Watching the news reports and seeing the pictures on Facebook of the destruction left behind by hurricane Florence was probably one of the hardest things to see. Being away at college granted me the safety of not having to live through another hurricane, but it also meant watching my hometown suffer from afar. The water covering the streets where I took my high school graduation pictures. Streets I've driven down a million times drowning cars. Gas stations I've stopped at, now in shambles and possibly never to be rebuilt again. College students my age dealing with the fact that they may not make it back to school this semester.

I'm lucky that my house is okay and my family is safe. The worst for them is that they don't have a phone signal or power. Those things can be restored. However, the lives of many North Carolinians were taken and many were altered for years. I still don't know how to process it all. How do you sit idly by and watch your home turn to shambles? The places you've been to a million times and the places you grew up. The places you've made memories. How do you deal with the fact that it's been torn apart?

The worst of it all is knowing there is nothing I can do. The interstate that connects me to my home has to be rebuilt, so can't even get home if I wanted to. I can't scoop all the water from the streets. I can't make the sun evaporate the water any faster than what it is. I can't change anything that is happening and it's the hardest thing I think I have ever experienced. I can't turn back time and redirect the hurricane. Nothing can change and I have to accept it.

So how do you cope? The only thing you can do is keep in touch with your family. Know in your heart that there are people working day and night to correct the things that have been broken. Things will return to normal soon and you just have to be patient.