Last weekend, I heard from the news that Hurricane Sandy is coming. Although I didn’t expect it to be this bad, I was kind of hoping that the storm could get me a short break from the schoolwork. Who would’ve thought that this small break I hoped turned out to be a “buy 2 days rains get 5 days power outrage free” package? Ever since Saturday, I had been following the news almost 24/7, hoping to find some useful information about the hurricane. Apparently, the information was useful, but I did not quite believe it. Like many others in the city, I was comparing it to Hurricane Irene and thus thought to myself: how bad could it be?
Well, it was really bad. On Monday at about 8 p.m., when I looked out my window, this is what I saw:
Although the water didn’t get to my building at all, it was stunning to see the east river water covering the ground of Roosevelt Island! I immediately went down to the ground floor with my phone, wanting to get more photos of the water, but none of the new photos were as shocking as the first one I took from my window.
The water didn’t stay too long, when my mom and I look out the window at about 2a.m., the water was already gone. Still, comparing this to the raindrops of Irene, Irene was a baby! Before I went to bed, I thought to myself: This is only Zone B, where they said evacuation was unnecessary; I wonder what happened in Zone A like Battery Park?
As we all know now—power outrage happened. New York City was split into two by lights.
Wow. I really enjoyed your pictures. It made me visualize the flooding.
I find it very strange that the water quickly receded on Roosevelt Island.
What I heard from a friend who lives on Roosevelt Island was that the wind was scary. Since almost all of the housing are apartments, go figure.
Honestly, I didn’t hear anything about Roosevelt Island in the news, so that means everything went well?
By the way, how high is Roosevelt Island? Is it sea-level or a bit elevated?
Yes, the wind was pretty scary, when I went down to take pictures, I felt like I was about to be blown away– literarily. I would think that the island is a bit elevated, but since it was near the water like the FDR drive, you can’t really expect much from it (it was kinda fun though, with the condition that the water went down pretty quickly). I would say just image it on the same level as the FDR drive along E70 street.