This past week was insane. As you all very well know, we were hit in NYC pretty badly by Hurricane Sandy early in the week, and things are just getting back to normal. Thank you all of you who emailed/texted/called and left voicemails - it was so nice to hear and read your messages. Thank you for thinking of me.
We just got power back Friday evening after four days without. I know folks who lived through Katrina and its aftermath are probably laughing at us spoiled New Yorkers, but there was nothing quite like walking home from work through this:
A picture of Manhattan from the cover of New York magazine:
The streets were pretty empty, and people who were out carried around flashlights, and I wore this nifty headlamp that I imagine seasoned spelunkers would own. Everyone looked kind of harried and a bit crazed, as we all slowly got used to the lack of light, connection at the touch of my fingertips, warmth, and one too many cold showers. I know, I know...first world problems.
On the point of lacking instantaneous connection whenever I desired it: one of the most interesting things about this experience was how I received news. I remember the first morning after the storm and without power, I was in one of the few open, but dark, yet packed with worried locals, corner stores looking for back up batteries and extra candles. One guy runs in and says, "What, no newspapers?" and the store owner says, "Nope."So the guy says, "How am I supposed to know what the weather will be like?" And the owner replies, "Look at the sky. Or go back to sleep." This was the beginning of no more news at my fingertips by typing into a search engine. No more myriad of news sources to be bombarded by. No more instant texting (there was no phone service in all of lower Manhattan either) or phone calls. No more emails or Facebook status status updates to obsessively check or tweets to read or photos to see via Instagram.
Instead, news got around by word of mouth. We heard that we weren't getting power like we'd expected within the next one or two days because someone overheard in a conversation in the street that a generator or two had blown up on Monday night. My flatmates and I exchanged news, rumors, hope and despair gathered from our individual romps around the city over votive candles strewn around the living room every evening to get as updated as possible. We also spent a lot of time playing charades, watching movies together after barely being able to charge our computers by trekking uptown during the day, cooking for each other because thank god our stove was gas-powered and the fridge was full of quickly spoiling food, and just talking to each other instead of holing up in our rooms with our precious internet and computers, too busy reading about everyone and everything else to care about each other, like we normally do. It was amazing to be cut off from social media. I highly recommend it.
Pre-Sandy movie/game night:
Post-Sandy movie/game night:
I also went into work every day last week except on Tuesday right after the brunt of the storm on Monday evening. We huddled around in freezing conference rooms and held meetings by candlelight, and kept our coats and hats on in the office Here's my company's blog post about our efforts this past week: http://www.noom.com/blog/2012/11/01/up-and-running-in-the-dead-zone/
Luckily, most of my coworkers weren't too affected except by lack of power in the wake of Sandy, but one of us was by Coney Island and is still unable to return home. As you probably heard, many burroughs outside of Manhattan are still reeling from Sandy, and here's an example of one building actually in Manhattan (taken on my way to work) of a building whose facade just literally fell off:
But like I said, things are slowly getting back to normal. Avenue A (my street) is once again noisy and bustling with cars honking and overflowing bars. The guy with the bongo drums has reinstalled himself in the park across the street despite the now freezing cold weather, and so I hear his beat reverberate all night long again. Many restaurants are still closed, especially the ones in the avenues next door, B and C, which were evacuated because of flooding, but corner stores and getting restocked and the dog run at the park next door is again full of hyper-active dogs who were probably more restless than their human owners during this blackout.
A video of the reaction after the power came back on Friday in the East Village:
such joy there was in the streets that evening. I couldn't even tell you how strange and wonderful it was to see so many New Yorkers smiling in the streets.
And Fernando and I celebrated to the restoration of power the only way we know how, with giant steaks:
