Dear Sandy:

A love Hate letter

I have a feeling that I’m not the only person to tell you this Sandy, but you are a narcissistic, plan ruining a-hole. We were all just minding our own business, enjoying a little bit of wind and then you went and got carried away with yourself. I mean really, what has the east coast, specifically New Jersey, done to you lately. We bring everyone the best of the best – Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen, the shore, pizza, taylor ham and cheese, REAL bagels, diners, tons of animal print clothing, awesome accents and the fist pump. It seems to me that someone took the cancelling of the Jersey Shore too literally. I am a proud resident of Hoboken, New Jersey and you really screwed with us Sandy. Although I thankfully wasn't nearly as devastated as so many were, I was very much inconvenienced. Because I share a little bit of your narcissism, let me tell you how you ruined my day week.

Proof Point 1: Loss of Power aka back to the dark ages

Although quality time with roommates is always appreciated, it is much more enjoyable when you have POWER! You couldn't just go ahead and put us out of our misery and cut off the power in one painless swoop, but instead, you had to tease us. As we had been watching updates all evening, waiting to hear something about what was predicted for Hoboken; a reporter stationed in Hoboken finally comes on. But just as we were watching, at approximately 9:15pm on Monday evening, you flicked off. We thought the end had finally come; the anticipation was killing us of what might happen. But, so sweetly, it came back on just 2 minutes later. We thought we were home free; the worst had finally come and gone. But no Sandy, you had other things in store for us and just 5 minutes later you went out again…and this time, for good.

You continued to stay off for 6 whole days (and we were the lucky ones)! At first it was fun, ok not fun, but an adventure. You had wreaked havoc on our small town of Hoboken, see proof point 2¸and forced us to find old school ways of entertaining ourselves. Although the exploring was fun at first it quickly got old. Our trusty iPhone’s had no more battery and would barely get a signal (because you also very rudely screwed with the cell towers) AND we began to get very tired of the 2 large pizza pies we had purchased on Sunday as we “prepared” to ride out the storm. On top of that, they make large flat screen TV’s for a reason. And that reason is so that you don’t have to huddle around a yellow sports radio in order to find out what is going on in the rest of the world!

Sandy, you forced me to stoop to new levels. As we scavenged around our destroyed town, we did what any child of the 21^st century would do. I searched and searched for a small miracle, a power outlet. Because as any one who was born in the 80’s knows, no matter how bad things get, you ALWAYS have to find a way to charge your phone.  

One street in town had power right after the storm. This nice guy let power cords out his garage for
people to charge their phones! We spent almost 2 hours waiting for a full charge!

After finding a cord out of a garage, we walked home and found this huge charging station at the corner of our street. Verizon brought in charging trucks for people to use! Such first world problems!

Proof Point 2: Water. Apparently I didn't get the memo that a row boat was required to live in Hoboken.

Hoboken is known for not having the best drainage system. Sometimes, when it rains lightly, parts of the town get a tad bit of flooding. Sometimes an intersection will fill with water, or you have to get through a rather large puddle to get where you need to be going, but it tends to be pretty manageable. Thankfully for us, our apartment is right on the outskirts of this bad drainage and we usually remain unaffected. We were feeling pretty confident about the storm, and figured worst case, we may lose power. But no, Sandy you had other plans for us. After you rudely cut off our power for good, you then decided that we hadn't had enough fun for one evening. As we began to get restless, we decided to look out the window onto the street to see what it looked like all dark. Oh Sandy, did you have a surprise for us! What we found was a lot of commotion, car alarms going off and oh right, about 3 ½ feet of water down our ENTIRE street!!! People were outside wadding through the water, almost waist deep trying to save their cars. One couple decided that their expensive SUV was better than your powers. But Sandy, you sure proved them wrong. As they naively tried to drive their SUV down the street – where they were going I have no idea – you made sure they didn't make it far! They got stuck in the middle of the street, where there car promptly stayed for quite a few days.

These are pictures from AFTER the water went down a bit!

