How I Survived 10 Days with No Energy
Hurricane Sandy
In late October 2012, a category 3 Hurricane Sandy would terrorize the Caribbean up to the United States East Coast (Gibbens). It was a wide-reaching storm that at least 220 people in the Caribbean and Eastern United States alone (Gibbens).
The United States experienced country-wide outages and caused over “$70 billion in damages” (Gibbens).
Hurricane Sandy was no doubt one of the deadliest and costliest disasters in the United States history.
How Hurricane Sandy affected Me
Me and family had felt it’s effects in Queens, New York. Our home was flooded and we experienced a week and a half long power outage and low gas and heat levels.
During this week, we had trouble sleeping soundly and comfortably because of the low amount of heat in our home. We showered in the cold and brushed our teeth in the dark. We ate canned foods and non-perishables in silence.
We did homework near lit candles. We travelled to the library almost every day in order to access online resources we would otherwise have access to at home. We had to charge our phones in cafes or in the library.
I remember walking home every day during that week to a house with dark windows, and empty silence. In contrast to the brightly lit windows and busy kitchen sounds I would hear any other day, this lacked life and happiness.
Everything felt draining, and what activities we tried to do to cheer each other up were lackluster and short. It was hard to be happy in the silent, cold darkness.
Hurricane Sandy’s Effects on People Around Me
You could tell that our moods were suffering because of the lack of energy, and the overall happiness of not only us but our neighbors as well were declining.
Get Energyze’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
We greeted each other less frequently, and we generally payed less attention to each other. We were focused on ourselves instead of being as eager as we used to extending help.
We were either outside all of the time, or inside all of the time.
My home no longer felt like the lively, safe, and comfortable place it used to feel like.
I no longer felt at home. I was just living in a house.
Light at the End of the Tunnel
When power finally came back on — when our heat and gas finally went back up, you could feel the relief. You could see, physically, the stress and sadness all go away.
It took a couple of days to readjust ourselves but we finally went back to our ways and our mood improved drastically. Our neighbors also returned to their usual selves and I could finally go back home to a bright and busy house.
What’s the Takeaway?
Energy has a drastic impact to a region’s social development. My personal experience shows how the convenience and comfort of energy provided a more happier life for me that I had been taken granted before I lost it all.
In a third of the world, there are families that live much worst than I did for much longer than several days.
In those parts of the world, children come home to a darkly lit home. They work in a darkly lit home. They huddle together closely to the few sources of light that they have.
The expansion of modern energy into these areas can change lives for the better. The implementation of renewable energy can drive up social and economic development and increase the quality of life.
Citations
Gibbens, S. (2021, May 3). Hurricane Sandy Facts and information. Environment. Retrieved March 10, 2022, from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/hurricane-sandy
