Marty and The Hurricane: Final Edition

Well, here we are. The final chapter in my Hurricane Sandy coverage. What a journey it's been. We laughed, we cried, I got mad at an Asian guy, that tree I said was going to tip over did come down, but it was cut down. I've watched the video of me covering the 'flooded' streets outside my apartment more than everyone else combined. The people in my building throw terrible parties. I've typed hurricane so many times that I keep leaving he 'e' off. But now it's time to get serious.

If you want to hear about all the damage the hurricane caused, I'm the wrong guy to talk to. Not much happened in my immediate vicinity. I saw nothing that did any real damage. That tree that almost fell and a sign blowing down was the worst I saw. If you want to see some of the havoc it caused, go check out these pictures.

I was going to go out today and get some video. It didn't seem right. That and the only video to get was a bunch of tree branches on the ground and a fence that had been blown on top of a car. Much of the flooding has receded. You can't get to the areas that are still flooded. A video seemed pointless.

You can't see the guy in the carousel sweeping because I suck at taking pictures

I did take a walk around. I started out in Downtown Brooklyn, by my apartment. It was weird walking around. Normally there is so many people and cars. That wasn't the case. Despite the fact there is power, most of the businesses are closed. A few of the local eateries and grocery stores are open. A few people were out and walking about, surveying the damage downed trees had made or going to the stores that were open.

I decided to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. See how things were in Manhattan. The first thing I noticed, while walking across the bridge, is that the carousel that was surrounded by water last night, isn't anymore. You can still see the line of debris that the tide left.

As I crossed over into Manhattan, I realized something about Downtown Brooklyn that I hadn't noticed while I was walking around there. The traffic signals were working. The power was out, and still is out, in much of Lower Manhattan. The volume of traffic wasn't anything near what it normally is, but there were still quite a few cars out. Most of them taxis. Many of the intersections were just free-for-alls, for cars and pedestrians. The busiest intersections did have traffic officers directing traffic. But even those intersections were still up for grabs for whoever wanted to get across them. The only time there seemed to be any order in the way traffic moved, was when a police car, ambulance or firetruck was trying to get through.

There were more people out and walking around in Manhattan then there were in Brooklyn. Walking around in Brooklyn was weird, but Manhattan was eerie. These people were just out and walking around because there was nothing else to do. They weren't walking around to see the damage that had been done. They were out because their power was out. Walking around was all they could do.

Everything was dark. Even the occasional local coffee shop that was open was dark. Their stores were dark, save a few candles, but they were still serving hot coffee. I assume they were running their machines with generators. I saw one street vendor doing his thing and making gyros. He had a line around the block.

The power was out everywhere I went. I walked around most of Lower Manhattan. I went as far north as 23rd Street. Which is actually about where you see the power coming back. Had I kept walking, I would have seen that. (For reference of how far I walked, the Brooklyn Bridge puts you at roughly -15th Street.)

Bus service is slowly starting back up. The subway system is probably going to be down for awhile. Which is a huge blow to the city, and myself. Many of the stations flooded. Several of the lines that travel underwater also flooded. For now, I'm stuck walking around. For some reason, I don't like taking the bus. Even though there is nothing wrong with it.

Walking around made me realize how lucky I was. I didn't even see any of the damage done by the flooding, or the fires up in Queens. Just seeing how much of the city was without power, and may remain so for days, was enough. I never even lost power for a few seconds.

When I crossed back over the bridge, I forgot how lucky I was. Seeing the working street lights and the stores with lights on made me forget. Power makes you forget things.

Sand streak number 1

When I walked back into my apartment, I was reminded once again of how lucky I was. About a foot a part, near my front door, were two streaks of sand. I have no idea how they got there. There are no vents nearby that they could have come from. The streaks were to orderly to have come from my shoes. I don't walk in that area anyways. It's like Sandy was trying to tell me something.

"Hey dumbass, you already forgot how lucky you are. Well, here is my calling card. Maybe next time you won't forget, or be so lucky." That's probably what she was trying to tell me.

Streak 2 was a lot more orderly before I ran my fingers through it to see what it was