Hard Surge

The battering that New York and New Jersey received at the hands of Hurricane Sandy has been devastating.  I live on the far west side near the Javits Center in one of the new towers that has sprung up in the growing Hudson Yards neighborhood over the past few years.  In the crucial hours when the storm pounded the Hudson I could see the water rising and flooding into Hudson River Park in the areas where the Circle Line, World Yacht and the NJ Ferries are docked.  But  just a few blocks south on 31st Street I could see that  Ohm, a tall residential tower that unfortunately has gone dark since Monday night.  I feel very fortunate I'm not one of them.  Con Ed has yet to restore power to hundreds of thousands of residents in lower Manhattan.

Yesterday, I decided after being cooped up inside since Sunday afternoon, I got onto my bike and rode downtown through Battery Park City and then followed the river line past the South Street Seaport and then up through the Lower East Side, the East Village and Murray Hill.  All the areas I rode through were dark.  You could tell people were getting frustrated.  I saw some filling up their large water cooler sized plastic jugs from an open fire hydrant.

One other remarkable site, at least for Manhattan, was what I saw at one of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel entrances--a truck submerged in water.  Lots of water.