Took a bike ride this morning around Park Slope, Gowanus, Cobble Hill and Red Hook to survey some of Sandy’s damage in our part of Brooklyn. We saw people pumping water out of basements and below-ground apartments, fallen trees crushing cars, and – particularly in low-lying Red Hook – buildings and businesses devastated by floodwaters. At this point all bridges and tunnels were still cut, all public transport service suspended, and hundreds of thousands of people in New York City alone were without power for the foreseeable future. There were horrific fires in Queens, the boardwalk washed away in flooded Atlantic City, and blizzards in Virginia. Wild, wild weather – and not just in the US, but the Caribbean too, where 66 deaths have been recorded.
By most metrics I haven’t been here long enough to consider myself a New Yorker, but it still hurt to see this magnificent city so battered. One thing is for sure though, and that’s that New Yorkers (old and new) love their city like no other and will rally to rebuild her better than ever.
The New York Times and New York Magazine have had good coverage of the storm as it went down. Huffington Post has a great round-up of ways we can help here.
Clare Fletcher 