Imagine being forced to evacuate your neighborhood. Imagine losing your home, along with your car, most of your belongings and the family business — all within 24 hours.
Now try to fathom rebuilding your life, piece by piece, after such a traumatic experience.
This scenario is a reality for hundreds in the Northeastern Region of the United States, while many of us on the West Coast poke fun.
Hurricane Sandy isn’t a laughing matter. It isn’t just a storm with a silly name. It’s a megastorm that left a devastating path of destruction in its wake — one tthat will take not weeks or months, but years to recover from.
Hurricane Sandy’s death toll reached 76 Thursday, according to a Fox News report. It sparked massive power outages and subway shutdowns in states across the East Coast, including New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland and Washington, D.C. Sandy even affected areas of Ohio and West Virginia that were in its path.A fire spread throughout one of the storm’s most devastated areas Tuesday, torching more than 80 homes in the flooded neighborhood of Breezy Point, located on the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens.
But these are just a few of Sandy’s immediate impacts.
Economic repercussions might make Superstorm Sandy the second-costliest U.S. storm after Hurricane Katrina, according to forecasting firm Eqecat. The firm estimates between $30 billion and $50 billion — double the amount of its initial prediction — in lost businesses, property damage and accrued living expenses.
Victims will be without homes, places of work and power for months to come. To this day, there are boarded-up offices and homes in New Orleans that were never restored after Katrina’s wrath.
It’s easy — human nature, even — to mock something you’ve never experienced. For some, it’s ignorance. For others, it’s a coping mechanism.
But before you do, try to imagine what it would be like if the tables were turned. Or consider those sitting in class with you whose family may have been affected by the storm.
Now isn’t the time to point fingers and laugh, send out a witty tweet or update a Facebook status. It’s a time to pray, think happy thoughts or send positive energy — whatever it is you do — for those in need.
–BK