Towards the end of October Hurricane Sandy threatened the eastern coastline. From parts of Florida stretching all the way to northern New York City people of the east coast braced for the impact of what was labeled “Frankenstorm.”
On Monday October 29, 2012 at roughly 8 p.m. we started feeling the effects here in Brick, NJ. Sitting in my truck listening to a local news station, New Jersey 101.5 Radio, I saw tall trees blowing around like blades of grass in a wheat field, multiple power line transformers blowing up in the sky as if fireworks, and the wind caused branches to fall. I was terrified. I immediately went inside to be with my family. Our lights flickered. After about 2 hours of the wind whipping around we lost power in our home. We were left alone in with no power, no radio, and means of communication (phone network dropped). Overall 2.7 million people in New Jersey lost power that night.
Over the next few days I was able to get a weak signal and catch a gander at the pictures in this article.
The night of the storm at about 3-4 a.m. my mothers house and my sisters house took on water and they had to evacuate via boat as seen in the first picture. My sister Christie, god bless her huge heart she is always giving, assisted in my mothers evacuation. My second sister Tonia and her husband “The Duzinator” were evacuated via a military truck along with her neighbors out of a second story window. My brother Josh, who lived about a block from Tonia, was within inches of taking on water to his home.
When I was near the Mantaloking Bridge which is now destroyed, the place is unrecognizable. People all across the Jersey Shore that live close to the water have lost vehicles due to the salt water storm surge being so high. Their lifelong gathered belongings that were in their homes now tossed to the curb as if they were nothing, destroy by the salt water. Its all garbage now.
Hurricane Sandy destroyed peoples homes, took many lives, and its going to be a long haul repairing the destruction but here at the Jersey Shore we will repair, rebuild and keep moving. Its in our character. You can see the giving every single day through the community. People going out of their way to help a neighbor. Setting up their grills in their driveways waving “Free Food” signs, cooking hamburgers and hot dogs in the cold air just because they want to give. Generators being shared across communities so a whole neighborhood has power. Trees being cleared. Power companies traveled from all over the country to do the work of our local sub-standard power company JCP&L repairing power lines. There are so many examples of generosity in the community now it would take forever to name them all in this article.
The best resources of news during this whole mess has been New Jersey 101.5 Radio. They have lead the curve in providing a reliable point of contact for residents of New Jersey to coordinate with each other. Most importantly this radio station provided a voice that the community could broadcast across the airwaves without any dis-information from corporations or government.