The storm

My husband and I left the New Jersey coast on October 25 and drove back home to Michigan. After running a 50 mile race in Pennsylvania on October 21, we drove to New Jersey to visit my husband's uncle.

His uncle and aunt bought a house on the New Jersey coast and are in the process of rebuilding. The house was in rough shape when they bought it. They decided to gut the entire house and start fresh.. While my husband slept in the morning, I had plenty of time to read the Internet. I read about the upcoming storm Sandy. When I read about Sandy, it was still down in the Caribbean. The meteorologists were predicting that the storm would travel up the coast and hit the New Jersey/New York area. I remember saying to my husband's uncle that a hurricane was possibly heading his way. He said he knew about it and hoped it would miss them.

While in New Jersey, we visited the beach, a cemetery, the mall and saw a movie. Standing on the beach, the Atlantic Ocean had waves crashing into the beach. The day was overcast and the a bit cool. Looking at the photos I took on the beach is a little eerie now. My husband showed me some overhead shots of the area we were at after the storm, there was so much destruction. Houses ruined and destroyed. The bridge that lead us to the beach was covered in flood waters. I'm not sure how the cemetery made out, but the mall we visited just had power restored Friday. On the mall's website is a note asking people to call the specific store that they are interested in to see if they are open.

Sandy did come their way four days later. My husband's uncle and aunt were staying at their daughter and son-in-law's house, three streets over from their house. The night before leaving, we met up for dinner over at my husband's cousins house. We went down into the basement and met his young cousins. When the babysitter arrived, we all went to dinner. The basement where we were waiting was flooded by Sandy. As for his uncle and aunt's house, we haven't heard yet. When we did hear from them, they didn't have power and needed to get off the phone to save the battery. My husband plans to call this week to see how they are doing.

I'm glad my husband's family made it through the storm in one piece. With them being so close to water, I don't know if they could have done anything to stop the flood waters. They will have months of clean up and construction, but that is better then the alternative. Things can be replaced, but people can't.