I made it through the storm with power in tact. (Lost it later due to wiring issues, but that's all better now.)
Obviously not everyone was so lucky. My family members all have their power back now (as of Friday) but in the nature of storms and other natural disasters they were right next some areas that are devastated. I rode out hurricane Bob in Stonington, Connecticut. We had spent the night before, helping people move floating docks and such to safer harbors. My grandfather was alive, but ailing, so the power outage which froze his adjustable bed in an upright position, was a little trying. But we were lucky then, and while trees and boats and water damage affected a lot of neighbors, Rhode Island took the brunt of that one. But Sandy made up in size what some said she lacked in power.
So, there's stuff. Stuff everywhere, water logged or tree damaged or fire damaged. And it'll be like this for a while. A local friend had a tree, probably storm loosened crash into their house Friday. Water has not receded everywhere. And water damage plus power outages bring their own challenges. The Stonington Free Library, where I read so, so many of their books, has a tree on it.
I made use of the internet to peruse the Stonington-Mystic Patch - which deserves kudos for helping me stay updated virtually with things in my family's corner of Connecticut, as did the New London Day and the Westerly Sun. The Patch has this lovely compendium of nice things people did to help each other out, including the folks who helped the Mystic book store get all their books moved to the second floor, while they cleaned up the water damage.
I love this tumblr (totally SFW, by the way, unless your current connection frowns on tumblr) with messages from Katrina survivors to Sandy survivors.
Also, if you want to help, you have likely been bombarded with suggestions. To add to that, Donors Choose has some Sandy-affected classroom projects.
And, as the lessons of Katrina and other hurricanes have taught us, recovery is a long, long process, but it does happen in many small ways.
Rants About New (and old) Things
