There have been many times where I’ve watched a natural disaster unfold in another state or country and thought to myself how tragic it was and that I couldn’t imagine how I’d feel if it were my hometown. Well, this time it was different.
On the night of Oct. 29, 2012 my friends and I watched the news for hours in our dorm rooms at Penn State. My stomach turned as I watched the damage that was being done to my hometown of Long Island and my beloved New York City.
I had kept in touch with my family who live in Roslyn, a small town on Long Island, all day because I knew how bad the storm was becoming. By 7 p.m. they had already lost power. At around 8 p.m. I called the houseline, which was still working at the time, but didn’t get an answer. It worried me slightly but I didn’t think much of it. A few minutes later, I got a text message from my dad that read, “Tree fell on den and breakfast room.” My heart stopped. Every single terrible scenario that I could possibly think of ran through my head.
To my relief, everyone was okay. My father, mother and sister had moved into the basement long before this tree fell, because another tree had fallen in the yard and scared my parents. My dad was very calm on the phone, which was a surprise to me because I was freaking out. He said that he was walking upstairs to the kitchen to answer the phone, when I was calling, and the tree fell a few seconds later. The noise was so loud that he almost fell down my basement stairs.
I didn’t sleep a wink that night. I was tossing and turning and would call in the middle of the night, and when they didn’t answer I assumed the worst and would start crying. I was so afraid that another tree would fall or the tree lying on the house would some how start a fire. Thankfully, none of that happened and the next morning my family was okay. Workers came to house to remove the tree early in the morning. The tree was so gigantic that it needed a crane to be lifted.
My family sent me a few pictures of the tree and the house, but I had absolutely no concept of how much damage had been done until I returned home about a week and a half later. When I pulled up to my house I was honestly in disbelief. The tree had been cut up into enormous pieces and was just hanging out on my lawn. Most of the pieces of wood were at least 6 ft tall. I stood at my doorway for a few minutes and watched as the people driving by stopped and took a second to look at my lawn because it was such a spectacle.
My house was a complete mess. The things that had been in my breakfast and living room were removed and stuffed into my foyer, kitchen and side den. It looked like a tornado had come through my house. I went upstairs to find a gigantic hole in the roof of my bathroom, only covered by a blue tarp to stop the rain from coming in. the tree pushed the entire wall forward, leaving a huge crack in the tile and completely breaking what was left of the window frame. The shower was unusable and a slab of wood replaced the window of the bathroom.
My parent’s office upstairs was destroyed. Both of the windows had been boarded up and the inside of the roof was completely exposed. The tree had torn a huge hole in the roof, which was also covered by only a blue tarp. The smell of the wood and insides of the house was unbelievable. Finally, I walked into my room to find a huge tree branch still coming through the roof of my closet. It had damaged almost everything that still remained in my closet. Debris, broken shoes, shelves and torn clothes lie everywhere.
Coming home for the first time was devastating. There had been a few moments when I felt like crying, but could not find the tears. Although seeing my house this way was upsetting, I have not forgotten that my family and I are some of the lucky ones.
A house is fixable, the damage will be repaired, but for some families the suffering goes a lot further. Families everywhere have lost not only their homes, but family members as well. People on Staten Island, the Jersey Shore, etc., don’t have heat, food or a home to sleep in. Most homes with major damage were bulldozed down, sometimes without the owner’s knowledge. Seeing a hole in my roof seems surreal to me, but there are people whose homes are destroyed beyond repair.
We have no control over what tragedy natural disasters bring, but we do have control over how we react to them. These people need our help. Appreciate what you have and give back to those who have not been as lucky.
To make a quick and easy donation, please visit the American Red Cross. Anything makes a difference.