Hurricane Sandy

When Tommy sent me a link about Frankenstorm on Friday, I laughed. Being a New Yorker, you grow to be very skeptical. It didn’t help that last year’s hurricane was a lot of hype but very little bite in our area. As Monday grew closer, I started to get a little worried. Schools were closing, the subway was shut down and the weather forecaster were saying this was going to be  bad one. We rode out the storm at home. The winds whipped so hard that I was pretty sure our fence and the TV antennas off the neighbors houses would be blown off. Luckily, we woke up on Tuesday and we were safe, dry and still had a roof over our heads.

We went out around the neighborhood and there was some damage, but in reality, my community was extremely lucky. With the exception of some down trees and power lines, nothing happened.

Others were not as lucky. When I turned on the TV and saw the damage and destruction that happened in the Rockaways, on Long Island and in New Jersey, I was speechless. I still am. People lost everything. Total devastation. Nothing to return to. That’s what the TV keeps telling us. When you see this type of disaster on TV, in a place far away from where you live, you feel bad, but it doesn’t pull at your heart the way it does when you see a place where you’ve been to recently, a place where you spent your summers as a kid, a place where your friends and family live, completely destroyed. It’s surreal, it’s like watching a movie. You don’t want to believe it.

If you can, say a prayer, keep these people in your thoughts. If you have the means, donate. Donate clothes, food, money, anything you can. You can donate via text:

• REDCROSS to 90999 to support the American Red Cross
• STORM to 80888 to give to the Salvation Army
• HUMANE to 80888 for the American Humane Association
• UWHC to 52000 to the United Way of Hudson County, N.J.

And just be thankful for everything you have, because it can all be gone in a second.