Nonfiction Reading – Review and reflect

In the two articles I read Disruption From Storm May Be Felt at the Polls by Michael Copper and A Slow Return to Normal Skips the Gas Station by Elizabeth Harris, they both talk about the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and its disruptions. In the first article by Michael Cooper, it explained how some places had no place to vote since the storm either damaged or destroyed the polling buildings. It also explained how those voting buildings were being replaced by military trucks or the people were told to go to another area to vote. In the second article by Elizabeth Harris it explained how there was not enough gas to go around and how some people waited for hours to try and get gas but when they got to the front of the line there was no gas. The article also explained that gas was being reserved for first responders who needed the gas. Both of the articles talk about how Hurricane Sandy was still causing disruptions after it left.

In the article Disruption From Storm May Be Felt at the Polls the author explained how voting in some areas was going to be done a little differently than normal for some people due to storm damage. For example, “some New Jersey voters may find their hurricane damaged polling sites replaced by military truck, with-in the words of the state’s lieutenant governor, Kim Guadagno-“a well situated national guardsman and a big sign saying ‘vote here.’” After reading this the author made me think about how hard some areas got hit by the storm that some couldn’t even vote in local buildings like they normally do. Also after reading this article I realized that some people probably didn’t vote because they either didn’t have a place to or just didn’t feel like going out to vote.  

In the article A Slow Return to Normal Skips the Gas Station the author explained how gas supplies were a problem after the storm. For example, “Tony Kurasz sat in his sport utility vehicle for three hours on Saturday at an Exxon station in Bayonne, N.J.; he was six cars away from the pump when the station ran out of gas. It was his second gas line of the day. The first station ran out, too.” After reading this I thought that there should have been a plan to get gas to all the gas stations so they didn’t run out.  Also, after reading this the author made me realize that there really was a bad problem with the lack of gas because there were probably a lot of people like Tony Kurasz who couldn’t go anywhere since there was no gas.   

The articles Disruption From Storm May Be Felt at the Polls and A Slow Return to Normal Skips the Gas Station really explained the difficulties the disruptions from Hurricane Sandy caused. Also, these articles showed how voting places for some areas were changed due to severe damage. In addition, they explained how gas was running low throughout the area which was causing major problems. In all the articles changed the way I thought about the storm and made me realize that it really was a bad storm that caused a lot of problems. The articles contrast with my life because it was hard to get gas to get around the city. The articles make me wonder how long it will take to fully recover.