Remembering Hurricane Sandy

I know exactly where I was last October 29 at 11:03 p.m. I was with my work friends and colleagues watching a very fuzzy television set. We were spending the night in a Howard Johnson motel near our office. We watched the destruction of the New Jersey Shore and parts of our own beloved city. I felt I was watching a disaster movie, but the disaster wasn't fiction.

One of the areas of New York City that experienced a great deal of destruction was Breezy Point, where there was flooding and wind damage, as well as the destruction of one hundred and thirty homes by fire. My friends were restoring a beach cottage there and I had visited on a beautiful Sunday just a week before. But a week later Jamaica Bay met the Atlantic Ocean and flooded everything in between.

This pretty scene became history. 

My friend shared the story of what happened to his house and has spent the last year rebuilding. The house once again has walls, a bathroom, a kitchen and a much more solid foundation. I visited last weekend and the scene of destruction shown in the link was replaced by this scene. 

New walls and new floors

 The lines above and to the left of the lock show the level of the flooding.   

To the memory of those who died and in tribute to those who have worked and continue to work to restore the areas and services that were destroyed. My deepest gratitude. 

Guest Post from Breezy Point (2)

Mike returned to Breezy Point yesterday to work on the little cottage and sent me this update to share with all of you.

Mike writes:

 Please tell your blog friends I spent the day at Breezy Point. Still much sadness. Some houses were red tagged meaning the premises was too dangerous to enter. My house got a green tag. That meant that the premises appeared structurally sound from the outside. 


 I had my wife and her nephew with me. He is NYPD (New York City Police Department) and was a great help. The Red Cross was there and the Marines! Those Marines were wonderful. They pumped me out and helped with the debris. Semper Fi. 
 
 We ripped out sheet rock and soaked insulation. The house is still soaked and there is a foot of water in my windows. They look like aquariums. 
 
 I spoke with the inspector later and he told me I was a low to the ground and it is an old house but from the outside it did well against Sandy. They still have to inspect the inside but we got over one hurdle. 

 There was much activity and the debris is in huge mountains. Much sadness and many are so much more unfortunate that we are. 
 
 Thanks for your prayers and wishes. Today was a better day for us. 

As always, many thanks from all of us in New York City for your prayers and encouragement. As you can see your prayers extend beyond the blog page and into the hearts and thoughts of my friends and colleagues. 

It's been snowing for the past six hours. It was a wet, heavy snow earlier and now it's much lighter. Unfortunately it's getting colder and it really feels like a January day and not early November. What a week, with both a snowstorm and a hurricane in the last seven days. 

I'm taking a moment for gratitude. Gratitude for my warm apartment that waited for me tonight, for a hot shower and cup of peppermint tea and blog friends to share my feelings with. Sweet dreams, dear friends!

A Tree Grew in Manhattan and Thoughts on Stuff

I took this picture this afternoon. This is a block from my building. It's the first time I've walked by it in daylight since the storm.  

Thoughts on Stuff

My synagogue has launched an active program for assisting folk who are in shelters. We brought bags of blankets, toiletries and other necessities to the Lower East Side on Friday and today did a collection for the Rockaways. It's gotten cold and there's a real need for warm clothes -- all my extra socks went to a good home -- and blankets. I knew I had some extra shampoo and soap in my bathroom vanity and found a surprise when I went in to find them. I'd had a leak at some time and things I'd put there were damp and in some cases, just ruined. If I'd kept the vanity more orderly -- and had less stuff -- I'd have realized this.  I still had lots of good things to donate, but that made me realize how much I had that I didn't need.

It was the same with my closets. I had lots that I didn't need. Lots! I was able to donate a lovely pair of brown wool pants, size 8. I don't think I've worn size eight pants since Ronald Reagan was President, and then it was definitely during the first term. I'm sure I thought I would one day be able to wear these pants again, but realistically I doubt it. It gave me a good realization of how few items of clothes I really use and really need. I will think very carefully before I buy another scrap of clothes to bring home.  

The two days off -- though keeping up with email -- have been great. I've been thankful for quiet, for friends and for light and heat. I hope you've had a good weekend and wish you well for the week ahead. 

Adventures and Misadventures

The days are filled with adventures and misadventures, but each day seems a little better. New York is still very far from where we were last Sunday, but for many people, including me, life is getting a little easier. Four friends have their power back and they are in Long Island, Westchester, Queens and New Jersey, which beside Lower Manhattan and Staten Island, are the places that have been most seriously affected. The Marathon has been cancelled, which though a great disappointment to many, will free up just about every city service to focus on the immediate task of recovery. Getting fuel is still a major problem, but deliveries look to have started to arrive which will mean that folks who need to drive will be able to do so.

