Heaving a huge sigh of relief!

I let a huge sigh of relief today early morning at 3 and thanked god for all the emotional help, i was just waiting for the call. It was a great relief when i heard my hubby from Hyderabad airport.

I felt so restless  between oct 28- november 1st when  hubby was stranded in a hotel in NYC.  Frankenstorm Sandy had brought down the powerlines of NYC  and brought life to a standstill there where the  routine life of a common man was dependant on power. It cut off all communication lines betweeen my family and my husband .  I felt helpless  since none of our friends and relatives in the US could also reach him. His office too tried to reach him to reschedule his tickets. Everyone was worried for him.  It was so unsettling, i stopped watching any news related to Sandy. I did'nt want any negative reports to affect me.

Everytime i felt some negative thoughts crowding my mind, i  looked up to God. I had only faith in god, because when you have faith you know no fear. 

Luckily, the second day, some places like Dunkin donuts were restored power. An indian family near his hotel who had come to recharge his mobile went back home to get food like vada pav and khakras .

 The hotel had stocked  non veg food( we are veggies), fruits and bread. Moreover the  hotel depended on coldstorage for its food preservation. From the third day it could provide fruits and outsourced bread. 

 I was getting restless,  It was then i decided i will google to find out when power would be restored at his place. Guess,  who came to my aid?

 A FB page dedicated to Hurricane Sandy . It gave detailed account with a key mentioning where the power crew were working, where the power was restored, where there was massive outages etc. It also showed the hotel road with a blue dot( maximum outages). And all i did between those days was sit glued in front of the site and watch for the news out there. The news on the site  sounded more authentic than the press.

                ( a smaller version of the power outage map with legends which got updated every 15 minutes)

The site got many stinkers for its slow restoration work and bouquets too. But must appreciate the way, they worked through restoring power by first prioritizing hospitals and removing live wires and solving the root problem. The crew ( the yellow hard hats in the pic)  worked through day and night. The site kept updating the news every 15 minutes and cautioned people not to step on wires or do their own tree trimming work. They patiently addressed the stinker mails.  They gave priority to sms and requests where medical aid was important. The site also was updating news on the second day that the crews of the neighbouring states were sought for help.

Having said all that and appreciating their effort. It made me wonder, why an advanced country like theirs had such a disorganized disaster management. Having known in advance that Hurricane sandy was going to strike them and it was deadlier than the previous ones,  Should'nt an advanced country be well prepared to handle the crisis better. After all, they have even faced Irene last year.  The crews were hired from the neighbouring states only after two to three days.  Today, as i post this, many friends with independant homes have not been restored power. They are back to the olden days of warming up near fireplaces. Chilly winds have begun there.

Only today i am opening newspapers to read about Nilam and Sandy. How mother nature has made us 'powerless'. Perhaps, the reason why our elders worshipped nature and did'nt play with it.

Whatever said, those days were nightmarish for us, now though it can be dubbed as "life time experience".