Not being in Sandy, or any other hurricane, I can not give an AAR. Being that I have lived my whole life in OK has given me plenty of opportunities to make sure preps are made ahead of time. Between tornadoes, straight line winds, dust storms, torrential rain storms, long periods of drought, ice storms, snow storms, and the loss of electricity for any of the above reasons we deal with a lot.
1. Food--keep canned goods, beans, rice, MRE's, crackers, granola bars, etc handy.
2. Water--have bottled water on hand, keeps good, can use it even if the main water supply is contaminated, fill tub and sinks with water, have reserve brls if possible. And of course a way to boil/purify water.
3. Heat--no gas or electricity can be hard if you don't have a stove or fire place. We are remodeling and plan on putting in a cast iron stove for several reasons. Then again I have a 55 gal brl that can be made into a burn brl, cut an opening at the bottom and vent the fumes out and it is better than freezing to death. Blankets galore too.
4. First aid stuff--never too much. Meds for people who are dependent are good to have on hand too.
5. A way for communication, like walkie talkies, charged cell phones, etc.

That is just some of the things that we do around here.