Hurricane Sandy (-1 for New York)

Just some of the things that had to be thrown out of the basement after the hurricane.

Suggested song while reading: The Rain Song by 

Led Zeppelin

"Oh, winters not too bad," they said. "It was nothing last year," they told me. "Don't worry, you'll love New York," they LIED!

So, I just experienced my first and hopefully last hurricane. Worst ordeal ever! I grew up with earthquakes. Adam with tornados. I tell you I'd rather go through an earthquake than a hurricane any day. Sure I can prepare for a hurricane because we know when it's coming. And you can't get away from an earthquake because the freaking ground is shaking. But, still, after this past week, I'd still rather deal with LA's earthquakes than NYC's shitty cold weather, ridiculous wind and flooding.

I think I remember hearing about the hurricane last Thursday, Oct. 25th. I took it seriously because I take everything over here seriously. Adam was sure, even up until Monday afternoon, that nothing would really happen. I immediately stocked up on candles, batteries and dry food, while listening to others say they weren't going to bother with preparing because last years Hurricane Irene was a bust. Well, I bet they're sorry they didn't prepare now.

But maybe they were just trusting Siri

I'll make this long story as short as I can. I think they closed the trains down first. Adam was supposed to work a double last Sunday, but they closed the trains so he was able to leave early, otherwise he wouldn't be able to get home. I'm not sure when they closed the bridges. Monday came and we finished getting a few more supplies, as I'd only prepared for 3 days. They had first warned about being prepared for only 3 days. But as evening got closer, everyone knew that was not enough. The first thing I noticed was how cold it was. It had not yet been that cold here. Then slowly, the wind began to pick up.

Video of wind around 5 pm, outside our fire escape.

It was completely dark by 6:30. It began to rain and wind pretty hard and around 9:30 we decided to go outside to see for ourselves what the hurricane looked like in our neighborhood. That was when the power went out. We were met outside by neighbors doing the same as us. We all came to find that our street was flooded.

Steps away from out building, the water was already over the curb at 9:45. 

We watched the water coming closer to the steps of our building, and the street level apartment of our neighbors, who hurried inside to move as much furniture as they could, should the water come into their home. The wind was so harsh that it blew the tree down in front of the building to the right of ours. It pushed the water, from both directions, to meet feet from our place.

Sad broke tree

Video showing how dark the neighborhood was and how loud the wind was.

Luckily, just as quickly as the water came, it receded. It did not make it into the bottom apartment. We knew that the basement would flood some, but not as much as it did. In the morning when we went out to see the damage, Adam opened the basement to find that he could take only 2 or 3 steps down the ladder. It had flooded to levels higher than me. Maybe only 2 feet of space from the water to the top of the door, there was enough space for Adam to look over the water and see boxes of ours things, and our neighbors things, floating in filthy water. 

How high the water had risen in the night

There was nothing we could do. The basement needed to be pumped and the fire department couldn't help, and everyone had the same problem to deal with. We were lucky that we didn't have much down there. And not two weeks before I asked Adam to bring up a few boxes of pictures and all my preschool directing materials. It was sometime in the middle of the day that I realized my box of costumes was down there and it actually made me really sad. But the couple who own the two bottom apartments, said they lost thousands of dollars worth of stuff. Wedding things and electronics. My costumes were rather silly.

At around 9 or 10 Tuesday night, they began pumping the water out of the basement. Some guy with a pump was going around charging people $300 bucks to do it. What a great way to make money. What a sad excuse at how people help one another during a shitty time.

The pump emptying the basement

It was frustrating that we did not have phone service. The only way we kept up to date about what was happening was through the man who owns the building next to ours. He's old and been in Jersey City since the dawn of time. He knows everyone and everything. Some people really hate him, but he's been nice to us. We traded services with out neighbors. Alex in the apartment below us had phone service, and we had a car to charge the phone in. Julia and Eric had a grill so they made us some grilled tofu and we sat around their place drinking and talking Wednesday night. We got to know our neighbors finally.

The hardest thing was how cold it was. I don't know if I've ever been so cold. And I know it will only get worse. I cooked soups and veggies by placing candles in the oven, and putting the canned food on the rack above them. It was never perfectly hot, but it was better than nothing. And pretty clever of me I like to think.

We'd heard that the power would be back on Monday Nov. 5th, at the soonest. And gas...who knows when. I just wanted some damn hot water to take a shower. More and more stores were opening (though closing early as there is a curfew of 7pm until further notice), and we ventured to them to have something to do. On Thursday Adam bought a radio so we could keep up on what was happening. But once we arrived home, Eric told us the power had come back on. Thank God! Oh shit now we have to return this useless thing. Gas was restored later that night. But we are still without hot water. The basement was so damaged that a new heater is needed I believe. I don't actually know. I don't own this place.

I lost many games of solitaire: One of our sad dinners: An apartment on our street caught fire after the electric came back on. 

Some photos were still in the basement and got a bit wet. But after drying they are all fine.

 Sometimes on our drives my phone would get service and we'd make a call or two, or check the news. I admit I checked facebook too. It was so weird to see normal posts about normal, mundane things. I couldn't help but feel a little angry. Who the hell cares how cute your kid looked in their Halloween costume! My whole town is without power and that's not even the worst of whats going on over here! How can the rest of the country go on so routinely while major parts of the east coast are suffering so much? I think I really felt humble at the moment. I try to stay current and aware of whats happening in the world.  We live in such small bubbles sometimes, and it's depressing to know that, and to live like that. My things were ruined, car floor flooded, and my anniversary was shot to shit. But in comparison to everything else, it was one of the best days anyone would be lucky to have had. I don't mean to say that I would drop everything in my life when something like this is happening. Tragedy happens everyday. But I would just like to be more aware and mindful of the world around me and the lives of others.

All in all, now that for me it is mostly over, I can say that this experience was not that bad. Not in comparison to how it affected others. Let us think of them, and do what we can to help.

Thank you East Coast for rocking my world.

Now we wait for hot water. For the trains to reopen. To go back to work....to return to California where all I have to worry about is a little bit of a heat wave.