Editorial: Repairing Sandy’s Devastation

Once again, Mother Nature has shown us that man’s best-laid plans are subject to her whims. The devastating superstorm named Sandy traveled up the U.S. Atlantic coast until it got near New Jersey, and then took a sharp left turn late on Oct. 29.

The “weakened storm” — no longer a hurricane but still mighty powerful — then swamped and bulldozed the Jersey shore and part of New York City and wreaked havoc from southern New Hampshire to North Carolina and into the Midwest.

The storm had everything: monstrous tidal surges, strong winds, heavy rains and whipping snow. And Sandy came ashore just as a full moon created flood tides.

New York City was particularly hard-hit, as an unprecedented tidal surge of almost 14 feet rolled over the puny coastal defenses of the Battery. It swamped railroad, subway and car tunnels, with water cascading into basements, turning streets into rivers. A large section of lower Manhattan was still without power several days after the storm passed, and all indications were that it would be quite some time before everything was up and running.

All rail service into Manhattan was shut as the storm approached, and only limited service was available on any of the many passenger and freight lines by the end of the workweek.

Once again, it will fall to the trucking industry to resupply the cities and towns that were battered by this latest storm. And it will be a tall order.

Many roads and tunnels were still impassable by the time Transport Topics went to press late last week, and huge traffic jams slowed things down in the areas where the roads were open.

Lots of trucking companies suffered serious damage from the storm as well, but television coverage showed legions of trucks making deliveries to New York and New Jersey by Wednesday morning.

In fact, the fleets were ready to make deliveries before their customers were prepared to accept them, as noted in our story on p. 1.

To see the flexibility and quick response time of the trucking industry, one need only look to Con-way Freight, which said 40 service centers were affected by the storm covering an 11-state area.

By late Oct. 30, the company reported, all but two of its centers were up and running.

Once again, trucking is showing just how critical it is to the nation’s well-being.

The country can count on us.