Friends and members of the Puglia family sift through the remains of their missing home for valuables on November 6, 2012, after Hurricane Sandy hit Staten Island, New York. View photos of New York preparing for Sandy.
Editor's note: Mitchell L. Moss is director of the Rudin Center for Transportation and Henry Hart Rice professor of urban policy and planning at New York University's Wagner School of Public Service. He served as an advisor to Michael Bloomberg during his first campaign for Mayor of New York City in 2001.
(CNN) -- It takes a disaster to remind us how much we depend on our local and state governments. In the middle of a presidential campaign, Hurricane Sandy has put Barack Obama and Mitt Romney on the sidelines, reminding us how much we count on mayors and governors to protect us, to rescue us and to keep our streets, buses, subways, airports and commuter rails running.
After a season of debates about the deficit, taxes and health care, Americans have discovered that they cannot survive without government: to provide clean water, reliable transportation systems, and emergency services when floods, fires and power outages force them to abandon their homes. Hurricane Sandy even demonstrated that sometimes politicians should do more than what we want, especially when they are trying to save us from ourselves.
When New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie ordered everyone out of Atlantic City, most residents ignored his request. And when New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, three days before Hurricane Sandy landed, activated the city's storm plan and issued an evacuation order for the city's high-risk Zone A floodplain, many observers thought he was over-preparing, like a grandmother urging you to wear galoshes in the rain.
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Next time, evacuation orders will not be dismissed as examples of the "nanny state."
Hurricane Sandy did not just erode beachfronts; it also eroded partisan political differences. How else can one explain Gov. Christie's warm and gracious comments about Obama after the president did far more than what was required when he suggested that the New Jersey Republican personally call him if he needed any help with federal agencies.
Disasters never go away. They become part of our culture, providing stories of danger and heroism that we share with our children and their children. Disasters take neighbors and make them friends.
New Yorkers, widely considered to be tough and selfish, are suddenly eager to share cellphones, drink beer with strangers at their local bars, and to cook meals at home -- since without subways there is no way to go out for dinner and get home easily.
There is one simple lesson we can learn from Hurricane Sandy: We cannot ignore the essential infrastructure that moves people, information and goods.
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These systems are under the control of mayors and governors -- not presidents, senators or members of Congress. More than two-thirds of the funds spent on transportation come from states and localities, not from the federal government. And with today's current emphasis on cutting the federal deficit, states will need to do more since the federal government is clearly in retreat, at home and overseas.
It is not sufficient to have a smartphone or an iPad if we do not have resilient, robust networks that can function when we need them most, like in a disaster. It is not sufficient to have a home, if there is no power to run appliances and water to drink and cook with. And, what good is a job if you cannot get to work -- whether by car, train, bus or plane?
New York has a subway system that is more than a century old. Our nation's airports control our airspace with obsolete technologies, needlessly adding to delays and pollution. And our commuter railroads rely on railroad bridges that are well beyond their shelf life.
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Hurricane Sandy is not over. The damage is still being assessed. The recovery is going to be slower than we anticipate. And the losses are beyond measurement. Homes destroyed, beaches reconfigured, boardwalks that cannot be replaced, and memories that cannot be renewed.
But we can recognize the vital need to invest in the future: to take steps now to minimize similar disasters. We cannot eliminate the power of ocean currents and wind and storms, but we can do more to invest in stronger, safer transportation systems that can diminish the disruptions caused by the next hurricane. Sandy certainly won't be the last of the destructive storms we encounter.
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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Mitchell L. Moss.
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A part of a house that floated off its foundation during the storm now sits in the middle of a coastal estuary in the Oakwood Beach area of Staten Island.
New York City police officers and a resident warm up in front of a fire in a blacked-out area of Oakwood Beach on Staten Island.
A woman looks through a sand covered parking lot used as a donation center on November 5 in the Rockaway neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City.
Volunteers who call themselves the Broad Channel Police Department help clean a neighbor's damaged house.
People wait in line for food at a distribution center at Coney Island.
A dump truck empties trash collected from homes damaged by Superstorm Sandy on Saturday, November 3, in the Midland Beach neighborhood of Staten Island, New York. New York is trying to clean up and resume normal activities days after the storm hit.
A volunteer places donated clothing in plastic bags to protect it from potential rain at a relief center on Saturday in Midland Beach.
A damaged chair sits on the beach in low-lying Coney Island on Saturday.
A man salvages a set of drums at Rockaway Beach in Queens, New York, on Saturday. Most of the Rockaway Peninsula remains without power.
People gather among debris from Superstorm Sandy and boxes of donated goods on Saturday in Rockaway Beach.
Boats that were swept aground during Sandy sit against homes near a marina on Staten Island on Friday, November 2.
Eddie Liu uses a broom to clean up mud and water from a flooded coin laundry in Coney Island on Friday.
Michelle Dumas hugs her daughter Olivia to warm her up as they wait in an hours-long line for gas at a station Friday on Staten Island.
Men try to clean up the destruction in a flooded deli in Brooklyn, New York, on Friday.
Members of the Traina family on Friday sort through photographs and other personal items from their Staten Island home that was destroyed by Superstorm Sandy.
In the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, replacement power utility poles are transported along Old Country Road on Friday in Plainview, New York.
Abandoned and flooded cars are piled up on Friday, November 2, in the heavily damaged Rockaway neighborhood, in Queens, where a large section of a landmark boardwalk was washed away.
