Ft. Lauderdale, Miami Beach flooding lingers

Superstorm Sandy is gone. And the moon’s pull has diminished.

But the ocean keeps pouring over State Road A1A in Fort Lauderdale and onto Alton Road in Miami Beach, causing problems in coastal communities where flooding has now been an off-and-on phenomenon for weeks.

On Thursday and Friday, water from the Atlantic pounded parts of the Fort Lauderdale strip. The power of waves destroyed chunks of a barrier wall and forced authorities to shut down northbound traffic from Sunrise Boulevard to Northeast 20th Street. It’s the second time the road has been closed in about four weeks.

After high tide, tourists and residents straggled over to take a look at the damage. Beach shower heads lay in the sand along with palm trees, and pieces of tile from the wall littered the ground.

Art Seitz, a freelance photographer who lives in a nearby high-rise, said the beach is a “mega mess.”

“The wall was completely toppled,” he said. “I’ve lived here for 25 years and never have seen anything like these.”

The culprit: a low pressure system, high winds and, yes, the lasting impact of Sandy, the mega-storm that wrecked New York and New Jersey.

“It’s a combination of everything,” said Barry Baxter, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Miami.

Baxter said the system has generated northeast swells. At the same time, he said winds blowing from 15 to 20 miles-per-hour have been pushing for days now against the gulf stream, which builds up the seas over time.

Those factors pushed sea levels to eight feet in Palm Beach County, and to six feet in Miami-Dade and Broward, he said.

Friday’s convergence of wind and swells comes after the moon reached its closest point to the earth in mid-October, causing a rise in the tides. Later that month, Superstorm Sandy blew by the coast, causing a surge. Then the full moon rose.

And now, streets are flooded by tides again.

“It seems like it’s been week after week” of flooding, Baxter said. “Everything comes together.”

Baxter said erosion caused by Sandy is also contributing to issues where the Atlantic is pushing over the beach and onto streets.

In Miami Beach, the tides push Biscayne Bay water up through stormwater drains during seasonal high tides. But the problem has seemingly lingered longer than usual this year.

Flooding surfaced again Friday on Alton Road, though not nearly as widespread as they have been during the last month, or even the past week.

Still, sandbags lie outside some retail shops and city officials wonder when the problem will go away.

“We’re trying to set up a meeting with NOAA [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration],” said city of Miami Beach spokeswoman Nannette Rodriguez, “just to see when this is going to go away.”

Miami Herald reporters Carli Teproff and Maria Bernal contributed to this story.

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App of the Week: Instead

App Name: Instead

Price: Free

Available Platforms: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad (requires iOS 5.0 or later), Android

What does this app do? With Black Friday and Cyber Monday bookending the holiday weekend it is hard to imagine getting through the next few days without spending money in the spirit of the season. Whether you dole out your dollars for gifts or in some other way, such as a post-turkey cocktail with friends, likely you will be reaching into your pocket and opening up your wallet at some point. For those who want to donate some of their hard-earned money as opposed to spending it, there’s an easy way to give in a small, manageable way.

Instead, a micro-donation app developed by Ovenbits, LLC, gives consumers an opportunity to donate money from their mobile device to their favorite non-profit instead of spending that $ 20 on lunch or that $ 3.00 on a latte while out and about with friends.

Once you launch the app, Instead walks you through three steps on how it works: pick something to give up – that second cup of coffee, for example – choose how much to give, and then select a non-profit to which to donate. Tap on the “About” button, select “Donation Transparency,” and the app explains exactly how your money is parceled out: 95 percent of your donation goes to the charity you select, and the remaining 5 percent goes to credit and debit processing fees as well as operational fees such as server maintenance and application hosting. Your donation, according to website, goes first to instead, inc, a registered 501(c)3, and from there the company sends a check to your chosen non-profit.

Select the “Give” button, choose the amount you wish to donate, and even type in what you’re giving up in place of your donation. The app provides a list of charities to choose from, such as The American Cancer Society. You can also suggest an organization to be added to Instead’s database. Submissions are reviewed by a volunteer committee.

