Memories of Hurricane Sandy

So, after coming back from a day at the Jersey Shore (Ocean Grove), these are my observations of how it has been since Sandy:

-The boardwalk is completely gone. All that remains are a few lampposts on two-by-fours suspended above the sand, and a fence.
-There is no grass or large dunes.
-The building which was located by the Asbury Park casino has been washed away completely.
-The fishing pier that used to have a little building on it? Half of it vanished.


But that was the worst from what I could see, as far as Ocean Grove goes. I'm astonished that they were able to rebuild this fast; Chris Christy is the MAN.
Ah, Sandy, how I remember thou. Let me count the ways....

My memories of the hurricane began around late October of last year. Dad had received some meteorological observation from a ski patrol center close by, and they said that there was a storm coming up the coast and we had better be taking it seriously. Back then, we knew about the hurricane, but it still seemed like it would die out before it got up here.
Damn, did we underestimate the power.
The brunt of it came the Sunday before Halloween, at night. By around 9pm, the power went out, and you could hear the wind trying to push the house over. Nobody slept in their own bed; my sister and I ended up in our parent's bedroom, while my brother slept on the couch with mom. It was kind of terrifying that night, because the trees were swaying really hard and I was so afraid one was going to fall on the house.
There was an eerie silence when we woke up. My dad, after reporting that there was no power in Warwick, Greenwood Lake, Florida, or basically in the immediate area, went to the ambulance bay with my sister in case people needed help. The sun barely came out, as the aftermath of the storm still hung in the sky, with some icy rain falling in cycles. We had to put on our bathing suits and wade in the hot tub to try and clean up, but it left a film on our skin that felt weird. I got through the rest of the day by reading books and trying to sleep.
There was no school for this entire week.
That was Monday, and Tuesday was more of the same, until we received a notification that people in the village were getting their power back. Among these lucky people was my grandma, so we ran to the car and stayed with her. Not ready to throw in the towel on the upcoming holiday, I set up a bunch of Halloween decorations, expecting people to come. But the day came and went with no Halloween activity at all, and everyone started to get anxious. On TV, we watched as people who lived along the coast were wandering through the piles of debris that used to be their neighborhoods. One neighborhood in NJ even burned to the ground after being washed over by the storm. The Red Cross and FEMA came in, trying to give the homeless some decent food and tents for shelter, but a brief snowstorm swept through and simply added more insult to injury.
We still couldn't even get to the center of our own town, since it was flooded. The Internet was down for most of the week, and a lot of people could not get in touch with each other. It took a while just to connect to the school district's website and confirm that there would be no school until Monday. We also saw that they had opened the high school to those who wanted to charge their devices and take a shower, which was a smart idea.
On Thursday, we acquired a small generator and hooked it up to the house. We were only able to run a few lights, a power strip, a TV, and DVD player, but it was still the best news we had received since my grandma's power went back on. The neighbors came over, and I think that after five minutes there were at least ten different devices being charged off of the power strip.
The rest of the week was somewhat more bearable, despite having no power. We waited, but by Sunday night, it was clear that we would have to get ready for school in the dark. And Monday morning, we did.
The teachers had to completely reschedule their lesson plans and a couple people were still grumbling about having no power. Though I was among them, it was a big relief about two days later when the power came back and I could take a shower again. Nothing has ever felt as good as that shower did.
Looking back, I realize that our situation with the hurricane was bad. But after seeing those people wading through water, being rescued by boats, and stumbling over wreckage that was once their house,  I knew it could have been worse.
I won't end this post like that, though, because I'm sure you've heard that a thousand times before. I think that the hardest thing to get used to was seeing Ocean Grove, a portion of my childhood, practically washed away in just a few hours. The comeback by the people along the coast is remarkable, and their recovering efforts have been amazing.
Yes, we took a serious blow to the gut.
And I think it may have made us a little bit stronger.