THE NEWS about Al Roker’s health has broken our souls

They watched the sky turn from gray to a bruised, violent darkness, the kind that makes you feel small and exposed. The alerts on their phones weren’t just warnings; they were ultimatums: move now, or risk everything. Parents grabbed children, neighbors banged on each other’s doors, and within minutes living rooms became makeshift bunkers as the storm roared over B.

In the shelters, exhaustion and fear mingled with a fragile sense of solidarity. Volunteers passed out blankets while phones buzzed with fragments of news: a roof torn away here, a street swallowed by water there. Outside, emergency crews pushed through fallen trees and live wires, answering calls that never seemed to stop. As the winds slowly began to ease, people stepped out to a changed landscape—shaken, but alive, clinging to the hope that this would be the worst they would ever have to endure.