An unlikely star was born at some of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's post-hurricane press conferences: sign language interpreter Lydia Callis. Everyone from NPR to New York magazine to Gawker's own Max Read has been singing Callis' praises since she stepped up and, with her boisterous American Sign Language routine, served as a spot of sunshine in an otherwise horribly dim time.

Nana Gouvêa is a modelactress-ish entity originally from Brazil who now resides with her husband in Manhattan. After Sandy devastated the city, Gouvêa and her husband ventured outdoors to document the destruction and to prove that there's one thing killer storm surges can never wash away: raw sex appeal.

In 1993, Jennifer Toth horrified the world with her book The Mole People: Life in the Tunnels Beneath New York City. The work detailed the lives of the homeless citizens who’d established communities in the subway and railroad tunnels beneath the streets of New York. Though criticism of the validity of some of Toth’s claims ran rampant following her book’s release, over the years various other sources have indeed found many people—one documentary estimated as many as 6,000—living illegally and dangerously in the subway tunnels.

Is your boss opening the office today and making you go to work? This is not a bad thing, necessarily, if you like your job, hate your kids, have cabin fever, or live in one of the dreaded Dead Zones, where no one has power and gangs of restless professionals roam the streets, wearing elaborate ceremonial jewelry crafted out of their now-useless electronics. No, the bad thing is getting to work.

For New Yorkers:

There's a funny juxtaposition in the right-hand column of Buzzfeed today: One highlighted piece, by staff tech writer John Herrman, is titled, "Twitter Is a Truth Machine," and it delves into the idea that Twitter, despite its flaws, is a beacon for virtuous honesty in time of need. Right next to that article, ironically, is one by BuzzFeed contributor Jack Stuef. In that one, Stuef uncovers Shashank Tripathi, a New York-based GOP campaign consultant who deliberately spread misinformation about Hurricane Sandy via his Twitter account last night. It makes sense for Stuef's piece to be on top in the image, because if Twitter is anything, it's a hive of lies.

While many of us in New York City spent last night fleeing to high ground or cowering in the bathroom, others had a better idea: hit up Craigslist for a "casual encounter."

Here's a photo of the aftermath of the huge fire that devastated Breezy Point. [image via AP]

• At least sixteen people died (seven in New York)

Is "Hurricane Crush" a thing? Let's make it a thing. Lydia Calas, who's been interpreting Mayor Mike Bloomberg's various Hurricane Sandy press conferences into American Sign Language, is clearly New York's Hurricane Crush, thanks to her engaging expressive skills. Just listen to Twitter:

Hurricane Sandy lay waste to a large section of Atlantic City's iconic Boardwalk, with the storm itself still several miles off shore.

Log on to the Weather Channel's website to get the latest update on Hurricane Sandy and you may see what looks like a handy tool in the top right corner: "See friends at risk."

One thing you should not do, even though it looks like one of the Top Three Funnest Experiences a Human Being Can Have, is ride your jet ski through the flooded streets of your beachfront community during Hurricane Sandy, like this guy. YouTube user Right Coast Surf posted this video of himself tooling around a flooded Manasquan, New Jersey today. (Which, as Gothamist points out, is under mandatory evacuation.)

There are very few days 50 million people get permission by their employers and city officials to "stay home and be safe" which some people interpret as an open bar until Hurricane Sandy's temper tantrum ends. So please inform us in the discussion system what state of inebriation you're planning to be in once those gale-force winds start uprooting trees and stray cats across the city in the next few hours. If you plan on adding any illegal substances to your Emergency Stay-At-Home Pack please feel free to suggest your own concoctions since some Gawker editors are mulling how to best enjoy the Frankenstorm show but still maintain enough capacitation to evacuate in a makeshift canoe.

As Hurricane Sandy, now combined with a Nor'easter, bears down on the mid-Atlantic, people everywhere are looking for answers: will I be safe? What should I do? Where should I go? And most importantly, what shadowy organization, group, or cosmic force is manipulating the weather to cause this terrible storm? Luckily, the internet has answers to all those questions — especially the last one. (Current suspects: President Obama, the gays, and perennial weather-conspiracy favorite the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program.) Let's take a look at the best conspiracy theories on the web.

The New York Fire Department is reporting that the boom of a crane attached to a high rise on West 57th just collapsed, and is now dangling perilously over the street.

In order to keep readers updated on Frankenstorm safety bulletins, the New York Times has temporarily lifted its paywall for online articles. It has also temporarily lifted its policy of not posting absurd shit.

The ascent of Twitter has been wonderful for the democratization and quickening of news and information. A few decades ago, it might take days for a person in California to see pictures of a disaster that took place in New York. Today, all a person needs is a smartphone and an internet connection and, with Twitter, they can be their own photojournalist, updating the site's millions of global users with up-to-the-minute images of events like Hurricane Sandy.

If a hurricane makes landfall in a forest, and no one's there to Instagram it, did it really make landfall at all?

Unfortunately, when disaster strikes it affects not only the wretched Normals, but also a better, brighter class of people: Celebrities. Here's how they're handling it so far: