Just yesterday a major relief concert was held in New York City to raise funds for the millions of people that were severely affected by superstorm Sandy. The group behind the concert hoped to raise millions of dollars for the relief effort and the mission was an absolute success. Thanks to the help of dozens of high profile celebrities and singers there was plenty of money flowing into the charity.

The one night concert drew nearly 2 billion viewers which is an absolutely incredible statistic. Obviously not everyone donated to the cause but early reports say that at least $35 million were raised in ticket sales alone with around $50 million in other donations coming throughout the night. This type of relief effort is becoming relatively common when it comes to massive disasters such as this and everyone agrees that last night’s relief concert was an overwhelming success.

Raising millions of dollars is not enough to fix everything that was destroyed, but basically everyone is happy to report that this is a great start. Experts estimate that the total damage in the area is likely around to be around $50 billion. The very high damage count will take a long time to cleanup and fix but this is a great step in the right direction.

This fall brought a major tragedy to the north eastern United States with Hurricane Sandy; much of the area was destroyed or damaged severely and millions of people are still in the process of recovering from the storm. The good news is that there is some hope and there are signs that the recovery is taking hold.

The biggest indicator right now is that car dealers in the northeast are seeing an incredible increase in car sales following the storm. Millions of cars were totaled by the storm and thanks to insurance many of the owners are now out shopping for brand new cars. Car dealers are seeing record numbers in the northeast, but the sales are also way up in other areas too; both of these factors are absolutely great for the economy and the car industry as a whole.

The tragedy of Hurricane Sandy has also brought a few other pieces of good news. Donations and relief funding has been phenomenal following the storm as millions of Americans have chipped in to various charities that will help with the rebuilding process in New York, New Jersey, and other affected areas. For now the recovery is still on going but experts say it is absolutely looking promising.

When Hurricane Sandy made landfall at Breezy Point, a close knit community in Queens, NY, lifelong resident Matt Petronis was heartsick. Away at college in Washington, DC, he watched as the television played back the devastation that was hitting his childhood home. He realized that all his friends and family were there. The places where he learned to walk, talk, ride a bike, drive a car and pitch baseball were being demolished by the rain, wind and fires.

Petronis swung into action to help his community. He set up a fund raiser online through WePay.com and managed to raise a few thousand dollars in just a few hours. Within a couple of days, he had more than $10,000. Then offers of non-monetary help began to pour in from all over. Accountants and lawyers offered to help him set up a non-profit organization. Contractors, carpenters and other volunteers offered to help with clean up and reconstruction. By Thanksgiving, Petronis had amassed more than $78,000.

What made his efforts so successful? Timing. Petronis was able to get his fund raiser up quickly and it benefitted from all the news coverage showing the devastation in Breezy Point. People wanted to reach out and help. Because his site was up and running, they had a place to turn to. All of the money raised will be used to help rebuild Breezy Point. People can apply for assistance through anonymous forms to protect their identity as everyone in Breezy Point knows everyone else.

The 19 year old certainly understands the importance of community and giving back.

In all of the havoc wreaked by Sandy, wildlife is often not considered until the human tragedy has been dealt with. Two brown pelicans were found in separate incidents much farther north than their natural habitats would dictate and Sandy is believed to be the culprit behind the northern migration.

Both were found in Rhode Island days after Hurricane Sandy swept the East Coast. The first was found on the side of the road nine days after the storm at Fishermen’s Memorial State Park. According to Jennifer Brooks, clinic director at the Wildlife Rehabilitators Association of Rhode Island, the bird was a juvenile and probably belonged to a nest in North Carolina. The bird had previously been tagged which allowed wildlife workers to identify him as a bird believed to have died.

The second bird showed up about 120 miles south of Block Island when it landed on a fishing boat. The boat’s crew fed the bird for several days before returning to port. The boat provides fish to the Sea World theme parks.

Brooks said both birds were a little thin, had lost a few tail feathers and had some scratches to their throat pouches. Otherwise, they seemed to have weathered their journey fairly well.

The birds were kept in an outdoor shelter first and then moved to a camping tent which had been prepared inside the clinic. Using containers resembling dog crates, the birds were flown on Saturday to Mary Keller Seabird Rehabilitation Sanctuary in Florida. The flight cost about 42000 and was paid for through donations from the public.

Typically, brown pelicans don’t venture farther north than North Carolina where they often breed in the summer before flying further south for the winter. Storms can often carry birds farther north than they would typically go on their own but according to Brooks, it is unusual to see Pelicans.

Hurricane Irene has been bearing down on the United States and up until today weather experts predicted that the storm would make a direct impact with southern Florida. Obviously this would bring nothing but bad news to the area but today analysts came back with new predictions that should save Florida from quite a bit of the storm’s wrath. Thus far in the hurricane season there has not been a single hurricane or any major landfall damage so hopefully Hurricane Irene does not break the current trend.

Unlike previous predictions Hurricane Irene is now expected to stay 100 to 150 miles off the coast of Florida which means it will not be making landfall in the next few days. Hurricane Irene is unfortunately expected to strengthen as well but analysts say it is much easier to deal with a strong storm that avoids landfall entirely.

Many south Florida residents are excited and happy about the news as it could save them quite a bit of time and money. Hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean is just starting to pick up however so more storms are expected in the next few weeks. For now though residents of Florida and other nearby areas are just happy to avoid having to deal with a storm in the coming week. No word on what is expected after Hurricane Irene though there are currently multiple storms forming in the Atlantic Ocean that are expected to develop into tropical storms and possibly hurricanes.

Tropical storm Emily marked the beginning of the tropical storm season for much of North America. While Emily might not have been the first storm to form during the season it was the first storm to potentially threaten the coast of the United States. Early storm prediction patterns indicated that Tropical Storm Emily was expected to impact Florida but fortunately for many residents the storm has now started to fizzle out and die down.

Tropical Storm Emily was always a relatively weak storm but weather analysts still believed that it could cause some significant damage with heavy rain and strong winds if it were to make landfall in Florida. Midweek this week Tropical Storm Emily broke up after passing over part of Haiti which brought good news to the United States as well as Haiti and other tropical islands.

Of course weather experts say that Tropical Storm will likely not be a good indicator of the entire tropical season. Experts say that the tropical season will likely be much more intense than average. Fortunately for everyone living in the predicted path of Tropical Storm Emily there is no immediate danger. There are also no current storms developing in the tropics at this time which means there will likely be at least a week or two of little tropical action. As the heart of tropical storm season approaches weather analysts predict that the storms will begin to pickup in frequency but for now everyone is simply happy that this first storm has died out.