Is it easy to set up? This is a lightweight app that allows you to log in with your Facebook account. The app makes a point of stating your donations through Facebook can remain private. However, you can skip that step and proceed without logging into Facebook, too.

Should I try it? Instead encourages you to develop your charitable giving muscle by showing you how easy it is to make small donations from time-to-time by giving up things you likely won’t miss anyway. Your payment, in the end, is processed through your browser, not the app itself, and therefore requires an extra step. If you’ve already sacrificed an impulse buy or gave up splurging on a night out at the movies, however, the hard part is over.

Also Read
Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Queens woman found dead in parked car in the Bronx

Police are investigating the death of a Queens woman found in a car parked in the Bronx this morning.

The woman, 22, was found unconscious at 4:30 a.m. inside a white Honda at the intersection of Bruckner Boulevard and Brook Avenue in Mott Haven by officers responding to a report of an assault.

EMS workers declared her dead at the scene.

Some blood was found coming from the woman’s nose, but that was the only obvious sign of trauma, police sources said.

A 40-year-old man who was with the dead woman was taken into police custody and brought to Lincoln Hospital for an injury to his left arm, authorities said.

Cops said the two knew each other, but their relationship was not immediately clear.

The medical examiner will determine the cause of the young woman’s death. Her name was not released pending family notification.

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‘App economy’ potential sizzles

Raymond Gonzalez, a Florida International University senior, is developing an iPhone application called Pet Finder that will allow users to browse the dogs and cats at the local animal shelter or request an animal for adoption. He is also part of a team creating mobile apps that track bank failures, issue alerts about earthquakes and organize homework assignments.

It’s a well-calculated effort to learn as much as he can about mobile technology as quickly as possible. “My goal is to make all these apps free and open source while using the knowledge gained to build my startup company after graduation,” said Gonzalez, who is majoring in information technology.

Whether he starts his own company or works for someone else, Gonzalez is preparing to be a player in a high-paying, sizzling new industry, one that might provide the United States with a big opportunity to increase its exports in coming years.

While the overall economy still lags, the “app economy” has created nearly 500,000 jobs in the United States since 2007, when there were none.

Companies even worry that the nation isn’t moving fast enough to produce new talent for thousands of unfilled jobs as consumers demand more and more gizmos and gadgets for their smartphones.

As a result, salaries are rising quickly: Mobile apps developers can expect pay increases of 9 percent next year, among the highest of any jobs, putting them in the range of $92,750 to $133,500 a year, according to a survey that the staffing and consulting firm Robert Half International released last month.

If the United States can maintain its dominance in the industry, many say the app economy could make a big dent in the country’s federal trade deficit. Last year, for example, more than 20 percent of the apps downloaded in China were made by U.S. developers.

“There is unprecedented opportunity for America to capitalize on exploding international markets,” Peter Farago, the vice president of marketing for Flurry, a high-tech startup in San Francisco, testified in September before the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade.

Farago said his company had more than 100 employees and 50 open positions and that “we literally cannot find the talent we need fast enough.” He told members of the subcommittee that the app economy would become increasingly international and that the United States should do more to improve education and retraining programs and to make it easier for companies to bring and keep more talent from foreign countries.

“We’re in a human capital crunch,” added Rey Ramsey, the president and chief executive officer of TechNet, a network of technology executives that promotes the industry.

According to a TechNet study released earlier this year, the 466,000 mobile-tech jobs created since the iPhone was introduced include programmers, designers, marketers, managers and support staff for Apple, Android, Facebook and other platforms. California is by far the most dominant player in the industry, accounting for nearly one of every four jobs. New York ranks second, followed by Washington state, Texas, New Jersey, Illinois, Massachusetts, Georgia, Virginia and Florida.

Among metropolitan regions, New York ranked first, followed by San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara and Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue. Miami-Fort Lauderdale ranked 19th.

