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THIS PAGE: AP PHOTO/JULIO CORTEZ
>> O
N THE NIGHT
THAT HURRICANE SANDY HIT
the East Coast, Vinny Baccale was in his Staten Island living room,
plotting a last-minute escape and regretting not evacuating, when
his kids shouted to him from another room. Their neighbor was
outside, trying to start his car in the rising water. ¶ As Baccale
stepped to his window, a six-foot wave swept down his block and
over the man’s car, propelling it down the dark street. As the wave
fell back, a flashlight in the car blinked on and off in distress. Then
the waters surged again and covered the car. The light went out. ¶
“We watched a neighbor drown,” said Baccale, 35. “Maybe things
like this happen in Florida, places like that. But never here.”
>> By JOHN RUDOLF, BEN HALLMAN, CHRIS KIRKHAM, SAKI KNAFO and MATT SLEDGE
Floodwater
rushes in,
surrounding
homes in
Mantoloking,
N.J., as
Sandy makes
landfall in
the Garden
State.