Hurricane Sandy

      Last Monday night, the Tri-state area got hit with a category 1 hurricance, Hurricane Sandy. As a New York City resident  I never thought in a million years we would be hit directly with a hurricane. I wish it was just a hurricane though, this was the perfect storm. 14 foot high storm surge at high tide due to the full moon, which caused massive amounts of flooding and brutal 90mph winds that broke huge trees in half like they were toothpicks.

       I live in Staten Island, and people around here, including myself, thought that this hurricane would be like last year's, Hurricane Irene. Irene was a dud, a lot of hype for a lot of nothing. However, everyone was wrong and we should've listened when every weather station feared for the worst when this storm would hit. Areas of Staten Island by water were absolutely destroyed, areas such as Midland beach, New Dorp Beach, South Beach, Cedergrove Beach and Tottenville beach. The storm surge lead to massive amounts of flooding in these areas and destroyed just about all the homes located in the region.

      Days after the storm people from Staten Island were crying out for help from the government because we are truly the forgotten borough. Staten Island has more then half of the reported deaths in the entire city and hands down the most damage, yet more focus was put on other parts of the city. It took NBC reporters going to New Dorp beach and the residents down there to cry out on TV for help. Help did come, a little less then a week later from FEMA and Red Cross.

     I went down to Cedergrove beach a few days after the storm to see the damage myself and try and help out. There were no camera's, no politicians and no bullshit. The amount of people helping out complete strangers was incredible. The group I was with went from house to house to help clean out all the damage and do some demo to help the people out who weren't getting help from the government. My group would gang up with other groups to help out then there were women going around handing out supplies to help. It was one of the better things I've been involved with in my entire life.

    Staten Island was forgotten for the first few days after the storm, with all of the national attention on Manhattan and the Jersey Shore. However, even though we cried out for help we didn't sit around mopping and waiting for the help. As a community we all rallied around each other and helped. We did need help but we have done nothing but help each other out of these last few weeks since Hurricane Sandy ravaged our area.  I am proud to call myself a Staten Islander after being apart of this recovery, and continued recovery.