WRITING CULTURE 2012: Film, Food & Beyond

Source: Sherri Liberman
Area: Ditmas Park

The after math of Hurricane Sandy struck a cord with me even though I was not affected as much as others. It struck a cord because after leaving my house– after being trapped and being unable to communicate with the outside world– I got beaned in the head with all of the destruction. It was like coming out of a shock and finally waking up to reality. Watching the houses cracked in half on the news as well as the many homeless people in shelters and the people without electricity or heat weeks after the storm, really made me see that Sandy was catastrophic for New York City. My coworkers were affected by it and as I listened to their stories I began to understand the damage the hurricane caused.

Roxmin Lopez, a mother of two, parked her car near the FDR drive and found her car a few blocks away.  “My husband tried to look for the car and found it floating blocks away from where he left it. The insurance company says they will give us the book price so now we’re just waiting.” Lopez says that her car was flooded and completely irreparable. She was not the only one who lost her car, another coworker Barbara Suggs also lost her car and as a Coney Island resident, still has no light or heat.

Yet, residents were not the only ones affected. Leslie Dungee the director of the Lower East Side girls club can no longer bake cookies due to flooding. When asked why she could not bake at home she said that she needs a licensed kitchen in order to sell the goods in the Essex Street Market.  There are many stories like these just in my neighborhood and is sobering how mother nature could one day seem so beautiful and miraculous and the next it could come crashing down on your head and swallow you up.