The Aftermath

A couple of days after Hurricane Sandy, they restored power to parts of the subway. For us, this meant we could get to downtown Brooklyn by subway and then catch a shuttle bus into Manhattan. For once, I was glad I wasn't working yet and Heather's work had no power so at least we didn't have to join the rush hour(s) commute as apparently the long lines for buses and time spent in congested traffic meant some people were saying allow up to FOUR hours to get into Manhattan from Brooklyn.

©Brownstoner

©Brownstoner

We waited until Friday mi-morning and ventured into Manhattan to visit the New York Marathon Expo. Apart from the buses being packed to capacity there was no real wait and they had separated bus lanes across the bridges purely for these buses so we moved reasonably quick.

The Expo was massive and rammed with runners from all over the world and although neither if us were taking part it was still good to wander the stands and sample the giveaways!

To get home we decided to catch a regular bus further downtown and then we got off and ran down the west side a little and along Canal Street through Chinatown. This was all in the area of Manhattan still without power and as this particular street is normally one of the most congested at all times of the day and night it was spooky to see it eerily quiet. There were only a couple of tourist gift shops  using the available daylight to open.

We ran over the Manhattan Bridge and then once back in Brooklyn hopped on the subway home.
Something else I'm not used to is being in an apartment where you have no control over the heat in the building. We can't really complain considering the situation of so many people in NY & NJ, but our heating is not on yet so it is freezing inside our apartment, I've never worn so much clothing to bed before!

As the MTA carried on with their cleanup they posted some photos and this one taken around the South Street Seaport area shows how high the water level reached.

©MTA

And then there were the photos of all the garage forecourts and the stories of people waiting hours for gas both in cars and with gas cans.

Even after the buildup of people commenting (negatively) on the fact that the New York Marathon was still going ahead it was still a shock to hear it was cancelled especially after we just came back from the Expo that day and with the vast majority of runners already here or on their way.

In the end, the amount of negative publicity (mainly online) that the Marathon organisers and runners themselves were receiving forced them (Mayor Bloomberg) into cancelling the race at that very very late stage. I'm not going to comment on some of the frankly stupid comments some people (obviously non-runners) were making but in the end nearly 1000 runners turned up at the Staten Island ferry to go over and help out there on race day. While A few thousand also turned up at Central Park and did various distances in the park also raising money for the Red Cross and no doubt their own charities.

©Saucony

Hurricane Sandy

Well, that passed through then! Luckily where we are situated, at just about the tallest point in Brooklyn, we were never going to be at risk from any flooding. Although we just had to wait and see as regards power and water and INTERNET. Oh my god, the internet!

Heather has been through a couple of real bad storms while living on Hawaii but I had no clue what to expect. I ventured out on Sunday to grab a couple of extra things like some matches and bread and water, etc. I would have got more but the lines in the local stores put me off!

It started off with the wind just building later on during the day but already people were posting pictures of trees downed in the neighbourhood.

This was about ten hours before the hurricane was even scheduled to hit land!
But it was Monday that it was supposed to get a lot worse. Luckily we have a new couch to "hunker down" on, that seemed to be the phrase of the day everywhere I looked.

But apart from a few flickering lights and our four storey building swaying a little when the wind picked up, we were very lucky. Some of Heather's friends all over the city didn't have it so good. A couple had their homes flooded and others lost power.

We followed the news on television, and Twitter was really good for getting instant updates especially around Brooklyn. We watched the video and seen the pictures of the power transformer thing blowing up in midtown Manhattan.

That caused practically the whole of lower Manhattan to go dark. From about 34th street downwards. So I jumped off the couch and looked out our window to see, it was a bit freaky to see as normally there are obviously so many lights from the buildings in the distance.

Not our photo, but gives you an idea of what it looked like from even closer.
The stories on the news about the water levels were weird because we could see that it wasn't exactly pouring rain outside so it's freaky to think of the hurricane winds combined with a full moon/high tide pushing the water in from so far off the coast.

To see pictures of places I know so well gave me an instant picture of how far in the water was coming. This was the carousel I've pictured before, down by Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Just before bed we looked out the side window to see the sky lit up similar to the video of the transformer blowing up, it looked like sheet lightning that was permanently on for a minute. There is a power station of some kind a few blocks away so I don't know what that powers?

This morning we seen the news pictures of the houses destroyed by fire and the tunnels filled with water and felt extremely fortunate to escape so relatively untouched.

See the height sign!

We went out this morning for a walk and there were a lot of businesses open. I guess unlike for Manhattan stores, a lot of people here live locally. It did have a slight feel of Christmas or New Year about it, with people happy to get out of the house for a walk and some fresh air. Plus like us people obviously wanted to see the damage done!
Apart from a lot of bits of trees on the pavement and some shops missing their awnings it seemed okay. There were a couple of downed trees on cars and up at Prospect Park there was a big clean up operation going on.

Then of course, the subways are closed. Because of that, like a lot of people Heather is off work and the MTA aren't sure yet when things are likely to reopen. The New York City Marathon is this coming weekend and I wanted to go to the Marathon Expo this week, partly out of interest and partly I was trying to get some work there. At least I'm not one of the thousands of runners attempting to travel to the city to take part.