Hurricane night - Photo taken from the New York Times Building
Halloween week, Frankenstorm week…whoa! It
looks like New Yorkers have had a tough week. Halloween was great, but I will
talk about that some other time. Unfortunately, the Hurricane was bad and many
people and states are still trying to get back to their normal lives.
New York
was chaotic until Friday. The massive transit was just driving everybody
crazy. People who needed to go to work were just not able to take a cab, and the
buses were incredibly crowded with huge lines that went all the way around the
block. Not to mention the slow traffic that kept going miles and miles away.
People crossing the bridges on their own feet, which is not usual.
After Sandy destroyed many areas of New York
and other states, subways were not running. However, many businesses are starting to get back on track.
Walking through the bridge, I saw people
riding bikes and running so that they could get to work on time. In my opinion that was
the wiser thing to do, because waiting for the bus or waiting for a chance to
get an empty cab was just a waste of time. And that’s all New Yorkers don’t
have “time”.
Although I didn’t see anybody complaining
like crazy, sometimes I overheard someone cursing here and there, but I didn't see anybody making a big deal of it. It seemed that they all understood the
situation, and the federal and local government were and still are doing
everything they can to change this situation as soon as possible. Furthermore, they all
know that there are many people who are in worse situation, people who lost their
loved ones and everything else they had and that is just heartbreaking!
Since the beginning of this disaster, back
when the Hurricane was only a possibility, the government has been working very
hard to make sure everyone is safe and that is something that I really admire
about the US government and many Americans. When something like that happens, we
can see everybody going to the supermarkets to stock food, water, and
everything else they would need in case of emergency.
We, Brazilians, always thought of Americans
as very exaggerated regarding snow storms and this kind of occurrence, but now
we understand why the US is well prepared for everything that comes on its way,
and even though it was the worst hurricane to hit NY, the state is still not
completely damaged. When I mention it’s not completely damaged, I mean that the hurricane didn’t destroy every single block in the city, that there wasn't a large number
of fatal victims, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a big destruction. Because
the government works hard enough to make people understand the danger of the
situation and people educated enough to understand what can possibly happen if
they don’t take care of themselves, the city is getting back to normal sooner
than I thought.
Most of the population is aware because there is a huge warning
from the government and media. Not that the other countries are not like that,
but the difference between Brazil and the US for example, is that the US uses all the tools they have to keep the population safe and they do have all the
tools. When a disaster happens in Brazil, there is no message through cell
phone saying that you should evacuate immediately from where you are because
you are in danger, and that was one thing that impressed me very much. Friends
of mine received this kind of message on their phone.
Another example is the evacuation strategy
when flood takes place, which is very common in Brazil. Everyone who lives there knows that Sao Paolo floods every year for decades, and it never changes!
Many people don’t evacuate even though they know it’s dangerous. People are not
forced to evacuate.
In the US, workers turned off some neighborhood’s power so
that they were forced to leave their houses. In Brazil, many people die
from Flooding, which usually occurs in the same place. Although everyone knows where it will
happen and when it will happen, people still die from that disaster.
In the USA, a strong hurricane killed 30
people in the state!! 30 out of 17 million living in the disaster zone!!! (numbers are subject to change) NY government worked very hard not to have those statistics, but unfortunately
that was out of their hands. Now, in a state where millions of people are in
danger and thirty are fatal victims - I’m sorry, I know that it is terrible and
we all respect and pray for those victims and their families, but those
statistics make me respect the US public administration even more and I really
wish Brazil were the same. I love my country and I know that our people also
work very hard, and when a disaster occurs, they all get together to help each
other and do everything they can. We do have good people who are always willing
to help others, but the problem is that most of Brazilian politicians, with few
exceptions, still did not learn how to treat the population with the same
respect as Americans do.
I do respect the USA, the NY government and all
the workers for caring about the population and for working diligently to keep
them safe. It’s not easy when a hurricane hits a city, and of course many problems will come along whenever that happens, but when you see that the people you trusted your vote for, are
going to be there for you, that just makes you proud of being in America, and
that’s what makes immigrants still pursue the American Dream.
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