Sandy And The City: Hurricane Sandy Hits NYC

Walking out of the liquor store on 37th and 3rd, I could not help but wonder if Hurricane Sandy is driving other New Yorkers to drink.  If you ask this New Yorker, looks like Hurricane Sandy is gonna rock us here on the East Coast, one way or another.  As Governor Cuomo set into motion the MTA suspension earlier today I wondered whether or not this reaction is truly needed.  Suspending the entire Metropolitan Transit Authority in New York City? Aka the buses, the LIRR, the Metro North Railroad, the subway lines?  Really is this necessary? I mean I have sat here saying all day, “If you have never seen anything like this, than how can you know what is going to happen with Hurricane Sandy?”  But in reality as I sit here and blog on Hurricane Sandy and my experience with her thus far, I realize if the Governor of New York was willing to put his butt on the line with these quick and hefty measures than obviously there is a warning to be heeded.

Sure I sit here and dream about Hurricane Sandy bringing tons of snow to Vermont, so my buddy Ben and I can go “rage” on our snowboards later this week, but the reality is that if Hurricane Sandy is as bad as they are predicting it is not going to be pretty.

Snow storm during Halloween weekend 2011 in Vermont

Ben and I ventured upstate exactly one year ago today to enjoy the fresh white powder that we thought was a blessing from the snow gods.  Wrong.  Up in Vermont I remember being in a local Rite Aid and buying clean underwear (yes that was the only place open at the time) because neither of us had packed a bag to stay over for an entire weekend.  Here is the reality that many Americans never saw. Areas such as Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut had barely recovered from Hurricane Irene.  In Rite Aid that night one woman would forever hold my attention.  Hands blistering red, begging the Western Union machine to work so that she could afford to buy a pair of gloves in order to shovel out her house.  Tears streamed down the woman’s cheek and as I glanced at Ben I decided to dip into the remaining $234 in my bank account, aka in my name and buy her a decent pair of winter gloves.  Later on in the trip Ben and I were forced to drive through two states (Massachusetts and Connecticut) before we were able to find gas or food.  My entire revelation that the snow was a blessing suddenly came to a crashing halt.  Sitting there in the Friendly’s off of 95 in Connecticut were five to six eighty year old individuals who were discussing how they were going to survive without power for two weeks.

NASA Sees Hurricane Sandy as the “Bride of Frankenstorm” Threaten U.S. East Coast (Photo credit: NASA Goddard Photo and Video)

Page 1 of 4 | Next page