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As Dorian is being is tracked I thought it would be a good time to reshare @njstandupspeak "Long Road Home" along with the very personal side of severe weather and climate chaos. It's my own personal story. 1/
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I'm a Jersey girl. There is no doubt about that. I'm half Portuguese but grew up in South Jersey but that's another thread. My mother is a Rhody. I spent my summers in Ocean Citu, NJ and in Narragansett, RI. My grandmother's house sat on Narrow River. 2/
I had a relationship with water- salt or fresh. But salt water was always like a dear friend; healing my body & spirit, embracing me in the warmest of hugs, daring my sense of adventure. I was always *home* of I was on the sand. My uncles taught us to fish. My grandmother 3/
taught us how to be stewards and coexist with wildlife. This was the life I wanted to pass on to my children. I remember being at my grandmother's during Hurricane Bob. She had a porch with windows big enough to overlook the river and a picture window in between the living rm 4/
and porch so even in bitter New England winters we could still be connected to the river and the marsh. It still brings tears to my eyes that we were so blessed. Just a working class, immigrant family surrounded in so much beauty. But anyway, Hurricane Bob. My dad, a burbs guy 5/
would nervously watch through the taped windows worrying about a flood as my mom laughed at him for being scared. In the end, a tree branch dented the hood of the car and we had to travel to Wakefield for gas. All in all, it was a fun experience where the cousins ran around 6/
the house. The adults drank a little, played poker and reminisced. My next hurricane wouldn't come until 2011, Irene. We lived 30 miles inland so I though we'd get some wind and rain. As an adult I got to drink and would periodically go outside to enjoying the cooling effects 7/
In the middle of the night, the fire department came to evacuate. I was mad. Why would I want to leave the comfort of my home for a little rain. Note: the majority of people who don't evacuate don't do so because of comfort. There are major barriers that need to be addressed. 8/
Anyway, we quickly left and I remember the loss of breath heading out in a large produce truck while the municipal boat came in to get the next round of residents. We lived 30 miles inland and what we came back to the next day blew my mind. 9/ 
Each day I had to take a new route to work because a levee somewhere on the mainland breached. But it was all good because hurricanes strike a place what, every 10 years or so right? In early 2012 I got my wish of bringing my child up around water. We moved to Atlantic City. 10/
While still pregnant the derecho hit. That really powerful wind storm that left portions of South Jersey without electric for up to a week depending where you were. Living near casinos gives you a false sense of security. Our electric was back on before the end of the day. 11/
You just assume that because there's billions of dollars flowing through the casinos that the residents will be taken care of. I convinced my partner to evacuate because we had an infant. He thought, like the derecho we would be protected. We came back at the end of the week 12/
extremely fortunate that the house we rented only took ok water in the basement. Most of our community was not that lucky. This was our street the day before the storm. We thought the storm would be the worst part and everyone would be home by Easter at the latest. 13/
FEMA was canvassing the following week. It took a couple weeks for us to have heat but we had electricity. We were #StrongerThanTheStorm. Over a year later some people were home. Our corner store had reopened after complete devastating. But our neighborhood was still a lot of 14/
tarp and plywood. Eventually our landlord would put the house up for sale, not being able to elevate & we had no clue how flood insurance would skyrocket, that insurance companies underpaid. My family was separated and later severed. We would be out before @njstandupspeak 15/
would come to knock on doors to talk to survivors and see how they were doing 5 years later. I often think "if only we had still been there & learned of just how many people were left behind." This was my neighbors house the year after Sandy. When NJOP canvassed it was being 16/
conditions developed or worsened. Communities will start to lose long time residents. For a long time, that dear friend, salt water I felt like she had stabbed me in the back. My daughter goes to the beach a lot with my parents but it's only been recently that I've been able 18/
to address the trauma Sandy caused me. It's only been through some deep reflection and talking to current residents in Atlantic City who are battling sunny day flooding now that I've been able to be comfortable around water again. I still panic, but I came name it now. 19/
But naming my trauma isn't the collective change needed to protect our communities from sunny day flooding or severe weather. What's sunny day flooding? It's flooding during certain tides. And it's more devastating than it looks. 20/
Photo credit: @SJClimateNews
Photo credit: @SJClimateNews
It causes mold. Homes can take on up to a foot of water. People are stranded for a few hours. Home values go down. And what the news doesn't report on is the slow migration out of communities. Lifelong & long-term residents move, changing the ecosystem of a neighborhood. 21/
Developers start to swarm and gentrification takes hold. I've been working with a woman who just lost her home because she can't afford flood insurance and the bank took it. She's 73 and has been there for 30 years. Seen my pinned tweet on the need for flood insurance reform. 22/
The NFIP-RE is one major way we can prevent the need for more #LongRoadHomes to be written. But there's more we need to do. We need to invest in renewable and clean energy like #OffshoreWind4NJ to cut carbon emissions. We need to come with regional, not just municipal plans 23/
for socially equitable and just mitigation. Some areas need to talk about community-led, managed retreat. And we need to do all this fast. She's happy because the water is part of her DNA. And what I want more than anything is to be as happy as she is near the water. But that 24/
can only happen when I know there are #NoSacrificeZones. When I can visit my 💗ld neighborhood & know residents aren't being flooded out. There are so many hundreds of thousands who have survived disaster; none of us want anyone to experience the storm or injustice after. 25/
