I was 10 years old when Hurricane Sandy hit my home city of Baltimore, Maryland. I remember vividly my family all sleeping in the living room together, towels covering the floor to soak up the water that seeped into our house from unexpected places. I remember watching the storm from the dining room window and seeing a tree fall—just missing my next-door neighbor, who was outside in the storm. There were 72 direct deaths as a result of Hurricane Sandy in the Mid-Atlantic region alone.