The warnings about New York being hit by a hurricane did seem over he top. On the Sunday afternoon, before Hurricane Sandy arrived, we spotted signs informing everyone that the transit system would start closing down at 4pm.
Despite these warnings, I was still walking around in Jeans and T-Shirt, as I continued on the Open Top Bus Tour I was on. I did notice shop owners boarding their shops up, and when he tour arrived back in Times Square, even the big shops like The Disney Store,had also started to clad their windows for protection.
The first sign that we knew that Hurricane Sandy had hit, was about 8pm on the Sunday evening. Luckily we were ensconced In our apartment when the lights went out. We were without electricity, as was the whole of Manhattan. The electricity didn’t come back on until the following Friday night,
Everyone slept through Sandy’s visit to the city. So apart from the lack of electricity, we were unaware of the damage it had done, until we went out looking for breakfast:
This was 5th Avenue at 9am on Monday Morning. Normally at this time, this road would be buzzing, but instead, there was an eerie quietness. We quite quickly found out that the transit system was still closed, the bridges linking Manhattan to the rest of the city were closed, which meant people couldn’t get to work. This along with the lack of electricity made our quest for breakfast a very difficult task.
As we started walking North, and noticing the lights of Times Square flashing away, we thought that would be the best place to head towards. But without transport, there was no-one around to open for business:
Eventually we stumbled across the Brooklyn Diner. A little pricey by American standards, but they were open!!!! Although, understandably a basic menu, the food was fantastic. So much so, we returned for breakfast for the following three days.
Outside, everything was rather bleak. The city was deserted, and the trail end of the storm was still to be felt, as the wind picked up, followed by rain.
It wasn’t until Wednesday (three days after the storm hit), that New York began to return to some form of normality. Shops and businesses began to open, all be it on reduced opening hours, but still lower Manhattan, including the Financial District and Greenwich Village were still off limits. There was a community spirit very much present.
Many places that managed to open, were offering people the chance to charge their telephones, and offering free access to their wi-fi networks. It was qutie a sight really. Buisness were closed, for example Starbucks, but they opened up their wi-fi network, so you had people standing outside, with their smartphones against the windows to get the free access. How I wished I took a picture of this to show you.
Without access to the TV, we had no idea how the storm was being portrayed to the world. Trying to conserve the power on my phone after our power cut, I had it switched off for the most part. The plan was every morning to switch the phone on to check for messages. On Monday morning, when I did this, my phone went mad. Messages from family, friends and work colleagues – I think I had 15 messages. It is nice to know so many people cared enough.
It wasn’t until much later, when back home, I caught a piece of the BBC news broadcast during the hurricane, and I can now understand people’s concerns. It was portrayed on the news rather differently to what we had actually witnessed. There were stories of looting, fights in shops etc, but as I said, we didn’t see anything of this.
Sandy’s visited made for a very different holiday to the one that was planned. However, it was an experience that I will always remember. Once we had access to food, everything was fine. I think we got to see a very different New York to the one we would have seen without Sandy.
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