Superstorm Sandy Live Town Hall Event to Air on THIRTEEN, 5/16

Monmouth County, NJ-More than six months after Superstorm Sandy caused $50 billion in damage, questions still remain regarding the region's infrastructure, its disaster response capabilities, and what the future holds. Seeking answers and conversation about the storm and recovery efforts, New Jersey and New York public television stations are teaming up to broadcast a special multi-platform live Town Hall event. Hosted by Mike Schneider, managing editor of the NJTV news program NJ Today with Mike Schneider, expert panelists will field questions before live studio audiences at Monmouth University's Pollak Theatre in West Long Branch, NJ, and the Tisch WNET Studios at Lincoln Center in Manhattan next week.

Superstorm Sandy: A Live Town Hall airs live on Thursday, May 16th at 8:00 p.m. on NJTV, New Jersey's public television network, THIRTEEN in New York City, WLIW21 on Long Island, and WHYY TV in Philadelphia, in collaboration with media outlets WNYC at 93.9FM and AM820, New Jersey Public Radio, The Star-Ledger and NJ.com, NJ Spotlight, NJ News Commons and The New York Times.

Members of the Community are invited to find out more about the Town Hall event, including how to be a part of the Monmouth University audience and where to submit questions for the broadcast panelists prior to and during the program on their local station site, SandyTownHall.org and via Twitter #sandytownhalL. SandyTownHall.org will also carry the livestream on May 16th.

Topics of discussion will include: infrastructure: maintenance, parameters for the future and how New York and New Jersey's infrastructure compares to other regions; building codes in the post-Sandy era; the storm's environmental consequences: what can we fix, what may not be reparable; storm response: the effectiveness of Sandy response by FEMA, the government, the utility companies and the region overall; economic ramifications: who is paying the debt the storm left behind, government funds versus constituent responsibilities, and looking to the future: the region's ability to plan ahead for extreme weather.

"This broadcast is the first of its kind for our stations and we are striving to give it the greatest footprint possible in our local communities," said NJTV's General Manager John Servidio. "Having weathered Sandy together, we know how critical it is to keep the conversation about the storm recovery going. What better way to do it than to pool all of our broadcast resources and collaborate with other area media partners to share this program with as much of the storm-affected region as possible."

Superstorm Sandy: A Live Town Hall guest panelists will include experts in an array of fields, from infrastructure and engineering to climatology and charities.

The live program will also feature reporting from various locations across New Jersey, New York City, and Long Island. Lauren Wanko from NJ Today with Mike Schneider, MetroFocus' Rafael Pi Roman, and Long Island Business Report's Jim Paymar will revisit communities and individuals that they covered when the storm hit in November, continuing their in-depth reporting from the worst hit towns and cities. Other special reports will come from WHYY, The Star-Ledger and WNYC.

Superstorm Sandy: A Live Town Hall is a production of NJTV, New Jersey's public television network.

The broadcast's Executive Producer is Sally Garner, an Emmy-award winning television producer who has formerly written and reported for major news outlets including CBS, CNN and public television in New York and Los Angeles. Senior Executive Producer is Diane Masciale, an Emmy Award-winning producer with over 20 years of experience as a senior level producer at ABC, NBC, CNN, FOX, PBS and AOL. Executives in Charge of Production are Neal Shapiro, President and CEO of WNET, and John Servidio, General Manager of NJTV and WLIW21.

Superstorm Sandy: A Live Town Hall is Made possible by the New Jersey Recovery Fund at the Community Foundation of New Jersey, The General Contractors Association of New York, New York Building Congress and New York Building Foundation, Bernard and Irene Schwartz, New Jersey Manufacturers, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Tishman - an AECOM Company, STV and the American Council of Engineering Companies of New York.

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