When Sandy Came to Can Do Street

While “Can Do”Street is an imaginary place, the creative place where “Can Do” Street is housed is in New York City. Since Sandy hit Monday, the 29th of October, the offices and homes of those make “Can Do” Street possible have been without electrical power and still are. We have no heat and no hot water. For a day or so, without a car, without buses running, many of us had no food with the closest access to fresh food  over a mile away

There is still nothing open from the tip of Manhattan to above 34th Street, river to river. Most people in Manhattan don’t keep a car. Parking is too expensive. Our mass transit system makes getting around easier than driving. But, when the lights go out, the heat goes off,  the only water is cold, and then the transit system is shut down, daily living becomes a challenge.

One of the staff has a car, so we can  travel beyond the blackout area in lower Manhattan to upper Manhattan where there is electricity and restaurants and stores open. Now gas is an issue. The lines for gas were hours long yesterday. Today, there is no gas to be had. We are getting seriously low on gas.

Buses returned to service on a limited schedule, but the initial traffic jams made commuting a several hour process. Trains are slowly returning to service but still do not operate below 34th Street. There is no train service through the tunnels that link Manhattan to Brooklyn, a route that carries  100,000′s of people to and from their homes to work each day.

Two major hospitals in lower Manhattan had to be evacuated, moving over a thousand patients to safety.

I have only praise for the police and first responders who continue to keep us safe, especially when we must navigate neighborhoods in total darkness as we make our way home from work.

I am writing this post on a laptop with a T-Mobile Wi-fi connection in a library in one of  the outer boroughs of NYC. The going is slow, but it is better than nothing.

Hopefully,  we can start working in our office soon. Until then…thanks for your patience!

best,

Jean