Hurricane Sandy

Hurricane Sandy has effected millions of people through out the Northeast. I come from Rye, New York, a small town in Westchester county. While there were trees down, power outages, and buildings on the coast destroyed, it was nothing like the destruction that the areas in the heart of the storm faced. 

When my friends and I heard the news that the biggest storm we've seen in years was coming, we immediately decided to leave Bethlehem and head to my house in Rye, so that we'd be safe with my parents just in case we lost power in our sorority house. A couple of days went by, the storm came and went, and we were notified that school would be canceled for the next week. The hurricane itself felt like a regular thunder storm, and we went on with our movie marathon like nothing was even happening.

Then my best friend, Cori Bitman, got a call from her mom.

While we never lost power at my house and barely saw the effects of the hurricane, Little Silver, New Jersey, Cori's hometown, was not so lucky. As Cori spoke to her mom on the phone, her eyes filled with tears. Her life at home as she knew it was gone. 

"My summer is gone," said Cori. Her family's beach club of 27 years had been destroyed along with the one next to it where she had worked for 3 years. Her town was expected (and their expectations ended up being right) to be without power for 12 days. Two of her closest friends' homes were destroyed, and they still had nowhere to go home to by the time thanksgiving had arrived. The town of Little Silver initiated a curfew of 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. when residents had to stay indoors because the streets were that dangerous. Even her favorite dunkin donuts was flooded. Cori's friends and family are without jobs and homes. The local schools were out for weeks. Food was being distributed throughout her town for people without homes. The devastation was and still is seen everywhere. 

This is only one of the many examples of areas effected by Sandy. As media coverage on the hurricane dies down and people return to their normal everyday lives, there are still people out there in need of aid. There is still much to be done. PLEASE donate and help out Cori and many others just like her! 

#COMM30Sandy is an online class project for the Media & Society class at Lehigh University, taught by professor Jeremy Littau. You can donate to our campaign at this link, and for more information you can email Prof. Littau at jeremy.littau@lehigh.edu.