NEW YORK—I woke up at 6 A.M. on Sunday to the sound of barking winds outside the bedroom windows and shoved my head back under the covers. This time, the wind’s bite was turning out to be far worse than its bark. Yet, the ground was solid, and the concrete sidewalks and macadam covering Manhattan’s Upper West Side streets were too. Their steel, concrete and stone buildings were strong as well. Of course, this was just hello from Hurricane Sandy.
As the gray day dimmed into night, high winds pushed huge volumes of rain surging to record highs. By nightfall, post-Hurricane Sandy had affected 50 million people over much of the eastern U.S.A., according to CBS.
By 8 P.M. Monday, the storm surge had breached Battery Park City’s walkway and was rushing like a river into the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel and the financial district where it was drowning cars and streets. Police vehicles were blocking passageway to prevent more car-drownings.
New Jersey from Cape May to Northern Newark was seriously affected; CBS pointed out that Long Island from Hempstead east was affected. The boroughs were hit by a 12.75 foot surge of water that actually pushed into New York Harbor.
Before the brunt of Sandy hit, it was a matter of getting the 347,000 people who live in the low-lying areas along the coasts of Brooklyn, including Coney Island, Brighton, Manhattan Beaches, Long Beach and the Rockaways—and from Staten Island on the South to the West, all lowlands facing the ocean to vacate. The low impact of last year’s Irene storm that savaged upper New York State, sparing the city, made these residents overconfident there was no danger for these old salts. It is funny how people, despite warnings, wait until the waves come running down their streets, onto their property. By then it was too late for many to vacate.
Returning to Manhattan, on West 57th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues, a 90-story high crane’s boom had been blown apart by 95 mph winds. They crane was thought to be secured when workers left, but obviously the winds thought differently. This crane with its dangling broken arm was working on a 90-floor co-op hi-rise that will be the biggest in Manhattan when completed, with total sales income reaching one billion. The crane’s boom as of 10 p.m. Monday night was being blown in the wind like a loose tooth. Residents of lower floors and surrounding buildings were moved to nearby hotels or apartments of friends.
But sirens still fill the distance. And Con Ed has been lowering its power to protect equipment from fire. Some 2 million people have lost power in the city, New Jersey, and Long Island. At 9 A.M. Tuesday, NY-1 reported that there was a loss of power to everything below 38th Street. A Con Ed power plant on East 13th Street had a fire during the night. Back-up generators are being employed or recharged for hospitals wherever possible. Broadway looked like it was mugged, signs dangling, debris scattered about.
Despite closings at 2 P.M. on Monday of the Holland and Battery tunnels, both are flooded, along with the East River Drive to 155th Street. This all has a feeling of 9/11, including the floods along the Wall Street area.
Sunday, people were lining up outside of local supermarkets under grey skies; lines led out to the streets to stock up as shoppers scooped up as much food as they needed until the storm passed. Fortunately for once, the media have been reporting non-stop with ongoing broadcasting of rain as far as Florida or Virginia beaches.
TV weather people in rain slickers are pointing with their microphones to the long waves and water seeping under boardwalks and even destroying them. After a while, you hear them echoing in your brain. But you know at some time we will hopefully be joining normal life again and retreating from this nightmare reality. Life will go on. I suppose somebody said this at Fukushima, too. I can picture a drowning New York from several of the doomsday films I’ve seen on the subject. But it’s okay. We’ll make it. This is no time to get cynical.
Waking Tuesday morning, the storm of life, the storm of politics, death, drones, Romney, Obama, all that’s destructive, including the toxic effect of Wall Street to our psyches, felt like Mother Nature was raging back at us for once. And now the job is to help each other shovel out from under and do what we can to each help in our own way.
By the way, the usually pesky Mayor Bloomberg has been unusually attentive to his fold in his appearances, urging us to play things safe, remain indoors, and keep our powder dry. Municipal workers were being asked to report for work Tuesday. The cops, firefighters, sanitation and EMT’s are doing a good job.
Jerry Mazza is a freelance writer and life-long resident of New York City. An EBook version of his book of poems “State Of Shock,” on 9/11 and its after effects is now available at Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com. He has also written hundreds of articles on politics and government as Associate Editor of Intrepid Report (formerly Online Journal). Reach him at gvmaz@verizon.net.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The giant storm’s reach also extended up and down the East Coast and far inland. To the north, strong winds and heavy surf did damage in New England. Sparks flew from downed power lines in Westport, Mass.
Re Madelyn: You’re right, thanks. Also, Breezy Point, an oceanfront community in Queens, New York, had 80 to 100 homes explode and burn down during the surge, 18 people dead. ABC reports “Sandy” created problems at five Nuclear Plants , at Indian Point, New York; Oyster Creek in Lacey, New Jersey; an Exeton facility outside Pennsylvania; and Salem Power Plant on Delaware Bay in Southern New Jersey; all of which experienced shutdowns, both automatic and manual for various problems, electrical and non-specified.
50 people in seven states killed, more than 8.2 million without power. Latest tally on additional damage.
Jerry Mazza.
In awe of that answer! Really cool!