Hurricane Sandy: One Year Later

This time last year I was living in southern Connecticut for school with my roommate, Fernando. I knew the storm was coming and decided not to drive up to New Hampshire for my friend's wedding, since I knew I may not make it back in time for my Monday classes, which I could not miss. As it turned out, classes were cancelled for the next week not only to the lack of electricity in the city but also to the extensive water damage to our campus which was directly next to the Atlantic Ocean. Fernando’s girlfriend came to spend the weekend so she was there as well.

At first when we lost power we all hung out talking and watching movies  until each of our laptops' batteries ran out. We had a limited number of candles so we started going to bed earlier so as not to waste them. And we began to wake up in the morning with the first light. I wondered, “Was this how people lived in the days before electricity?” Normally we stay up late at night, doing our own things, with heavy use of our electronic devices. Fortunately we all had cell phones but could only charge them in our cars, but then take into consideration the resulting fuel shortage. There’s no gas to be bought for miles and miles and no one was sure when exactly more could be shipped into the area since Sandy had caused such widespread damage. Once your car ran out of gas: that’s it. So we tried to preserve our fuel as well as the battery-power of our phones.  We were basically stuck.

On the second day without power I decided to drive from my apartment on the north side of the city to my college campus which was on the south side of town. What I saw amazed me. Since none of the street lights worked people were actually courteous and considerate, stopping wherever there was a non-functioning light, and letting the person go who was already sitting there. As far as traffic is concerned, I have never seen the streets so orderly. I didn’t see anyone walking down the street on their cell phone. On every block I passed neighbors were outside talking to each other and children were outside playing together. I didn’t realize how much I missed seeing that until that day.

As the days without power went on we got restless. Most of my school books were electronic, so losing power meant I couldn’t even keep up with my reading assignments, which added to my stress. I did have non-school books that I started reading, but that could only be done during daylight hours. By the third day without power, I was distraught. It had been years since I had so much time to think with little distraction. I felt isolated. This is when I began to paint again, picking up my set of watercolors for the first time in more than five years. I had no specific plan but just let my creative juices flow. I just let myself do whatever felt right. I did a series of “storm” paintings which reflected not only Hurricane Sandy but also the invisible repercussions of the storm within me and all the changes I was witnessing around me. Looking at these paintings later, I was amazed at the results.

Maybe all of these modern distractions had been allowing me to waste my talents by giving me a false sense of importance. People obviously lived before electricity and certainly before the internet.  Even I remember those days before young people (and many older people) were constantly glued to their smart phones, tablets, etc.  I began to see not only how helpful all of these inventions were to us, but also how destructive they were to our very sense of humanity. When we are glued to our smart phones but ignoring the people who are physically with us, we are disconnected. I thought I felt isolated because I couldn’t use my electronic devices to communicate like I usually did, but hurricane Sandy made me realize those devices were allowing me to isolate myself from the people who were physically near me and I had never even realized it.

Before Hurricane Sandy it seemed to me that somewhere along the way we “lost” our ability (and the need) to connect with each other face to face, but the truth is we are still very adaptable. The problem is that we have learned to use technology to “replace” face to face interaction with other people, not seeming to realize that these interactions are the glue that holds our society together. Modern communication devices should be enhancing our relationships and ability to communicate with each other, but they become counter-productive if they are preventing us from being fully present in the time and place that we are. In the absence of our modern communication devices, we humans easily deflect right back to our old ways. We could live without these devices, just as people always have, or at the very least we could minimize our use of them. We could get to know our neighbors and our children could play together.