I spent the winter of 2012/2013 inspecting storm damage. I don't know if I can articulate how heartbreaking each day was. Get up at the crack, drive an hour, sign in at the National Guard check point, enter a disaster area, and have to pick your way through carnage for 8 hours. I did that for four months. I was able to drive home each night to a warm house, but there were families I met in tears, saying "as soon as you're done, I'm leaving these keys on the counter for the bank, so if you need to come back, just walk in." I met one elderly gentleman that lived right on the Absecon Inlet in AC, and when I arrived he was removing sand from his basement with a bucket. The entire basement and his wood shop and machines were packed with sand, 7 feet deep, and this 80 year old guy is there removing sand with a hand trowel and a bucket. Soul crushing, for sure. But he was smiling the whole time. He said he'd seen worse.