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Firefighters battle warehouse fire in Northwest Miami-Dade

Thick white smoke from a Miami-Dade warehouse could be seen for miles Friday morning.

Dozens of Miami-Dade firefighters battled the massive blaze, which started in a warehouse bay in the 5300 block of Northwest 35th Court and quickly spread.

In addition to pouring out of the warehouse doors, smoke and flames were also coming from cracks in the roof caused by the fire’s intense heat. Just after 9 a.m. a part of the roof collapsed.

There were no injuries reported. The cause of the fire has yet to be determined.

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Federal help to Connecticut for Sandy tops $7.6 million

HARTFORD, Conn. — Gov. Dannel P. Malloy says Connecticut residents have received more than $7.6 million in federal help with disaster expenses related to Superstorm Sandy.

He says 9,164 residents in Fairfield, Middlesex, New Haven and New London counties, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and Mohegan Tribal Nation have registered for federal help.

Most of the money — about $7.3 million — has been approved for housing assistance, including short-term rental assistance and home repair costs.

In addition, 6,883 disaster loan applications have been issued by the federal Small Business Administration.

AP

Engineers stand next to the destroyed home of Benjamin Barton as they assess damage to homes from Superstorm Sandy along Fairfield Beach Road in Fairfield, Conn.

The Hartford Courant reports that William Lehman, a spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, says that when property inspections are complete and paperwork is submitted, approved residents can receive help in three to five business days.

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Allure of Brickell, downtown Miami drives up rental rates

When Brett Smith rented a condo at Axis Brickell last year, there were still sweet deals to be found, but when the lease came up for renewal last month, he got a sour note: The rent was spiking 15 percent.

The three-bedroom, three-bath condo would cost $3,800 a month, up from $3,300.

“We actually looked around at other places, and most looked to be around the same price range,” said Smith, a 25-year-old construction project manager who shares the apartment with two friends. “We decided with the cost of moving, we would just stay.”

Smith, who loves the urban lifestyle — “It’s great, and it’s getting better,” he says — has lots of company.

In greater downtown Miami and Brickell, residential rental rates per square foot jumped 10 percent in the first nine months of 2012 from a year earlier, according to a study conducted for Miami Downtown Development Authority by Coral Gables-based Focus Real Estate Advisors.

Rents for the sizzling Brickell neighborhood leaped even more sharply. The average monthly rental rate for Brickell jumped 17 percent to $2,242 in the first nine months of 2012 from the same period in 2010, while the rent per square foot spiked 28 percent over that period, according to additional data from Focus Real Estate Advisors and MLxchange.

Fueling the price increases: Strong demand for rental units and the growing popularity of the downtown and Brickell areas as new restaurants and entertainment spots help mold an urban core that is attractive to young professionals and students but also to an increasingly diverse crowd.

“It’s become like a restaurant Mecca in Brickell,” said Denise Sicuso, sales manager for Esslinger-Wooten-Maxwell Realty’s Brickell downtown office, which handles lots of condo rentals and sales in the area.

With Brickell CitiCentre, a massive $1.05-billion mixed-use complex with retail, entertainment, office and residential, going up at 701 South Miami Avenue, “the interest in the neighborhood is only increasing,” Sicuso added. “When we get rental listings, they’re gone within a week.”

More than 95 percent of rental units in the greater downtown Miami area are occupied, according to the Downtown Development Authority study.

Demand for rental units is strong for many reasons: Tough lending standards for mortgages are making it difficult for many people to buy a home. Coming out of the recession and housing meltdown, many people have credit histories that exclude them from becoming buyers. Others simply don’t want to own.

At the same time, a steady influx of foreigners and others relocating to Miami is bolstering rental demand, as is the gradually improving economy that is enabling some young people who had moved back to the nest with their parents to get their own place.

“There is pent-up demand for rentals, not unique to the downtown or Brickell area,” said Craig Werley, president of Focus Real Estate.

