Hurricane Sandy

Thursday finds us very much still in the recovery from Hurricane Sandy. She came to NYC Monday evening, power went off at 8.30pm and has yet to return to many. It was, or is a strange experience. Coming from England where we are fairly far removed from natural disasters, Sandy bought both apprehension and a little excitement, stemming from my intrigue. Preparations began, for being stuck inside, for not having power for the evening or at most a day or two. Then came the evacuations and the boarding up of the subways. Still, over-preparation is best right? Myself, along with many did not think it would be as bad as it was. Flooding was extensive, many lost a lot. 

All photos via Gizmodo

Power is still out in Lower Manhattan, an eerie experience with street lights and traffic lights not working, Halloween took on a whole new meaning, the streets are empty. Upper Manhattan is another story, they never lost power and life is slowly but surely returning to normal. Whilst downtown we are still enveloped in darkness. 

Yesterday we were evacuated out of NYU dorms and are camping in a University building which is a pretty surreal experience made infinitely better when Alec Baldwin, a NYU alumni, popped in to say hello and to keep morale up.

The time lapse video shot from the 51st floor of the New York Times building highlights the two polar opposite experiences of the storm...

bright lights uptown, complete darkness downtown

What I find particularly interesting is how much press Sandy got when she was headed to North America, we forget that it hit parts of the Caribbean and Central America with devastating results.

It's pretty amazing how quickly the clean up started on Tuesday morning. Workers, electricians, servicemen, all left their families to start work on fixing the city for the rest of us. And slowly but surely it is getting back to normal.