Sandy diverts Black Friday shoppers The tins of Kilz Premium stain blocker in Joe Solimeo's shopping cart should stop any blemishes from creeping through the walls of his second house in Staten Island, which is home to his elderly parents-in-law. But for now there are no in-laws at the duplex in a low-lying south shore neighbourhood and no walls either. "I mean, there's nothing," he says, recounting the devastation caused by the surge of seawater that superstorm Sandy brought. In a week when Americans celebrate Thanksgiving and retailers uncork Black Friday discounts to launch the Christmas shopping season, thousands of storm victims such as Mr Solimeo are still cleaning up or looking toward the daunting task of rebuilding. His local Home Depot store is one place where the jingle of the holiday season intersects with the hard slog of responding to a disaster that killed 23 people in Staten Island, where 12,000 homes sit in areas that had at least 3ft of water. The retailer, which had sales of $70bn last year, has even ceded part of its car park to the American Red Cross, whose volunteers are delivering hot meals to people in the disaster zone. Inside the store, the high-visibility shelves at the ends of aisles are not stocked with decorations or gifts such as tools sets - as in other years - but with post-storm essentials including trash bags and circuit breaker switches for electrical panels. A large inflatable Father Christmas looks down on a table of poinsettias at one side of the entrance; on the other the shelves carry bottles of super-strength OdoBan cleaning fluid needed to eliminate mustiness and mould, a festering menace to flood victims. While coastal parts of Staten Island suffered as much storm damage as anywhere, a significant number of the island's 470,000 residents - many Italian-American, many emergency service workers - are entering the holidays unscathed. Julie Osterhoudt, Home Depot's store manager, says: "We're not promoting holiday as much to find that balance between these two needs in the community. Normally this store would be decorated to the nines with candy canes made from PVC pipes and blow-up dolls hanging from the ceiling, but I'm not going that extra step. Black Friday is when chilly shoppers traditionally queue up outside stores for "door buster" bargains and this year Walmart, Target and Best Buy jumped the gun and opened earlier than ever on Thanksgiving night. Analysts expect sales to grow moderately but by less than the 6.6 per cent ShopperTrak recorded last year. An Accenture survey found an increase in the number of people planning to shop but the National Retail Federation recorded a fall. In Sandy-affected areas consumers are likely to divert money from Christmas to rebuilding and replacing furniture, ovens and fridges, though some are finding their insurance covered less than they thought. Ms Osterhoudt says the change has not necessarily created a big uptick in sales at her store. At a national level it's not certain whether such a shift will boost or depress spending over the full length of the holiday season, when the NRF has forecast a 4.1 per cent rise in sales. Black Friday bargains are the last thing on the mind of Mr Solimeo, a retired IT recruiter wearing a Fire Department of New York fleece from one of his sons, who says he is already on his fourth or fifth trip to Home Depot since the storm. "I'm out buying necessities," he says. I'm out here doing the job. Friday's going to be a big day. The hot water, heating and air conditioning [systems] are coming in Friday. Storm waters filled the basement of his house in Midland Beach like a punch bowl and rose two to three feet on the ground floor, soaking the structure with the waste-filled effluent of the Atlantic. He had no choice but to strip it down to bare columns and beams, piling up personal possessions for sanitation workers to take away. His parents-in-law have been evacuated to a son's home in Jersey while everyone waits for the house to dry. The storm has temporarily rid Staten Island of its status as New York's forgotten borough, an anomalous zone of car-owning, yard-proud, early-to-bed suburbia within the borders of the city that never sleeps. But its large, freestanding homes meant people had more to lose than Manhattan apartment-dwellers. Ralph Branca, chief executive of Victory State Bank, a Staten Island lender, is helping co-ordinate an effort by local businesses to encourage dazed storm victims to test for mould before rebuilding, and to use only licensed contractors. It's like a battlefield. People are still traumatised. It's very difficult for people to make informed decisions," he said, adding that some rogue traders were charging $7,000 to pump water out of basements when it should only cost about $1,500. Sandy's impact was capricious but businesses did not escape. While an unharmed ShopRite supermarket in New Dorp was selling Thanksgiving turkeys this week, a washed-out Staples a few blocks up had binned its inventory and been gutted. "The smaller businesses don't know if they're going to be able to reopen," says Mr Branca. That all depends on the insurance proceeds. If you take a $500,000 loss on a small business that can push you over the edge. In previous years, like other Americans, Staten Islanders have formed night-time queues outside their local Macy's or Best Buy to grab the best Black Friday deals. But this year Mr Branca guesses it will be more muted. You're choosing between cleaning your house, wondering where you're going to get your next meal . . . or standing in line to get a flatscreen TV? But sometimes it's hard to know. People need a diversion. Mr Solimeo won't necessarily be at Home Depot when it opens at 5am on Black Friday, but he's already spent nearly $10,000 there since Sandy and has applied for a loan for more funds. "I still gotta get cabinets, flooring," he says, inching his cart towards the car park. I'll be back. We're not done.