A portrait of social collapse

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While the 'respectable' liberal Guardian writes apprvingly of Obama's election campaign the 'sensationalist' Mail gives a picture of what it is like for people unprepared for collapse are forced to live – and this is only practice for the real thing, still to come.

Shocking images show desperate New Yorkers digging through dumpsters for food as downtown Manhattan embarks on fourth night without power

• Families, elderly people and young residents were seen sifting through garbage outside a Key Food supermarket in the East Village yesterday
• Store had discarded piles of food that had gone bad after Hurricane Sandy
• Both Lower East Side and East Village neighborhoods have been in dark since Monday and power isn't expected to be restored before tomorrow
• Death toll passes 90 and continues to rise

Daily Mail,

26 April, 2012

New Yorkers have resorted to digging through filthy dumpsters for food ahead of their fourth night without power and, for many, without water.

Shocking images captured groups of residents sifting through garbage outside a Key Food supermarket at Avenue A and East 4th Street in the East Village yesterday.

Families, elderly people and young residents were seen climbing into the dumpster hunting for whatever they could find to eat.

Hungry: Families, elderly people and young residents were seen climbing into the East Village dumpster, pictured, for whatever they could find to eat

Desperate: Residents in parts of New York without power are becoming increasingly desperate as the days wear on

Shopping carts full of food await disposal at the Fairway supermarket in in Brooklyn. The food was contaminated by flood waters that rose to approximately four feet

The Fairway supermarket in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn was broached by four feet of floodwater

Shopping without the supermarket: A customer browses food piled into shopping carts on Brighton Beach Avenue

According to NBC New York, whose crews came across the shocking scene, the local supermarket had discarded piles of food that had gone bad after Hurricane Sandy shut down power in the area on Monday.

The dumpster divers in the East Village pried open the overflowing bin before climbing inside to pick through the garbage for something to eat or take home to their families.

More...

• Brace for round two: Powerful nor’easter winter storm bears down on East Coast still reeling from Sandy’s devastation
  
• New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg endorses Obama because 'he's the best to tackle climate change which caused Superstorm Sandy'
  
• State troopers called into guard gas stations as drivers battle over dwindling fuel (and yellow cabs haven't escaped shortage)

The Lower East Side and East Village neighborhoods have both been in darkness for days.

As the death toll passes 90 and continues to rise, thousands of apartments, bodegas and restaurants remained closed yesterday after they were flooded and left without power during the storm.

Some have been selling their wares for cash, as their credit card facilities are disabled while others were giving away perishables earlier in the week while they were still edible.

The desperate situation, which is seeing both neighborhoods appear more and more like a war zone, is expected to continue.

Four days after superstorm Sandy lashed the East Coast with high winds and a huge storm surge, thee city is still recovering from the devastating effects

Poignant: A child's doll lies discarded in the mud following Sandy's impact on New York City

Shelters: Many residents have been in shelters for days as they wait to return home

Destruction: A New York house reduced to ruins by the devastating force of Hurricane Sandy

Traffic is backed up on 10th Avenue: The city will take weeks to recover from the widespread damage

Hundreds of residents of downtown Manhattan are still living in shelters after Sandy left their buildings uninhabitable.

One shelter is allowing people to power up their phones to make calls to let friends and family members know how they are doing, although many are still unable to get a signal.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the city will send bottled water and ready-to-eat meals into the hardest-hit neighborhoods throughout the weekend, but some New Yorkers, dispirited after days without power, water and heat, decided to get out.

'It's dirty, and it's getting a little crazy down there,' said Michael Tomeo, who boarded a bus to Philadelphia with his four-year-old son. 'It just feels like you wouldn't want to be out at night. Everything's pitch dark. I'm tired of it, big-time.'

Clean water: Residents fill up with water from a water refill station in New York

National Guardsmen load bottled water at Floyd Bennet Field for delivery to neighborhoods that were hit hard by Hurricane Sandy

Hauled away: Garbage men disposed dozens of shopping carts full of ruined goods on Wednesday at the Fairway supermarket in Red Hook, Brooklyn, New York

Resourceful: Some people have taken to filling up buckets of drinking water from fire hydrants to survive

Always upbeat: Determined New Yorkers show their spirit is not flagging as they continue the clear-up

Rima Finzi-Strauss decided to take the bus to Washington, DC. When the power went out on Monday night in her apartment building on the Lower East Side, it also disabled the electric locks on the front door, she said.

'We had three guys sitting out in the lobby last night with candlelight, and very threatening folks were passing by in the pitch black,' she said. 'And everyone's leaving. That makes it worse.'

Rosemarie Zurlo said she planned to leave Manhattan for her sister's place in Brooklyn because her own apartment was freezing - but she was worried she wouldn't make it back.

'I don't have three people to put in my car,' she said.

'I've been stranded here for five days,' said Stuart Zager, who is from Brooklyn and was trying to get to his place in Delray Beach, Florida.

'I'm afraid to get on the Jersey Turnpike. On half a tank, I'll never make it.'