Sandy - and Going Home

On October 25, I bought a plane ticket to New Jersey. Its been almost 3 years since I've been home, so this year we decided to spend Christmas with my family.

On October 29, Hurricane Sandy slammed into the Jersey Shore, destroying most of what my childhood consisted of.

Mr. V is from New Orleans, and his childhood home flooded during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He knows the power of hurricanes because he's lived it. After Katrina, he became somewhat obsessed with following and tracking large hurricanes, so we had been watching Sandy as she made her way up the east coast. Initially, neither of us thought that the damage was going to be as extreme as it was. But as Sandy got closer and closer to the Jersey Shore, we began to worry about my grandparents. Their house sits no more than 15 feet away from the water. During bad thunder storms the waves in the bay have gotten so large that they splash the side of my grandparents' house. Mr. V became extremely focused on the path the storm was taking, and I started to worry myself when he started making comparisons to Katrina. He typically jokes around and makes light of huge storms. He pays attention to them, but he doesn't typically worry about them. So his Katrina comparisons began to worry me a bit.

We started following the local newscasts and realized that just about every town in the entire state, that sat on the water, was under mandatory evacuation orders. Oddly, the area my grandparents live in, never went to a mandatory evacuation. It remained voluntary to the end, and I will never understand that.

We called my grandparents and tried to convince them to evacuate. They refused. We called them again. They refused again. Mr. V tried to explain the devastation his family faced after Katrina and while that seemed to concern them a little, they still refused to leave. I'm not sure what happened the morning of the storm, or what they saw that made them change their minds, but when I woke up on the 29th, I had an email from them telling me that they were evacuating and going to a Red Cross shelter with some of their neighbors. (Don't get me started on the fact that they didn't want to be a burden on anyone, so they refused to go to my dad's house or my second cousin's house...even though both my dad and my cousins insisted that they could stay with them.)

They made the right choice. The first floor of their home flooded. Their downstairs is a complete loss. One of their cars floated across the street and is also a complete loss. They weren't able to access their neighborhood for a few days because it was under water. When they were finally allowed back, my cousins ambushed them at the house, and took them back to their house, which had no damage.

They fared better than some of their neighbors though. My grandparents lost a few windows, their air conditioner is gone (it ripped off of the house), their entire deck was ripped off and washed out to sea, a car is destroyed and the whole first floor of their house had to be gutted. But some of their neighbors lost even more. A home directly across the street from them collapsed. Some houses that also sat right on the water had the entire back ripped off of them - making everything inside the house a total loss. At least my grandparents still have their second floor.

Based on the damage their whole neighborhood got, I am still baffled as to why that area never went to mandatory evacuation orders, especially when every other neighborhood like theirs on the shore DID issue mandatory evacuations. I'm just glad that they are ok. I have to admit that while I was sitting here watching the news from back home, I started thinking of everything on the ground floor of their house that I was going to be upset about if it got destroyed. But its kind of amazing how that train of thought disappears.  Once I heard how much damage there actually was, the only thing I cared about was that they were ok. I am so beyond happy that they were smart enough to evacuate. I hate to think of the idea of them in that house, while it was flooding.

The bad news is that they aren't doing well mentally. They have moved out of my cousins house and are renting a house from a family friend (this friend stays in Arizona for the winter). My aunt has come down from Vermont to help them organize themselves, but they just aren't doing well. They're depressed. They want to get back into their own house. They're 86 years old and I just hope that they will live long enough to move back into their house. That probably sounds horrible to think that way but my aunt is really worried about them and so is my mom. Their mental state right now isn't doing much for their physical state.

So on October 25th I bought plane tickets looking forward to going back home. Now tomorrow, I'll be on a plane to New Jersey scared about what I am going to see when I get there. Aside from my grandparents, my uncle also suffered some loss. He owns a store on the Seaside Heights boardwalk. His store is still there, but the pier behind it collasped, and the boardwalk itself got destroyed. From what I understand, the store is salvageable, but there is a lot of damage and he probably won't re-open until the spring time - which means he's taking a big loss on profits since he is usually open 364 days a year.

In the end though, it could have been worse for my grandparents and my uncle, so I guess my family got lucky. I'm still nervous about what I am going to see tomorrow though. Also, when I planned my trip home, I planned for us to be there for Christmas, and then drive up to Quebec for a few days. We booked a winter package at a hotel in Quebec City, which is non-refundable. I'm looking forward to that part of the trip, but a huge part of me wishes I was able to cancel the Quebec part of our trip so I can spend more time with my grandparents. I guess I'll make the most of the time I do have though. I am dreading seeing what their house looks like :-(.