Top Episcopal officers called on people to reach out to neighbors nearby and abroad in the wake of the devastation caused by Sandy as it moved as a Hurricane and then as a storm through the Caribbean, Eastern States and Canada.

"This is a time for reaching out to neighbors next door as well as farther abroad with solidarity and offers of basic human hospitality – food, water, electrical connections, shower and shelter – as well as money to assist the lengthy recovery that will be required everywhere this storm has moved," said the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, the Most Rev. Katherine Jefferts Schori and the President of the House of Deputies, the Rev. Gay Clark Jennings.

The pair said the storm should "remind us of our shared community and tenancy on this fragile earth, our island home."

They added that the storm has "brought home the reality of changing global weather and the kind of extreme climate events that are increasingly likely to confront us all.

They noted that Hurricane Sandy hit people in Haiti already suffering from its 2010 earthquake.

"Its always the poorest who are most affected, although the news media have show only a little of that reality," they wrote.

The number of fatalities from the storm and hurricane have gone past 140.