Sandy Aftermath, Sights Seen

Yesterday I took the bike into Lower Manhattan for a look around. Flooding aside with the power out there were no subways rumbling, no red lights for people to ignore or linger of front of which meant no horns blasted in disgust. Granted there was vehicular movement, but it had the ebb and flow more in common with country intersections than city speedways (although the cab's did all seem powered by Red Bull). Here's a lot more of my musing from the trip:

The food in most of the small biz food spots, diners etc was being eaten by the staff as they sat in front of the establishments.

People have realized you electric outlets are everywhere, saw people sitting on the floor at the bank charging laptops and phones

I was busy standing almost in the street taking photos of a flooded tunnel when I noticed a city bus creeping up on me. I quickly got out of the way and walked passed, only to realize the bus driver was taking pictures of the same thing.

Homeland steaks started cooking their entire inventory on the street at 9th ave btw 15th & 14th streets. smoke billowed a line formed (most people not exactly sure for what) and smiles floated through over the sidewalk along with the scent of marinated steak grilled to perfection. Then the police showed. Their window rolled down and a steak was offered to them as to the other New Yorkers and soon they were on their way. It was the kind of classic New York scene you only find in memory or a movie like Ghostbusters. Steak was delicious by the way, I'll have to go their for dinner when the world is a little less upside down.

(as mentioned) It's weird how quiet manhattan is if you just take away the subway and red lights. seriously I heard almost no horns. because no one was reminding someone to go through the green light. drivers for the most part have to look to see whether they can drive. much more attentive that way.

had this thought,"The Street Lights have fallen!! Give over your allegiance to our new lord and road masters the taxi!!"

Cabbies were speed demons.

Streets were nearly to totally empty. If ever you wanted to film a dystopic future set movie or that zombie apocalypse that everyone is so found of, now's the time. early morning especially.

I had a "I Am Legend" moment as I approached a barricade at the South Street Seaport not far from the base of the Brooklyn Bridge. The moment got more surreal when suddenly two blackhawk helicopters appeared and landedgreated by reporters and troops. I don't know what that was about.

I only saw three people who looked hilariously stereotypically shady to me. I mean pick any movie with a criminal and these three dudes (of diverse backgrounds but essentially the same grimy gear) fit the mold. the were trying doors at an office building.

Someone mentioned cab drivers would rack up because of the lack of transportation. I disagree. Cab driving in this situation is risky because most fares looked packed to get the hell out of dodge. If that happened the cabbie would spend way to much time on one-way fares.

Who was racking up? Food cart dudes. Matter of fact if you know anyone with a coffee truck, send them to astor place stat. (Gothamist posted a story about this later)

North of 30th Street no one seems care, they aint waiting, they aint worried.

Having a bike is gonna be so awesome when the electromagnetic pulses start.

Con Ed's storm plan went out with a bang. (Yesterday's planning won't stop tomorrow's storms)

Technically speaking, this time, you can't fault Con Ed.

The electrical utility planned for Hurricane Sandy and the storm surge of water it would cause. They preemptively cut power to areas of the city whose power lines were likely to be flooded (as detailed in this article from Bloomberg Businessweek News) and they had previous experience with extreme storms most recently last year's Hurricane Irene which cause a 9.5 foot increase in the water level near the substation. The utility was prepared to stop a storm surge of 12 feet reasonable thinking when considering that since 1821 the highest storm surge had been 12.5 feet.

But we clearly live in a climate changed world. What was isn't what's likely to be. The storm surge on Monday night rose to 14 feet.

When flood waters (not very deep once it crested and flooded through the streets, but deep enough) made it through the grates and into the 14th Street Con Ed Sub-Station that's when all the planning went down the drain.

The Bloomberg article said it best,

"It's like what happened at the Fukushima nuclear complex in Japan last year — without the radiation."

As you should expect as a reader of this blog, I have a personal story about that sub-station; a relative worked there back in the day and took me by once when he had to drop off some gear. I won't wax on as I usually do, although there is a great story about cats and birds to be told, the point is there is an unbelievable amount of infrastructure on that site. Volatile vital energy infrastructure. That we need to live on in this city. Ask anybody who lives on a respirator or the much less inconvenienced but still frustrated people hanging on street corners in midtown trying to get a cell signal.

I hope the Governor's remarks about updating New York City's ability to withstand the climate we live in today and tomorrow is sincere. And most important that we the people get why we need to pay up to improve and prevent the situations.

Btw if you haven't seen it here comes the boom(starting from 22 seconds in), from the 14th Street Con Ed Sub-Station:


If you want to know why shutting power down is the best bet and why electrical power stations go boom when exposed to salt water (and you couldn't be bothered to read the linked article, here's your crib-note from the same article)

"When live electric equipment is inundated with salt water, electricity escapes every which way, sending sparks flying and damaging equipment. "You see a huge blast just from the short circuit," says Arshad Mansoor, senior vice president for research and development at the Electric Power Research Institute, an industry-funded research group."

So my two cents. Lets look at the cost of repairing the damage from this storm, plus the lost wages and tax revenue, and productivity (and lives directly attributable if any) project that forward based on the frequency and intensity of storms in the last 10-20 years and see if that comes close to what it cost to make long term fixes. One way or another we're gonna pay for this better it be less now vs more later.