INSIDE EDITION talks to residents in New York and New Jersey whose lives have been ravaged by Hurricane Sandy.
The struggle goes on as millions of people are still trying to keep it together in the face of no power or supplies. The sheer scale of the devastation is overwhelming.
An enormous line formed for free batteries being handed out by a Good Samaritan in one New Jersey town.
Makeshift charging stations are springing up, enabling people to charge their cell phones and laptops. The frustation level is evident after one guy was left bandaged and bleeding after getting into a fight over charging his cell phone.
A young mom had to take care of her four-month-old son with no electricity.
She said, “Luckily, I am his food, so, I get to feed him whenever I eat.”
Three residents of Hoboken, New Jersey, took INSIDE EDITION’s Paul Boyd into their darkened home, still without power, four days after Sandy struck. Their basement, still waist high in filthy water.
Another Hoboken resident, New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning, was photographed in the flooded lobby of his apartment building.
To make matters worse, there was a water main break Thursday morning. The National Guard is helping out where it can.
Then there was a dramatic scene from wealthy Greenwich, Connecticut. Sandy's winds swept a firestorm through three waterfront mansions.
Rosie O’Donnell’s house in Nyack, New York, was ravaged after the storm roared through.
ABC's Sam Champion flew over the historic neighborhood of Coney Island in Brooklyn and found scenes of total devastation.
INSIDE EDITION's Lisa Guerrero toured Rockaway Beach in Queens for a first hand look at the wreckage.
She said, "The devastation here on the beach in Queens is unbelievable."
Guerrero and INSIDE EDITION's camera crew found a house whose entire front side was ripped off and exposed a second floor kitchen which featured a china cabinet, still intact, with all of the precious fine china inside. Another house had a bedroom wall blown off but a perfectly made bed was still intact.
The New York Marathon will go ahead as planned Sunday. But that decision by Mayor Michael Bloomberg is drawing fire.
Matt Lauer said, “I am a fan of the marathon, and I have not seen one person in our informal survey who thinks this is the right idea.”
But in despair, comes moments of inspiration.
A devastated resident of Breezy Point, New York, which all but burned to the ground during Hurricane Sandy, struck gold as she picked through the wreckage of her home. A simple fragment of one of her plates is now a treasured possession.
For all the ongoing hardship, one thing can't be extinguished, and that's the spirit of endurance, embodied in the American flag that flies over Breezy Point.
