Ryan Glynn
Personal Narrative draft #3
Writing and Critical Inquiry
August 28, 2013
When It all Went Wrong
I was in my room at my desk attempting to study, and all of a sudden everything went dark. It was a moment of pure panic, I couldn’t tell the difference between the sound of trees falling, and parts of houses being blown around by the powerful winds. I wanted to look out the window to see the destruction that Hurricane Sandy was causing, but I was afraid to. I wasn’t sue if I should watch all the destruction happening right outside my house, or pull down my blinds and pretend that nothing was happening. I tried falling asleep but between the thunder, the wind, and the fear that a tree was going to fall on my house it was near impossible. So instead I spent my night in a candle lit room with nothing but a flashlight and a radio that barely worked, unsure of what was going to happen next.
After the most stressful night of my life, my brother and I decided to walk around and see what damage the storm caused. The second I left my house I was completely stunned. I could barely even recognize the town I grew up in all my life. Trees where tossed around like dolls, basically cutting houses in half. The streets were littered with roofs of houses, parts of cars, and street lights. I remember looking over at my neighbor crying in front of what was let of her house, trying to figure out why this happened, why us? How It was something I would see in a movie or on the news, I never thought a storm like this would hit Long Island
Although my basement was flooded, I felt as if I was on of the lucky ones. Many of the people of the people I grew up with didn’t have a house anymore and were forced to live in hotels, or with family members while they figured out what they were going to do with what remained of their home. You could tell how upset and frustrated they were just by looking at them, and this made me feel really guilty. I thought why them? Why not me?I promised my self I would try to help as many people as possible. I offered many of my friends and family a place to stay, clothes, and food. I couldn’t even imagine what it would have felt like to have lost everything over night, and so many people I know did.
After many days passed without electricity I began to go a bit crazy. I didn’t realize how much we relied on it until Sandy hit. I missed a warm shower, I missed watching TV, I missed going on my laptop, and most of all I missed my phone. The cell phone service was terrible for a couple days after the storm. It took forever just to send one text message, and it was basically impossible to make a phone call. So that made it really hard to reach out to my friends and family to see if they were okay, or if they needed help. There was only one gas station in my area that was lucky enough to have not been destroyed and have power, so as you could imagine the wait to get gas was ridiculous. What seemed like a never ending line went on for blocks, and on top of that they kept on running out of gas because of the high demand.
This went on for weeks after the storm, and it felt like help was never going to come. No one heard anything about when we would get our electricity back, and there was no sign of LIPA workers anywhere, and generators started to become useless because of the gas shortage. Supermarkets were running low on water and non perishable foods. Part of me was so angry about this, I just wanted to return to normal life, but then I remembered I still have a house and my family and friends. Things could definitely have been much worse for me. It was also really nice to know that I was surrounded by people who wanted to help, and not looters or other people that were trying to take advantage of areas that were hit hard by the storm. Everyone was so wiling to help one another, and it seemed like my town was one big family. It really did bring out the good in people, everyone was willing to give families in
