The sun came out today. We are feeling very lucky to have made it through the storm mostly unaffected. We never lost our power and I haven’t seen much damage around here besides a couple of trees down and whole lot of branches and leaves everywhere. Since we live in Prospect Heights (aptly named), we are on a hill, and also not super close to the water. It’s definitely a protected area when it comes to this type of storm. It was a spooky, very windy, light-flickering kind of night. It is very sad and scary to see the damage sustained in NYC, NJ, and other surrounding areas. We know several people without power/hot water who left/are leaving the city to stay with family elsewhere because they don’t know when power will be restored. A couple of Jay’s coworkers are displaced in Red Cross shelter, etc. His office has also been without power all week and they don’t know when it will be back on. Fortunately Jay has been able to do some work from home, which will allow him to still get paid a bit, but as a freelancer the no work situation is not a great one for us. Theo has been tickled pink to have us both here all week, of course. He didn’t even really notice there was a storm. We told him on Monday a storm was coming and we wouldn’t be able to go anywhere. He didn’t mind. He was in bed by the time the weather really picked up, so he slept through the worst of it. In the morning I told him the storm was over. “Storm over! Not raining!” he said. “Choo Choo train ride!”. Oh, no… I told him we wouldn’t be able to ride the subway for awhile. We did manage to get out yesterday morning for fresh air and visit our friends nearby.
We brought bagels and the kids got to play together. Theo just keeps say, “Dada, no work again!”. People were out and about with their kids and their dogs. It is surreal to see the images on TV and know that is actually happening right here when it looks very normal in our neighborhood. This huge city completely shut down… subways, buses, bridges, tunnels, airports, freeways! And the fires? Did you hear about the 80 houses burned to the ground while being flooded in Breezy Point, Queens? And NYU hospital that needed to be evacuated because their back-up generators failed? Hundreds of patients had to be evacuated in the midst of the storm, including twenty newborn babies in the NICU. Images of ambulances lined up around the block transporting patients to nearby hospitals. It’s unreal. The subways are still shut down (some are working above 34th street, I think), JFK and Newark airports have reopened but LaGuardia is still closed. The Holland and Brooklyn Battery Tunnels are still closed, too. I imagine it will be weeks, months before things get back to normal for many people. I know this storm was far-reaching, and our family and friends in Cleveland have also been impacted with loss of power and never ending rain. I hope everyone is getting things back to normal and I hope this great city can back on its feet as quickly as possible.