Hurricanes and tropical storms are strange things here in the Northeast. While the Southeast gets hit fairly often, we were never severely impacted when I was growing up in New Jersey. Even in my first few years in NYC we had a couple of tropical storm remnants hit us, but that just meant a day of torrential rain. No muss, no fuss, business as usual.
Irene was the first game-changer. I had tickets to a Dave Matthews concert on Governor’s Island the Friday of that week when we first started hearing about some hurricane somewhere that might head up the coast. By later that week, transit was going to shut down at noon on Saturday, the concert would go on for Friday, but reschedule the rest of the days at another time. I went to the show, had a fabulous time, spent three hours getting home since ferries are not the most efficient way to transport the thousands at a Dave concert, and hunkered down, fearing the worst.
Sunday, Irene hit, and surprisingly it wasn’t that bad. There was some flooding, but MTA service resumed easily and again, it was business as usual. The Dave Matthews concerts were rescheduled for Randall’s Island because of the logistics disaster at Governor’s Island, which made me laugh. All was good.
Then Sandy happened. Many residents who had freaked out over Irene decided that things wouldn’t be so bad again, it’s just another Irene, and I thought the same. How wrong we all were.
Sandy was a true game-changer, and I stayed up most of that Monday night after working from home all day, watching NY1. I walked out to Carl Schurz Park to grab some pictures around 5:30, and the wind was so strong it literally took my breath away. The water was almost up to the Roosevelt Island lighthouse and that’s when I thought “Ok, this is going to get real.” We all know the aftermath, the flooded tunnels, the wind damage, loss of power for half of Manhattan, and most of all the flooded neighborhoods including Battery Park. No mass transit; I walked to work all week since even once they got buses back on the road, they were so crowded that it was worse than the 6 on a bad day.
It changed the way that I think about these storms. So even though Hermine looks like it will just be wind, I’ve filled bottles with water in case we lose power, bought batteries (especially since my one flashlight’s batteries were dead), and made sure I’ll have food that can be eaten cold, although preferably hot. I’m not panicking, but I don’t underestimate the consequences anymore.
I guess it mirrors life, where if something goes badly wrong, you initially think it will be fine. 90% of the time you’re proved right when it does pass without serious consequences. It’s experiencing the other 10% that trains you to prepare as close to 100% for the times when it doesn’t work out well. Lesson learned: Hermine, I’m ready for no impact as well as a surprise punch, now I need to seriously apply that philosophy to the rest of my life.
Irene was the first game-changer. I had tickets to a Dave Matthews concert on Governor’s Island the Friday of that week when we first started hearing about some hurricane somewhere that might head up the coast. By later that week, transit was going to shut down at noon on Saturday, the concert would go on for Friday, but reschedule the rest of the days at another time. I went to the show, had a fabulous time, spent three hours getting home since ferries are not the most efficient way to transport the thousands at a Dave concert, and hunkered down, fearing the worst.
Sunday, Irene hit, and surprisingly it wasn’t that bad. There was some flooding, but MTA service resumed easily and again, it was business as usual. The Dave Matthews concerts were rescheduled for Randall’s Island because of the logistics disaster at Governor’s Island, which made me laugh. All was good.
Then Sandy happened. Many residents who had freaked out over Irene decided that things wouldn’t be so bad again, it’s just another Irene, and I thought the same. How wrong we all were.
Sandy was a true game-changer, and I stayed up most of that Monday night after working from home all day, watching NY1. I walked out to Carl Schurz Park to grab some pictures around 5:30, and the wind was so strong it literally took my breath away. The water was almost up to the Roosevelt Island lighthouse and that’s when I thought “Ok, this is going to get real.” We all know the aftermath, the flooded tunnels, the wind damage, loss of power for half of Manhattan, and most of all the flooded neighborhoods including Battery Park. No mass transit; I walked to work all week since even once they got buses back on the road, they were so crowded that it was worse than the 6 on a bad day.
It changed the way that I think about these storms. So even though Hermine looks like it will just be wind, I’ve filled bottles with water in case we lose power, bought batteries (especially since my one flashlight’s batteries were dead), and made sure I’ll have food that can be eaten cold, although preferably hot. I’m not panicking, but I don’t underestimate the consequences anymore.
I guess it mirrors life, where if something goes badly wrong, you initially think it will be fine. 90% of the time you’re proved right when it does pass without serious consequences. It’s experiencing the other 10% that trains you to prepare as close to 100% for the times when it doesn’t work out well. Lesson learned: Hermine, I’m ready for no impact as well as a surprise punch, now I need to seriously apply that philosophy to the rest of my life.
posted by AnonymousX at 6:23 PM
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