In the land of misadventure I took one of the two subway trains I ride for work this morning. It was literally jammed and I was about to have a major panic attack. I got off the train figuring I could walk four blocks to another stop for my second train and found the area I needed to walk through cordoned off and guarded by police officers.

A gust of wind on Monday broke this crane away from its securement and it's now dangling precariously over West 57th Street, very close to Carnegie Hall. 

I went back to the train I had gotten off and made my way to the office, via two other trains. A little misadventure, but I am very grateful for the (partial) return of the subways. Work continues on getting the complete system back in operation.  

Happily my day at work was relatively calm. My closest colleagues and I are T-I-R-E-D and the fatigue is getting to all of us. I am so grateful that tomorrow is Saturday and unless there is a major crisis I don't have to be in the office. I treated myself to a massage tonight and tried a place right in my home neighborhood. It wasn't a fancy spa, but the massage did wonders for my neck, which was twisted into a giant pretzel. I know I will sleep better tonight. 

I am hoping for a quiet weekend, with services tomorrow morning, lunch with a friend and some cooking. My treat once again is to visit my blog buddies and catch up on the goings on throughout Blogland. I'll be posting, too. I have pictures from Halloween in New York and a report on No-Spending October. 

Wishes for a calm and quiet weekend!

Guest Post from Breezy Point

For the last year I've been encouraging my friend and colleague, Mike, to write a blog about home restoration. He had bought a very run-down cottage in a beach community in Queens, Breezy Point and was totally restoring it. He worked on the foundation, the structure, the plumbing, put in a new electrical system and was just finishing the sheet rock when I went to visit two Sundays ago. The bathroom was just about finished and it was great, with white wainscotting, grey tiled floor and a cute sink and vanity with oak trim. I have become close to Mike's family and have found true friends. I was awed by Mike's work and could already visualize the backyard barbecues next summer. Eight days after my visit Hurricane Sandy arrived and devastation came to Breezy Point.

Mike sent a note out today and I asked if I could share it with all of you, who have been such steadfast supports to us in New York. He graciously agreed and I will also post several photos he took last night. They give a sense of the tremendous damage caused by the storm.

Mike writes:

Work is crazy. I can’t talk right now but it is comforting to know that I have such considerate and caring colleagues. These last few days have eerily remind me of 9/11.  It’s hard to believe the magnitude of this storm. I have been staying overnight at work since Sunday. Last night was the first time I could get to Breezy Point.  Very sad situation there.  It was a lovely little beach community where cars stop to let you cross the street and people you don’t know say hello to you.  It now looks like Hiroshima at the end of WWII.  In some spots, there are little signs that houses were once there.  Other houses are collapsed and others pulled from their foundations. Many homes that escaped an 11 foot tidal surge were later devoured by fire. 

The Little house that my son helped me restore still stands. The high water mark is almost as high as the top of my front door. The whole house filled with neck high water.  My decks and fences have been replaced by debris from some other poor neighbor’s home. I waded through 4 feet of water for at least the length of three city blocks to get to it.  The surge must have been tremendous.  Cars were tossed around like toys.  My refrigerator wound up in my living room.  The Kitchen Sink and cabinets came out and moved across the room. All the inside contents of the house are destroyed and strewn all about. Walls, flooring and wiring and even the kitchen has to be gutted.   Salvageable?  Maybe but there is much damage. 

Regardless, the shell of the house remains standing defiantly proud and the family is sad but well.    

  

Again, my thanks, blog buddies, for all of your support and prayers. 

48 Hours Later

Forty-eight hours ago I was sitting in a room at the Howard Johnson in Long Island City, surrounded by colleagues and it was almost the moment -- 8:12 P.M. -- for high tide. The water and wind were rising, and all the houses in Breezy Point were intact.  In the interim the subways stopped running and water filled some of the tunnels, three friends have lost their homes and over 80 houses burned in Breezy. We are still unsure about the condition of my friends' house. He was hoping to go out there this afternoon and I've asked him to guest blog with photos. I'm not sure if he will, but I know he has been touched by the concern of the citizens of Buttercupland.

I finally came home from work this afternoon to a lovely fall day. There was very little damage to be seen in my neighborhood, and simply by the look of things you would have no idea that one of the biggest storms in history had passed through less than two full days before.

The subway station is still closed, but this line will be running tomorrow to 42nd St. There is no power below that with which to run subways. 

The neighborhood Time Warner office lost a window, but that was the only broken window I saw in a half mile walk. 

