Mama Cederberg came into town on Thursday for a short visit before she was scheduled to leave for a cruise vacation with some of her lovely friends from college out of New York Harbor. When she said to us, 'Did you hear about storm coming in next week?', our response was 'ohh... yea, I heard it might rain....'. Can you say understatement of the year?!
Over the next 24 hours, Mama and friends decided to abandon their cruise plans because, HELLO!, there was a huge hurricane brewing out in the Atlantic. We began watching the news closely while forecasters showed Hurricane Sandy whipping by Florida and the lower East Coast. Now that we live in Battery Park City, we knew that if this Hurricane continued on its projected path, we would be evacuating. One thing the two of us have learned over the years (ahem, "Hurricane Sean".....) is not to mess with hurricanes.
When Sean's company decided to have their own team evacuate to hotels near the office so they could continue working during the hurricane, we followed suit. We figured if were going to evacuate, we might as well be with other people. Sunday afternoon we packed up evacuation supplies, a few days worth of clothes and belongings and little Rory and headed to the Mave Hotel near Madison Square Park. While we were VERY thankful to have a place to evacuate to, let's just say, we don't recommend this as a hotel to stay in. Let alone when you are evacuating during a hurricane (i.e. can't escape to the outdoors for entertainment), have a dog, and are 6 1/2 months pregnant. Also, not an ideal to be holed up on your birthday (Happy 26 to Kasey!)
Before Kasey and Rory went one of their few outdoor trips. 27 week bump and a mirror shot that accurately shows the size of the hotel room (yes, what you see is the whole room!)
Poor Rory hated the cold wind and rain, especially in a strange neighborhood. He was not a happy camper but definitely didn't mind snuggling in bed all day long!
Later in the afternoon, Sean came home with some delightful news (given the circumstances). We were moving hotels! HALLELUJAH! The rest of his team was staying a block away at the Carlton Hotel and they had an extra room in their block. So we packed up (in about 5 minutes flat) and ran over to the hotel. By this point in the day, the storm was definitely getting stronger and you could cut the tension on the streets with a toothpick. We hunkered down with Rory (who loved his new hotel room so much more because he could run around like a maniac), had dinner with Sean's team, and settled in for the night watching the news coverage. Sandy was quickly approaching the New Jersey coast and we watched as reporters showed our neighborhood slowly become filled with water.
Just as we were starting to wonder how much water would actually fill Battery Park and whether or not our apartment building would flood, the power went out and we were left listening to high winds and powerful rain in the dark. It was like the icing on top of Kasey's non-existent birthday cake. While this was discouraging (and quite scary!), in that moment we were very thankful that the 3 of us were safe in a warm bed, in a secure hotel with a generator, and were on the 2nd floor (pregnancy and large flights of stairs are not a very cool combo). We immediately called our families to see if they had any information on what was going on, why we had lost power, and tell them we were going to preserve batteries, turn our phones off and go to sleep.
Neither one of us slept very well that night. We were restless with worry and nerves. We cuddled Rory close and waited for daylight to come back through the windows. Anxious for the wind and the rain to subside outside.
The next morning we learned of the power explosion on 14th Street that knocked out all of the power below 39th Street. With no end in sight as to when there would be power and when we could go home, we started the hunt for a new hotel to escape to. By that afternoon, we were moving into our 3rd hotel room in 3 days, further uptown. The taxi ride up there was like a movie. We went from deserted streets with no power, no people and no traffic, to crossing 39th street into a world that was completely untouched. People were out and about. Times Square was bustling with tourists and people looking for available outlets to charge phones and computers and find a hot cup of coffee.
Wednesday morning Sean and his team piled into cars and headed out to the company's emergency offices in New Jersey. New York City was now hard at work trying to get back up and running. The news was filled with horror stories of people who had lost everything. Whole neighborhoods were gone. Beaches and boardwalks destroyed. Lives lost to the water. Millions with no electricity or access to transportation. MTA was completely shut down and trying to get back up on it's feet. There was a limited number of taxis on the roads and were instead packed full of commuters driving into the city.
Our city was paralyzed.
By the afternoon, we received word that our apartment building had not only remained completely dry, but they had also never lost power! We were shocked! It seemed like a lie, how could that even be possible? How did WE get so lucky? We lived in what was supposed to be the worst hit area of Manhattan and our building was fine? Out of pure excitement, Kasey and Rory jumped into the first cab they could get (which took about an hour!) to venture downtown and find out what was going on with their own eyes. Stepping out of the cab and being greeted by our beloved doorman, Dennis, it was like nothing had ever happened! There were families walking the sidewalks and playing on the playground. Complete calm and peace was over the neighborhood. Hurricane? What Hurricane?
We came in to find our apartment exactly as it had been left. The refrigerator and all of it's contents were still completely in tact, TV and internet worked perfectly, and nothing seemed to be out of place. We looked out the window to see kids on the playground, totally normal. Looking further beyond the playground was where the strange-ness began. The West Side Highway underwater. The Brooklyn Battery Tunnel entrance completely underwater.
We set out to investigate and see for ourselves what all of this looked like. What did it look like? A dream. Completely fake. Roads and tunnels that are normally jammed with traffic were now full of water. It seriously felt like a movie. We walked over to the Esplanade that runs along the Hudson. Despite having a layer of sand covering the walkway, it appeared pretty much unscathed. Our doormen described the night to us, explaining that the water never approached the building, only rising on the Esplanade for a short time in the middle of the night, and that the true flooding had existed in Battery Park and on the highway. Looking down the block to the WSH, we just couldn't picture it as a running river of water as was being described to me. We couldn't. We could barely process the amount of water that was currently standing there.
Later that week we saw videos of the "West Side Highway River" and still to this day can't process it.
After a few more (very long) cab trips to/from the hotel and apartment, through empty, flooded and destroyed neighborhoods, Kasey and Rory decided to stay in the apartment that night. Sean stayed at the hotel to make the commute to New Jersey with his team easier.
For days (and weeks) surrounding neighborhoods lived without power, some still flooded. There was the constant sharing of Sandy stories. "How did you make out in the storm?" We got phone calls, emails, and texts from all over of family, friends and acquaintances wondering if we were okay or even had a home to go. We felt so guilty saying everything was fine and our building was unharmed. Other Manhattanites would look us in utter disbelief when we said we had power and were back home on Wednesday.
We are so thankful for our safety throughout Hurricane Sandy and our hearts remain with those who lost everything. We wish we could have done more to assist in relief efforts but we tried to do what we could. We are so proud of our city for how it managed to get through this tragedy and is slowly repairing itself. It has been amazing to watch a community come together to repair itself in this time of need.
We wish we had more photos of our adventure with Sandy but honestly, there was too much happening every minute to think about documenting it.
One of these days we hope Sean shakes off these Hurricanes....
lots of love,
kasey + sean
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