Reports of damage resulting from the superstorm known as Sandy are just beginning to be heard. I was at the NBAA Convention in Orlando, Florida, on Tuesday morning, and as we spoke about the state of the industry, including all of the good work that NBAA and sister organization GAMA are doing to help promote this activity we all so love and that is so crucial to the business of this country and the world, I couldn’t help but think back a decade ago to Katrina, when the might of the storm took us all by surprise. We knew that New Orleans and the Gulf Coast had been hit hard, but it wasn’t for a while that the magnitude of the damage hit home. The region has still not recovered.
I fear that Sandy, the innocuous sounding name for this nearly-thousand-mile wide storm, will live in infamy as the most damaging natural disaster in our lifetimes. While Katrina devastated New Orleans, Gulfport and the entire Gulf region, Sandy’s impact in terms of population could be greater. Our thoughts and prayers are with the people in the Northeast who are battling the storm.
In aviation terms, we are already seeing reports of damage along the Eastern Seaboard. I fear that the reports of the storm’s tolll will continue to come in until the damages in terms of lives affected and dollars eclipse anything we have seen.
Airports and airplanes can be fixed or replaced, though the cost will surely be monumental. We hold out hope that people caught in the path of this storm are safe.
Until the storm passes, rescue, recovery and rebuilding will have to wait. We collectively hold our breath and hope beyond hope for the best.
