Author Archives: Vladimir Brezina

By Vladimir Brezina and Johna Till Johnson

<— Part 3

Even rats drowned

Sandy’s gone.  She’s now somewhere to the northwest of us, passing into Canada, still producing wind, rain, and snow. If last year’s storms Irene and Lee are any guide, the heavy rain and flash flooding will be devastating, particularly in hilly areas.

But here in New York City, Sandy is over. Her consequences, however, are another matter. First, the good news: Not all that much rain fell in the city (though exact statistics are hard to come by at present with many of the relevant internet sites down). The extreme wind—when we had to cower in the bedroom—only lasted from about 6 to 8 p.m. on Monday as Sandy came ashore, a little to the south of us, near Atlantic City, NJ. Then the winds diminished steadily through the night. Yesterday there were still some sharp gusts, but this morning there is little wind, the clouds are breaking up, and it’s becoming sunny. The rain and wind were over much sooner than anticipated.

Cars float in a flooded below-street-level parking area in New York’s Financial District on Tuesday (photo by Getty Images)

The bad news, of course, is that the storm surge followed the worst predictions. Coinciding unfortunately with the time of high tide, “water levels in Battery Park on the tip of Lower Manhattan rose to 13.88 feet at 9:24 p.m Monday, smashing the record high of 10.02 feet set in 1960 during Hurricane Donna,” the National Weather Service reported. As we’d feared, last year’s Irene was just a mild preview.

As a result, New York City is crippled.

Dark Manhattan (photo by the New York Times)

Power outage in Manhattan on Monday (photo by Allison Joyce/Getty Images)

Since many of the seawalls around the city are just a few feet high, the storm surge flooded many low-lying areas—notably Lower Manhattan. The water knocked out electrical power and flooded tunnels and the subway, many parts of which remain flooded. Especially as the salt water has probably ruined a lot of equipment, recovery will take days if not weeks.

Lower Manhattan will probably remain without power at least through the weekend. Cell phone service is spotty. Many subway lines are out indefinitely, though on a positive note, some lines—including our lifeline, the number 6—are to resume service along sections of track that were not flooded tomorrow. Buses are running, but slowly and erratically, since many streets are gridlocked with traffic.

The Brooklyn Battery Tunnel is flooded with about 12 feet of water Tuesday after a tidal surge caused by Hurricane Sandy (photo by Getty Images)

This evening’s Halloween Parade has been canceled. The New York Marathon, scheduled for Sunday, is still on, although skeptics fear that the difficulties of transporting so many people through the city will prove insuperable.

But it could have been much worse—and in many places outside the city, especially in coastal New Jersey where Sandy came ashore, it was.

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By Johna Till Johnson and Vladimir Brezina

<— Part 2

Monday 10/29/12, 11: 30 PM:

From the National Weather Service earlier this evening:

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED WINDS UP TO 110 MPH BETWEEN 1500 AND 3000 FEET. SOME OF THESE VERY STRONG…DAMAGING
WINDS WILL OCCASIONALLY REACH THE SURFACE…PRODUCING GUSTS OF
70-90 MPH ACROSS THE NEW YORK CITY METROPOLITAN AREA…

GUSTS OF THIS MAGNITUDE WILL DOWN NUMEROUS TREES…INCLUDING LARGE
ONES. HIGH RISE BUILDINGS ARE ALSO SUSCEPTIBLE TO DAMAGE WITH
THESE GUSTS. PERSONS ARE URGED TO REMAIN SHELTERED IN A STURDY
BUILDING DUE TO THE THREAT OF FALLING TREES…LARGE LIMBS AND
FLYING DEBRIS.

They weren’t kidding about the winds. Thank heavens we’re not at 1,500 feet, but we are in a HIGH RISE BUILDING! Even on the 17th floor—a couple of hundred feet off the ground—the gusts are fierce and very loud. The window frames appear to be flexing, which is disconcerting. Occasionally the whole building rattles, all 30 floors of it. When an unexpected gust slams into it, we are tempted to take refuge in the bedroom and pull the sheets over our heads.

Instead, we take heart and, while we still have power, are roasting a chicken with red cabbage…

The headlines being updated every few minutes in The New York Times tell the catastrophic story elsewhere in the city:

• More Than 9,000 Flights Canceled So Far
• Crane Collapses on West 57th Street
• Power Losses Cascading as Storm Descends
• More Area Bridges Are Closing
• Building Facade Collapses in Chelsea, N.Y.C.
• Con Ed Shuts Off Power to Lower Manhattan
• Cars Floating on Wall Street
• Record Water Level at Battery, With Higher To Come
• Lady Liberty Goes Dark
• First N.Y.C. Fatality
• Subway Bridge to Rockaways Underwater
• 250,000 Without Power in Manhattan
• New York’s 911 System Overloaded
• Flooding in Tunnels and Subways
• Dangerous Water Levels at Nuclear Plant
• Explosion and Flooding Knock Out Power

Lower Manhattan, October 29, 2012 (photo by Hurricane Sandy)

Floodwaters rush into a subterranean parking garage in the financial district, October 29, 2012 (photo by Rationalist)

Much of Manhattan is now without power (photo by Rationalist)

Another catalog of the bad news is here:

Hurricane Sandy sent floodwater gushing into New York’s five boroughs, submerging cars, tunnels and the subway system and plunging skyscrapers and neighborhoods into darkness.

The storm shaped up to be among the worst in city history, rivaling the blizzards of 1888 and 1947. Two deaths were reported in Queens and more than 670,000 were without power in the region as of 11:30 p.m., according to Consolidated Edison Inc. The company cut electricity to some areas to save its equipment and a transformer exploded at a plant on 14th Street, blacking out others. New York University evacuated its Langone Medical Center when it went dark and backup systems failed.

After the storm’s tide crested about 8 p.m., the East River topped its seawall in the Financial District and flowed up Wall Street in a torrent that turned avenues into canals and intersections into lakes. Flooding took over Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood, submerging cars to the roof, while the Gowanus Canal overflowed and tree limbs plummeted. A downed power line sparked a fire in the beachfront Queens neighborhood of the Rockaways and the sea topped Coney Island’s boardwalk.

A flood gauge at Battery Park, at the southernmost end of Manhattan, registered at 13.88 feet as of 9:24 p.m., beating the modern record of 10.02 feet in September 1960 during Hurricane Donna, the National Weather Service said.

The runways became waterways at New York’s three airports, which make up the nation’s busiest air-travel market…

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority was investigating water entering a subway tunnel in Lower Manhattan, said [a] spokesman for the largest U.S. transit agency, which stopped its 24-hour system for weather for only the second time in its 108-year history. There’s no way to tell when the system run again, he said.

Manhattan came the closest to becoming a true island since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, after officials blocked the majority of 11 major crossings into the borough…

Not good at all.

Part 4 —>