Another factor: Many of the professionally managed rental apartment buildings in South Florida were converted into condominiums before the real-estate market crashed.

Professionally managed apartment buildings account for just 10 percent of Miami’s rental market, down from 20 percent in 2000, according to Werley.

While there is a major push by developers and institutional investors to build more multifamily rental units in South Florida (and around the country), the lag time before new rental units would come to market means supply will be tight for some time.

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What’s open and closed for Thanksgiving

Thursday is Thanksgiving. Here is a list of what’s open and closed for the holiday on Thursday and Friday.

Federal offices: Closed Thursday

State offices: Closed Thursday and Friday

Miami-Dade and Broward county offices: Closed Thursday and Friday

Miami-Dade and Broward courts: Closed Thursday and Friday

Public schools: Closed Thursday and Friday

Post offices: Closed Thursday

Stock markets: Closed Thursday, closing early Friday

Banks: Closed Thursday

Tri-Rail: Will run a weekend schedule Thursday

Miami-Dade and Broward transit: Will run a Sunday schedule on Thursday

Garbage collection: Normal schedule in most cities

Malls: Closed Thursday, many opening very early Friday

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Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9 is Good, But No iPad Killer [REVIEW]

Unboxing the Kindle Fire HD 8.9

Click here to view this gallery.

[More from Mashable: Apple Now Owns the iMessage Name]

Amazon expands its tablet sights with the bigger, more powerful Kindle Fire HD 8.9. Can it compete against Apple‘s iPad?

If there’s one company that deserves credit for reigniting the iPad competitor market, it’s Amazon. Despite some bugs and an overall blah design, its 7-inch Kindle Fire was the first Android tablet that made sense to consumers who gobbled it up to help the Fire grab 50% of the Android tablet market in just 6 months.

[More from Mashable: 9 Black Friday Deals For iPhone Owners]

That tablet essentially opened the flood gates for a new set of ever-more-powerful 7-inchers from, notably, Barnes & Noble and Google. All three companies have already updated their 7-inch offerings to more powerful components and higher-resolutions screens. They’re all still running Android, though Amazon and Barnes & Noble choose to hide the Google OS behind smarter and much more consumer-friendly interfaces.

All this led Apple to finally enter the mid-sized tablet space with the iPad Mini. It’s easily the best-looking tablet of the bunch, but also $ 120 more expensive than its nearest competitor.

The more interesting development, though, is Amazon‘s (and Barnes & Noble‘s) decision to go toe-to-toe with Apple’s full-size iPad and launch the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9 (in 4G LTE and WiFi-only). The move is akin to a middle weight boxer putting on the pounds to take on the Heavyweight world champion. Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD is slightly smaller (the iPad is 9.7-inches), lighter (567g vs. 625g), cheaper ($ 369 for 32 GB model vs. $ 599 for the iPad 4th Gen — Amazon subsidizes with sleep-state ads, that I do not mind) and overall somewhat less powerful. In order to win the battle, the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD better be pretty nimble on its feet, while able to throw that all important knockout punch.

Short version of this story: the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 does some serious damage, but the iPad 4th Gen gets the decision and retains the tablet leader title.

The Kindle Fire HD 8.9 is by no means a failure. In many ways, it’s as good as the smaller Kindle Fire HD, but throughout my tests I noticed odd bugs and glitches (which should all be fixable by software) and a somewhat disturbing lack of power that’s especially obvious when you put the Fire HD 8.9 next to the iPad 4th Gen

What It Is

If you’ve never seen an iPad and someone handed you the Kindle Fire HD .9, you’d likely say its jet-black, soft-to-the-touch plastic body felt good in your hands and was more than effective at all the core tasks (reading, game playing, e-mail, web browsing).

Design-wise, the 8.9 device looks exactly like the 7-inch model, complete with the too-hard to find volume and power buttons. There are no other physical buttons on this device, but Amazon chooses to hide the few it has by making them the exact same color as the chassis and flush with the body. Every time I use the tablet I do the “where’s the damn button” dance, rotating the Kindle Fire HD round and round until I feel the buttons (since I can barely see them).

