Shayna Kleinberg How do you describe a natural disaster? Catastrophic, moving, devastating, destructive and upsetting are a few ways to begin. Visiting the shore after Hurricane Sandy I was expecting tragedy at every turn, destruction on every block and images of people crying over ruined shore houses. To my surprise, having visited the island of Atlantic City one week after the storm, there was not much damage done or problems left. The streets were covered in sand, but other than that, the shore mansions stayed in perfect condition. Longport and Margate looked next to spotless, like a rainstorm had come through and done very little damage besides moving some sand around. As I got closer to Atlantic City and the houses got smaller, the more damage I saw. Although the beach had been covered with debris and trash at one point, as I stood before the sandy shores it looks immaculate, as clear as the skies that glowed above the ground. Mounds of sand had already been piled up and the towns had been restored. However, not everything was back to normal. The entire shopping strip on Ventnor Ave in Margate was gone. All of the stores had completely evacuated their belongings and left most of it on the street. Nostalgic ice cream shops withered to nothing but a sign saying “Closed�. Even though Sandy caused a lot of problems and expenses, I have a great feeling that the store will be fully restored by the time summer rolls around. In a summer town, store owners must feel a little better knowing that there is still plenty of time to restore the shops before the summer rush comes back around. It will be a long, stressful journey and only time will tell if the towns will be the same come next summer. People are working together to clean the beach and fix the sidewalks and put the pieces back together. As I witnessed the damage done to the towns I could only be grateful of the level of damage done, for it could’ve been much, much worse. In times of natural disasters you see a great deal of fear in everyone. Words to remember from hurricane Sandy; caution, danger and fear. In the end, even though parts of the Atlantic City boardwalk were destroyed, heaping piles of trash lined the streets and many stores were completely evacuated, we can look to our neighbors and society for a helping hand and appreciate the situations that unify us as mankind, putting hand to hand to help give relief and as a community, revive a damaged town. It is in these circumstances that the good in people comes out and we can see what we are really made of.
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