One Girl's Hurricane Experience

Hi, all!  It's been a tough couple of weeks.  I totally harrumphed Hurricane Sandy the day before it arrived, but wow, she did a number on us.  I'm way more fortunate than the hundreds of thousands still affected - and affected much more - but last week felt like the longest week of my life.

I was working such long hours the week before the hurricane that I didn't even hear of it until Saturday when I went paint-balling with a group of friends, who warned me to buy supplies like water and canned goods.  I shrugged it off, thinking it was much ado about nothing.  

Come Sunday afternoon, I still wasn't worried, and even confidently proclaimed to a classmate after my Flamenco guitar class, "What's the worst that could happen?  We lose power?  Pshaw!  They wouldn't dream of leaving MANHATTAN without power for, like, a week!"  But, prodded by my mother, I reluctantly went to the grocery store to pick up some bottled water... and walked in to find a madhouse.  You could cut the anxiety in the store with a knife.  The shelves were all empty, devoid of any non-perishable sustenance.  The lines for the cashiers snaked around the store.  The first sense of forbidding crept in, and I readied my uppercut as some twit tried to grab the last three bottles of water on the shelf as I was reaching for them.  

I worked from home on Monday since the hurricane was supposed to arrive in the late afternoon.  The winds grew steadily all day until it was a continuous shriek.  My entire living room and bedroom walls are windows facing directly into the direction the storm was coming; they were all shivering violently and I watched with horror as they warped inwards.  It was straight out of a scene from The Matrix.  I spent the entire sleepless night cowering in the hallway, thinking they'd all blow in and I'd be decapitated.  

My building is a huge high-rise; I knew that our water is pumped up to a water tower on the roof with electricity.  So when I saw the building across from my apartment suddenly go dark, my heart started pounding, and I ran to fill every pot and jar I had with water, since my bathtub stopper doesn't actually stop.  As I was rummaging in the cabinets for another receptacle, I was plunged into a deep, howling darkness.

Five days without power, heat or running water was miserable.  The day after the storm, I stayed at home, afraid to turn on my cell phone (to save battery power) since I had no idea whether the entire city had no power and how long it would last.  With no form of communication, I sat at home imagining the world outside my apartment to be like the movie I Am Legend, where I would have to Hunger Game-fight my way.  In my mind, I mapped out my plan when people started running out of water in two weeks.  I was fully prepared to weapon up and hack my way to the Central Park reservoir for fresh water.  

After I finally turned on my phone to check messages in the late afternoon, I learned that the world had not ended and that I could put away my kitchen knife.  I had plenty of friends in the city who didn't lose power and weren't flooded, and who were cheerily going about their lives.  They graciously insisted that I shower and sleep at their places, but no matter how many showers I took there, I still felt... dirty.  And both physically and emotionally drained.  It was exhausting, worrying about and constantly searching for basic necessities such as light to see by, water and a hot meal.  I was irrationally anxious about using up the juice in my cell phone and being communication-less if there was an emergency.  Walking in SoPo (South of Power, Manhattan's latest neighborhood!) after about 5 p.m. took nerves of steel (or a companion or three) since the streets were shrouded in complete darkness, and there were... characters... hanging out in doorways and under construction awnings.

I suppose one good thing that came out of the hurricane was my ordering (on the day before the hurricane since no one wanted to go out to dinner) a lightbox and lighting set that I have been coveting for years but never got around to doing the research and actually buying.  Check it out!

I just got it today, and immediately set it up.  I can't wait to post much sharper and true-to-color photos of my cards and other projects (like my cocktails!).

Things have more or less returned to normal for me; I escaped the ordeal with no lasting trauma (besides an obsession with keeping my phone fully charged at all times).  Unfortunately, the first Nor'easter of the season arrived this afternoon.  Snow is swirling outside my windows, and I'm mindful that others aren't as lucky to be safe and warm like me.  Please aid in hurricane recovery efforts if you can - every little bit helps!

(Here is a fun link showing New York City and its residents in the aftermath of the storm.)