The more I see the more astonished I am by what Hurricane Sandy brought to the Northeast. Everything that’s happened to Connecticut looks like a light bruise compared to New Jersey, New York City and Long Island.
This picture shows the entrance to the South Ferry subway station in Lower Manhattan. As I understand it the platform and tracks are 80 feet below street level. This is just the top of an amazing amount of water.
To get that one station working all the water will have to be pumped out, but it’s saltwater. Engineers will have to check rails and electrical gear for corrosion or potential corrosion. Of course they can’t do that until they remove the sludge, silt and trash that undoubtedly has sunk to the bottom.
That’s just one station on one line. There are more, like 86th Street on the left. There are tunnels too, hundreds of miles of tunnels.
Do I even want to think where New York’s subway rats have gone?
New York City will offer limited subway service Thursday morning. I have no idea how they’ll do that. Most of the lines pass near or through areas that were flooded. Most lines store their rolling stock out-of-doors.
In New Jersey some beachfront communities have been leveled. Others cities, like Hoboken, remain underwater with some residents trapped New Orleans style.
New Jersey’s Republican Governor Chris Christie toured some of the worst areas with President Obama. This is what they were talking about when the phrase, “Politics makes strange bedfellows,” was coined!
Christie, the guy who gave Mitt Romney’s keynote address at the Republican National Convention said,
When it comes to getting things done, I don’t care what party someone is in. The responsibility I have is much bigger than politics.
Seriously, if you would have told me I’d see Christie and Obama walking side-by-side arm-in-arm I would have thought you were nuts. Last week this photo would have been questioned as probably Photoshopped!
How the hell do we rebuild from this? It is a monumental task. Has there ever been a rehab project so vast?
I’m sure I’m missing something important, but won’t the forced rebuilding from this disaster end up being good for the economy¹? All of a sudden there are jobs that need our out-of-work tradesmen.
Folks on the Jersey Shore understood the peril of living near the sea, but New Yorkers always felt immune from a natural disaster like this. No more. The bloom is off the rose. Anything’s possible now.
¹ – Seriously, I haven’t given that last line a lot of deep thought and will appreciate any comments setting me straight.