Living Through Superstorm Sandy

We were lucky. Sandy huffed and puffed but didn’t blow our house in. I wish the same could be said for tens of thousands of people along the north east coast line who were not so fortunate and still face the daunting task of pulling their lives back together.

Sandy was scary. No two ways about it. We started to feel the effects on Sunday but the real storm arrived on Monday. The skies darkened.  The trees began to sway more and more violently as the hours passed. The tension of what might happen began to grow in our stomachs. The power began to switch on and off, teasing us. And then it went off for good. Even though we had prepared, we still ended up scrambling like blind mice to light the candles.

That night, we built a “camp” in the living room for our two young boys, Andrew and Christian. The house was swaying so much that our concern was the roof might get blown off or a tree could fall on us. The boys were really excited about the camp and about sleeping in the same bed together. For them it was one big adventure. For us it was a painful night sleeping on the couch, waking up hourly to see if we were flooded, hoping we didn’t have to evacuate.

The next day, the devastation was obvious. There were downed trees everywhere. Our 4 year old Andrew got very upset that so many trees had been hurt. That night, Andrew kept shining the flashlight on some tulips we had in a vase. When asked what he was doing, he responded that “he was giving the plants power” because “he wanted them to feel better”.

People can be at their best when there’s an emergency. And so it proved the case. Neighbors helped neighbors as best as they could. People were sharing gas, firewood, food. Like so many others, our friends got flooded. When asked if they and their kids could stay with us until they could get back on their feet, we said yes without thinking. We had a great few days and when they left our boys were very sad their extended play dates had gone.

After four days, when the power did come back on, we felt both a sense of relief and guilt. Of course we were happy to have the heating and lights back on, but we also realized so many others had been left in the dark. And four weeks on some still are. We tried to help where we could by either doing laundry, letting people charge their phones, or just sit in the house to warm up.

For our two boys, they now understand the power of Mother Nature and that no matter how good we think we are, we’re easily humbled. But we really hope they understand that despite the strongest adversity, when people come together, they can overcome anything. It’s a shame we sometimes have to wait for a storm for that to become clear.

Photo courtesy of Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/americanredcross/8167455942/sizes/z/in/photostream/

Tree Photo courtesy of Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jlfleenorpics/8139837036/sizes/z/in/photostream/