Can You Imagine?

Can you imagine a storm over 1,000 miles wide?

Can you imagine a storm hovering over the place you were born and raised as it's changing the way it will look forever?

Can you imagine your home being broken and battered through 80mph winds and 20 foot floods?

Can you imagine being evacuated and hiding out in a shelter with your family not knowing what could happen to you and your left behind property?

Can you imagine coming back to your home after doing the right thing by leaving, but returning to a house that is completely unrecognizable?

Can you imagine being without power for days and possibly weeks at a time?

Can you imagine having no heat in 30 degree temperatures and not being able to make a hot meal or drink  to keep warm?

Can you imagine having a very important doctor's appointment to get to but can't even reach the office because your road is blocked and can't contact them on the phone because the phone lines and cellular service are down?

Can you imagine your home of decades and neighborhood burning to the ground and losing EVERYTHING because of a gas leak?

Can you imagine traffic lights out for miles, trees down on main roads and 2 hour wait lines for gasoline in the most densely populated area of the country?

Can you imagine a water levy breaking and water comes gushing towards you as you're in the car with your 2 and 4 year old children and they become missing?

Can you imagine being in a hospital, in labor with contractions 30 seconds apart, and the power going out?  Needing to be carefully carried on a hospital bed, in light only shining from a dim cell phone, down 9 flights of stairs and be transported to another medical facility so you can safely deliver your baby?

Can you imagine a hospital just lost power, is in complete darkness and has 20 premature babies with breathing tubes that need to be transferred to a place with power to survive?

Can you imagine a stranger with electricity building an "internet cafe" for the neighborhood to charge their cell phones and use their WIFI so they can update their concerned friends and family?

Can you imagine a community coming together to go knock on doors to make sure everyone is ok?

Can you imagine hundreds of companies giving away food and money to help the people who have lost everything?

Can you imagine the amazing service people becoming heroes to families who were stranded on their rooftops as water rushed in and filled their house to the ceilings? 

Can you imagine?

The words devastation and destruction are an understatement when it comes to Hurricane "Super Storm" Sandy.  Even if you could imagine any of these things, I'm sure you would still be in disbelief.  There are many courageous people who have lived through this, some are my family and friends.  However, there were people who were not as fortunate to live to tell about their feat and survival.  My prayers for every single one of these people have been unending since learning about this horrific storm.  I am so thankful that although we were in the direct path of the storm, it did not affect our power or heat source, but knowing there are so many still left with no heat or power and some left with nothing, makes it hard to rejoice.

I can tell you that every day, in every way, I am always thankful for what and who I have.  I encourage you to count your blessings and take a look at what you are blessed with, for it may not always be there.

I have accepted a writing challenge through BlogHer for the National Blog Posting Month of November to write a post a day.  This is my first challenge and I hope that it will keep me in the writing spirit, since I enjoy it so much.  Will you join me and the hundreds of others? :)

Here we go!