The aftermath of Sandy....aka Frankenstorm

No joke, about 15-30 minutes after I posted yesterday saying I was still here but didn't have cable and internet back yet, I was staring at my cable box and realized it had stopped flashing "hold." So I thought maybe the cable and internet came back. Low and behold, it did!! Sometimes, it is the little things. You don't realize how much you use it until you're out of it for 5 days (with spotty cell service).

But Hurricane Sandy...I'm not going to lie....every time they say we are having a hurricane, I feel like the news stations make it out to be bigger than it is actually going to be. You would have thought the end of the world was coming with Irene last summer. So I wasn't even really thinking we were going to get hit with Hurricane Sandy. Or if we did, it wouldn't be that bad.

Sunday, I went to the grocery store for my mom and it was amazing what was flying off the shelves. I was suppose to go to work but my boss called me and told me to stay home. Score! Because with Hurricane Irene, I got stuck working there and was not letting that happen again. The school district I work in closed for Monday and Tuesday. I basically sat at home all day on Monday, waiting for it to hit. My restaurant job closed Monday (infact, we did not reopen until THURSDAY!). The family finished having dinner around 6:45....about a half hour later, the power went out. After that, it was praying no massive trees would fall on the house or our cars, and we would all survive.

By Tuesday morning, the storm died down. The devastation, however, was beyond belief. Landmarks that made Long Island have its name...gone. Homes, destroyed. People died. The pictures people were posting on Facebook were just unbelieveable. In all, my family lost power for 24 hours (came back on Tuesday night) and we got the cable/internet/phone back yesterday afternoon. All we lost were some tree branches (nothing too big) and a few shingles off the roof. Just down the street from me one way, the fence on the adult living community was TORN apart. Down two blocks and to the right, four houses in a row had trees uprooted and come crashing down. Down power lines all over the island. Traffic lights out. No power. It was just unbelievable. 

Who would have thought we were going to get hit so bad? Most of the school districts (if not all) stayed closed the entire week! Because of this, the one I am currently working in, is making students be in attendance on Election Day on Tuesday (normally they have off). It just saddens me to think of all the destruction and dismay that people are having to deal with. We were VERY lucky compared to others. I count my lucky stars because it could've been a lot worse.

This is just to give you an idea of how hard some areas where I live were hit:

Roof of a gas station a few towns over! 

Right in my town! Cars underwater on a street that is near the bay. 

  Homes underwater in another town, Lindenhurst.

Homes in Long Beach

Jones Beach, a summer concert venue under water. 

 Fire Island homes destroyed. 

And not for nothing..this is what the current gas situation looks like at most gas stations (people are even waiting online at 3am for gas!!!). This was in NJ but this is what it is like in NY! Seriously, scary!! I am afraid to leave my house right now to go find gas because I feel like I will be wasting what I do have left and I need to be able to get to school on Monday. I'm scared of waiting hours and running out while I am waiting!! Hopefully this will be okay by Monday. Otherwise, I'll be stuck on a line, on empty.

In reality, I am really glad that we were very lucky and spared compared to some neighboring areas on Long Island. Hopefully everyone that is still without power will get it back soon, as well as their heat! It has dropped to being really cold!!! I also really, really, really, really, really, really, REALLY hope I can get gas soon!!!!