Thankful

My family and I are utterly and completely blessed. Hurricane Sandy tore through the North East and she left nothing but destruction and heartbreak behind her. Being on the south shore of Long Island, we're no strangers to the threat of hurricanes. Last year's Tropical Storm Irene left neighboring towns without power for days after trees pulled down power lines and water from the bay flooded streets. We were fine last year and we were fine this year. Our power remained on. All we lost was our cable/phone/internet for 24 hours. What a blessing. The kids were able to watch DVDs and play video games on the PS3. I felt like I was on another planet, though, since I really had no contact with the outside world, since I have a sh*tty  little cell phone and service was shoddy throughout the storm anyway. I didn't NEED to use it. Thank God.

I have my parents, my father-in-law and 6 brothers and sisters here on LI. My parents and 1 sister were only blocks from a mandatory evacuation zone. (Power was being SHUT OFF to insure people left. People still remained.) Their electricity was only off from Monday afternoon until Tuesday evening. The only damage either of them sustained was a cracked window pane in my brother's old bedroom. Thank God. My 1 brother has no power because a neighbor's tree came down and ripped the power lines off his house. An electrician will have to come and fix that. The rest of us? We all have had power throughout the storm and didn't have any structural damage to our houses. Thank God.

We nervously watched trees on our property swaying with the wind gusts up to 80 mph. The one tree in our backyard is enormous and only 10 feet from our living room. It withstood the storm. A small Maple tree that bordered our property did not, but it still didn't cause too much damage. The root ball pulled up and it slid down another tree and came through our small picket fence in the front yard. Charlie managed to cut it up, lift it out through the fence and repair it so you can't even notice it was damaged. It could have fallen on the garage, but it didn't. Thank God.

The worst of it- nothing to complain about.

Other parts of Long Island, Queens, Manhattan and New Jersey suffered absolutely devastating damage. I've been watching the storm coverage and the images are just unimaginable. Long Beach, LI basically became an island with water breaching the dunes on both the bay and ocean sides. Breezy Point, Queens was not only inundated with water damage, but a fire ravaged part of the neighborhood and firefighters just couldn't get to it. Nearly 100 homes perished. Seaside Heights, NJ, a town made famous on the MTV show 'Jersey Shore,' basically washed away. The property damage is in the 10's of billions of dollars. But that's nothing. Stuff can be replaced. Things can be rebuilt. A Staten Island woman  had her 2 and 4 year old ripped from her grasp by the rushing water and just today their bodies have been found. A 28 year old police officer drowned in his basement having just helped his family get to safety. It's been reported that there are now 74 deaths in the US associated with Hurricane Sandy. This is the real tragedy.

So, I'm sitting here, in my warm home, watching NBC News, typing this post on my computer, and I'm just dumb-founded. The NYC Marathon will be running as scheduled. I totally understand the idea of "perseverance." Showing the rest of the world that we will survive and even thrive after such a catastrophe is important, but SO SOON after such an event, to me, is just insanity. Downtown Manhattan has no power. Parts of Staten Island were ravaged by flooding, as well as parts of Brooklyn and Queens. I think the only borough that wasn't effected was the Bronx. Many out of town runners can not make it in to run the race of their dreams. Many volunteers can't get there, either. The Dash To The Finish Line 5k was cancelled. I was looking forward to running it with Katie and Jen, teammates from my From Fat To Finish Line team, but I'm glad it was cancelled. The selfish reason? I'm not missing it. The Long Island Rail Road  sustained tremendous damage and for me to get into the city twice, once for packet pick-up and once for the actual race, was going to be next to impossible. The better reason for it being cancelled is that resources will be stretched so thin getting the marathon under way, at least the 5k won't be draining the system as well. I just wonder if NYRR decision, along with Mayor Bloomberg, hasn't left a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths.  I guess we'll really know whether it was really worth it or not come Sunday night. I know those people waiting for help in Staten Island do not appreciate it.