By: Erica Walker
Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast on Sunday, October 28, 2012, causing about 36 deaths and making 3.1 million people lose power. Abigail Yohannes, a freshman, says that she had family members who “had to live in a hotel” due to the damage to their home. However, Virginia’s negative effects do not seem large compared to New York’s and New Jersey’s destruction.
Some students at Tuscarora did have some belongings damaged during the storm, though. George Vandelay, a senior, shared that a tree fell on top of his car. Also, junior Jacqueline Simet stated that “a tree fell on my garage,” which caused the family to put new shingles on the entire roof. Those who lost power mentioned that the power only went off for a couple minutes, and it didn’t impact them very much.
Students received the news that Loudoun County Public Schools had Monday and Tuesday off, but not the rest of the week since it was the end of the first quarter. Multiple students had quizzes and tests moved to the second quarter because of the storm. Yohannes claims, “It was annoying [that my test got moved], because I got an A on my test, but it doesn’t count for the quarter.” However, senior Kulsum Dhirani was mad. He says, “[I] thought my teacher was going to push back our test.” The teacher, however, did hand out the test, and Dhirani was unprepared.
Jordan Stevens, a senior, spent a majority of the extended weekend doing homework and writing college essays. She thought having Monday and Tuesday off was “helpful [because] I had time to get my work done.” Like Stevens, Vandelay included that “I spent a majority of my weekend doing homework.” Dhirani, however, only spent an hour on homework but was ready to turn in the work she already did.
The New York Times included an interactive map on their website in order to show the effects of Sandy on the East Coast. According to them, while places like Virginia Beach and Norfolk were flooded on Monday, a blizzard was taking place in southern Virginia that same day. About 1,000 roads were closed due to the “high tide” floods. Compared to the damage done in the upper East Coast, we got off easy.
