hurricane sandy blew through the area last night. thanks to mayor bloomberg, we were as prepared as we (collective new yorkers) could be—either evacuated or holed up in our apartments with stockpiles of nonperishables.
from where we (the lillvis family) sat, things were actually quite ordinary. the rain wasn't even that heavy. just no school for the bailey. no work for us. but no going outside either.
waking up to the nonstop news coverage of the storm on TV, we discovered that the storm was pretty fierce. the MTA web site posted a statement as follows:
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The New York City subway system is 108 years old, but it has never faced a disaster as devastating as what we experienced last night. Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on our entire transportation system, in every borough and county of the region. It has brought down trees, ripped out power and inundated tunnels, rail yards and bus depots.
As of last night, seven subway tunnels under the East River flooded. Metro-North Railroad lost power from 59th Street to Croton-Harmon on the Hudson Line and to New Haven on the New Haven Line. The Long Island Rail Road evacuated its West Side Yards and suffered flooding in one East River tunnel. The Hugh L. Carey Tunnel is flooded from end to end and the Queens Midtown Tunnel also took on water and was closed. Six bus garages were disabled by high water. We are assessing the extent of the damage and beginning the process of recovery. Our employees have shown remarkable dedication over the past few days, and I thank them on behalf of every New Yorker. In 108 years, our employees have never faced a challenge like the one that confronts us now. All of us at the MTA are committed to restoring the system as quickly as we can to help bring New York back to normal.
===to avoid the already-fast onset of cabin fever, we ventured outside to check things out. sure enough, no cabs, few cars, and virtually every store was closed. our poor, ragged doorman has been on duty since sunday with no hopes of freedom any time soon.
walking through the empty streets, i was overcome with sadness and shock. not by what i saw with my eyeballs, but by what i envisioned "disaster" to be in times past and in the present. there is a feeling of helplessness. oddly, the smartest thing we can do is to stay put and not do anything. again, for us, this is not a tall order. we are just going to stay and watch tv and play games and take advantage of our still-on electricity and say prayers for those less fortunate.
the reality for us (new yorkers) is that transportation and power for a large portion of manhattan could likely be shut down for up to a week.... i like to think of the city that never sleeps as taking an extended nap.
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