What a week it has been!
Hurricane Halloween, indeed...
We were able to fix dinner, give Sloan a bath, then...BAM, , this happened:
We lost power at 8:37 pm Monday night. Once the power went out, it got bad. Once cell service went out, it got worse..We were able to keep up with most of what Sandy was doing thanks to our phones & Twitter. But shortly after we went to bed at midnight our cell service went. Tuesday morning we had a 15 minute window where my Blackberry worked, but after that we were unable to communicate with anyone. It's a strange feeling to know that you are living in what feels like the Stone Age, yet people one mile north of you are continuing life as if nothing has happened.
It is worth a quick detour in our story to talk about the NYU Langone evacuation. It was one of the last stories we read before we lost service, and we were devastated by it. Those were
the same nurses that cared for Sloan for 5 weeks. They are the most amazing, wonderful, kind, caring people you can imagine - absolutely heaven-sent. I am not surprised to hear that all of their patients made it out ok...the care they give is simply outstanding, but I can't even begin to imagine having a child that needed to be evacuated from the NICU in the midst of the storm. I am so grateful for each and every one of those nurses.
Around 10 am Tuesday Barry ventured outside to see what it was like out there. He was determined to walk as far as it took to get cell service again. Lo and behold, he walked all of 5 blocks and his phone lit up with emails and text messages from concerned friends and family. Our cousins, George & Carol, who live on the Upper West Side had volunteered to take us in. We packed a suitcase and the bottom of the stroller and set out on our journey. Here is a photo gallery of our journey northward...
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| Tree damage Union Square East |
We walked west on 13th a few blocks. There were very few people on the street and even fewer cars. By the time we got to University Place one of the more under estimated issues became apparent: traffic lights. Not just for cars, but the walk/don't walk signs for pedestrians. It is ingrained in a New Yorker's mind to look for the cross walk signs, but now there were none. They seemed to be telling us we were on our own...
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| Normally busy movie theater, shuttered. |
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| The view down University |
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| Finally! A business that is open - selling coffee, but in the dark. |
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| The view east on 13th (our street) |
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| ConEd trucks lined up in Union Square |
All the ConEd trucks in the world weren't going to fix our problem though; they had to fix the transformer before anything would come on. As we continued North, we noticed something very odd - all of the people outside appeared to be tourists. We guessed that most New Yorkers were holed up in their dark apartments. By the time we hit Madison Square Park - 23rd & Broadway - it was a curious site. LIGHTS!!
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| North: Lights! |
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| South: Dark. |
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| The first store we saw with lights...ironically, a lighting store. |
When we hit 26th & Broadway it waas like a different world. Lights were on and cafes were crowded. It was shuttered on one side of the street, and life as normal on the other. It was as if nothing had happened. Onward we strolled...north on Broadway through more tourists, past Macy's (with lights) and Herald Square. About an 45 minutes into it we hit Times Square
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| "Power is everything." Don't we know...don't we know. |
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| Baby's first trip to Times Square |
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| View South - no cars! |
Our next site was the infamous dangling crane! Talk about a tourist trap...
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| We were one of ~40 people taking pictures. |
Around this time, George met us on the street to escort us the rest of the way. Their night had been pretty uneventful - high winds knocked down a tree across the street, but other than that they were unscathed (lucky for us!).
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| Tree down at Columbus Circle |
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| Another view of the dangling crane from Columbus Circle |
As you can imagine there were a lot of downed trees in Central Park. I was surprised there wasn't more damage, but there were quite a few. Crews were already working to cut and remove the majority of the mess. Likely in anticipation of the now defunct marathon, but alas...we were almost to our destination!
About an hour and a half and 4 miles later, we finally rounded the corner to George & Carol's apartment. Lights, hot water, and a phone charge were in our future! We could finally plug back into the world.
One of the first things we did was turn on the TV to watch the storm coverage. We were amazed at the devastation in our little corner of the world. We were simply without electricity, hot water and cell service...that was nothing compared to so many folks along the East Coast. This is such a densely populated area that the devastation is felt times over. Ocean and Bay met all along parts of Long Island, taking homes and transportation with them. The majority of people were not able to get to work - which for many was the only place with electricity. Basic public services were rendered useless up and down the coast. It seems trivial when so many are without power, water & heat in November, but in NYC there is quite a lot of garbage piling up on our streets. I'm sure things will get back to normal soon, but I feel for those that have lost their homes and are still without power as we brace for a Nor'easter that is supposed to hit mid-week. As is the New York way, we will get through this & be even stronger for it - but we have a long way to go.
Barry was downtown checking on our apartment when the power came back on Friday evening. There were many hoots & hollers on the street when it happened. We are eternally grateful to George & Carol for taking us in. They were so kind to have us for the entire week (and even babysit Sloan one night). I will have another post soon about our week as Upper West Side residents, but for now wanted to post our story about the storm.
