Effects of Sandy Not Keeping Locals From Hitting the Polls

Many in the Miller Place-Rocky Point area have spent the last week and a half enduring Hurricane Sandy and it's long-term effects, but on Election Day locals did not let anything stop them from getting out to the polls.

With power slowly being restored and gas difficult to get, voters overcame the difficult situations in order to cast their votes.

Tom Bradley, of Rocky Point, has been staying at a friends in Holstville near his job in order to save gas, but that didn't stop him from riding out to Rocky Point High School Tuesday evening.

"I drove out here tonight to vote but I’m going to crash there the rest of the week and see if I can get gas because there's nothing really around here," he said. "Luckily right before the storm hit I filled up to the top and the week after they closed my office for three days so I didn’t have to do much driving. I'm floating just above a half a tank right now."

Bradley, who lives near Tides Beach, was one of the fortunate ones who never lost power.

"It's a long road and half of it lost power, but our half didn't," he said.

Terri Rastelli wasn't as lucky, as she just got power back after seven days.

"It didn’t affect us getting here," she said. "We’re carpooling so we take one car and when the tank is finished we’ll take the other car."

Most of the roads around Andrew Muller Primary School, the polling place for many in heavily damaged areas of Sound Beach and Miller Place, were still dark Tuesday night. That, however, didn't stop long lines from forming in the evening.

Josh Smith lives in Sound Beach and has not had to endure the long gas lines yet, and while he may have to soon that didn't stop him from using the gas to get to the school.

"No, there’s always some way I could manage to get down here," he said. "I was lucky enough that I filled up the day right after the storm and I have a Honda Civic which is good on gas so I’ve just been conserving and haven’t had to fill up yet. Tomorrow’s my day off from work so I should probably go tonight."

Many have been finding ways to conserve gas in order to use when needed, like Caroline Santora of Scott's Beach.

"Between me, my husband and daughter my car sat in the garage with a full tank until today so that’s what we’re down to," she said. "Coming back from work this [polling place] was right on the way so it wasn’t extra gas used."

Despite the hardships, locals have made it clear that Sandy has not stopped them from casting their vote.