Off Topic: Superstorm Sandy

The day of the "super storm" I decided it would be fun to give away a bunch of legendary items to people who watch my stream on twitch.tv and bill it as an end of the world fire sale because my state was going to be washed into the Atlantic.  I've been around long enough to see a fair share of hurricanes at different locations on the east coast and figured this would be the same as all the others.... aka I'd get some heavy rain, some branches would come down, I'd lose power for an afternoon... life would go on.

This one was different for a few reasons.

1. I'm a dad now.
2. The power was out for a week.
3. The temperature dropped from mid 60s to mid 30s quickly
4. Gas shortages and rationing

I have a high tolerance for cold.  My son is 4 months old and can't even tell me if he's comfortable or not (barring crying... but that could be anything).  The generator I had on order was in a warehouse that was destroyed.  Even if I had it, the full tank would last about 10 hours and the gas lines were 5 hours long.  I had no heat and no way to protect my son.  I couldn't go anywhere because I was blocked in by fallen trees and downed power lines.  Once my house was cleared, there was nowhere to go.  My family lives in a more remote area and their house was completely blocked in by a series of downed trees that looked like a zipper over the road.  They lost power and have a generator... but were cut off from the rest of the world.

So, for the first time ever, I couldn't fend for myself.  The food in my fridge was rapidly going bad.  I couldn't keep my family warm.  I couldn't tough this one out by my strength alone.  I felt helpless... and it was only a week.  It wasn't really what happened that was scary.  It was what COULD have happened and what COULD make this happen again.  I really started to wonder what the minimum incident necessary to trigger this sort of wide spread confusion, helplessness, and resource scarcity was.  Also, what could turn this from a week long event into a year long event?  The refineries weren't producing fuel, the ships couldn't get in with supplies, the roads were shut down... we were stranded.  People were losing their minds beating each other up over "cutting in line" at gas stations.

I really don't know what to say about all this, but it makes me feel like I need to take the safety of my family way more seriously even when I think everything is under control.

I really didn't know what this was going to turn into, but I wanted to say something.  Weather is the most humbling thing I've experienced... and I have seen nothing of what it can do.