76 Hours: Hurricane Sandy's Aftermath

On the eve of Halloween festivities a storm out of a horror movie wrecked havoc along the east coast of the United States. One week ago, I was helping to plan my brother in law's birthday party. I never would have imagined the destruction that the Tri-state would be facing a week from that time. I never would have imagined that Jersey shore which I have come to love would have been destroyed. I never would have imagined that Atlantic City would be covered in water. I never would have imagined that vast amount of states would be in darkness.

When I realized that the storm was serious was the day before it hit the coast. My sister and I made a getaway back to our home to prepare for the storm. We brought in all the furniture from outside, filled the car with gas and got as much canned food as we could. Since we were getting supplies late in the game, flashlights were scarce. Then we waited for the storm to hit. Come Monday morning the weather was ridiculous. It was raining and wind was picking up speed. By the afternoon, you were hearing reports of West Virginia having a blizzard, coastal flooding in the DMV and Tri-States. It was ridiculous. By 6:30 pm we lost electricity in my area. The whole night we waited for the storm to pass and prayed we would make it out alive. Come morning we were still without power and lost cell phone service as well. We had no means of communicating with the outside world. We could not tell people we were alright or find out how they were affected by Hurricane Sandy. Luckily in our area, the fallen trees did not do much damage to homes and we still had clean water. Last night, our power was finally restored.

Others were not so lucky. People lost their homes and loved ones. By tonight it would have been 96 hours since Hurricane Sandy made landfall. Thousands maybe even millions will still be without power. This is a troubling reality because the temperature is dropping. Majority of gas stations are still without power means the demand for gas is at an all time high. People can drive for hours looking for gas and by the time they do find a station that is open the gas is finished. Yesterday a gas station near my house opened up, the line was about two blocks long. Public transportation is still out of whack going into the city. It is slowly getting back on track but it will be awhile before things are up and running properly. I hate to admit it but Governor Christie is doing a good job in pushing for recovery for the state of Jersey. This is the time when it is really essential that Governors and Mayors work steadfast. From what I can see they are doing pretty dang good job.

Tempers are flaring and people are going crazy without power, food, clean water and a roof over their heads. In our area we only did not have power and people were almost fighting each other. I can't imagine the tension in the communities that have lost their homes. Things are intense. The first few days I felt like I was living during The Book of Eli, The Walking Dead and I Am Legend days. Things are crazy here and we did not get hit as bad as other areas. My hope is that during this difficulty time we all pull together and help each other out. We are all in this together and we will get through this together. 

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