Wrote this post ages ago! Just didn't take time to add the pictures. I never would have remembered all the details I recorded here...probably overload, but that's okay. Enjoy!
What a crazy week we had back in August in NYC! First an earthquake and then a hurricane! Most people don't think of NYC as a place where hurricanes or earthquakes are a threat. I've lived here long enough to know that either are a potentially serious threat. Fortunately, August's events left little mark on this city I love.
The last full week of August, on Tuesday afternoon thru Wednesday, all anyone could talk about was the earthquake...we hadn't even heard of Irene yet. I found out about the earthquake within minutes of it happening, but unfortunately didn't feel a darn thing! Don't get me wrong, I'm not sitting around wishing for an earthquake, but when you find out that one has occurred and left no damage and the people sitting two cubicles over felt it and you didn't, well, you feel a little cheated. I experienced my first earthquake and didn't really experience it at all! It was strange finding out who felt it and who didn't. People all over Manhattan felt it. Most people in my office did not feel it, but a few claim they did. I can't say exactly where I was during the 15 seconds the city was shaking...I had just gotten lunch and I am not sure if I was back at my desk or not. One theory was that if you were up walking around, you did not feel the movement. Anyway, it was the main topic of conversation for 36 hours...
That is, until we started hearing about Irene.
Stacy and I had a weekend getaway planned to the Hudson Valley for our birthdays and Lucy was going to come with us. When we first started hearing about Irene, we still planned to go, thinking it might be best if we escaped the city and drove to our inland destination. I started to get a little worried on Friday morning. We had a lot of outdoor activity planned and the rain would put a damper on that. Then, I got an email from my church saying that all weekend meetings/services were being cancelled because the MTA (mass transit) was shutting down at noon on Saturday and thru and beyond the storm. What?!
I had two immediate thoughts. 1) This must be more serious than I realized. My pastor does not cancel church easily or on a whim. I was shocked that he was canceling church 48 hours in advance. 2) Mass transit was shutting down? How would this city operate without it?!
This was an unprecedented move by the MTA. And apparently it would take 8 hours to get all the trains & buses in safe spots from flooding. And then another 8 more hours to get them back out and up and running after the storm passed and all tracks/vehicles had been checked for damage or flooding. Since it was supposed to storm for about 18 hours, this meant there would be no subways or buses for well over 34 hours.
Our out of town plans included renting a car from Newark...but now how would we get back into the city on Sunday with no public transit and without paying an arm and a leg? Would we even be able to get back into the city if tunnels and bridges were closed (I live on an island, remember!)? I finally convinced the other girls not to go (I'm not sure they were exactly on board with me, but I really did have a bad feeling about it). I knew the rain would ruin our plans and getting out of the city would be a nightmare due to those who were evacuating and getting back into the city might have been, well, impossible on Sunday. I was afraid we'd be stressed and miserable for much of the trip. Anyway, it turned out to be a good decision, because where we were going ended up being in a State of Emergency due to severe flooding. None of us predicted that, but I think it's good we didn't go.
So, we made the most of it! I went ahead and worked out with Leticia on Friday afternoon as planned. She was actually planning to stay at my apartment while I was gone (she likes to "getaway" from her apartment way out in Queens, so I've let her stay at my place). I told her to stay anyway. We made a grocery store run on our way home from the gym. The grocery stores were crazy!! The line to get in Trader Joe's was so long that I refused to wait. We went to Fairway instead, where the lines weren't quite as crazy, but there were still a ton of people there and they were definitely running low on certain things like water, bread, and chips. We also stopped by an ATM to stock up on cash because "they" said we needed to. "They" also said we needed iodine tablets and whistles, but we skipped that part.
Leticia & I went our separate ways for the evening. Stacy, Mindy and I met up to hit up Luke's Lobster. A friend had seen on twitter that they were having a Hurricane Special - $10 Lobster Rolls (which are usually $16)! It was a delicious dinner followed by Butter Lane cupcakes and a movie. We saw Idiot Brother which was okay, but I kind of got annoyed at what an IDIOT he really was.
Randomly, Leticia and I ended up on the same subway home that night at about 1am (and it was the SECOND time that happened to us that day). We went home and my air conditioner promptly broke. It had been making a weird noise all week and it got worse on Friday night. Ugh, not something I wanted to deal with. It was a hot night.
Leticia decided to go home the next morning. I think partly due to the heat in my apartment and partly because her roommates were supposed to move that day, but their movers decided not to work due to the impending storm. So, Leticia wanted to be with her roomies to endure Irene. I spent my morning trying to figure out what to do with the AC. No repairmen were working because of the storm. I considered going to buy a new one, but then Stacy offered to bring her high power tower fan over. She was planning to come for the storm. Stacy and I had a great afternoon before Irene hit. We heard (thru Twitter again!) that Shake Shack was one of the establishments that was still open on Saturday. Although the weather wasn't bad for much of Saturday, the fact that there were no subways or buses caused many business to close shop early or for the entire day.
What would this city do without their beloved
Starbucks for 48 hours?!
