NOW IT’S CLEAN-UP TIME

I feel lucky when I listen to the news and see what Hurricane Sandy did to other folks up and down the East Coast!!! Many schools are now set up as shelters, and there are several storm shelters in our neighborhood. On Wednesday buses were running on a Sunday schedule, though the subways were not working yet. The underground subway system presents some formidable problems. First the water has to be pumped out of the tunnels, the tracks need to be inspected, the switches dried out and everything tested before they can get the system up and running.

Yesterday morning, about 8:00 AM we looked out the window and saw traffic backed up for blocks and blocks with people heading downtown to work. I don’t know if they all found parking once they reached their destination, but it must have been a mad-house down there because it was not looking to good uptown. And the traffic jam went on for hours.

This is what it looked like at about 8:30 on Wednesday morning after Hurricane Sandy hit us on Monday. The day after the storm everyone stayed home, but a day later everyone was scrambling to get to work the best they could. The buses were packed and there were plenty of bikes and joggers.

This morning, Thursday, traffic is more normal, heavy but not as bad a yesterday. There are more buses today and we just heard that a few subways lines are now up and running.

The parks are still closed and according to the police officer standing guard at a main entrance to a park on Riverside Drive, he has no idea when the workers will be finished with clearing all the broken limbs and trouble spots. I heard that a young couple walking their dog in a park in Brooklyn were struck and killed by a falling tree.

 The randomness of Sandy is puzzling. This is Riverside Park. Here is a tree, no larger, no smaller than any of the other trees planted along this stone wall and yet it was the only tree along this walkway that was literally pulled up by its roots and thrown over the wall.

New York is a pretty festive city during all holidays, activities for kids, adults and even pets are arranged in every community. Halloween is no exception. There was to be a grand pumpkin party for kids in Riverside Park, but a broken, grand old tree gives a pretty good reason for why the festivities were cancelled.

But kids do play and here is a gathering of parents, nannies and grandparents hanging out. This is in a park above the Westside Drive and off in the background is the Hudson River and beyond that is New Jersey. The morning started out bright and sunny but soon the sky turned cloudy and the air got cooler as the day went on.

Life is slowly getting back to normal. Even the dog walkers are out with their charges, giving the local dogs their daily constitutionals.

I passed an Italian restaurant that had been closed the day after the storm. I was drawn to the place by the smell of freshly delivered bread that lingered in the air several minutes after the door had been closed. A sign on the window said, “We’ll be open tonight.”

There are so many stories as a result of Sandy. In Breezy Point, a seaside district in Queens, 111 homes burned to the ground as Sandy flooded the streets, preventing fire trucks from reaching the burning homes while the winds whipped flames through the community. There are stories of babies being delivered in mobile hospitals.

And then yesterday I heard that the dunes in Hampton Bays were washed away. So, I googled that area and the photos I saw of how the place looks now made me sick to my stomach thinking that a storm could be so powerful that it could wash away so much sand. That’s when I understood the strength of Sandy. The loss of life, homes, jobs and businesses, the toll will be uncountable.

Now from the photos on google this place is completely changed, there are no rolling, sandy hills, only one long, flat expanse of sand. But this is how I want to remember the dunes, thick and dense with tall grass, and I especially want to remember the beautiful sunsets.