Policeman, reservist experiences Mother Nature's worst

Published Dec. 6, 2012
By Shawn J. Jones
514th Air Mobility Wing public affairs

JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURTS, N.J. -- From his hilltop post along Staten Island's southwest coast, Isac Ramos huddled in a van with fellow New York Police Department officers while Hurricane Sandy raged around him.

As rain poured from the charcoal sky and relentless wind shoved the police van from side to side, Ramos took measure of the hurricane by observing a street lamp near the water's edge.

The Raritan Bay began to rise, forcing floodwaters ashore. As hours passed, the water level crept up the 12-foot lamp pole, eventually reaching and then submerging its light. Ramos looked upon the eerie glow of the underwater lamplight for a moment before it was abruptly snuffed out.

The sunken lamp was just one of millions of lights shut off by Hurricane Sandy, and for Ramos, it was just one of many unforgettable images of the hurricane's power.

As most American's in the storm's path were hunkered down in relative safety, Ramos's duty as a police officer put him on the frontlines during its hostile assault of the New York and New Jersey coastlines.

"It's not often a cop feels helpless, but this event humbled a lot of people," said Ramos, who also serves as a Reserve senior airman with the 514th Operations Support Squadron here.

One of this team's duties during the storm was to patrol one of Staten Island's main thoroughfares. He said the driving proved particularly treacherous and they rarely exceeded 15 mph due to poor visibility.

"The rain was literally coming down sideways," he said. "It was so heavy that it was like a sheet of plastic over the window."

After sunset, the widespread power outages left the island cloaked in darkness.

Ramos said he had trouble seeing anything besides the flashing lights of other emergency vehicles.

"The only way I can describe it was that it was like something out of a movie."

The roadway was also covered with obstacles.

Full garbage bags littered the streets like little black boulders, and there were so many trees and telephone poles in the street that he said it was like driving through a serpentine.

Ramos and his team encountered some of those obstacles just as they were falling.

"We literally watched as telephone poles and trees got ripped out of the ground right in front of us," he said.

His police van also took a beating during the storm. As they remained stationary at one of their posts, the van was battered by limbs that were snapping off of trees, and the wind blew so strongly that it sounded like the van's exterior panels were compressing inward over and over again.

Despite the clatter, Ramos said there was a certain comfort caused by the rain's ceaseless rhythm.

"It's kind of strange, but the rain was actually soothing," he said.

But it was a false comfort as Ramos would learn while his team returned to the precinct building after their long shift.

"The houses in that area were completely under water," he said. "We're talking three-story houses. It was kind of sad."

Though his shift was over, he and his team still had to travel the 25 miles back to their home precinct in Harlem.

They made their way across Staten Island, but the best way home required a trip over America's longest suspension bridge. The Verrazano-Narrow Bridge, which connects Staten Island and Brooklyn, has acquired a reputation as the most dangerous bridge in New York. That reputation isn't enough to stop the 170,000 vehicles that drive across it on a typical day.

But this was no typical day. The bridge was shut down to the public during the hurricane, but emergency personnel were able to cross.

The van carrying Ramos and his fellow officers was the only vehicle on the long, lightless bridge.

"It was a scary ride."

Ramos said they would try to stay in the center lane, but the wind would push them to edge of the outside lane.

"You could feel when the wind hit, the van lifted."

Ramos would eventually make it home safe and sound.

He said he won't soon forget the powerful images of Mother Nature's strength, but he'll still be ready to answer the call for help - in his police or military uniform - the next time it comes.