Editors were woefully unprepared for Sandy

Public Service Electric and Gas Co. made a big show of preparing for Hurricane Sandy by gathering trucks and utility poles at Garden State Plaza in Paramus, but after the storm hit, repair crews were hard to find in Hackensack and other towns.

Call it what you will -- Hurricane Sandy or Super Storm Sandy -- but the ferocious winds that hit North Jersey last Monday caught the editors of The Record with their pants down.

And if you've seen Editors Deirdre Sykes and Tim Nostrand, you know it's not a pretty sight -- just as the storm coverage hasn't been pretty or complete.

For the second day in a row, the Woodland Park daily has virtually ignored the experiences of some residents, especially those in Hackensack, where much of the Main and River streets business corridors remained in the dark on Saturday night.

No ideas, no gas

I couldn't stop laughing as I read the pathetic Road Warrior's attempts to find gasoline for a generator he bought after his power went out (A-9).

Staff Writer John Cichowski has ignored his mission as a commuting columnist for so many years and focused almost exclusively on drivers.

He's ignored growing traffic congestion and overburdened mass transit and hasn't bothered to champion hybrids and other fuel-efficient vehicles.

So he's been hoisted on his own petard, betrayed by the inefficient old Honda he calls "a member" of his family.

I have some news for the inept Cichowski: the generator you want is one that runs on abundant natural gas, not gasoline.

Gas for reporters?

And why didn't Publisher Stephen A. Borg make some arrangement to provide gasoline for his reporters?

Has so much storm coverage by telephone in the early days of Sandy or the superficial roundups today and Saturday resulted from the assignment editors telling reporters, with the exception of Cichowski, to conserve fuel?

Remember, The Record sold gasoline to employees at below-market prices for years from its own pumps at its old River Street headquarters in Hackensack -- without ever telling readers what it promised the oil companies in return for cut-rate gas.

Maybe abandoning the city where the newspaper prospered for more than 110 years wasn't such a good idea, Mr. Borg, nor is the virtual news blackout on Hackensack since Sandy hit.

Cichowski isn't the only self-important columnist in the paper today.

Self-important columnists

Look at the Page 1 column by Bill Ervolino, who begins the self-promoting piece with a tortured anecdote to remind readers that he is allegedly "funny," but there isn't anything funny in the entire story.

Or Kevin DeMarrais with a column about his delayed return from London -- making it a perfect record of telling readers about every trip he's ever taken (B-1).

The problem with this intensely personal coverage is that DeMarrais' frugality means no mention in the monthly Market Basket survey of organic or naturally raised food and columns about Walmart, which is being boycotted by readers protesting the retail giant's mistreatment of workers.

Lights in Fairmount 

Most of Hackensack's Fairmount section finally got electricity back on Saturday night, five days or 120 hours after the lights went out or twice as long as I was without power after the freak pre-Halloween snow storm of 2011.

But two large apartment buildings on Euclid Avenue had no power, and Main Street, from the courthouse to Sears, remained largely in the dark, as did River Street, where The Record's old building loomed menacingly in the blackness.

That huge pile of brick echoes with the ghosts of the many great reporters who once worked in its fourth-floor newsroom.