Hurricane Reaction #2

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It’s business as usual for most parts of Brooklyn. All the stores are open and people are out eating, drinking, living normally. It’s kind of sad that we just go on like everything is fine here while the rest of the city suffers. I didn’t make it to Red Hook to help out today. I plan on going tomorrow. I’ve pretty much done nothing to help anyone this entire week. I feel guilty. I don’t know if I should? I was lucky to have made it through so easy.

I tried to give blood twice already and failed both times. The first attempt was at a blood drive that was canceled without any notice. It just didn’t exist. The second was yesterday. I went to the main blood center in Brooklyn and there was a three-hour wait just to get in. I decided to try and come back the next day, but I didn’t make it. I will try again tomorrow. It seems that most of Brooklyn has the same idea as I do. Everybody is trying to give blood but the system has become overloaded. The line was literally out the door.

I heard the gas situation is so bad now that waits are like 12-24 hours! Some cab drivers got in line last night at 2 am and according to the news, just got gas now, at around 3 pm.

So power seems to be coming back on in parts of the city, but Staten Island, the Rockaways, Long Island, and the Jersey Shore are still completely fucked up. One of my classmates lives in Coney Island. She said she evacuated afterwards because her high-rise building suffered structural damage. She said the whole area is complexly destroyed. I think my supervisors both had flooding. I haven’t been to work all week and I have no idea if I’m supposed to go back on Monday. Nobody has let me know. Classes will resume this week, this I do know.

I’m happy to report that the NYC marathon has been canceled, thankfully. There was no ethical or moral level that would have made this event acceptable right now. It would have been an atrocity to have runners moving through parts of Staten Island where people are homeless and starving. Many pro-marathon people have used the 9/11 comparison to champion the marathon’s going ahead. I find this a horrible argument. 9/11 was a disaster but really only affected one part of the city. The marathon arose as symbol of recovery and resilience, but the race was months after 9/11, not a week. The disasters are so dissimilar that this argument cannot be seen as legit. I’m glad they canceled it.