virginia, to Ohio and Pennsylvania.  With the 2012 General Election, just seven days from today, to what degree voting will be impacted by this "Storm of the Century"............Fr.  Troy