From Simon Chardiet. I shipped him a JAEbird last month and was concerned on how he came thru the storm. Finally got a response this AM:
"..I stayed in rockaway to look after my guitars also I wanted to surf
in the hurricane,,my neighbors and I. we all almost died. I saved all my
guitars..about half my amps got wet. getting them restored. 90 mile an hur winds we saw the orange glow in the sky of Breezy Point burning down...had to go to top floor of neighbors house to escape the tidal wave, then at dawn the looting started,also the gang bangers lots of shooting, they shot at the cops and national guard too. no
heat power or cell phones..finally my landlords buddy came with a generator and our neighbor Marty the Plumbers phone worked,called my girlfriend she got a convoy of every guitar player with a van in town and i got the #!$%&# out of there, rockaway completely destroyed. looks like Hiroshima, my daughter and her roomates live on the top or Rockways ONLY hill they were spared my cat was totally unperturbed by the
whole thing,she just wanted a cuddle! still no power or phones out there the city doesnt care.they just let us rot....the mayor actally made a speech against surfers..rockaway is always the forgotten part of nyci but I love the place. I LOVED living there. got no complaints im the luckest#@!% in rockaway because all my guitars made it. thanks for writing me!!!im staying in the recording studio in Brooklyn till my landlord rebuilds the house.