Story by Emily Weisz
Photos Courtesy of Bianca Newman
 
While we may be thousands of miles away from the East Coast, Hurricane Sandy still has its affects on students on campus. Junior Bianca Newman knew this all too well.
 
 
 
 
Where are you from?
I am from Princeton, New Jersey which about an hour and a half from NYC and 1 hour away from Philadelphia. I am also 10 minutes away from the Princeton University Campus.
Does your family still live there?
Yes, my family still lives in New Jersey while I am attending the U of O.
How long has your family lived there?
14 years.
When did you first hear about the Hurricane?
I first heard about the hurricane online while looking at the weather and from common articles found on Yahoo. However, the first time I was really impacted by the news and aware of how severe it was going to be was when I received picture messages from my younger sister of the completely empty food shelves in several different grocery stores back home.
How was your family affected by the Hurricane?
First of all, they lost power for at least a week and on the first day of the storm tried visiting a local hotel that still had power. However, their power soon went out as well and it took them almost an hour to get home because of flooding, fallen trees, and bad road conditions when it would normally take five minutes.
Large trees had also fallen across major highways causing my family to not be able to drive to my house. They had to park on the side of the road and walk the rest of the way. We also had trees fall up against my home but luckily they did not do any damage.
The second day my parents were lucky enough to be able to stay with my aunt in Pennsylvania, which is a two hour drive. This obviously meant my parents needed gas, but since gas was so hard to get it took almost three hours of waiting in long lines and traffic to finally get it. My family also has a shore house that had the whole bottom level flooded. It needs huge repairs but the most important part out of all of this is that they stayed safe.
Did it affect your parents work/sibling school?
Yes, my sister is in the eighth grade and was out of school for at least ten days because they couldn’t get the power back on and get the roads completely clear. My parents were lucky enough to be able to work from home and they did not return back to work until five days after the storm.
How were you affected here in Oregon?
I was affected by the Hurricane because it caused a lot of worrying and stress about my family. It’s impossible to really know what is going on simply from the news so I kept in contact with them as much as possible but sometimes the time difference caused problems reaching them when I really needed to.
Was any of your extended family affected?
My grandma also lives in New Jersey and she was affected by it in the same way my family was such as road conditions, loss of power, and no ability to get gas. My aunt who took my family in was still affected because it changed her normal plans before the storm happened.
What has been happening since the Hurricane?
Since the hurricane they have been busy trying to fix up the streets, get power back to everyone in their homes, and more importantly help the people who lost everything because of the storm—specifically people who live close to the shore and lost everything because they are located so close to the water.
Do you think it’s important that the students here know of the effects of Hurricane Sandy on the East Coast?
Yes, I think that it is very important for college students to be aware of what is going on in the world and be aware of natural disasters that are occurring on the other side of the country. It is also nice that so many of my friends at the U of O were informed and went out of their way to ask me how my family was doing and check in, which is a nice thing to do for any friend or classmate when something like this is occurring.
Anything else?
Even through everything that happened from the storm I am just so grateful that my family was safe throughout the entire Hurricane. I am so fortunate to have friends and family on the West Coast who really went out of their way to make sure everything was alright with my family and helped me emotionally get through Hurricane Sandy.

Gallery • 3 Photos

Ties to Sandy