Today is the first anniversary of Superstorm Sandy hitting the Northeast. It is also the anniversary of the sinking the Bounty off Cape Hatteras on the coast of North Carolina.  Recently, survivors of the Bounty returned to the site of the sinking, on the schooner Liberty Clipper.   They cast overboard a weighted bottle containing messages from fellow survivors, past Bounty crew and loved ones in the memory of Captain Robin Walbridge and Claudene Christian, who died when the ship sank. Messages in a bottle seem an appropriate a memorial for those lost at sea.

I am not sure how or if Superstorm Sandy should be memorialized.  There have been, and will be, memorials for the more than 160 who died in the storm and for the entire communities washed away or destroyed.  That is fitting. Memorials are for discrete events. So much about Superstorm Sandy, however, is ongoing. It has not ended. There are still thousands in New York and New Jersey who were forced from their homes and still have not been able to return. There are still hundreds of damaged businesses and stores struggling to reopen. Many will stay shuttered for good.

Superstorm Sandy hit New York harbor one year after Hurricane Irene came shore.  We had friends who had just finished repairs to their homes from damage done by Irene when they were hit by the flood waters from Sandy.  My family was lucky. The flood waters came to within a few hundred feet of our house, rolling up the city streets from two directions at once before receding.  Two hurricanes in two years had me wondering whether this would be the “new normal.”

We did not have another hurricane this year, though one day before the anniversary of Sandy, England and much of Northern Europe was struck by a savage coastal storm, dubbed the St. Jude storm. The storm brought hurricane force winds and torrents of rain.  Wind gusts of 99 mph were record in Britain and at least 13 are reported to have died in the storm.

In the Pacific, Japan was battered by two strong typhoons within the last several weeks. Typhoon Wipha was the most powerful storm in a decade.

Recent studies have suggested that climate change is increasing the likelihood of severe storms. Perhaps, we are indeed facing the “new normal.”