Food trucks and men selling bread and cheeses line Broadway at Union Square on Friday in New York as the city recovers from the effects of Superstorm Sandy.
Debris piles up near the foundations of the iconic boardwalk, which was washed away in the Rockaway neighborhood in Queens.
A man rides his bike through the heavily damaged Rockaway neighborhood.
Matthew Mark Meyer, left, and Annie Barwick, center, sit in a darkened Randolf Beer Restaurant which is using generator power to reopen on Friday in New York City.
People walk through the heavily damaged Rockaway neighborhood.
Commuters pack into a train on Thursday in New York City. Limited public transit has returned to the city, where 14 of 23 subway lines are running.
Commuters ride the subway. Public transit is operating in New York City, but travel times are long, up to five hours in some cases.
A police officer directs passengers waiting on Thursday to board city buses into Manhattan at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. About 4,000 buses are replacing the subway lines still closed by Superstorm Sandy damage.
Thousands of people wait to board city buses into Manhattan, and some subway lines remain underwater. Getting water out of the tunnels is "one of the main orders of business right now," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday.
A police officer directs traffic entering the Brooklyn Queens Expressway into Manhattan.
A police officer checks cars entering the Brooklyn Queens Expressway to confirm that they have three occupants before allowing them to cross into Manhattan on Thursday. Limited public transit has returned to New York, and most major bridges have reopened. However, vehicles must have three occupants to pass.
Parts of lower Manhattan are still without electricity on Thursday. Superstorm Sandy, which made landfall along the New Jersey shore on Monday, October 29, left much of the Eastern Seaboard without power, including much of Manhattan south of 34th Street.
Residents of New York City's East Village enjoy a bonfire on Wednesday, October 31.
East Village residents charge their phones with power from a generator on Wednesday.
Traffic snarls in New York City on Wednesday. Residents and businesses across the Eastern Seaboard are attempting to return to their daily lives in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy.
A Caring Foundation worker hands out food to residents of the heavily damaged Rockaway section of Queens on Wednesday.
Water floods streets in the Rockaway section of Queens on Wednesday.
Traders stand outside of the New York Stock Exchange in New York on Wednesday. Stocks advanced as U.S. equity markets resumed trading for the first time this week after the storm.
A man surveys damage on Wednesday, October 31, in the Rockaway neighborhood of Queens, New York, where the historic boardwalk was washed away during Superstorm Sandy.
Residents walk with their belongings through the Rockaway section of Queens on Wednesday.
The remains of homes burned down in Rockaway are seen Wednesday, a day after an inferno spread across the flooded neighborhood.
Firefighters continued to survey the damage in Rockaway on Wednesday. At least 80 homes were destroyed.
People wait for buses on Sixth Avenue in New York on Wednesday as New Yorkers cope with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.
People attempt to squish into a crowded bus on First Avenue in New York on Wednesday.
Con Edison crew members work on a steam pipe on First Avenue on Wednesday.
The foundations to the historic Rockaway boardwalk in Brooklyn are all that remain after it was washed away Wednesday during Hurricane Sandy.
People walk to work Wednesday on a normally busy street near the New York Stock Exchange.
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday after it had been closed for two days.
Commuters arrive in Manhattan by ferry from Jersey City, New Jersey, on its first day back in business after Sandy.
CNN iReporter Jordan Shapiro captured this view of the Williamsburg Bridge in New York at 11 p.m. on Tuesday, October 30. Half of the bridge and Brooklyn is lit, while the Manhattan side and the surrounding part of the island remain shrouded in darkness.
A subway station and escalator sit underwater in New York on Tuesday.
Much of the New York City skyline sits in darkness Tuesday evening after damage from Superstorm Sandy knocked out power. About 6.9 million customers are without power in 15 states and the District of Columbia, according to figures compiled by CNN from power companies.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, center, views the damage Tuesday in the Breezy Point neighborhood of Queens, where a fire broke out during Superstorm Sandy and destroyed at least 80 homes.
A resident looks through the debris of his destroyed home in Breezy Point, Queens, on Tuesday.
Burned-out vehicles and destroyed homes line a street in Breezy Point, located on the western end of the Rockaway peninsula in New York.
A fire continues to burn Tuesday in the remains of a structure that was destroyed by the Breezy Point blaze.
A New York City man hands a dog to first responders while being evacuated on Tuesday.
A bartender at the International Bar in the East Village neighborhood of New York City makes drinks in the dark on Tuesday as electricity remains out for many in the city.
Water floods the Plaza Shops in New York, in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, on Tuesday, October 30.
Con Edison employees monitor the drainage of water being pumped out of Seven World Trade Center in the Financial District of New York on Tuesday.
Onlookers watch a construction crane dangling from a $1.5 billion luxury high-rise after collapsing in high winds.
The construction crane dangles from a high-rise in midtown Manhattan.
Ramiro Arcos clears debris from a storm drain in the Financial District of New York after Sandy swept through the city.
A couple walks in the rain Tuesday, with the East River and the Lower Manhattan skyline as a backdrop.
The Manhattan skyline remains dark after much of the city lost electricity in the storm.
Cars float in a flooded below-street-level parking area in the Financial District on Tuesday.
People take a Tuesday morning walk on the Brooklyn Bridge, which remains closed to traffic after the city awakened to the storm damage.
A car sits crushed by a tree in the Financial District on Tuesday. 
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