People Arming Against Looters In Queens

It's hard to tell from a distance how widespread this is, but there does seem to be some looting, and some people arming after the event.

Ever since Sandy strafed the Queens peninsula and tore up the boardwalk, it’s become an often lawless place where cops are even scarcer than electrical power and food. Locals say they are arming themselves with guns, baseball bats, booby traps — even a bow and arrow — to defend against looters.

Thugs have been masquerading as Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) workers, knocking on doors in the dead of night....

Grocery stores on the Peninsula are closed and some have been looted.

“We can’t exist,” said Manning. “We can’t buy milk. We can’t buy cereal. We can’t buy nothing.”

Shaheem Bush, 23, said there’s several hungry mouths in his darkened apartment in Far Rockaway.

“It’s cold in the house, no lights on,” he said. “Everything’s closed because people were stealing from stores. There’s no food. People are cooking on top of garbage cans."

It will be interesting to see if many people in the area buy serious weapons in the next year or two. And make better preps for the next disaster. My impression is that there were a remarkable number of people who didn't take the warnings seriously and are now irate at not getting help as quickly as they want it.