Let’s travel back in time for a moment. On Monday, Oct. 22, one week before Hurricane Sandy ripped up the East Coast, the entire country was centered on what people thought were real problems. The US market had taken a hit on the shoulder after traders in the world stock market became discouraged by US corporate earnings. Halloween “doggy costumes” were making headlines as potentially large money makers this year; and President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney were the most talked about topic by far, having come off the third and final debate where foreign policies were overshadowed by an economy still in the toilet.

There’s nothing quite like a 900-mile storm to blow things into perspective. After Sandy, it’s blatantly obvious that it takes a literal remapping of the East Coast to divert our attention from the all too familiar political bickering our country has grown accustomed to. The unprecedented storm left millions without power. It closed the NY Stock Exchange for the first time since 9/11 and caused damage that early estimates calculated in excess of $150 billion. Worse, the storm, dubbed “the new normal” by weather experts, is blamed for killing at least 50 along its path (65 additional deaths in the Caribbean) and those numbers continue to climb.