Hurricane Sandy was a super storm that struck the east coast of the United States from October 22 to the October 31 devastating millions of people. With wind that reached a top speed of 115 mph, the storm had a total of 285 deaths.

Becton teacher’s aide Mrs. Melchionne suffered the effects of Hurricane Sandy. When the storm hit, she was in East Rutherford and did not make it down to her shore house for six weeks after the storm was over.

“I was lucky that I only had damage to only the first floor and not my whole shore house,” she says.

“It made us realize how fragile we are and to worry for the future,” says Mrs. Melchionne. The way she prepared for this storm was that she bought water, food, batteries, and put her cars in safe areas. She was one of the lucky ones who only lost power in East Rutherford for only a few days.

At the peak of the storm there were over 7.5 million people left without power. Luckily when the storm subsided, that number was cut in half to only 4.8 million still left without power stretched throughout 15 states and left thousands of people left stranded without a home. There are still 22,000 people left homeless today.