Stronger than the Storm

Hurricane Sandy's First Appearance

After just a couple of months of living in a new state, Hurricane Sandy welcomed me and my family to New Jersey. It made landfall on October 29th, 2012 on the Jersey Shore as a Category 2, quickly dissipating to a tropical storm after only a few hours. However, it was still like nothing I'd ever seen, with winds as fast as 80 mph, ocean water encroaching up local beaches, and no power at home or school. My family and I decided to wait out the storm home, willing to risk a few days without electricity and potential property damage if it meant not having to drive the flooded streets and through the pouring rain to find temporary shelter elsewhere. After Sandy passed over us, news sources announced that our county wouldn't get power back for another week. We decided to take a trip to visit our family friends in New Hampshire in search of electricity and refrigerated food.

My brother and I, circa 2012

After the Storm

My family was incredibly lucky. We suffered no property damage as we lived a couple miles inland and not on the shore which experienced the most destruction. The most damage in our immediate vicinity was our neighbors' destroyed and splintered fence. The only inconvenience eight-year-old-me faced was not spending my first New Jersey Halloween in my big, new neighborhood.

However, Hurricane Sandy dealt a massive blow to the rest of Jersey. It resulted in 346,000 damaged or destroyed homes, 2 million people losing power, and 38 casualties. Closer to the coast, my elementary school's roof was partially blown off by the storm's gales. The high school across the street where my mother worked was flooded with nine feet of water and eight hundred pounds of fish. The schools didn't reopen for weeks. When we resumed classes, multiple teachers and their students had to share rooms as the entire third floor was off-limits due to construction.

Flooding outside St. Rose High School in Belmar, New Jersey

Surges of outreach sprouted after the storm with a "Sandy Day of Service" and the mantra "Stronger than the Storm" circulating the community. Although it's been over a decade since Hurricane Sandy's landfall, the storm still weighs on people's hearts. Nevertheless, New Jerseyans have managed to come back and rebuild their state into its former glory.