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Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

Living through Hurricane Sandy as she came ashore -- Scariest moments of my life as monster storm hit

Posted on Monday, October 29, 2012 at 11:06 PM

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Hurricane Sandy - Waves hitting shore at Long Island Sound

PHOTOS - Hurricane Sandy hits New York - Super storm causes destruction and flooding - slideshow

In my 33 years in America I have never experienced anything like the last 24 hours. When the news of Hurricane Sandy first broke I thought I’d seen all of this before, having lived through a series of tropical storms and near hurricanes.

But Sandy was different.

I have never seen such decimation in my neighborhood in Long Island. In my own back garden a huge tree came crashing down. The only warning was a loud crashing sound before it fell. The roads around my house are completely impassable. My brother-in-law took three hours to negotiate three miles in a desperate effort to get to his home.

We have been in pitch blackness since six o’clock at the dreaded moment when the lights went out and the television signal faded to a small white dot. Up and down the neighborhood it seems like a satanic monster has flicked a switch and darkness descended.

Then came the wind. A familiar sound at first, then more like a freight car on a train rattling through the empty streets, bending the trees, breaking many of them, and sending my neighbor's lawn furniture spinning through the air.

There are few times when I have been as frightened, especially when the tallest tree in my block, which was right in my neighbor’s yard, seemed to bend half way and look certain to break with one particularly fierce gust of wind.

If this was only a hurricane one category I can only imagine what a four or five like Hurricane Katrina must have sounded like. It is the stuff of sheer nightmares and terror and yet I know we have been very lucky.

People tell me the scenes from Battery Park City are horrendous and at least five people are already confirmed dead. Who knows how many more will perish.

In Rockaway Beach, one of the most Irish neighborhoods in America, the devastation has been compared to New Orleans, after Katrina. I will probably know some of those people whose homes have been flooded and lives have been changed by this storm.

I have lived through earthquakes and twisters but never through a hurricane and it is surely the scariest experience of my life. The sheer power and scope makes you realize how little we can shape the forces of nature when they decide to descend upon us.

For all those left homeless, for all those left scared and frightened, there is an enormous lesson from this hurricane – mother nature will do what she wants, when she wants, and our modern world can only bow before it.

Now, as I look out my window, the worst of the storm has passed and I see our forlorn neighbors begin to pick up their lives again I realize the miracle of life more than ever, like after 9/11.

In Samuel Beckett’s words, “I can’t go on, I must go on”. And indeed we must.

PHOTOS - Hurricane Sandy hits New York - Super storm causes destruction and flooding - slideshow

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EphraimKibbey | Nov 01, 2012, 01:49 AM EDT

wulfranoruizsai - So, if NYC was the target, why was New Jersey the center of the distruction? The Maplethorpe exhibit, with similar stuff, went to many US cities that were never hit by storms or other disasters. (Although it WAS banned here in Cincinnati!) How come? Please be careful about blaming everything on God, He/She might not appreciate it.

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like2tweet | Oct 31, 2012, 03:23 AM EDT

Dear wulffranoruizsai and your all punishing God who sends tornados deep into the heart of the Bible Belt--is he taking revenge too? What a load of nonsense

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wulfranoruizsai | Oct 30, 2012, 11:08 PM EDT

This is what I think about this. Dear New Yorkers. I feel sad for this tragedy which has racked your piece of Earth. However, I must tell you that I felt something like this would happen to New York after reading in the NY TImes a few weeks ago that an antichristian blasphemous "art show" was held in the City. In said event a face was depicted with urine and faeces. It was then that I knew that something terrible would happen to the City. May this be a lesson to you all.

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Strongbow | Oct 30, 2012, 09:01 PM EDT

You have to be kidding us Niall. This storm was really the scariest you have been since arriving in the US? Surely it can't be. First of all it wasn't even a hurricane but a tropical storm. Any number of snow and ice storms in the last few years were much worse. Traffic was a dream. It took me 20 minutes to get to work versus 1 and a half hours. 911- that was scary. Katrina was horrendous in so many ways. Sandy- not so much. Having lived and worked in Brooklyn for 15 years, I am not about to believe the hype.

