Second day after the storm
The storm has passed so it's the mopping up in hand. The private cars started reappearing yesterday, so that's a sign of recovery.
Once the subways, tunnels and trains re-open it'll be business as usual. It's just that which is stopping the workforce getting in. BUT the electrical damage means where you plan to stay will be important. I was told it'll take "seven days" to get power back downtown. And even 39th St where I was staying (near Grand Central) is dark. I saw a group of Japanese queuing outside a Prada shop in the Rockefeller Center yesterday waiting for it to open. Sort of surreal. Once bridges and tunnels working, I think the City will come back to life - just a bit like a cardiac arrest I guess....
Day after the storm
Yes, chaotic. The perfect storm combined high tides (full moon), a north eastern front clashing with Hurricane Sandy which meant the waves reached 14 feet and promptly splashed into subways, electrical sub-stations one of which blew up like a firecracker. Darkness ensued.
I checked out of my hotel on 39th Street yesterday evening as it had no power, no telephone and no running water and even the lift with the local generator packed up, so we were using the service lift in pitch black darkness which meant the eighth floor had an edge of disaster movie to it. So I left.
With half of Manhattan (south of 39th St) with no power, the tourists and locals all also tried to migrate to mid-town which has run out of space. Nowhere to stay! After unsuccessfully pitching a Philly work colleague for her address book (she's spent the night at her Pennsylvania idyll with no power, under the stairs, trees toppling over her neighbours' houses) I successfully begged space in the end from a Canadian friend who has a condo. Plan B would have been to bunk with poor Adrian Lim who is also trapped in NYC.
It'll all take time to repair. And the parks, schools, trains, subways, restaurants are all closed ("locked down"). Odd to see people herding outside shut Starbucks to get free wifi and tourists aimlessly photographing the devastation. It's a movie town! So the local economy last night was in the hands of the odd Mom and Pop stores, cab drivers. Corporate America has vanished.
Oddly enough it is colder back in England and the rain is pleasantly vertical when it comes, barely a breeze this morning. JFK is due to re-open today but the backlog will take some time to process. I'm due out tomorrow night but now need to know if the bridges and tunnels are re-opened or not today. That's it so far!
