I just want to thank people for all their concern in the wake of Sandy. I am fine. I am lucky. My neighborhood escaped with relatively little damage.
I went to bed on Monday night with my flashlight in hand a bath full of water, water in pots on my stove watching the tree outside my window sway in directions I never thought were possible.
When I woke up on Tuesday I saw the red lights of my clock and I knew that I, was at least, ok.
It took about 8 hours for me to be able to reach my family on Long Island. My sisters had no power but my parents did and they were all together. One of my sister’s children go to school in Long Beach and that basically doesn’t exist anymore. I am told the national guard is standing watch since the sewer system is gone. Friends who live in Manhattan have no power. My aunt and uncle lost 2 cars and the lower half of their house and my dad said he saw a dead flounder on the street.
When I ventured out on Tuesday things seemed weirdly normal here in Park Slope. People were going to brunch. People were getting their nails done. The bars were packed. It’s like a weekend here but more crowded because on weekends some people here go away.
Everyone was here but stranded.
Yesterday, people started to try and figure out how to get to work. We all rely on the subway. That’s the way we get to the city. The subways are all gone right now. People were biking and many walked miles to get to jobs. Keep in mind that people had to walk through Brooklyn over the bridge and then uptown because there in no power below 29th street.
Everyone who had a car tried to come through Brooklyn. The roads were and still are a parking lot and now you can’t drive into the city unless you have 3 people in your car.
And now it is day 3. There are long gas lines. Many people are running out of food. Folks have to boil water. Schools are closed all week. People who had to get to work today waiting a hour to get on a bus here in Brooklyn only to then wait in traffic. People are feeling exhausted.
It’s kind of weird trying to write about culture and entertainment when people can’t drink the water in their home.
We have a new normal here in New York and it is not pretty. It is going to take a long time for things to be back to the way they were (if they are at all) and we are the lucky ones.