The dumb SUV I mentioned above. PS - I don't think that Jeep is for sale anymore!

Intersection of my street

Garage under an apartment building 

A neighbors garage

A shop a few doors down

Intersection down the street

Intersection I take to get to my best friends house. And this was 3 days later!

Down the street 3 days later

You could say there was a little bit of sewage in the streets.

Grocery store that was condemned. No idea when it will be functional!

After a few days, the water subsided, but what was left was much worse. Although you did a number on the contents of our garage, it was nothing compared to the loss that so many people experienced. Those that lived in a street level or basement apartment lost everything. As you filled their homes you took away years of memories, possessions and hard work.  You left my neighbors with nothing and forced them to start over. You shut down family run businesses, ruined cars and you ruined lives. Thankfully, after being ignored by the news outlets, our Mayor put out a rather pathetic desperate cry for help. Before long the National Guard was in town, helping people get out of their homes and FEMA arrived to help them begin to rebuild their lives.  Neighbors helped neighbors by donating items and helping them clean. We’re finally beginning to get back to normal as rebuilding has begun and streets are cleaned up. But Sandy, you sure didn't make it easy!

Contents of our garage

Neighbors house...

Across the street

Across the street again

Proof Point 3: Guess I’m moving back in with my parents…again.

If the power and water weren't bad enough, you made it so it was nearly impossible to leave Hoboken. We became our own little island and there was no way on or off. Like a little girl I called home begging my mommy to come get me. But nooooo. Without a Hoboken ID you weren't allowed into the city. Getting out was almost as tough as it was almost impossible to maneuver through the streets because of all the flooding. After three days stranded at our apartment we FINALLY made it out. My roommate Christa, her fiancé and I escaped to mommy and daddy’s house. My parents of course were very gracious hosts. They fed us, kept us warm, gave us tons of wine and good company. But no matter what, we were constantly distracted by what was going on at home. We wanted to know how our town was doing, how bad the damage really was, and how long it would be before we could return back to our apartment. It almost became surreal watching TV. The Today Show, Anderson Cooper Live and all the news stations were broadcasting from Hoboken. They gave us a glimpse of what was going on. And all that did was make us even more nervous. Thankfully Sandy, you decided to let up by Saturday and gave us power back. So, we thanked my parents, loaded up on food and supplies to donate and made the trek back to home sweet Hoboken.

My mom entertaining us with a good ole game of Mexican Train Domino's! 

Proof Point 4: Work, who wants to go to work?

Because everything else wasn't nearly enough, you decided that it would be tons of fun to make it almost impossible to get out of Hoboken. Most of the town may have begun to get power back, but that didn't mean you were going to make it easy to go anywhere! You flooded our Path station and completely destroyed it. You also flooded a good portion of our buses and destroyed a whole parking lot of cabs. Buses from around the country had to be brought in to accommodate the commuters. You made it so the only way to get into the city was via ferry (which is sooooo expensive and not convenient) or bus. The only problem with the bus is that 90% of the town was commuting on it. You know what this means Sandy? This means that the first week after the storm it took almost 2 hours each way to get to work! Thankfully I have an amazing boss who allowed me to work from home that first week. But even with that you still didn't make it easy. It has been two months of commuting hell. Two months of long lines, tons of traffic and a pain in the ass commute. But Sandy, we've finally beat you. As of yesterday, the path is up and running and before long, you’ll be a thing of the past!  

The flooded Hoboken Path Station

Yea I'd say the Path got a good amount of water

Small glimpse of what the lines looked like. This is nothing!

You may have slowed us down for a bit, but you never stopped us. I know how much you enjoy hearing about yourself, and consuming people’s lives. But this coast is coming back from the ashes, and it’s coming back with a vengeance. Because one thing you can’t do Sandy, is ruin our spirits. Don’t mess with Jersey, we’ll come back harder and better than ever because we are JERSEY STRONG! Next time we’ll be ready…so don’t say you weren't warned.

Love,

Samantha