Sandy, New York City, Oct 2012
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| The view north from 33rd street, taken at 7:52pm on Monday October 29, 2012 |
I'm fine. Everyone I know is safe and
sound. Some have power, some are without but all are safe.
And, I’m upset. We all are. It’s been a sad, devastating
few days. When things like this happen, you enter another world. And it’s taxing, emotionally,
to travel between the two.
I live in midtown Manhattan and I’m from midtown Manhattan. When the storm was brewing, my mom asked me to come stay with her in
the apartment where I grew up. She's in Zone C of the flood zone. Where I
currently live, about a half a mile north from her, we’re not in any flood zone.
Zone C was not being evacuated and Mayor Mike said Zone B’ers need not worry nor
leave.
Monday night, we had power; we were hunky dory. Then, I noticed two
buildings on First Avenue near the FDR drive were blacked out. I took a picture
(see above) with my Asus Tablet and tweeted it to Con Edison (our electricity provider).
They were quick to tweet back asking for specifics and details. (You can follow
my Twitter feed here). I couldn't reach them via phone or the web and then suddenly, our lights went
out. The whole area. The Met Life (Pan Am building to you native New Yorkers) and the Chrysler were still lit but we were plunged into darkness. And then I saw why: on the end of our street on First Avenue there were
white caps of waves. Waves. Here's a shot from The Atlantic of the end of my
street Monday night before the power was turned off and the surge was at his highest during high tide.
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| photo credit: Michael Heiman/Getty Images |
We lost power at approximately 8:30pm. It was probably preemptive, Con Edison had called earlier to tell us it might happen. And then it did. So we turned on our flashlights and a
battery operated radio and we heard that NYU emergency room was closed. Soon after, we went to
sleep. We were awakened by sounds of ambulances and emergency vehicles and the
rest of the night listened to the long evacuation (thankfully!) of
patients from NYU hospital across the street. You can read some of those
stories on the New Yorker , New York Times, WNBC.
Tuesday morning the sun came out, the storm had passed and
people were walking their dogs in the street, carefully avoiding downed trees
on 33rd street. A neighbor posted on my personal Facebook page that
my building had power. Mom and I walked down darkened stairs in her blacked out
building. We drove the half mile north, carefully, as power was out and street
lights downs or off. We were met by transit police guiding traffic and then by
40th streets the streetlights were back on, stores were open and
people seemed like they were out walking on a nice Sunday afternoon. We landed
at my apartment building and it was if the storm barely happened. (The city is divided, here’s a take by the New York Times article. Note: 39th street is the cut-off, not 25th street)
My apartment has power, cable, wifi, food
and elevator service. And a mom
who is still unsettled and wants to be back in her own apartment. I understand,
I couldn’t get back to my apartment fast enough.
I’ve opened my doors to friends and family
to come by for a power fix or a cookie. And today I woke up and attended to
some work tasks (article writing, speech creating and this blog post), but
really my heart’s not in it. Not yet. I want my city whole again.
*NOVEMBER 2, 2012 UPDATE: A wonderful post about how to help from friend and colleague Erin Smith of Gluten-Free Fun.*
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