Superstorm has affected more than East Coast

Hurricane Sandy combined with elements of a nor’easter to morph into a superstorm of massive scale as it slammed into the East Coast. My family was glued to The Weather Channel and CNN as it barreled into the Eastern seaboard like a freight train. A monster close to 1,000 miles wide chew ed into the coastline from Norfolk, Va., to Boston, Mass., westward and beyond with a singular violence only Mother Nature can produce.

As reporters stood in the middle of it in places like Point Pleasant, N.J. Battered by high winds, horizontal rain and rising storm surge floodwater, we watched in growing disbelief. Point Pleasant? Why, we used to play on the beach there. We used to visit my grandmother who ran a motel in the nearby town of Spring Lake. I used to play desk clerk and checked in real customers to stay at the motel, while the grownups were upstairs in the apartment she and her husband lived in. From age 8 to 12, I thought this was really cool.

Now we watched it get pounded and flooded by this nightmare of historic proportions. My mother watched with great sadness as town after town she grew up in and around was hammered by the storm. My family comes from Massachusetts. We lived and played throughout much of New England before leaving there permanently in 1972. We still have family scattered throughout Massachusetts. Immediately following the storm, we tried by phone to reach them to see how they fared. But had no luck. Now thanks to the Internet we know they are all are OK.)

Sandy shut down New York City; flooded its subways, blacked out power to half the city. It affected more than 60 million people in one way or another. The storm put out the lights to more than 8 million customers in at least 17 states. A fire was fanned into an inferno that destroyed more than 80 homes in the Breezy Point neighborhood of Queens, N.Y., thanks to the massive storm. Whole highways and cities were closed. Airports and mass transit were also shut down for safety reasons. The boardwalks we used to walk on in New Jersey were ripped to pieces.

Four towns in New Jersey were submerged under 6-feet of water after a levee broke from the strain of the flooding. At least 50 people are dead. That number is sure to grow. The list of damages is sure to grow as well. The storm is still churning its way into the landscape and into infamy.

At least one Alaskan lost her life during the height of the storm. Claudine Christian was on the replica tall ship HMS Bounty when it sank off the coast of North Carolina. The U.S. Coast Guard rescued 14 of her crewmates, but the body of the ship’s captain has yet to be recovered. The ship is a full-sized replica of the original, built for the 1962 movie about its namesake “Mutiny on the Bounty” starring Marlon Brando. It has been in several movies since then.

Claudine was a graduate West Anchorage High School’s class of 1988. She was also a winner of the Miss Alaska Teenager of 1987 and Miss Alaska American Coed of 1988 beauty contests. She was only 42.

This storm was unusual in another way — snow. When Hurricane Sandy combined with that nor’easter, it brought a massive front of cold air into the mix. It absorbed it and flung out waves of heavy wet snow into West Virginia and Maryland. One town, aptly named Snowshoe, W. Va., received a whopping 2 to 3 feet of wet snow. It felled trees and power lines that overwhelmed the town and areas beyond.

As we continued to watch story after story unfolding before us on the tube it became clear very quickly that every state my family ever lived in was being hit in some way or fashion. We lived in quite a few — Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and even Ohio — got nailed.

Places of family and childhood memory were being flooded, smashed, burned up and broken up, or buried under tons of sand. Some places beaten by hundreds of fallen trees as huge trees like oaks fell on houses and power lines, smashing everything under their great weight. It was overwhelming to us all.

The sight of cars bobbing like bathtub toys in a New York City parking garage was mind-boggling. LaGuardia — an airport my mother used to fly into in the 1950s as a stewardess for Eastern Airlines on DC-3s — was under water. Its runways were flooded right up to the control tower. The sight brought tears to her eyes.

The eerie sight of lower Manhattan at night darkened by power outages brought chills to me. It was, frankly, surreal. An entire city skyline that should be lit up like a Christmas tree was now black. The events of this super storm were right out of a science fiction movie.

It will still be some time before we know a tally of the devastation Sandy left behind. If you want to donate money to help in the recovery, contact your local Red Cross or other charity that is set up for that cause.

Superstorm Sandy is now a chapter in history that left behind only death and destruction within its terrible wake. Who knows if another will rise up to batter our cities and towns affecting million of people? With the earth’s changes in climate we should prepare for more nightmares like Sandy.

We will endure and rebuild. That I do know for a fact. But it will take time, sweat and muscle to undo all she slammed down on these past few days. The rescue and recovery efforts are under way right now. Those who perform them are heroes in my mind. They have been extraordinary beyond count, from the Coast Guard to the National Guard, police and firemen to EMTs. All are to be praised; humanity at its best when things are at its worst.

We will endure the storm. We will move on into the light from the darkness Sandy brought down.

Wasilla resident Daniel D. Grota retired from the U.S. Army after more than 21 years of service.