Needing Help and Not Alone – Hurricane Sandy
One piece of advice I might give to readers is not to engage in heavy yardwork at home while preparing for a major storm or hurricane. It could be that or it could simply be what one person said to me which is that I am “just a klutz.” In any event, as Hurricane Sandy was approaching I stood at my back patio with a leaf blower in hand prepared to get rid of the leaves before the wind kicked up and managed to twist my perennially weak right ankle and then fall full force on the left, thereby breaking my left ankle.
The instructions at the hospital where they fashioned a temporary splint seemed understandable but possibly unrealistic. Do not let the left foot touch the ground, do not get it wet and, by the way, the cast cannot be removed. In a hurricane when I needed to drive home?
We weathered the storm well all things considered with only a minute or so without power and thanks not just to a fortunate turn in the direction of Sandy but also because of the brave workers with utility companies and emergency responders out there when we could not be. We certainly were more fortunate than New Jersey or New York. As I watched the footage from Long Beach Island, New Jersey, which my family visited almost every summer since I was five, with houses slammed into other houses and boats in a marina piled together like toys, I could only wonder how people are going to put all of this back together.
All of this brings me to a basic point that I have believed all along. We cannot effect this or any major accomplishment totally and completely alone. The refrain “I built this” has to come with an equally important ending “with help which I gratefully acknowledge.” Even for things built alone, they can need help to be maintained.
Disasters, especially common disasters like Hurricane Sandy, bring out this need more so than at other times. Massive problems need large scale solutions. This made it especially good to watch the federal government, through the Federal Emergency Management Agency or FEMA, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, work together with State emergency relief agencies in states like New Jersey and New York and with local government officials and non-profits like the Red Cross. The National Guard was involved also. If one disaster hits several states, there needs to be coordination of effort.
FEMA, headed by Craig Fugate, a Republican, works with state and local agencies to help disaster victims rent temporary hoursing, repair their homes, get loans to cover small business and farm losses, and helps with cleanup of storm debris including hazardous materials. The differences in approach between the Obama Administration and the Romney Campaign on the issue of disaster relief are striking, the major point being that Romney appears to believe that emergency management should be handled by the states. Viewed in this light, the intergovernmental cooperationon on Sandy between President Obama and Republican Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey was extraordinary.
Back at home a few days before Election Day, I decided to take some of my own advice and called my friend and radio show co-host, Phil McFadden. I needed someone to get me to the doctor’s for the next step on the broken ankle. Could Home Instead recommend one of their employees to come to my house and help with that? Phil set me up and the next day I was at the doctor’s office. It showed me at least that we do not need to be elderly or feeble to need assistance from time to time.
In America, an admission that we sometimes cannot do everything is taken as weakness. That is unfortunate. We should try to do everything we can to remain independent and responsible. We should do for ourselves but recognize limitations. When a huge storm is blowing our way, to stand in its way and to resist any help is unrealistic. This is true when it comes to storms and also true of severe life experiences. “You are not alone” are the four most important words when dealing with the storms of life.
For more, listen to “50+ Planning Ahead” a weekly radio program on WCHE 1520 on every Wednesday from 4:30 pm to 5:00 pm with Janet Colliton, Colliton Law Assocs., PC, and Phil McFadden of Home Instead Senior Care.
About the Author Janet Colliton
Esquire, Colliton Law Associates, P.C. Janet Colliton has practiced law for over 38 years, 37 of them in Chester County, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. Her practice, Colliton Law Associates, PC, is limited to elder law, Medicaid, including advice, applications and appeals, and other benefits planning including Veterans benefits, life care and special needs planning, guardianships, retirement, and estate planning and administration.