Sandy's devastation weighs heavy in northern New Jersey

• Some gas stations shuttered
• Titter providing a lifeline for some
• Public transportation still a problem

MONTCLAIR, N.J. -- In parts of northern New Jersey, gas stations are shuttered, with hastily scrawled signs declaring "no gas.'' Yellow police tape criss-crosses streets without power. Trees ripped up by their roots rest on roof tops.

Darryle and Clay Bogan saw the tree in front of their home crack a year ago during Hurricane Irene. But it was Hurricane Sandy that split it nearly in half, filling their driveway with branches, as it precariously leaned on a power line.

Clay Bogan, a music director at a local church, said he and his family moved back to New Jersey from Florida three years ago. "I asked God to to not bring a hurricane to Miami,'' he said. "I forgot to ask him not to bring one to New York and New Jersey. I didn't imagine that it would get as bad as it did.''

Darryle Bogan, a product manager for a fashion company, doesn't expect to be able to get back to her office in lower Manhattan until next week. She isn't going to attempt to drive in, and New Jersey transit buses and trains were still not running as of mid-day Wednesday. "I've never been through anything like this before,'' she said.

Jesse Cannon, a music producer, left his home in Brooklyn on Sunday. He says he headed to his recording studio in Union City, N.J., padded his production equipment and then took a bus to his parents home in Montclair to ride out the storm.

Hurricane Irene hadn't been as bad as predicted, and Cannon says he thought Sandy might also come and go with more of a whimper. As it turned out, he says, "it wasn't a bluff.''

In the immediate aftermath of the storm, nothing is normal. Cannon's parents, who have no power, emptied the refrigerator and filled a cooler. The family is charging Ipad's and smartphones at the local Salvation Army headquarters. And "we waited 25 minutes for coffee yesterday at the Dunkin Donuts,'' Cannon says. Nothing else was open.

Twitter has become a lifeline, Cannon says, telling him where he could power up his gadgets, when a nearby Whole Foods finally reopened, and even which local roads to avoid.

Cannon sat in a room at the Salvation Army on Wednesday calling local businesses in Brooklyn to get a fix on when it might be safe to head back home. "I'm waiting for the pizza place to open at 11 a.m.,'' Cannon said. "I figure if they're serving pizza, the power's back on.''

And he was anxious to get back to producing music. "I want to be back at work,'' he said. "I have a lot of clients who live on the other side of the country who want their (sound) mixes yesterday. The world being flattened by the Internet means this (storm) affects everyone.''

With public transportation uncertain, Cannon was planning a meandering journey home to Brooklyn that would involve time in a car, on a boat, and finally on foot.

First he'd get a ride. Then he'd hop the ferry. Finally, he'd walk across the Williamsburg Bridge to get home. "I think I'm going to get very creative,'' he says.

The town of West Orange was particularly hard hit, with whole stretches of rooftops covered by fallen trees. Liz Torres was in her dining room on Monday, playing scrabble with her family, when she went to light a candle. She glanced out the window and saw the tree that had stood in front of her neighhbor's home was now leaning on her house.

"We called 911,'' says Torres' husband, Sam, a police officer in Jersey City. He says that two days later, no utility crew had been on the block. "I understand (the utility company) is overloaded . . . But I've got a tree on my house.''

Torres says that he, a neighbor, and a couple relatives grabbed chain saws and took it upon themselves to clear the street of another tree that had fallen and was blocking the road. It lay in pieces on a sidewalk across the street.

Alerts sent by PSE&G estimate that power may not be restored until Nov. 5.
Despite having no electricity, the family planns to stay put. "We can't leave,'' Liz Torres said. "We don't know what's going to happen with the tree.''

The family was keeping warm with blankets. And the refrigerator was running thanks to their next door neighbor's generator.

Still, her husband did not expect, days after the lights went out and a tree landed on their home, they would still be waiting for life to return to the way it was before the storm.

"Had I known . . . I would've gotten (my own) generator,'' he says. "I would've been a bit more prepared.'''