Above: Loch Sheldrake resident Della Weekes, who stopped by the Red Cross shelter at the Sullivan County Community College Field House on Friday to warm up and have a shower before going to work. All photos by Jason Dole.

Every day, electricity returns to more and more people in Sullivan County. Along with it comes warmth, light, and a little bit of normalcy. But with power outages threatening to stretch into next week in some places, more and more people are also making use of emergency shelters, warming stations, and distributors of dry ice.

“There are about 75 people staying here tonight,” said Donna Borner, manager of the emergency shelter organized by the American Red Cross at Sullivan County Community College. At that point, around 9pm on Friday night, another family walked through the door.

“Last night we had 31,” said Borner. “It escalated because of the cold. We're still expecting more people tonight.”

Hurricane Sandy shook up many aspects of public and private life in Sullivan County, but the elections will go on much the same as always. Only two polling places will be changed due to complications following the storm, a Board of Elections official told the Watershed Post.

“Sullivan county has 39 poll sites and 63 election districts,” said Rodney Gaebel, the county's Republican election commissioner, on Friday evening. “They're all up and running, and I can tell you that 37 are staying exactly the same with no change.”

The two exceptions are Willowemoc Baptist Church in the Town of Neversink, and the Town Hall in the Town of Forestburgh. These two polling places have been relocated to the Neversink fire house on Route 55, and the Forestburgh fire house on Route 42, respectively.

“The only reason those two sites are being moved is because they have no power,” Gaebel said.

When asked if he's confident the elections will go on without a hitch, Gaebel said, “I'm more than confident, that's the way it is. The machines have all been delivered. Barring another storm like that, we're good to go.”