I just got back from DC. I was fortunate not to have been in the devastation of NY and NJ. Having grown up on the east coast I had forgotten the power and fury of a hurricane and combine it with a full moon for high tides and a lower jet stream for cold and you have what was affectionately called Frankenstorm.
I also learned the power of FEMA and local governors and how fast they had emergency programs in place before the storm hit. Utility companies from all over the country including CA are sending trucks and crews to help out. From TSA to the airlines, everyone was so helpful and calm. It was weird seeing National airport so empty because many people couldn’t get there since the Metro didn’t open until late Tuesday.
I saw neighbors checking on each other, making sure everyone was safe and if someone didn’t have power, offering water, batteries or even ways to charge essentials.
If you have ever been to the Jersey Shore it was a fun place as a kid. Just to put things into Hollywood perspective if you watch Boardwalk Empire the background is Asbury Park, not Atlantic City. Many of the rides and places will need to be rebuilt and they will be; maybe not as the governor said the same way, perhaps better. But the power of human persistence not to let Mother Nature destroy them is phenomenal. The power of people helping people is the backbone to our culture and survival; nurses carrying NICU infants down 9 flights of stairs making sure they had oxygen and support. Equally nice was nobody was talking politics everyone was just being human and helping.
Humans will persist and the Eastern seaboard, as well as inland, will be back, maybe not the same but it will be back and we will remember how we all came together.
Recent Comments