What Sandy showed us

One of the things I find most fascinating about the news coverage of huge catastrophes is the human impact.

But it isn't necessarily the stories about how people managed to survive that strike me. It is what they were supposed to be doing if the storm didn't hit.

The story of the family of 13-day-old premie Emma — her family stuck with no way to get to the hospital she was being evacuated from and no way to contact the staff — highlights to me not only the bravery of the hospital staff, but the day-to-day drama of having a premature baby. Hearing about weddings that were supposed to happen, funerals that were disrupted, stores that closed down — even those crazy people who went out for Starbucks during the storm — they are all just fragments of people's lives.

It is the fact that every single person has an interesting story that strikes me, before and after a tragedy. How the millions of people without power are managing, how those with mental illness are coping, how each and every person's life is affected is fascinating.

Even outside of the east coast there were disruptions. If I had come home from Romania just one week later, my flight would likely have been cancelled. A wedding of someone in town will go on without east coast family members.

It isn't just in disasters that people are interesting. Everyone is interesting. Everyone has something special about them. It is a privilege my job provides that I get to hear just a fraction of them, and help them be shared with others.