Where Were You the Day Sandy Hit?

Where Who would have thought that Hurricane Sandy would leave New York and New Jersey in such a devastated and helpless position? It seemed as if many people overlooked the predictions and severity of the storm. I know that I too, I was one of those people who ignored the warnings that were delivered over and over again by the weatherman. Seriously, how often are they really correct anyway? At least that is how I feel. I notice, on several different occasions, that they will forecast sunshine and when I look out the window it’s down pouring outside. Many people seemed to have had similar experiences and did not take the warnings of Sandy seriously. I did not even know about the storm until the Friday prior where I was informed by a student. He relayed that the storm was going to be severe and he did not think we were going to have school Monday. I quickly responded with, “Stop it! You are overreacting, I am sure it will not be that bad and that school will be open on Monday.” Little did I know that he was actually correct in his prediction. 

The Monday the storm hit, I spent the entire day watching the news that was already showing the immense amount of flooding that was taking place and it was not even the worst part of the storm. Not long after watching the news, I lost power. I was specifically concerned about many of my students since several of them live in Amity Harbor, Lindenhurst, and the Venice which are all prone to severe flooding. As the night progressed, I looked out the window and saw one of my neighbors Pine tree feel on top of my other neighbor’s brand new truck. Later that night, my boyfriend, best friend, her sister, and I decided to take a walk around the block to visit my other friend, Tia, who is in a vegetative state. As we walked down the street we witnessed numerous large trees down. Luckily, none of the trees that I saw landed on the houses and was happy when I saw that Tia and her family had a generator.

The following day I surveyed the house to find that only the cap (used to keep animals out) of my chimney had fallen off and that we were still without electric, hot water, or heat. Other than that my family and friends seemed to have made it out relatively unharmed and without any devastating damage. School was canceled for that week and was also closed the following Monday and Tuesday. When I finally returned to school, I spoke to several different colleagues and students who had lost their homes completely due to flooding. As a school, we set up a crisis team for students and faculty to have someone to speak to about the difficulties they are facing due to Hurricane Sandy. In addition, we also collected food, clothing, school materials, money, and any other supplies that a family might be in need of. Thankfully, none of our students were physically harmed during the hurricane. Hopefully, with returning to school, this will allow students to regain a sense of stability and normality after the storm.

As the days progress, I see that students have jumped right back in and are more focused than ever. Those who have lost their homes are being provided with different supplies and resources to help them get back on their feet. I hope this is a common theme throughout all the school districts across Long Island.

This natural disaster allowed me to put into perspective how lucky I really was. Even though I did not have power for 12 days, I was lucky enough to still have my home. Though, I will admit that having power for 12 days was not easy. Then, to have a nor’easter hit only a week later did not make the recovery any easier. Since my parents and I had no power, my boyfriend and I ate out every night, bought lots of blankets, flashlights, a DVD player, and even a generator towards the end. And to make matters worse, there was also a gas shortage. Luckily, we had bought four 5 gallon gas cans so we never had to wait on a line longer than 30 minutes. When we finally got power restored, I almost felt like Christmas! We quickly ran down the street to where the electrical company “Michel’s” was working and gave them a bottle of wine to show them how appreciative we were for all the work they had done!

Hopefully by now, everyone has their power restored and we can return to our normal lives again. In addition, I hope that everyone did okay during the storm and didn’t experience too much damage.

Here are some pictures I took the morning after the storm.

Vocabulary

1. Devastated – overwhelmed; shocked
2. Severity – to rate how badly something is damaged
3. Forecast – to predict 
4. Down Pouring – an extreme amount of rain
5. Informed – to be told something
6. Prediction – to make an educated guess
7. Immense – a large amount
8. Prone – more likely to happen
9. Vegetative State– a condition of a patient with severe brain damage who was in a coma, but progressed to a state of some awareness.
10. Surveyed – to look carefully at something 

Vocabulary Practice
  

Match the vocabulary word with the

to make an educated guess a large amount to look carefully at something overwhelmed; shocked more likely to happen a condition of a patient with severe brain damage who was in a coma, but progressed to a state of some awareness to predict to be told something an extreme amount of rain to rate how badly something is damaged

correct definition by writing down the letter next to number.

1. Prone  _____
2. Forecast  ______
3. Informed  ________
4. Prediction  ________
5. Devastated _______
6. Surveyed _________
7. Severity ______
8.  Down Pouring ______
9. Vegetative State _______
10. Immense _______

Grammar Point

A compound word is a word that is made up of two or more other words. For example, the word doorstep is made up of two words, door and step. You can find compound words throughout the blog post.

Complete the chart below to practice compound words.

Grammar Exercise

Read through the blog and list the different compound words that you come across. Once you complete the list, pick 4 compound words to complete the compound addition boxes below