After Sandy, hot meals and help at Hoboken Elks Club

HOBOKEN, N.J. -- The Hoboken Elks club has served 800 to 1,000 hot meals since the storm, and it saw steady traffic Sunday as more people sought a warm meal and place to eat it.

“It’s getting better because the lights are coming on, but there’s still not a lot of heat and hot water for people because there was flooding and the hot water heaters were trashed,” said Eddie Madigan, 49, a cook at the Elks. “We anticipate more people coming out.”

Madigan had no heat or hot water at his house, but that didn’t seem to matter -- he had been volunteering at the Elks all week.

Late Sunday, Republican Gov. Chris Christie stopped by with Democratic Sens. Frank R. Lautenberg and Robert Mendenez. Madigan said they were concerned about how residents were coping with the loss of heat and housing.

“Those were concerns they were talking about -- temporary housing. People on public assistance and in million-dollar brownstones are in the same boat,” he said. “

Mike Korman, 50, was out looking or food Sunday night after his refrigerator and dishwasher went out when he flipped the breaker at his house, which had flooded during the storm. He feels lucky compared to neighbors, whose homes completely flooded or burned in fires that have erupted as power came back on in flooded homes ill-equipped to handle it.

“I’ve seen people move out of town,” said Korman, a musician who works for the city. “It’s just a horrible situation -- and it’s all across the region.”

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