Tonight I am keenly aware of all the people who have lost so much in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. I sat up for a while last night listening to the howling wind and stinging rain. My lights flickered periodically and I expected that at any moment I would lose my electricity. I went to sleep as the storm raged outside. Around 1:15 a.m. my daughter called me from Seattle, anxious and fretful that something bad was happening to me as a result of the storm. I reassured her as best I could, noting that I still had power that illuminated the clock on my bedside table. I could still hear the sounds of the wind and rain, but quickly went back to sleep. When I woke this morning I noted that my clock was still lit and the power was still on. I rose to a relatively warm house and was able to turn on my coffee and engage in a relatively routine start to the day.
I was keenly aware of how fortunate I was to have come through the storm so easily. As I watched the various news reports throughout the day that detailed the devastation the storm wreaked I found myself struggling to be grateful to have gotten through it unscathed while literally millions of people were negatively affected by it to varying degrees. I cannot say I feel guilty that I made it through, guilt is not a useful emotion. But I am aware of the struggles and suffering of so many people in the aftermath of the hurricane. My thoughts and prayers have been with them off and on throughout the day and will be in the days to come.
I didn’t venture away from home today. Campus was closed for the second straight day, so I stayed put, only venturing outside long enough to take the dog out and to walk around picking up sticks and branches that had blown down in the storm. I also found myself working on a number of things that I hadn’t gotten to in the first few weeks since my arrival from California. I did some more unpacking and spent a little time undoing some of the preparations I’d made: I took the batteries back out of the radio and put them into the flashlight, and I began the process of using up the gallons of water I’d stored in various pots, pans, buckets, bottles and other containers I’d hastily filled with tap water in the days before the storm. (As I write this I still have a bathtub full.) It feels a little silly now to look around at all the water, and more than a little wasteful to now be pouring some of it down the drain (at the very least I need to empty the tub so I can shower in the morning…) Nonetheless, it was an important exercise in disaster preparedness, and I plan not to wait for the next climatic threat before I stock up on fresh batteries and other things I need to have around me in the event that something like Hurricane Sandy decides to show up.
I am grateful to have come through the storm without harm, and to the best of my knowledge my sisters came through it alright as well, though my oldest sister did lose power for a short time. I am still navigating my way around my new environs and am working with a new schedule, but as soon as I have it figured out I hope to find ways to give time to the community in some way. I miss my days volunteering at the Berkeley Food Pantry and hope I can find something as worthwhile that I can give my time and energy to. Seeing the impact of the disaster on people in this area and up the Coast makes me want to find ways to help as best I can. In the meantime my continued prayers and good wishes go out to all who are struggling to rebuild their lives.