My thoughts through the last few days were that I wanted a vacation, a massage and a drink and not in that order. The vacation will have to wait and I hope to get a massage over the weekend. The drink was easy to do, but instead I chose a visit to the new frozen yogurt store a few blocks from my apartment. I had some very tasty pumpkin yogurt and Heath Bar topping and felt very well treated. It's not a trip to New Orleans, but I'm happy to make do with the treat in hand. 

I know we New Yorkers are resilient, but I'm beginning to feel stretched a little too thin. I'm not a worn out rubber band about to snap, but I'd love a few less stretches. Again, all my thanks for the kind words, email, virtual hugs and wonderful feelings of support. My friends, colleagues and I cannot begin to thank you!   

What a Difference a Day Makes

Yesterday at this time...

NYC had a great and functioning subway system.

I was leaving for New Orleans in three days.

My friends' beach community stood between a bay and the Atlantic Ocean.

The subway system...this is the nightmare that those of us in transportation dreaded. If the equipment gets soaked in salt water it doesn't function. There's no estimate when the system will operate again.

I'm not going to New Orleans. I had pretty much decided my heart wasn't into it. It's hard to be care free when you have many cares. Delta sealed my decision when it canceled my flight. I am disappointed, but it's just not the time.

We're not sure about my friends' house, but when you see the photos of the fire at Breezy Point,  that's the place I visited two Sundays ago, with the cute street of houses. We are heart-sick.

Thanks for the prayers, affection and concern. They mean the world to all of us in New York.

Beyond Words

This is a quick update from my phone. I'm okay and with my colleagues in Queens. We have food and power, though I'm not sure when I can get home. The beach community I visited last week is now on fire. So much devastation throughout the city. Please pray for us!

Let the Good Times Roll

I spent most of today at work and my head is swimming with tropical storm vs. two feet of snow vs. thirty foot waves. I accomplished more than I expected, but the path of the storm is so uncertain and so many details are so out of the norm that it's hard  impossible to predict the next twenty four hours, let alone the next few days. Thanks for the prayers and good wishes. They are so appreciated. Please send a few for the little beach community I visited last Sunday. It sits between a bay and the Atlantic Ocean and is exposed to wind and waves. My friends can use lots of prayers for their beach cottage.

Last spring my online buddies and I planned our annual fall get-away. We were in Chicago last year and Memphis the year before. This year (hope, hope, hope there will be flights) we leave on Thursday for the town of beignets and coffee...

 

Source: google.com via Angela on Pinterest

New Orleans!

I booked the trip last May, not quite sure that I would be able to go and it was an incentive -- among others -- in my recovery. Visiting New Orleans and spending time with my dear friends was a great motivation through physical therapy. I have the go-ahead from my neurosurgeon and have been thinking about what to pack and what we will do. I am praying that the airport will be open, flights will be taking off and our plans will become a fun reality. 

Tomorrow I have theater tickets to see "The Heiress." It stars Jessica Chastain, who played the role of Celia Foote in "The Help." I've been looking forward to this for two months and hurricane or no hurricane I am seeing this play!

Friends on the east coast, stay dry and safe! Friends who live everywhere else, have a great Sunday!  

Pinterest Pumpkinfest 2012

Source: cookiesandcups.com via Carol on Pinterest

I had hoped to go with a savory pumpkin recipe for my second pumpkin post and I'd hoped to post yesterday. Instead I am going with just about the biggest, yummiest pumpkin sweet I can find in an effort to deflect my desire to buy and eat a package of pumpkin cheesecake cookies. The bag of cookies looks so good and as, the level of stress is running very high right now in Buttercupland, I am posting a big cupcake to assuage my craving. Here's hoping this little ruse works.

My apologies for a delay in posting, but as Hurricane Sandy comes up the east coast my agency goes into high alert mode. We join all-agency conference calls, I write press releases, I field lots of emails and phone calls and I somehow try to squeeze in lunch. My big excursion of today was a trip to the snack store on the first floor of our building for a diet Snapple. I understand that the governor has declared a state of emergency in New York State, but I am making every effort not to declare a state of emergency in Buttercupland. I stopped in at the grocery tonight and the shelves were still full. The only item that appeared to be running low was ice cream sandwiches, of all things. I am stocked up, including foods to bring to the office over the weekend. Yes, it's going to be one of those weekends. I'm fervently praying that Sandy decides to go out to sea and makes her mind up to do so quickly.  

Tomorrow is a quick run to the cleaner to pick up my jacket and then to work. My treat for tomorrow is do some blog visiting. I know the thought of that will help get me through the day. You may see some quick updates via my phone in the next few days.

Wishes for all for a calm and peaceful weekend!