Coastal Residents Healing After Close Brush With Hurricane Sandy

All over the Delmarva Peninsula, people are cleaning up from the damage that Hurricane Sandy left behind. While many businesses are already open, some residents are trying to get over the personal side of living through a massive storm.

Amy Copeland lives in downtown Ocean City, Md. She chose not to evacuate during Hurricane Sandy. She says quickly regretted that decision, as almost four feet of water swelled up and trapped her in her home, knocking out power, and leaving her there in the dark, alone, for almost 24 hours.

She says the only thing she could hear other than the sharp winds and heavy rains were the occasional cries for help coming from outside.

"At that point, I was pretty scared," says Copeland. "I got in my zero degree sleeping bag and sort of pulled it over my head on my couch and just sort of hunker down for the night. People said the worst was coming — I was terrified."

Copeland did make it through the night, and has since tried to get the sounds and the images of the storm out of her head. But she says every time she closes her eyes, she's back in her apartment with water all around her.

Now, as most of the coast gets back to normal from a business perspective, many residents, like Amy Copeland, are still trying to heal from their close brush with one of the biggest natural disasters in our country's history.

And that recovery, is sometimes harder to see than the bricks and mortar kind.