I have to admit that I took Hurricane Sandy for granted.
There was almost an expectation of the coming storm as you were hoping to have
a three day weekend. Watching the 24 hour coverage of the red swirl as the meteorologist
described the storm making its way up the east coast made me get prepared. Yet instead
of making sure that we were stocked on basic necessities such as water and
batteries, my preparedness came in the form of wondering what movies to watch
and what sugary delights to bake in the oven. I even took my dog down by the
Hudson River so I could see for myself the waves crashing on the shore as ships
in the distance started to hunker down. Of course in this day and age
everything we witness has to be filmed on our camera phone of which I was
guilty of. Ironically the only one who had sense that day was my dog who gave
me the look as if to say, “You seriously putting us in harm’s way to post
something on Facebook?” As the wind picked up and my dog’s eye got wider, I got
the point and made my way to shelter.
Then the storm came.
Living uptown, except for the wind,
it didn’t feel like there was a storm. Maybe because we were so entranced with
watching the marathon session of Dexter that we were oblivious to what was
going on outside. The most exciting part of the storm in our area was two trees
that fell. One landed almost on top of a friend’s car and the other tree landed
in the park that flattened two benches. Surrounding the tree were smiling
couples holding their lattes as they took pictures of themselves next to the
uprooted bark. At that moment it was all fun and games. Then the true effect of
the storm started to come in.
The hope we
didn’t have to go to work came true but at the expense of the transportation
system which was crippled in New York City. To put this in perspective, most
people in the city don’t own cars as there’s a heavy reliance on the subway and
buses that bring people to wherever they need to go. This includes those who
are HIV positive. In addition many homes and business especially in the outer
boroughs were either destroyed or heavily damaged and had no power. Within the
city many agencies that provided services to HIV clients were unable to open
for business as they also had no power or received extensive water damage.
Stories are
coming in of HIV clients who live in the Bronx walking for miles to parts of
Manhattan to get the basics such as food and water, something that others like
myself took for granted. Some agencies like GMHC tried to open on a limited
basis as they had staff that couldn’t make it in with the lack of
transportation or experiencing outages within the building. As one HIV agency
puts it, they opened for a day and saw around 30 people, when they opened two
days later it had doubled to 60. Here at GMAD clients not only had difficulties
making it here to the agency but since the storm came the phones have been down
and remain down leaving clients with limited ability to contact their mental
health therapist or seek support in the HIV group they attended. Those who
struggle with isolation are isolated from those who can help.
Sandy had
come-a-calling and she left reminders that she was here. Although it’s been a
week since her visit the devastation of her visit is a daily reminder for many.
I won’t say any one group was affected more than others but looking at those
who are HIV and who falls in a low economic bracket you get a sense of the
reality of what happened. Food and shelter remains something that is difficult
to attain for many. Even in areas not hard hit by water, there are many
buildings that have no heat as the weather starts to take a dip. Ali Forney, an
agency that serviced homeless LGBT youth saw their space become uninhabitable
and the haven where youth could find shelter, food and showers is no longer
available. Then there’s simple the stress of it all. As people are still trying
to get things back to normal they have the added burden of maintaining their
health.
After
personally seeing the effect of Sandy I no longer take her for granted. The
little inconvenience of standing on a crowded subway train that is finally
working pales to what others are going through. As the more heavily damaged
areas are getting the media coverage little is said of the men and women who
depend on certain HIV related services. In this world of short attention span
and with the elections now over we can’t simply move on and forget. But using
the example of HIV members who walked from the Bronx to Manhattan it shows the
reliance and undeterred spirit of not letting this storm stand in the way of
their health and needs.
I believe
for those who are fortunate we can show the same. We can show this by
contacting agencies that service the HIV community and ask what we can do. We can
donate food, clothes, and our time to help bring back some normalcy. And this
is the perfect time to check on our neighbors and friends and especially those
who are HIV positive and perhaps offer a place where they can store and take
their HIV medication until their housing which was affected by the storm, is resolved.
Or as the days get shorter we can offer a candlelight of care and compassion to
help illuminate that someone cares. The simplest thing we can do is take
someone out for coffee and let them know you are there.
As the
saying goes when it comes to HIV we’re all affected. Hurricane Sandy has shown
that we can’t take things for granted, whether it’s the services we depend on,
the support systems we rely on or the people in our lives. By us reaching out
we can help those help others. Let’s show Sandy who’s boss!
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