- Residents claim they are the 'forgotten victims' of Sandy
- Also say that lack of power and law enforcement means more looting and violent crime
- Those in stricken areas stockpiling weapons like kitchen knives, machetes, and bats to protect themselves
- Coney Island residents say they are forced to 'scavenge for food like animals'
- Power unlikely to be returned to Brooklyn, Queen's and Staten Island until sometime next week
As lights have begun flickering on in Lower Manhattan, residents of the Rockaways in Queens continued struggling without power, heat or food for a sixth day as their neighborhood slowly descended into chaos.
With little police presence on the storm-ravaged streets, many residents of the peninsula have been forced to take their protection into their own hands, arming themselves with guns, baseball bats and even bows and arrows to ward off thugs seeking to loot their homes.
It has been reported that crooks have been disguising themselves as Long Island Power Authority workers and coming by homes on the peninsula in the middle of the night while real utility workers were nowhere to be found.
What remains: Julie Traina tries to recover some personal items from the destroyed home of her parents in Staten Island yesterday
Vigilante justice: A sign is seen outside a home in Long Beach in Long Island on November 2 gives a dire warning to would-be looters
Under protection: A warning message seen written on a door to keep away looters in a street in Freeport, Long Island as they try to return to normalcy following the hurricane
Wild west: People walk through the heavily damaged Rockaway neighborhood in Queens where a large section of the iconic boardwalk was washed away
The hunger games: Two women look into the window of a flooded deli while searching for food in Coney Island, four days after Sandy
Aid: A boy watches as members of the U.S. Army National Guard unload food and supplies in the Rockaways section of Queens
The woman added that she has been hearing gunshots likely fired in the nearby housing project for three nights in a row.
Meanwhile, local surfer Keone Singlehurst said that he stockpiled knives, a machete and a bow and arrow.
‘I would take a looter with a boa if a felt threatened I would definitely use it,' he said. 'It's like the wild west. A borderline lawless situation.'
City Councilman James Sanders said he fears that things are going to get even worse.
'We have an explosive mix here,' he said. 'People will take matters into their own hands.'
Sanders has directed much of his anger and frustration at LIPA, calling on the City Council to investigate the utility for ignoring the Rockaways for so long.
‘LIPA has failed the people of the Rockaways,’ he said. ‘It’s a question of class... serving the richer areas of Long Island and ignoring the Rockaways.’
Barbecue: Collins Wimbish cooks food over a fire in a barrel in the Rockaways neighborhood of Queens
Keeping in touch: People charge cell phones at a police generator in Rockaways
Destroyed: This Rockaways boardwalk that was pushed off of its pilings by storm surge
Making do: Large areas of New York outside Manhattan are still without power or functioning stores to buy food and water following Hurricane Sandy
Ruins: A silhouetted man walks past a strip of destroyed buildings in Rockaways
Reception: A man makes a phone call next to discarded storm garbage in Coney Island Friday
Shooting looters: A toy dog wearing a military helmet sits atop a car holding a sing warning off looters in a resident's driveway in the Rockaways
Along with mounting safety concerns, homeowners in the beachfront community hit hard by Hurricane Sandy that has left 109 dead continued to face hunger, complaining that federal officials have left them to fend for themselves.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2227307/Hurricane-Sandy-Lawlessness-outer-boroughs-New-York-enter-sixth-day-power.html#ixzz2BEHTwL1Z
