Hurricane Sandy, also known as Frankenstorm as it’s hitting so close to Halloween, hit the ground with a vengeance Monday using New Jersey as its landing pad. The 1300 mile wide vortex of furious wind wreaked havoc all along the Eastern Seaboard while churning up the Coast, even before it landed in NJ. I believe NC was the first, hardest-hit area, with the Outer Banks getting beaten up very badly. The wind from this devastating storm sent walls of water crashing over the islands, filling roads with sand and destroying houses. Sandy continued to gather steam as she meandered up the East Coast, finally deciding that NJ is she wanted to step onto solid ground. Because of the extreme wind force and size of the hurricane, plus the full moon present at high tide, NJ,New York, Ocean City (MD), and Rehoboth Beach (DE) didn’t stand a chance. Of course, there are many many many other towns devastated by this phenomenon, but those are the places mostly covered by the news. Thankfully, up here in Bangor, Maine, we didn’t get too much more than some really strong winds, lots of rain, and a few very loud, sustained thunder storms today. The magnitude of this storm across the Eastern Seaboard and into the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes is staggering. Once it made landfall, it hit with another storm brewing up snow in West Virginia, western Maryland, and that area. No wonder they dubbed it “Frankenstorm”. Manhattan/Long Island was flooded. Not just with a little bit of water, but gushes and gushes of water in the subway tubes, sewer tunnels, etc. Over 80 houses in one neighborhood were burned to the ground in a Queens neighborhood; the fire fighters couldn’t get there fast enough because of the severe weather and flooding. The New York Stock Exhange will re-open on Tuesday morning, after two days of being closed due to weather. A huge swath of New York City is in darkness because of power being out. Over a million people a day ride the subway system in NY and NJ, but they can’t go anywhere because the subway tubes are flooded. The extreme loss, extreme weather, and extreme impact are beyond comprehension. When I look at the pictures on Facebook, Fox News, or the local Bangor Daily news, it’s staggering to think that anyone survived, but because of so much advanced hype and notice about this behemoth, many towns were evacuated, or people knew to expect it and were prepared. However, the long-term effects of this will be yet to be seen. Next Tuesday is the election to vote out the worst, most evil, most non-patriotic president (Obama) this wonderful Country has ever had…..if many places still don’t have power, will those people be able to vote? If people are still just getting over the shock of their destroyed houses, neighborhoods, and lives, will they even be interested in voting? What will be the economic impact of so many destroyed businesses? Or, how about the economic strain of trying to put back together the infrastructure of such an important city as New York? Not to mention the dozens and dozens of smaller, yet just as important, devastated towns. It’s beyond my scope of imagination or thought as to what impact all this will have. Just to look at the rampant destruction is bad enough. It’s like my mind simply ceases to take in the “horrendous-ness” of it all because it’s too much. It’s one thing to see whole towns destroyed by one hurricane, within one state, limited to one area. That’s heart-breakingly sad. Hurricane Katrina was horrible horrible horrible with its destruction……then the levees broke in New Orleans and that was amazingly sad. This Hurricane Sandy was frightening because it not only destroyed homes, lives, and beaches, but it was, I believe, the biggest on record at over 1,300 miles AND it collided with a blizzard, AND it caused one of the world-important cities to shut down, AND it has had a ripple-effect with train and plane cancellations. As I was watching it unfold on Fox News, I honestly didn’t even know how to form a prayer of help. It’s just that enormous. It’s one of those times when you have to trust that God knows what the heart needs to say, but the words can’t make it to your mouth because your brain can’t process all the facts. It’s breath-takingly horrible.

However, through it all, our wonderful, amazing military was still guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arlington National Cemetery. I am truly humbled by their selfless dedication.