I have applauded Barnes & Noble for putting the physical “N” home button right on the face of their Nook HD. Bravo for having the guts to do this. Amazon apparently looks at Apple’s iPad home button and thinks to have anything similar would be seen as “copying” the Cupertino hardware giant, when instead they should realize that it works, consumers like it and tablets without it are at a distinct disadvantage.

Amazon’s interface has you make do with a virtual, slide-out home button that is always available. Problem is, I found times when it wasn’t available. When I played Spider-Man and Asphalt 7, the tiny little left-had bar would disappear and I couldn’t exit the game unless I hit the sleep/power button.

The rest of the Kindle Fire HD 8.9′s body is solid and unremarkable (if you read my Kindle fire HD 7 review, then you know exactly what to expect.). Like the iPad 4th Gen, the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 has a front-facing 720p-capable camera. It’s useful for capturing video, snapping 1 Megapixel images and, probably most important, Skype video chats. Skype has built a fairly sharp-looing Kindle Fire app, though the design doesn’t fully fit the larger 8.9-inch screen. Skype just updated its Android app for better tablet viewing and hopefully, we’ll see this update hit the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 as well.

The iPad also has an HD rear-facing camera. The Kindle fire HD 8.9 does not (Barnes & Noble leave out cameras altogether)

Not Packing a Punch

As a large-screen high-resolution tablet (though iPad’s 2048×1536 retina display beats it), the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 offers plenty of attractive screen real estate for web browsing, book and magazine reading and games. But the results can be mixed. Silk, Amazon‘s custom web browser, was occasionally less than responsive and games, though, they ran well, never looked half as good as they do on the considerably more expensive iPad 4.

Granted, you can’t always find the same high-quality immersive action games on both Android and iOS, but Asphalt 7 Heat is a notable exception and it throws the performance differences between the two tablets into stark contrast. Game play is equally responsive on both platforms: the Kindle Fire HD 8.9’s accelerometer reads my moves just as well as the iPad.

The graphics on the Kindle Fire HD, however, are reduced to blobs and blocks (palm trees without distinct leaves, buildings without discernible windows) . The iPad’s quad-core graphics simply overmatch the Kindle Fire. I have never, for example, seen an iPad draw the game as I was playing, as I did when I tried out The Amazing Spider-Man.

Additionally, I experienced more than my share of crashes with games and even magazine apps like Vanity Fair.

The Good

Not everyone, however, will compare the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 to the iPad. Some will see the $ 299 entry-level price point (for the 16 GB model) and appreciate the power, flexibility and utility of this device. Like all Fire’s before it, the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 makes it easy to consume mass quantities of content. Nearly every menu option: Games, Apps, Books, Music, Videos, Newsstand, puts you just one click away from shopping for fresh content. If you have an Amazon account (and who doesn’t) your desired book, music or movie is just a click away. Plus, you can still easily store any of it locally, and worry about running out of storage space, or in the cloud, and never worry about space or accessibility—you can get to that purchased Kindle content from any Kindle app or registered Amazon device.

Watching movies on the tablet is a pleasure. I streamed a couple through Amazon Prime; they looked good on the 1920 x 1200 screen and the Dolby Stereo speakers produced sharp, loud, almost room-filling sound—an impressive feat not even the iPad can match.

The Kindle Fire HD 8.9 also includes a mini-HDMI-out port, which prompted me to connect the tablet to my 47-inch LED HDTV so we could watch Disney’s Brave. Yes, I had to get up and tap on the Kindle screen each time I wanted to pause and restart the move, but otherwise, I was pretty impressed with how the Kindle handled the task.

Obviously I yearn for an Apple Airplay-like feature on Android tablets (rumor has it one is coming), but this is the next, best thing.

