Hey guys, so I'm here to talk to you today about hurricane Sandy.

Most of you know the damage and devastation Sandy brought to the East Coast of the United States recently. Since I live in New Jersey, I know exactly what happened. Some people were hit harder than others but it was all bad. So here's my experience.

Monday, October 22nd, 2012

Since I'm homeschooled I go to this thing called co-ops which is a school for homeschoolers that's only on Monday's. And because of the approaching storm it had been canceled. The day earlier I had emailed my friend David saying that co-ops was cancelled and then
I put a frowny face. He emailed me back and said "Well hey, at least it's better than driving in the middle of a hurricane." After he said that I was still bummed out about the whole thing but later I realized that he was right. At 2:02 P.M. Monday afternoon our power went out. We were expecting it to come right back on because at our house the power wires are underground and the power has only went out 2 times within the 5 years of us living there. And the power usually came back on within 20 minutes. So we just waited and waited and it turns out that we were SO wrong. The power stayed out and after about 5 hours my family decided to just sit in the living room and listen to the little short wave radio that my dad has. It was really peaceful and enjoyable. We had some cold left overs from the day before than eventually went to bed.

The power was still out when we woke up the next day so we went outside to boil some water on our grill because there's a little side burner. Which turned out to be really helpful.

The power was out for several more days and on Wednesday we went to a little Quick Check that was open down the street. It was really busy and everyone there was suffering from the same situation but some worse than others. The Quick Check was all out of everything important and only had stuff like Twinkies and Soda left.

And on Friday my youth group had been canceled. My brother went over to his friends house because they literally live 2 minutes away and they had power and water so when we dropped my brother off we took showers. After we left, we went out to get pizza. My brother stayed over at his friends house another day and we went to get pizza again. That night when we came back home the power was on. My Dad was so thankful because on Tuesday night he was going on a business trip to Las Vegas.

We had a taste of luxery because the day after my Dad left, the power went out again. I will never forget that night as long as I live. The power went out because of the little snowstorm. Which I think is kind of messed up because we only got like 3 inches of snow. But that night only us and 2 of our neighbors lost power and the street lights on the street behind us were on and they were reflecting off the little bit of snow on the ground. And every now and then transformers blew and the sky lit up green. And occasionally you could hear sirens from fire trucks near by. I don't think I will ever forget that night as long as I live. The power came back on several days later. We saw the destruction that Sandy brought on TV and were shocked. Also, my Grandma's mobile home got flooded with 2 feet of water and the floor started caving in. She lost everything. Including her wedding photo. :o( My friend lives in Keansburg right near the beach and she really got hit hard. Her house got flooded with a foot of water. My Moms friends whole first floor of their house got flooded. And as most of you may know, a roller coaster at the Seaside Heights amusement park in now in the ocean because of Sandy. And one boardwalk that I used to go to as a kid was ripped apart. I had so many memories there. Also at the amusement park in Keansburg bumper cars have been thrown out of the park and have landed blocks away by the intense winds. Amusement parks have been destroyed, houses have been flooded and abandoned. All gone because of this monster storm. There are many programs like 'Restore the Shore' that are trying to make things normal again but it will never be the same.



Sandy is over, but the event will still haunt our memories...Forever.