Sandy & Me.
Man, where to even begin with this post? I just have not been able to wrap my head around what has happened this week. Unless you've been living
under a rock, you know that the east coast was nailed with Hurricane
(sno'eastercane?) Sandy Sun-Tues. I cannot even begin to tell you what
this has been like, and I'm probably one of the luckier ones. But I'll
try anyway...
I first learned about the storm on Thursday to which I, ever the cynic, scoffed and said that if we got rain I'd be surprised. These things are ALWAYS hyped up, websites blow everything out of proportion for ad dollars, and no one knows anything that early anyway. (See, cynic). But that quickly changed Sunday when I watched Bloomberg's press conference. When that man speaks, I listen. He's the least politicking person out there, more of a businessman, and when he says jump, everyone should really say, "How High?" It isn't about right or left, democrat or republican, big government or little government... it's always about "What's Best for New Yorkers." Period. What's nice is that we've seen this from Obama and Governor Christie and Governor Cuomo too. Can't say the same for Romney, but his gaffes this week are another story.
Fortunately I'm not in any evacuation zone. My roommates and I prepared adequately in case we lost power for a few days, we secured stuff on our roof, and just sat around and watched the news. We lost internet/cable during the height of the storm (which sucked since I was in a 9 person Google+ Hangout playing the drinking card game "Kings" virtually at the time) and sat around listening to an AM radio for updates. All of our phones were fairly useless, but we could get twitter updates which was nice. Was up until about 1:30 until I just couldn't listen anymore. Going to sleep felt a little like giving up, though nothing could be done.
Woke up to cable/internet being available, surprisingly, but it's been spotty to say the least. Just to get out of the apt I went for a walk from my place in Williamsburg, Brooklyn across the Williamsburg Bridge, and into and around the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Basically did about 3-4 miles. Everything from 34th street down was without power due to quite a few explosions of transformers. The subways were all still shut down, some still heavily flooded. Major highways still closed. Tunnels still closed (and many still flooded even today, Wednesday). But the people there seemed to be in pretty great spirits though the weather was still awful and rainy. Many bars were open (cash of course) and discounting their stock since it would go bad anyway. No one wants a skunked beer...
It was surreal to walk from my area that for the most part is completely up and running to that part which is dark and people are in survival mode. My phone did not work anywhere, and I had to use a payphone to get in touch with a friend in the neighborhood. Actually - let's back that up. I had to first find quarters from a very dark bodega (glad that I had stopped at an ATM before the storm hit), and then wait in line to use a payphone. I used to say that these outdated eyesores were no longer necessary in the age of the smart phone, but I shall never say that again. However, our phones as phones not being able to work, it was eventually Twitter that we connected on, and now the Manhattan refuge is currently enjoying power and a hot shower in my apartment.
Wednesday has been an odd day. It feels like things can start getting back to normal, but I strongly feel like we'll never get back to normal. There's a new normal in the sense that the power is still out, subways are still down, phones & services are still inoperable, and it's hard to get anywhere unless you have a bike. I have a car, and yet b/c of the traffic it was impossible to get into Manhattan. As of this afternoon there's a temporary law stating that no one is allowed over the bridges without 3-4 people in a car or they'll receive a ticket. I feel more stranded than ever before. And it isn't comforting to know that there's a STRONG possibility it will take 3+ weeks to get the subway working properly.
The subways partially come back tomorrow, but nothing near me. There's an express bus going into midtown going over the Williamsburg bridge, but I can only imagine how horrendously crowded that will be and how long it will take in all that traffic. If I want to go into civilization, I'm most likely going to walk back over the bridge and see if I can catch buses on the other side. Grateful to be in Brooklyn where there's power and such, but I feel so very disconnected from friends on the other side, and the events happening there as people get through this. I've never been so painfully aware of just how physically big this city is.
I've been looking into volunteer opportunities as well. #SandyVolunteers and #OccupySandy have been great ways to keep up with things going on. I've also signed up on Recover.org and the Red Cross. No such luck yet with being able to help, but as the temperatures are expected to drop this weekend I am hoping to donate my time/car to help.
For now, and for those outside of NYC especially, just because Sandy will start to fade from your newscycle, please don't forget that recovering will likely take weeks, and that our infrastructure both of the transportation kind and of the communications kind are awful and likely to stay that way for quite some time. (See: Cell Networks Assessing Damages: No Fixes Anytime Soon & The study of NYC Subway to take 21 days to several weeks to restore).