There isn’t a lot to say about the Kindle Fire HD 8.9-inch interface that I did not say in the Kindle Fire HD 7 review. I will note, however, that the increased real estate makes the trademark task carousel seem almost too big. Icons for everything from your recently played Spider-Man game to magazine apps, books and Web sites all sit side-by-side-by side. Some, like book covers, look gorgeous.

Others like a broken web-page link look stupid. Worse yet, none of them have labels, which can occasionally make it hard to identify which app or task you’re looking at. I’m just not sure this interface metaphor is sustainable.

Personally I prefer either the clean consistent look of iOS, or the uber-user friendly, family-oriented Nook HD profile-based one. Amazon may want to take a hard look at those and start over.

Staying Connected

The Kindle Fire HD 8.9 is also Amazon’s first cellular-based tablet. That fact puts it even more squarely in competition with the iPad (which obviously has always had 3G models and now offers blazing fast 4G LTE ones as well on all major carriers).

Amazon’s mobile broadband plans are a little more conservative, with just the AT&T 4G LTE option (the 32 GB 4G model that I tested lists for $ 499, which is still $ 224 less than a comparable iPad 4th Gen).

In my experience, the connectivity is superfast and fairly ubiquitous. Amazon‘s $ 49 (a year) flat fee plan is attractive, but with a cap of 250MB per month of data, it’s unlikely it will satisfy the most data-hungry users. If you do need more data, users can also get 3GB and 5GB data plans directly from AT&T on the device.

At press time, Amazon had not enabled streaming video over LTE. Having it sounds nice, but even with the most generous data plans, streaming video would eat it up faster than you can say, “I’m streaming Back to the Future in HD over 4G LTE on my Kindle fire HD!”

The reality for most users is that WiFi is plentiful and you’ll be hard pressed to find a spot where you can’t connect for free or a small one-off fee. It’s the reason Barnes & Noble’s line of HD Nooks do not include a cellular option.

Review continues after FreeTime Gallery

FreeTime

Kindle HD FreeTime Start

Click here to view this gallery.

Perhaps the best new addition to the Kindle Fire family is not a piece of hardware or new component, but the new FreeTime app. Amazon put a lot of loving care into this parental control interface, but almost mucks the whole thing up by hiding the tool under an app that you have to scroll down to (or search) to find. By contrast profiles and age and content controls are baked into the Barnes & Noble Nook HD in a way that makes them impossible to ignore.

Even so, once you do access FreeTime, I think you’ll be pleased with the level of control it gives you. I added test profiles for my two children and then hand-picked every app and piece of content they could access. I was also able to block broadband mobile and even set time limits for access to content and overall screen viewing time (on a per profile basis). The set-up is a bit wonky and it bizarrely switches between landscape and profile screens, but I still applaud the effort. It would make sense for Amazon to move FreeTime into a device set-up screen. If the user has no additional family members or kids using the device, they can easily skip it.

To Buy or Not to Buy

Amazon’s expansive content and shopping ecosystem has always been a strong draw and it’s just as good in this large screen tablet as it was in the very first Kindle Fire. Still, you have to compare it with the equally strong iOS ecosystem, which is no slouch in the content shopping department. Apple doesn’t connect you as seamlessly to physical products, but there’s nothing difficult about shopping on Amazon.com via your iPad. It’s also notable that tablet competitor Barnes & Noble has added movie and TV viewing, rental and purchase.

Ultimately, all of these tablets are offering more and more of the same content options, apps, and features. The decision will likely come down to price, app selection, interface and overall ease of use. The Amazon Kindle fire HD 8.9 scores well on all of these, but does not always lead.

For the price, it’s a great value, but I want Amazon to focus on hardware and interface design for the next big update. Then, they may get my full endorsement.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade brings cheer to storm-hit NY

The annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade kicked off in New York on Thursday, putting a festive mood in the air in a city still coping with the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy.

