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November 3, 2012

sitrep: five days in

I just realized that I let this thing go blank for a couple days, and that, in context, was something that could be construed as something terrible.

Not the case!

Our neighborhood, Ditmas Park, was one of the lucky ones — there was a couple that was killed by a falling tree, but those were our only casualties, and we kept power/water/etc.  We also have one of the remaining gas stations that's operating, so every morning when I walk the dog I look up Coney Island Avenue to see if I can figure out where the end of the line of basically parked cars is.  (I can't.)

Having said that, I will admit to a slight case of a slo-mo howling fantods.  We're marooned out here, and just a few miles south you've got neighborhoods nearly flattened.  Along the Rockaways and Jamaica Bay, and in Staten Island (not to mention LI and NJ) it's gonna be a long time before anything like normal happens.  So that weighs on you a little bit.  And the job's been down, located in one of the Dead Zones of Manhattan, so there's nothing to go to even if I could get there.

So yeah, strange week.  Situation normal, all fucked up.

We're all desperate for a little normal, even those of us lucky enough to have heat and electricity.

Posted by mrbrent at 10:15 AM

October 30, 2012

sandy sitrep

Hey yo: we're all safe and power's up, but I wish I could say the same for New York City, in which I've lived for roughly twenty-five years.  We're lucky that the loss of life here was not large — last I heard the number was ten — but a third of Manhattan is blacked out if not partially underwater, Red Hook is definitely under water, and two hundred houses burned to the ground in Breezy Point, down on the tip of the Rockaways.  And our public transportation, which is beleaguered but the envy of the nation, encountered a scenario that is worse than the Worst Case.

(And of course New Jersey and Long Island have it worse, and many other regions are affected by Sandy and its attendant systems.)

All of which means: time to start the recovery.  We didn't get Katrina'd, for which I will give credit to the leadership and decisions of the mayors and governors of the region, and also to (and Chris Christie agrees) FEMA and the current administration.  Government worked.

Posted by mrbrent at 9:49 AM