Hurricane Sandy: Officials React and Inform the Day After the Storm

Here are some of the voices from Oct. 30, after the storm passed through New England.

Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Tim Murray: "The storm took a left hook for whatever reason. And we’re grateful for that, but we also know there are other people in other states that have been hit, so there will be conversations later about how we might help them. But in the meantime our focus is going to be on getting power restored.”

Peter Judge, public information officer for MEMA: "The problem with a lot of the recovery is their ability to get to the work. In other words, the amount of debris that’s out there, these wires are tangled in trees, there’s a lot of pre-work to be done before they actually can get to the wires. It’s not the usual wind blew down the pole, so you replace the pole and hook the wire up and move on to the next one.”

Annemarie Beardsworth, public information officer at RIEMA: "The actual detailed assessment of damages — what is able to be fixed, what needs to be removed, flooding damage, things like that, will start in the next couple of days. ... the southern portion of the state, the southern coastline, seems to have suffered the biggest hit. Westerley — Narragansett, South Kingstown, Tiverton, all reported local flooding, power outages, trees down. The combination of all three of those things really can be a challenge for local communities.”

Jarrett Barrios, CEO of the American Red Cross of Eastern Massachusetts: "We closed nine shelters around the region today. Happy to report everybody was able to get home and nobody's homes were destroyed. The ... damage assessment phase now begins. We are beginning to survey places — for example, the building that was destroyed in Chelsea, the one in Waltham, Watertown, some of these places where there were instances of flood damage on the South Coast. Damage assessment. We will be providing folks with cleanup kits after that but also helping them, working with FEMA, if there's disaster funds that are made available — these are the things that we do that are part of the recovery phase."