Tuesday, October 30, 2012

aftermath (lyn)


Today’s NY Times headline:


Morning paper not delivered
No national news on TV, only local, all the time
No mail
Lower Manhattan in the dark
Branches from trees outside my apartment flew off over night
Approximately 6 million people without power, with some maybe having to wait more than a week to get it back — the biggest outage in Con Ed’s history
The most destruction to the 108-year old subway system with seven lines flooded
All patients evacuated from NYU Langone Hospital, when the backup generator failed
Stock market closed for two days
And the famous Halloween Parade cancelled

When that girl yesterday wished for a “badder” Sandy, I understood.  It wasn’t a wish for disaster, but rather some weather excitement.  My few blocks in New York are spared.  National television did not air.  Commercial-free TV was focused on the major storm that was coming.  Ya, ya, we’ve heard that before.  The trees outside my window shimmered and rain fell, but hardly worth noticing.

Sandy seemed to arrive, skipping my neighborhood with her full force, causing only a few tree limbs to fall.  My little oasis is spared.  But around me there is devastation.  Power out everywhere.  Homes lost.  Fires.  Floods.  The Jersey Shoreline re-written.

The New York Times said Sandy, “left behind a tableau of damage, destruction and grief.”  No one wants a storm to be this bad.

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