First Person: Award Winning Director, Anna Wilding, Weathers Super Storm Sandy

It is not particularly easy to write about a hurricane when I just left a zone devastated by earthquakes, that being Christchurch New Zealand.  However, that is not to distract from the sheer force of Hurricane Sandy and its effect on many lives and of course the infrastructure in 15 states, in particular New York.  To date, over 100 lives have been lost, 56 of those in the United States. It’s a sad time for many.

We survived the day and night of Hurricane Sandy.  Its effect to us initially were no more than the darkening skies and strong winds of a tropical storm or winter gale force winds in the South Island of New Zealand: Noticeable and persistent, but not alarming.  As the evening wore on it was indeed frightening to go outside, even only to the front porch.  The wind speeds crept up in great gusts, throwing around everything in their midst. Great and thunderous cracks would be heard as numerous branches and large trees, maples and oaks, snapped under the power of Mother Nature. One only could hazard a guess what was happening on the coast a mere mile away, with the high tides and water surges.  Early that day, before Hurricane Sandy even approached the land, the dirty grey blue ocean was already flooding some banks and churning in large frothy yellow hued waves beyond the shore.  It was how one imaged the Atlantic Ocean to be in a storm, just that the storm hadn’t yet hit its full force.

Then it was gone.

A day later, the soothing sounds of jazz, delivered on a small transistor radio the Native American radio station, danced to the flames in the fireplace. The Shinnecock Nation Reservation, a mere 500 meters away, was fully evacuated early in the hurricane, and was later declared a National Federal Disaster Zone.  A mile away, daylight revealed flooding across giant dunes; across the main beach road and into the basements and lower floors of the mega mansions perched on the dunes.  Myriads of trees are down, power is still out 3 – 4 days later for many, us included.  However, for this particular part of Long Island this was a fairly mild result considering the havoc on the houses and infrastructure in other parts of Long Island, New York, and New Jersey.

I returned to USA a month ago from Christchurch New Zealand. I have weathered over 5000 quakes having arrived in New Zealand very shortly after the initial quakes which destroyed the town.  Literally.  I ran a charity there and made a documentary on the quakes. Several American, Australian and European companies have been working there after the quakes.

Earthquakes happen without warning.  Large earthquakes are extremely frightening, as much as a hurricane could be from the air, rather than the ground.  One does not want to be in the skies in a hurricane.  The earthquakes in Christchurch have rattled on unashamedly since first striking with force in 2010, onwards through 2011, and well into 2012.  The devastating Christchurch earthquake was pre-empted by the tragedy in Haiti, and followed by the even more devastating Japanese earthquake and tsunami.  It was lost on the international radar.

A hurricane comes with warning; the ground doesn’t shake violently, and generally a nation has more time to be more prepared, as much is as humanly possible.  Hurricanes are humanised – they even have “names” attributed to them.  I don’t think there are enough pronouns, even across several languages, to account for the succession of earthquakes and aftershocks in some regions.   However, having said all that, disasters affect people and towns just as much, but in different ways.

One needs to understand the geography of a place.  The tri-state area…that being New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, not to mention the 12 or more other states effected by this devastation, is vast.  6 million power outages in the region is larger than the entire resident NZ population of 4 million.  Americans are quietly going about cleaning up their lives and helping others where they can. Americans’ ability to remain calm is amazing.  Witnessing it in Sept 11 and again now, one can’t help but be impressed by the calmness such a huge population manages to retain.  Whereas Christchurch people were known for their stoicism, and the Japanese for their efficiency and self reliance, I think Americans may be known for their calmness in face of huge events.  Is it in part due to good leadership at the time, I think that bears thinking about?  In this case, President Obama, who put his own campaigning on hold to speak with dozens of governors and personally ensure states, towns were getting the help they needed.

Though the jury will remain out on George W. Bush and his performance as President overall, at the time of the attacks on Sept 11, he managed to hold the nation together well, in a manner that was calm and steadfast. I dread to think what the outcome may be if a Sarah Palin or some other person was in power…with their ungainly and ill thought out rhetoric.

The Americans, over 50 million affected … think about that, really think about those numbers … in Hurricane Sandy have remained calm and steadfast, quietly helping themselves and others when needed and getting on with the clean-up effort.  It has been an odd moment, as power has been lost to 6 million people, myself included, for over 3 – 4 days now…that the hurricane passed  far more quickly than expected.

When it was gone it was gone.

There were no quake aftershocks to contend with and, for the most part, water supplies have mostly been up and running. I have been surprised in the USA that there was no dedicated emergency radio frequency.  We were unable to pick up any signal for over 24 hours so knew not what was happening at all, and found out there was no real dedicated signal anyhow.

I know in the Christchurch quakes, the radio was a huge support and the only form of communication for many.  In the USA, we could barely pick up any signal.  Historically this is the biggest storm to pass through the eastern seaboard, and New York in particular, in 108 years; this was the storm of this generation.  The Christchurch earthquakes were once in a lifetime too.   We can only hope.  And the earthquakes continue on.  The hurricane has passed. Either way, both released force and devastated some communities; Mother Nature is what we must live at one with.  As I said in Buddha Wild, “To be one with nature.”

A friend remarked it was sad the coastal erosion and I saw large dunes that had disappeared completely.  Is it terrible?  Perhaps it is just different.  It is still a beautiful coastline.

The environment, the world is changing, and so too must we change and be one with it.

Anna Wilding is an award-winning filmmaker and founder of Carpe Diem Films and Kalon Skincare.

Post script: Ms. Wilding was without power for six days and after power was restored for the majority of those within the tri-state area who lost power due to Super Storm Sandy the eastern seaboard felt the brunt of an early Nor ‘easter that toppled weakened trees, telephone poles and added a significant early snowfall to the weather woes that hampering the cleanup efforts.

Article reprinted with author's permission.

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