Most people stuck close to home all weekend, but there were a lot of people out walking around the Upper West Side. On our way to lunch, there was a sudden and torrential downpour. We had umbrellas, but were still soaked. It cleared up while we were eating...just a storm surge before the hurricane really hit. Shake Shack was delish and then we decided we needed to stock up on sweets for the storm. Magnolia was closed, but Levain was open, so we picked up some of their amazing cookies. We stopped at Duane Reade to get a couple of essentials and then headed home where we prepared a bit more. I pulled out the awesome radio/light my dad gave all his girls for Christmas one year. You don't have to have electricity or batteries for it - there's a lever you wind that gives it power. I was so excited to have a reason to get it out and called my dad to tell him it was finally coming in handy. I set out matches and a flashlight. I filled a couple of pitchers full of water and added them to the many bottles Stacy had brought and placed in the fridge. And that was pretty much the extent of my hurricane prep. Later that night, we did decide to fill the bathtub with water..."they" said we might need it to flush the toilet the next day. Despite the fact that I actually did do some hurricane prepping, I really didn't expect the storm to be terrible and I was not nervous/panicked at all.
We noticed some people had gone to the trouble to tape their
windows up...we did not. Also, I've noticed that some people
never went to the trouble to un-tape their windows (5 months later!!)
We spent the rest of the afternoon watching the news and press conferences with Mayor Bloomberg and the Governor of New Jersey. We just wanted to know what was going on, what to expect and when, and what Irene was doing to other states as she made her way up the coast.
At about 5pm, it was still pretty nice outside and I was starting to get worried about the potential 18 hours of severe storms and possibly time without electricity after that. Almost everyone I know was certain we would be without electricity for some period of time. I suggested to Stacy that we get out again for a bit before hunkering down for the long haul. We went for a short walk and tried to find a puzzle - which I thought would be fun to work on while we were homebound. We didn't find one, but we did get more of our energy out.
Around 6pm, my friend Megan texted that she was bored. I encouraged her to come join our slumber party...but quick! I didn't want her traveling when the storm hit. There was no public transit by this time and she lives in Queens, which can be a steep taxi fare, but they were running on a special zone system fixed rate fare through the weekend and it wasn't going to cost her much to come. I finally convinced her and she arrived soon after. Yea - the more the merrier!
We whipped up some dinner with what I had available - a tiny frozen pizza, yummy salad, and Stacy made garlic bread. We watched the very first episode of Mad Men, which Stacy brought along. We invited my upstairs neighbor, Christine, to come down and she joined us later. We chatted all night and had popcorn and Levain cookies. It was raining much of the night, but usually not too hard and the wind didn't look terrible. Christine went back upstairs around midnight and we got ready for bed and watched one more episode of Mad Men. As we drifted off to sleep, we weren't sure what to expect when we woke up next.
None of us slept to well that night. My apartment was still hot and I think not knowing what Irene would do made us all a bit restless. I think we all slept our best from about 6am-10:30am! When we woke up at 10:30, I peeked outside and everything looked great! It wasn't even raining. We had electricity! We went through several minutes of confusion....was it over? Were we in the eye? What happened to 18 hours of rain?! After some consultation of Facebook (seriously!) and CNN, we decided we were in the clear! Woo-hoo, we survived and there was no leakage or anything!
I made breakfast because it just so happened to be Stacy's birthday! I made the cinnamon/sugar biscuits my family always made for slumber parties when I was a kid. I had not made these in years!! I served them along with some eggs and delicious smoothies. Yum! Christine came back downstairs to enjoy breakfast with us, too!
After breakfast, we cleaned up, got dressed, etc... and headed out to survey the damage on the Upper West Side. Luckily, it was rather minimal. We went to the park first and noticed some flooding there. Central Park was officially closed - I think due to the fear that branches could still be falling and they were still expecting strong winds that afternoon. A lot of people were going in anyway, but we opted to obey the rules.
Never seen this before!
This is the part of the park closest to my apartment.
There is NEVER water here.
Since we couldn't wander through CP, we walked over to the Hudson River and walked through Riverside park. We did see several trees down and one street lamp that had bent wayyyy over and caused a block of Amsterdam to be shut-down.
This street lamp was probably the most "exciting" damage done
on the UWS. You can see all the photogs trying to capture it.
Most businesses were closed. The Hudson was quite choppy and very dirty, but nothing too crazy! There were a ton of people out walking and assessing the damage like we were.
Cristine & Megan
Stacy & I
We were pleasantly surprised when we got to The Boat Basin that it was open! They were not serving food and had none of their tables out, but people were hanging out drinking and talking and enjoying the beautiful weather...celebrating Irene Survival! It was a great atmosphere!
We went back home to discover a very hot apartment! Stacy & Megan spent some time helping me pry one of my windows open (I've never opened them before!!). We made lunch with some of our survival supplies...PB&J and chips. Actually, I had a PB, banana, and honey sandwich made with love by Megan. Sometime that evening, Stacy and Megan felt good to go on back to their own homes. I was a little sad to see them go, but I walked them to a taxi and waved good-bye. Shortly after they left, I got word that my office wasn't opening on Monday. Wahooo!!! I really didn't see that coming. I definitely didn't expect them to make that call until Monday morning. I was glad to spend my evening knowing I had another free day due to Irene and the shut-down of all mass transportation.
Monday was glorious. Beautiful weather and a nice, relaxing day. There were still signs of our crazy weekend. I went to Starbucks for a drink and they had literally NO food. I guess their delivery trucks hadn't made it in. I went in a grocery store and many of the shelves were still pretty bare. The park was still closed. But, life was beginning to return to normal.
Oh, NYC, you always have something up your sleeve to surprise us. I wonder what will be next!
