This week, Hurricane Sandy will sweep across the East Coast region. According to the various weather forecast services, the hurricane is expected to strike various major cities such as Philadelphia, New York and Syracuse. The hurricane is expected to last until Sunday. One of the damages expected by the hurricane is a massive power outage which can affect up to 10 million people living in the East Coast region.
Both the people and the government are on high alert, preparing for the worst case scenario.
“First, we need to be able to make sure that we can mobilize every aspect of government or state and local as we are his with these conditions,” said New Jersey governor Chris Christie during his press briefing. Governor Christie advised everyone to stay indoors, preferably in their homes. In areas where the storm will directly pass, Gov. Christie has ordered a mandatory evacuation of all civilians and government workers. For the evacuees, shelters with supplies will be provided. Gov. Christie has also advised New Jersey to stay away from the streets.
President Barack Obama assured safety to the affected regions in his press briefing regarding the incoming hurricane:
“At this stage, everybody is confident that the staging processes, the prepositioning of resources, commodities, equipment that are going to be needed to respond to this storm are in place . . .My message to the governors, as well as to the mayors, is anything they need, we will be there.”
President Obama also warned the people and the federal and local government to “take this seriously” and to prepare for the worst case scenario: “The various agencies that are in charge, including the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy and others are going to need to respond very quickly… We anticipate that it is going to be slow-moving. That means that it may take a long time not only to clear, but also to get the power companies back in to clear trees and to put things back into place.”
President Obama finished his briefing with a warning and an advice: “ Don’t anticipate that just because the immediate storm has passed that we’re not going to have some potential problems in a lot of these communities going forward through the week.”
