I’ve avoided posting here this past month because it seems shallow to post about parties and shiny new kitchens and celebrities and funny kid anecdotes when there are people I know personally who were severely impacted by Hurricane Sandy. I want to help, but struggle to figure out how.
I feel completely ineffectual being here in South Carolina, watching the headlines disappear about the ravages left behind in Sandy’s wake. It seems like post-election all talk of victims from Hurricane Sandy are pretty much gone from the news landscape. If we were still in NJ I feel like I could load up my car with supplies and drive them to her house. I could offer a place for them to stay. I could loan them one of my cars (they lost theirs – they literally floated away).
I want to help – I can’t figure out how. I want to help in a way that will SPECIFICALLY help my friend – not just give to Red Cross or United Way and hope that most of the money will actually be used for something other than the shady “administrative costs.” Yes, my friend has insurance which will cover most of what they lost. But who knows when that will get paid out? And who knows when they’ll be able to get repairs underway to the point where they can move back home and resume a somewhat normal life? Because the last I heard a few days ago, they were not even close to getting to that point.
And so I struggle. I have stories I want to tell, fun things to post about, and yet I know they are all just shallow words that mean nothing in the long run, when a family – one of many impacted by Hurricane Sandy – is going through a really hard time right now.
I’ve written a few posts that will go live over the next few days – but know that I continue to wonder why the news has stopped giving updates, considering the amount of damage involved. But I also know that if I don’t get this post out there, I could possibly let Cootiehog go for MONTHS without an update because of the guilt I feel over not being able to directly help MB and her family right now.
