Dear Sandy, you suck!
I believe that many Americans believe this and I totally agree. I am trying to gather my memories of my last few months in NYC so I decided to write about Sandy.
The famous Hurricane that lead to a total failure of manhattans subway system, destroyed houses, stores, restaurants, cars and turned a whole borough (Staten Island) to a miserable place.
To my dear American friends, it was an unforgettable experience to see how a hurricane can affect a city like New York. I was sad for everyone affected and simultaneously fascinated by watching New Yorkers help each other through such a difficult time. Sometimes I felt a bit like in I was in a science fiction movie, with Barack Obama on TV speaking live from the White House about the unfolding situation I was witnessing. Ironically, I was with friends in Astoria and our house was the only one on the street with no electricity. My apartment was completely fine and everyone else I knew in Astoria was fine too. Just a few minutes away, half of Manhattan was without power (which stayed that way for a few chaotic days)
On Sunday night, 28th October '12, Sandy slowly made her way up toward NYC. At work, we decided to close for dinner service that night. My phone was already starting to ring with messages from my European friends who were getting worried. (Obviously I have to add that the European news loves to exaggerate just a little!). I told them that everything was fine and that I would be in touche with them. Two days later I was at a house with no electricity, hot water, dead phone and a hungover.
After work I decided to go to the supermarket near by and do what others told me to do: get some grocery shopping done before getting stuck in Queens. The supermarket looked like a movie set with people making emergency purchases. Milk was sold out, Pasta shelf getting emptier and emptier, same for bread, cereals, chips and any other dry source of food. Not to forget that the toiletpaper, flashlights and batteries were sold out too! Of course the line at the cashier was incredibly long. I just stood there and took pictures and I'm sure people thought I am an idiot. Whatever, tourist pride! Ha
I walked to my subway station and saw the signs about the 24-hour system shutting down that evening. Like, literally everything. No subway after 7pm and no busses after 9pm. Central park was closed and everyone was trying to get home. Once I got home I checked online to see exactly where Sandy was. As you can see from the picture above and now this one here, it got pretty damn far overnight! I started to get a little bit more concerned. Funny thing is, almost all of my New Yorker friends thought "It will be fine." Cause they thought about other hurricanes but Sandy was waaaay bigger! I found a picture of Sandy overlaying Europe and it really scared me! Imagine if Sandy had actually hit Europe!? While all my colleagues and myself were off from work until Sandy would come down we were planing a "Hurricane" party. Which seemed pretty normal to everyone. A Hurricane party consist of enough drinks, food, chargers for phones, flashlights just in case and lots of fun wiht your friends. Basically to stay safe and together you gather at someones place and get the party started. Mine was great but the funny part was that our house, was the only one affected by the storm and cut the electricity...
The pictures above show the way to my friends place. Trees were already on the ground and it was quite windy and rainy. Several things made me feel like I was in a movie. Seeing ex president Obama on TV talking to NYC and several notifications on my phone regarding safety. I was like wow, shit is getting real! We were having fun and all I heard was like a "pow zzzz" sound from outside and when we went onto the balcony to check it out, we saw the electricity cable burning and torn into two. Here we go, no more electricity. We had candles and flashlights but at some point phones were dead, we were pretty done partying and it gotten much rougher outside. We all fell asleep in the living room...
It's the next day! Sandy passed by NYC and left a mess. New York City consists of 5 boroughs. One of them, Staten Island, was an absolute mess and needed help. Lower Manhattan was cut off due to water in the train system. As you can see in the picture below the train system was limited. Pictures below show the state of the streets on the way to our local diner. I was stuck in queens for a couple of days until the train and bus were running again as per normal. Which took several days of course. One picture is showing how a crane was hanging from the construction side. Crazy shit! Lots of item were still sold out in supermarkets.
This was definitely a movie like, fascinating, sad and scary part of my New York time. But as I mentioned before, it was amazing to see how New Yorkers stick together and help each other. Thanks to JR, AJ, PH for making this time pleasant! K
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