Sandy

FRUIT HEIGHTS — Hearing about the devastation of the thousands of residents along the East Coast in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy pushed Fruit Heights residents into action.

Diane Anderson’s daughter, who lives in Manhattan, N.Y., told her mom a few weeks ago about a group of neighborhood people who were collecting batteries and flashlights for those who would be without power for a number of weeks.

Anderson and many of her Fruit Heights community members wanted to help out and began collecting batteries and flashlights as well, but they were unsure how to get them to New York.

AP Photo NY113EDITOR’S NOTE — AP sports writer Dennis Waszak and his family had moved into their Staten Island ’dream house’ just weeks before Superstorm Sandy devastated parts of the New York City borough. These are his recollections a week after the storm hit and upended life for Waszak, his wife and their three children.

NEW YORK — I was the first to cry.

Not my wife. Not our three kids.

I was standing in our pitch-black basement as water streamed through the broken windows like a waterfall. A bathtub drain gurgled, the slimy sewage quickly pooling in an ominous mess. Just eight weeks after we’d bought our dream house — three bedrooms, big kitchen, pool, white fence and a finished basement — Superstorm Sandy was ripping it apart with a fury that was hard to comprehend, along with the rest of our Staten Island neighborhood.

NEW YORK — The New York City Marathon was canceled Friday by Mayor Michael Bloomberg after mounting criticism that it was wrong to hold the race while the region is still recovering from Superstorm Sandy.

With people in storm-ravaged areas shivering without electricity and the death toll in New York City at more than 40, many residents recoiled at the prospect of police officers being assigned to protect Sunday’s race.