Weather: Times Past
Baby Boomer
Rochdale Village, Jamaica, Queens, New York
Hurricane Sandy ~~ October 2012
Hurricane Sandy ravaged the East Coast of the United States in October 2012. Anyone who lived along the coast (Zone 1) meaning near the ocean had to be evacuated from their homes. My cousins who lived in Rockaway which is right near the beach had to come to my house because they had no power. Many New Yorkers lost electricity and heat. Fortunately at that time I lived in a housing development called Rochdale Village located in Jamaica, Queens, New York which is inland and had its own power plant.
However I could not go to work as the subways were flooded with water. The New York City subway system is still recovering from Sandy storm damage. New York really does not get many hurricanes.
Prior to this one we did have Hurricane Irene which also did damage but not as bad as Sandy. Both the Governor and the Mayor declared a state of emergency advising all citizens to stay indoors. The damage was so bad that the Annual Halloween parade was cancelled. All night I could hear the powerful winds rattling the windows and loud booms which later on when I went outside were the trees being uprooted and hitting the ground.
Below you can see how many trees were uprooted by the strong which shows you the power of the winds. It was like a giant hand had reached down from the sky and pulled them up roots and all. Here you can see Sandy’s wrath.
Espiritu en Fuego/A Fiery Spirit 
That must have been frightening. I’m s glad you got through it OK.
xxx Huge Hugs xxx
It was but it is now past. Hopefully Mother Nature will not become that angry again in the future.
Thanks Deborah. I agree that the force of the wind is staggering but perhaps it is the force of Mother Nature generally. I have just watched the news and the pictures of cars and big trucks being picked up by flood waters was sobering. You were lucky you lived somewhere that had their own generator. Even one night with candlelight tests the patience. I’m glad you survived them both. I remember reading about the flooding in the subways. Seems like such a long time ago and yet you can still see evidence of it. Keeping my fingers crossed for you that New York remains free of hurricanes for a long time to come. You get your share of blizzards and deep snow falls, you don’t need hurricanes also.
Thanks Irene!! I do remember a big East Coast Blackout from the 1960s when I was a little girl. As I recall the entire East Coast Corridor of the United States lost electrical power. My parents always kept candles in the house so I know about candlelight. Usually these giant power outages happen in the summer with the extra pull on the electrical grid from people using AC and other devices. The last big Blackout happened maybe 12 years ago. I remember it took forever to get home from work because there were no traffic lights and everybody was running helter skelter crossing the streets. However I don’t have any photos from any of the Great Blackouts just Hurricane Sandy.
I can imagine somewhere like New York without traffic lights must be a nightmare. One of our states (South Australia) has struggled with the extra summer requirements. They are a totally renewable energy state but have an arrangement with another state to top them up when necessary. I think that didn’t happen. Lets hope we don’t have too many of them going into the future.
With summer approaching in New York City let’s hope the Northeast power grid holds up.