Two weeks after megastorm Sandy hit New Jersey and New York head on, thousands of people are still without power and many are homeless. Also, many are dead.
In the Staten Island community of Midland Beach at least eight people drowned in their homes.
It sounds like an impossibility but the water came in fast.
Although we're unsure of the exact number of people who refused to evacuate their homes in those areas of New York City designated as Zone A, many did not leave. They had lived in their neighborhoods for x number of years (fill in the blank) and had weathered other storms.
But Sandy was different and meteorologists and newscasters spent at least ten days warning about how devastating the hurricane would be. There would be two high tides during the storm and there would be a full moon. The storm surge would be unprecedented. The storm itself was the size of the whole of Europe. Still people didn't listen.
Midland Beach was a summer community at one time. Many of the habitats were little more than shacks, like the one pictured above where a man drowned.
One man who died was paralyzed from the waist down, was legally blind and had cerebral palsy. By the time his family realized they should have gotten him out of his home in the first place, it was too late.
We don't like to entertain the thought of how terrified these people must have been. The only thing we can hope for is that this never happens again and that people listen and heed warnings.
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