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TmcConnell | Oct 30, 2012, 01:36 PM EDT

Great report Niall. Poor old Breezy Point got the worst of Hurricane Sandy. This is especially sad since the area lost so many of its firemen residents in the World Trade Center on 9/11. And now Hurricane Sandy took many of their homes. For the rest of us all it seems like we dodged a bullet. Death toll in the general NY/NJ region is very low. I think the main reason was the excellent communication system in place to alert us to the imminent dangers and urge people not living in Zone A areas to stay home. We live in a city where our leaders actually talk to each other and to us. This might be the greatest legacy Mayor Bloomberg leaves behind him: he cleaned up years of antiquated communication systems. Of course the lesson of 9/11 was how our emergency workers did not have the resources to communicate well on that day. Which is why so many of those same Breezy Point Firemen lost their lives going up into the towers when they should have been evacuating. Even the communication system itself was buried in the towers, thanks to decisions of former Mayor Guiliani and his administration which was especially idiotic since the same tower was bombed by terrorists just a few years earlier, so just when they were most needed the Emergency systems were lost in the rubble. Strangely ironic and a bitter pill for Breezy Point families to swallow back then. And now, despite sophisticated communication systems in place, mother nature slams them again. Heartbreaking but they will rebuild. These are very stoic people. They deserve our best support.

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Silling | Oct 30, 2012, 12:22 PM EDT

The earth shows up those of value and those who are good for nothing. Jean Pierre Vernant.

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nicgearailt | Oct 30, 2012, 11:07 AM EDT

Great report of your experience..glad you and your family are ok. you have been challenged this year in ways you never thought possible,but ,you have survived. Do not doubt for a minute that a certain Rory keeps watch over you all. I have a theory that life is a series of events that we overcome,and makes us stronger, as we survive them. Many Blessings to you and yours.

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jamieLM | Oct 30, 2012, 10:37 AM EDT

Good to hear you're safe and I feel very badly for the the death and destruction in the East. You think a hurricane is scary. Try living through a tornado with 140 mi. hr. winds and everything is leveled - just gone. You'd better pray you can get down the basement and everything above is blown away and not collapsed down on top of you and then you still get the heavy rain after the tornado has passed over. I speak from first-hand experience. I was very lucky just to lose my car and weekend possessions while visiting a college friend when the tornado struck.

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Imelda52 | Oct 30, 2012, 09:45 AM EDT

Cuddlybuddy It did happen in Ireland 6th January, 1839 The Night of the Big Wind Beatrice Coogan wrote a book about it. She was the mother of Tim Pat. I was thinking about The Night of the Big Wind last night here in NH as the winds were howling outside, like a Banshee she was. Luckily we only lost electricity in our house for three hours, but it was still scary felt at one point that the house was going to lift off it's foundations and take me back to the green fields back home. I'm getting out of here. Earthquake a few weeks ago in NH via Maine, Last October almost to the day another huge storm. And then 1st June, 2011 a Tornado watch which almost wiped out Springfield MA. If Enda asks tell him I'm on my way home

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seamus60 | Oct 30, 2012, 09:35 AM EDT

Cuddly. we get a few inch`s of snow and we grind to a halt. America moves on no matter what but this sounds like something that can`t be gauged or dealt with till its passed. A true journey into the unknown.

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cuddlybuddly | Oct 30, 2012, 09:26 AM EDT

Imagine that hitting Ireland? My God, it's too terrifying to even think of.At least in America they can move upstate.. we'd be decimated with water...are these indeed the beginnings of the End Times for some?

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seamus60 | Oct 30, 2012, 09:24 AM EDT

Thoughts are with all those who are in the path of this wild animal. Stay safe.

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LiveTrad | Oct 30, 2012, 09:22 AM EDT

Great description of what sounds like an awful experience. Stay safe.

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carollover | Oct 30, 2012, 09:21 AM EDT

Lots of prayers and good thoughts to you, Debbie and all at Irish Voice Niall.

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paulpaulpaul | Oct 30, 2012, 04:36 AM EDT

Sounds deadly, Niall. Nature once again skips the formalities. Hope everyone remains in safely and can get their lives back on track asap. Best Wishes.

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