Hurricane Sandy

I promised to blog about this. I received a whole bunch of worried messages through all mediums, (thank you to whoever sent the pigeon) inquiring after my safety so to satiate you all here is a blog proving that I am well. Also our internet was down for a while so that is why this is happening now instead of then. 

As I was on the way home from the gym on what I thought was a calm Tuesday afternoon, I glanced skywards to see clouds gathering way above me. As I was looking up, a bulbous rain drop fell and hit me square on the forehead. Within seconds another droplet hit me in the same way, and another and another. I had not noticed it until then but the wind had picked up and was whipping my sweat drenched hair around my face. 

I knew what this meant. 

The weather here is different, rain showers come quickly and soak you through.

I stopped staring at the sky and began to run home, fatigued by my fat burning, calorie busting workout for champions,  hoping to God I would not be caught in the worst. The rain pounded my bare skin as the wind whipped the leaves off trees and into my eyes. I ran like...Achilles(?), against the raging storm, batting airborne litter and cats from my path. I thought for a second that maybe I should have saved the stray but the words of my grandma rang in my ears: "don't be a hero because we all love you lots and lots. Send us an e-mail and tell us all about it. Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" plus, cats are shit. So I charged on through the evening. 

As I rounded the corner I heard an almighty CRACK and a towering tree left it's mooring and fell into my path, missing my clownish feet by mere inches falling right across the road. I didn't have a mirror or a camera on me but I'm sure panic flashed across my face in a really beguiling and devilishly beautiful way as I warred with nature. 

" DAMN YOU SANDDYYY" I cried as I vaulted high over the twin trunks, Lara Croft (and by that I mean Angelina Jolie) style, landing with a safe double back handspring triple Arabian lay out finish. 

(I've been watching a lot of Make it or Break it recently) 

Just as I thought I had overcome the worst, a trash can lid smashed into a window to my left, shattering it into thousands of little pieces, raining shards down onto me and the street. I was terrified and now bloody but I had not a moment to lose. I brushed the pieces from about my bountiful person and strode on.

This was it, the home stretch. I legged it through the sheer chaos around me, cursing the fact I'd chosen to wear a white t-shirt today. 

After what seemed like an eternity and only seconds all at the same time, I reached the front door and fumbled with my keys. My fingers were so cold and wet that they did nothing my brain was telling them to, my usual dexterity replaced with embarrassing clumsiness. Moreover, I had left my glasses at home and I'm rationing contact lenses so I couldn't see a fuckin thing with this ghastly rain all up in my business. 

In a moment of desperation I tried using my finger to open the lock, but it proved surprisingly fruitless so I returned to the key hunt. Relief washed over me and replaced the fear and insanity as i found my keys. in the nick of time too, because my face was mainly soaked by tears of a hero instead of rain now. 

I cursed loudly and entered the warmth of the house.

 At least now I didn't have to take a shower. 

And that was my encounter with hurricane sandy. Only the events have been changed for your entertainment. 

Ok, that was entirely silly and a colossal waste of your time. Truth is, I'm living in the part of Brooklyn that thankfully WASN'T evacuated. Red Hook in "Zone A" was evacuated and it was lower manhattan that suffered the worst at first with epic flooding and power outs. I didn't actually realise how bad it was until I watched the news in the morning. I can't quote any facts cause the Internet has been out till now and no internet was really the worst we had of it... We didn't have any power cuts or flooding and no trees fell into the house. No windows shattered or cats flew at me. I lived through my first hurricane utterly unscathed.  

We've haaaave however had a week off school because the subway system is so badly damaged. Not only has the influx of water caused electrical fires in some places and damaged the tracks, it also means they are littered with debris that will takes ages to clear away. All the major bridges were closed and even now there has to be at least 3 people in the car or something to get across. I heard that approx. 100 houses burnt in one area because the wind just whipped the flames from one house to the next and the fire dept. couldn't reach them due to all the floods... nobody was hurt thankfully but the death toll overall was 40 last time I checked. 

This is all I picked up, you may have to do some googling to verify. 

We went for a walk the next day to check out just how bad the damage was in our area and here are the pics from our gander...

This was actually taken on a totally independent day from the storm but I feel like it fits with my story...

This is not my photo and Emily doesn't even know I stole it but I feel it illustrates how the storm was worse in other places.

Also not my photo... see above. 

I was going to upload this only and be like "SHIT A HURRICANE CAME aaaannd this is all that happened. We're all fine"

Ella in mid flow

DUDE WHERE'S MY CAR?! Ohh there it is with a branch through it. 

"whaat happenneddd?!"

Thats right. It got a little bit sexual.

Domination.

Take THAT Sandy.

Sandy was feelin cheeky and hid this persons car in a shrubbery. Ohhh no wait, that's a tree. 

I swear I didn't do it. IT WAS SANDY. 

Sandy was over there too. 

THE SKY IS FALLING DAMMIT

The bands of the hurricane were still coming and it got incredibly windy really quickly and then it was still again. 

I had to hold on to my pimp hat

Armageddon face.

Smoking man hole. (electrical fires... AHH)

Doesn't seem like much, but 3 people were draining their basements, pumping the water out onto the street... 

So. Much. Water. 

fin.