Hurricane Sandy -- Letter From President Morgan

Dear New York New York North Mission – Missionary parents and Loved Ones

We hope you will find the following information regarding preparation and planning for Hurricane Sandy helpful.

As of the posting of this communication, Hurricane Sandy is still 300 miles off the Atlantic shores of New Jersey and southern Long Island. Winds continue to increase in strength in the communities of our mission but the full forces of Sandy is not expected to be felt until late this afternoon and this evening. As you may have heard from national news reports, all mass-transit operations have been suspended in New York City including subway, buses and trains. On Sunday afternoon, Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered a mandatory evacuation of low-lying areas in New York City and said the city's school system would be closed Monday.

The mayor called for a mandatory evacuation of residents living in Zone-A by 7 p.m. on Sunday. Low-lying areas in the evacuation zone include Coney Island, Red Hook, and other areas around the East River in Brooklyn, the Rockaways, Broad Channel, the Staten Island coast line, City Island, Battery Park City, stretches of the West Side waterfront and parts of the Lower East Side and the East Village - (italicized and bold are within our mission). About 370,000 people live in these evacuation zones. We do not have any missionaries living in the mandatory evacuation areas. If Zone-B requires evacuation, we will work with Elders and Sisters in the Union Square area and our Chinatown area, including one couple, to move them north to Westchester County. We have coordinated with members of the Westchester Stake to house missionaries if needed. 

Major bridges will be closed on a "case by case" basis or when the wind reaches speeds above 60 mph. It is unclear when transit will be up and running again after the shut down. Service should be able to return 12 hours after the storm, according to the MTA web-site. All of our missionaries in the city and the Bronx are reliant on the MTA for transportation. Some, because of very high housing costs, do not live in the area they work. Therefore we have asked our missionaries to hold tight in their apartments from 6:00 pm Sunday evening until the storm passes and we have issued an "all clear" announcement.

Missionaries living in the Stamford, Connecticut area were evacuated last night due to the risk of flood surges coming from high tide and high winds in the Long Island Sound. These missionaries have been relocated to Danbury, Connecticut and Yonkers, New York.

On Saturday October the 27^th all missionaries were instructed to prepare for the storm by acquiring three days worth of food supplies - in addition to what they already had on hand, refresh all water storage in accordance with mission water storage policy, test flashlights and assure a prudent supply of fresh batteries, having some cash on hand incase ATMs are down due to power outages and keeping cell phones fully charged while power is available.

 All companionships reported back as ready and compliant with instructions. We will carry out a “call report” protocol during the event to assess the safety and condition of each of our missionaries. Depending on internet availability, we will periodically update you as to the current status of the mission.

We feel very prepared and our missionaries are very obedient. Please continue to pray for safety and welfare of everyone in the storm affected area. If you have any questions, please contact me at 801-244-3601 or Sister Morgan at 801-573-4366. We love your missionary very much and are doing everything within our power to assure his or her safety.

All the best,

President Morgan

Thomas B. Morgan
President
New York New York North Mission
tmorgan@ldschurch.org