Though that all being said, I can't imagine being anywhere else during all of this.
I first learned about the storm on Thursday to which I, ever the cynic, scoffed and said that if we got rain I'd be surprised. These things are ALWAYS hyped up, websites blow everything out of proportion for ad dollars, and no one knows anything that early anyway. (See, cynic). But that quickly changed Sunday when I watched Bloomberg's press conference. When that man speaks, I listen. He's the least politicking person out there, more of a businessman, and when he says jump, everyone should really say, "How High?" It isn't about right or left, democrat or republican, big government or little government... it's always about "What's Best for New Yorkers." Period. What's nice is that we've seen this from Obama and Governor Christie and Governor Cuomo too. Can't say the same for Romney, but his gaffes this week are another story.
Fortunately I'm not in any evacuation zone. My roommates and I prepared adequately in case we lost power for a few days, we secured stuff on our roof, and just sat around and watched the news. We lost internet/cable during the height of the storm (which sucked since I was in a 9 person Google+ Hangout playing the drinking card game "Kings" virtually at the time) and sat around listening to an AM radio for updates. All of our phones were fairly useless, but we could get twitter updates which was nice. Was up until about 1:30 until I just couldn't listen anymore. Going to sleep felt a little like giving up, though nothing could be done.
Woke up to cable/internet being available, surprisingly, but it's been spotty to say the least. Just to get out of the apt I went for a walk from my place in Williamsburg, Brooklyn across the Williamsburg Bridge, and into and around the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Basically did about 3-4 miles. Everything from 34th street down was without power due to quite a few explosions of transformers. The subways were all still shut down, some still heavily flooded. Major highways still closed. Tunnels still closed (and many still flooded even today, Wednesday). But the people there seemed to be in pretty great spirits though the weather was still awful and rainy. Many bars were open (cash of course) and discounting their stock since it would go bad anyway. No one wants a skunked beer...
It was surreal to walk from my area that for the most part is completely up and running to that part which is dark and people are in survival mode. My phone did not work anywhere, and I had to use a payphone to get in touch with a friend in the neighborhood. Actually - let's back that up. I had to first find quarters from a very dark bodega (glad that I had stopped at an ATM before the storm hit), and then wait in line to use a payphone. I used to say that these outdated eyesores were no longer necessary in the age of the smart phone, but I shall never say that again. However, our phones as phones not being able to work, it was eventually Twitter that we connected on, and now the Manhattan refuge is currently enjoying power and a hot shower in my apartment.
Wednesday has been an odd day. It feels like things can start getting back to normal, but I strongly feel like we'll never get back to normal. There's a new normal in the sense that the power is still out, subways are still down, phones & services are still inoperable, and it's hard to get anywhere unless you have a bike. I have a car, and yet b/c of the traffic it was impossible to get into Manhattan. As of this afternoon there's a temporary law stating that no one is allowed over the bridges without 3-4 people in a car or they'll receive a ticket. I feel more stranded than ever before. And it isn't comforting to know that there's a STRONG possibility it will take 3+ weeks to get the subway working properly.
The subways partially come back tomorrow, but nothing near me. There's an express bus going into midtown going over the Williamsburg bridge, but I can only imagine how horrendously crowded that will be and how long it will take in all that traffic. If I want to go into civilization, I'm most likely going to walk back over the bridge and see if I can catch buses on the other side. Grateful to be in Brooklyn where there's power and such, but I feel so very disconnected from friends on the other side, and the events happening there as people get through this. I've never been so painfully aware of just how physically big this city is.
I've been looking into volunteer opportunities as well. #SandyVolunteers and #OccupySandy have been great ways to keep up with things going on. I've also signed up on Recover.org and the Red Cross. No such luck yet with being able to help, but as the temperatures are expected to drop this weekend I am hoping to donate my time/car to help.
For now, and for those outside of NYC especially, just because Sandy will start to fade from your newscycle, please don't forget that recovering will likely take weeks, and that our infrastructure both of the transportation kind and of the communications kind are awful and likely to stay that way for quite some time. (See: Cell Networks Assessing Damages: No Fixes Anytime Soon & The study of NYC Subway to take 21 days to several weeks to restore).
Though that all being said, I can't imagine being anywhere else during all of this.