It’s been a week since Hurricane Sandy hit New Jersey and its devastating results are still showing. Thankfully for me, I only lost power on Monday and Tuesday. Unfortunately, I had to throw away about $100 worth of food since I had lost power overnight on Monday and got advice about what to toss from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. No real damage happen happened to me, although people I know weren’t so lucky.

For starters, my sister-in-law had a tree fall on top of her Honda CR-V, making it a total loss. Even though she lives in Poughkeepsie, the car was on Long Island at her parents’ house where a tree also fell onto their brand-new Chevy Equinox. Although New Jersey is in the new, Hurricane Sandy also hit Long Island and New York City harshly.

As you may or may not know, I work in Eatontown, which is five minutes from Asbury Park and other neighboring towns that are pretty much in ruins. I’m really happy about the overwhelming positivity coming from the community with people supporting one another and making sure life gets back to normal as soon as possible. One of my coworkers, Steve Murphy, wrote in a positive tone about his experience with Hurricane Sandy and that everyone should move forward instead of dwelling on the damage.

My girlfriend has been a New Jersey resident all of her life and knows a lot more people that have a storied history with the area than I do. One girl she knew from camp made the news. More accurately, her home did because of the literal devastation that stood as a result of Hurricane Sandy. It was as if a giant chainsaw cut the house down the middle. The Patch has written a more comprehensive piece about this story than I can tell you since I don’t know the person.

Another result of Hurricane Sandy was the new gas rationing policy out in certain counties in New Jersey, including mine, where drivers with license plates ending in odd numbers get gas on odd-numbered days and even ones on even-numbered days. Yesterday, I went to Costco and waited a half hour to forty-five minutes for gas. This was at 5:30 am before the ration went into effect. I haven’t tried to refuel since this started, but I’ve heard on social media sites that this greatly reduced the line.

There’s one more thing I want to say before I put the hurricane to rest. I feel that Hurricane Sandy has been more vocalized than any other hurricane, including Irene, due to the popularity of social media. I’ve read about rants posted by people complaining about the government, the damage the storm caused and even those people who are ranting about how dumb the people complaining about the storm are when there’s much more devastation because of the storm.

People talk too much on social media about every topic to the point where I don’t check in as often just to avoid people ranting. Everybody had a different degree of damage and inconvenience and no one person can judge how another one feels, whether it’s the power being out or having lost irreplaceable possession and memories. It’s hard to see somebody complaining about life when you feel like yours is worse, but the reality is that most everybody has been inconvenienced and/or harmed by the storm in one form or another.

I feel like we have to stop harping on Hurricane Sandy and start the effort of moving forward with getting life back to normal. It’s time to try to start rebuilding and everybody is volunteering and making an effort to ensure that everybody can as much as possible, although nothing can bring back people’s homes.

I also used no photos since I didn’t want to showcase other people’s plight.