The young, and the young at heart, were delighted by the sight and sound of marching bands, performers and, of course, the giant balloons. The weather was a sunny 47 degrees. Some parade-goers had camped out to get a good spot, staying snug in sleeping bags. Others came well-prepared with folding chairs.

Airports, train stations and highways were expected to remain busy Thursday as people made their way home to reconnect with family and friends for Thanksgiving — though some reunions might be bittersweet because of the damage and displacement caused by Superstorm Sandy.

Getty Images

People line Central Park West for the 86th Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade today.

For some, the once-sacrosanct harvest feast now starts the holiday shopping season — and store openings keep getting earlier. Black Friday now starts on Thanksgiving Day itself at many national stores, and some shoppers planned to race from their dinner tables to line up for bargains, delaying their second helpings until they've purchased the latest toys or electronic devices.

The popular Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, attended by more than 3 million people and watched by 50 million on TV, includes such giant balloons as Elf on a Shelf and Papa Smurf, a new version of Hello Kitty, Buzz Lightyear, Sailor Mickey Mouse and the Pillsbury Doughboy. Real-life stars were to include singer Carly Rae Jepsen and Rachel Crow of "The X Factor."

Other cities planned to have showy marching bands, cartoon character balloons and musical extravaganzas, as well. Chicago, Philadelphia and Detroit were among the big cities hosting parades.

Among the scheduled highlights were a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey spectacular in Chicago; Phillies star Ryan Howard and Miss America 2012 Laura Kaeppeler in Philadelphia; and a group of 2012 U.S. Olympic champions in Detroit.

The holiday came as portions of the Northeast still were reeling from Sandy's havoc, and volunteers planned to serve thousands of turkey dinners to people it left homeless or struggling.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said his office would coordinate the distribution of 26,500 meals at 30 sites in neighborhoods affected by Sandy, and other organizations also were pitching in.

The Long Beach Surf Association and a charity called Surf for All were sponsoring a Thanksgiving dinner in the Long Island community of Long Beach.

U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks, whose New York district includes the heavily battered Rockaways neighborhoods, said he planned to stop by Thanksgiving dinners at three churches and a school.

"They are still giving thanks," Meeks said of his constituents. "They are thankful that they're alive and thankful to the people who are coming to help them."

Some used social media to coordinate Thanksgiving volunteering. Elle Aichele, of Toms River, NJ, started a Facebook page called Hurricane Sandy Thanksgiving Adopt a Family for Dinner.

"Please host a family that needs something to be thankful for this Thanksgiving!" she wrote. "I have been thinking about what I can do to help and this is it!"

For some travelers, the need to stretch their money dictated how they were to arrive at their destinations.

Ashlee Denaro, 35, of Irvine, Calif., was at Los Angeles International Airport Wednesday with her three children. The divorced woman had flown to Salt Lake City to pick up the children from her ex-spouse for a flight back to Southern California.

To economize, Denaro, a physical therapist, flew to Phoenix, changed planes for Salt Lake City, then returned to LAX instead of landing at her local Orange County airport. She then planned to drive an hour to Irvine.

The circuitous route saved her $500 on plane fare.

A Pennsylvania Turnpike service plaza just outside Pittsburgh was packed early Wednesday afternoon, with occasional lines of cars waiting for gas.

Linda Lapp-Stout, 64, was traveling from Cleveland to see family in Parkesburg, between Philadelphia and Lancaster. Lapp-Stout, who has driven a school bus for 32 years, said she was thankful for the holiday break and the warm weather, but she was worried about the economy.

"It's hard to even afford gas," she said.

Landscape designer Anne Murphy, of Gorham, Maine, was waiting for an Amtrak train at Boston's South Station as she and her husband, Ken, headed for Thanksgiving dinner in Gibbsboro, N.J. She said she travels smarter by searching for deals online, using cheaper airports farther from home and packing fewer bags to avoid baggage fees.

"I think we probably travel a little bit less because of costs, but we've definitely traveled more public transportation in order to save on gas," said Murphy, 56.

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