As Thanksgiving Approaches Sandy’s Aftermath Still Looms Over the Northeast

It’s the day before Thanksgiving. But here in New York City, and just miles away in New Jersey, there is a looming feeling that thousands of people may not have a home, a dining table, or a kitchen to celebrate the holiday.
It’s estimated that as many as 40,000 people in New York have been left homeless by tropical storm Sandy. In New Jersey, 5,000 people occupied shelters immediately after the storm, while tens of thousands more evacuated their homes to stay with relatives.
Power has mostly been restored to New York and New Jersey, with several hundred people in each state still in the dark.  
Over the past few weeks  Cindy Rodriguez, a reporter for  WNYC, has been speaking with residents in some of the most  vulnerable  communities in New York. Most of the communities she focused on where  public housing. She says: “There’s about 400,000 people living in public housing. About 20 percent – or about 80,000 tenants –   were affected after Sandy.”
Rodriguez found one tenant, 71-year-old Angelina Solano, lugging four gallons of water she had taken from a fire hydrant up 17 flights of stairs. Now, weeks after Sandy, Rodriguez reports, “Ms. Solano has her power back, has her water back, she doesn’t have to lug water up 17 flights of stairs anymore, the elevator is working. She just picked up a turkey from the salvation army. She was spicing it up and getting it prepared.”
It appears that this Thanksgiving, the holiday may take on a different meaning for thousands of people living in the areas effected by Sandy.