A Week Later: Ambivalent

Well, here we are. Election Day 2012. But, that's not really the point of my post today.

My last post was a week ago, the day after the big storm, Hurricane Sandy, hit the East Coast. I can barely fathom that it's been but a week; it seems so much longer. We were so fortunate. Nothing untoward came our way. My heart aches for the devastation, the loss of lives, the injuries and hardships of those affected by this terrible storm. In mid-town Manhattan, there was little evidence of a problem aside from lighter traffic, closed businesses, and tourists moving about the old fashioned way: on their two feet.

By Wednesday, Halloween Day, traffic was hectic as people busted out their vehicles to make it to work with a downed subway and bus system. More places were open, including the Broadway shows which had been dark for three days. We bought tickets for the matinee performance of Once and enjoyed an early dinner on "restaurant row" in the theatre district. The food was amazing at Beccos and the wait staff were all in costume. All very festive and light hearted.

In retrospect, had I truly understood all the sadness and pain going on within a fifty mile radius at the very same time, the enjoyment would have evaporated. When you don't know, you don't know. The human stories come forth days later; they did in New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina, with 9/11, with the massive Asian tsunami of 2004, with the earthquake in Japan. The details take time to surface and spread and in the meantime, most of us (even those in the middle of the fray, unscathed) keep moving forward with our lives.

I'm glad we went to New York. The days spent in the big city were epic, unprecedented, and we saw and experienced things that we will likely never see again. Empty streets, closed businesses, cordoned off subway access points. I learned that geography was on our side as we hunkered down in mid-town Manhattan, protected by tall buildings and removed from the wilds of Battery Park and the southern tip of the island where havoc played out while the rest of us sighed in relief.

By Thursday, Manhattan north of 34th Street started to look and act like "the city" again. We took in more sights, another Broadway play, good food, and walked our legs off. Meanwhile....grief stricken people were close by.

The juxtaposition in hindsight gives me an odd feeling. Could I have done anything useful to help? Or was it "OK" to simply go on with a vacation and make the best of poor timing?

You can see, I'm wondering.

The Damage after the Storm

Denny and I ventured out of the hotel after dark last night to buy some dinner. We spied a pizza/pasta joint within 50 yards of the Barclay and thought a quick sprint would be safe. The rain was light and the wind relatively calm. The restaurant was bustling with hungry folk. We took our pizza slices and  a  piece of NY cheesecake to go and were back to the safety of our 10th floor hotel room within 10 minutes.

We were glued to the TV until midnight, channel surfing to catch all the news of the storm we could take in. We never lost power and heard but a few gusts of wind powerful enough to catch our attention. Lower Manhattan took a huge hit with flooding at Battery Park, the FDR highway, and the subway system. The power went out south of 34th street and remains out. Backup generators at NY Hospital didn't work and patients required evacuation to other medical centers in the middle of the night. A dangling crane from a building under construction on 7th Avenue forced closure of streets in the area for fear of the crane would fall with gusting winds.

And this is just Manhattan. We've been watching the news out of New Jersey which sounds horrific and the boroughs of NYC, Long Island and beyond.

This is the first time I don't regret our decision to cancel the cruise, due to depart NYC tomorrow. Will that cruise actually leave the city? How will passengers get into the city when all three airports are closed?  Wow.

More later.