How and where are you? Are you back on Long Island? Thinking of you and hoping you are warm, safe, and dry. <3
I am in Chicago, warm, safe, and dry!
A few people have also asked about my family - they’re all safe and doing well. My mom & step-dad are without power (and likely will be for about a week) and are stranded because of trees/powerlines covering their cars, house, and street, but they’re safe where they are. They have a gas stove/oven and a barbecue to cook with, plenty of food and water, and a fireplace in lieu of heat.
I haven’t spoken to Gillian because I don’t want to kill her phone battery, but my mom said that she is safe and sound in NJ (and my brother and grandma are also fine in NY), so that’s a relief. My dad’s cell reception is super shitty, but I managed to convey that I had safely arrived at Claire’s and managed to gather that he had power but no functioning phone line before we were disconnected. So he’s fine, but communication is tricksy.
Here’s what my beloved harbor looked like over the summer and what it looked like yesterday afternoon before Sandy even hit:
The first photo was taken seated at a bench a few over from the one that you see flooded in the second picture. Tides are about the same in each photo (in between low and high tides).
For anyone who is unaware, yesterday was a spring tide, meaning that because of the full moon (also occurs with a new moon), the tides are exacerbated: low tides are lower and high tides are higher. Sandy hit during high tide, so combine her swells with the higher-than-average high tide, and you have a recipe for flooding disaster.
My family lives on the north shore, which is usually very calm. The Long Island Sound looks more like a lake. It’s kind of boring, as far as water bodies go, to be honest. Usually we don’t feel much of the effects of southerly storms, because we have the entire island south of us (and unfortunately their beaches) to act a barrier and take most of the pounding for us. This is what the sound looked like yesterday evening, with gusts peaking at 94 mph:
For Danielle and Anna: this is the road where we did our long run when you visited. Probably not very recognizable, as it looks more like the ocean. And because you can’t see the road.
90% of the island is without power. Looks like I made a timely getaway.
wow my night was the best. i went downtown with caitlin, kelsey, dan, and james and it was just grand. it started off with me and kels and cait yelling at all these middle school skater kids. i then got tea from clippers tea AND IT WAS SO GOOD! yumyum. then we saw katherine kelly alix and christine and we chilled with them for a bit. i almost died getting off a swing because my bag was attacked the to seat of the swing and when i got off i almost choked to death. lawl. the night got sexier. we sat outside of maronis singing and dancing. some drunk dude we called ‘tipsy steve’ came up to james cuddled with him and said ‘i just want to kozy up with someone” and then he said “you’re all fucking weirdos” and left LOL. we proceeded to stay outside of maronis and me and dan were dancing to some guys jams in the car that was parked outside and we got peoples attention and everyone that saw us dancing were so nice and friendly. after awhile we asked the chef of maronis to get us meatballs if we danced outside more and he said yes! FUCK YEAH. so we got motha fucking maroni meatballs AND OMG THEY WERE SO FUCKING GOOD. he also gave us free bread with butter. it was prime shit. after we nommed all the meatballs we headed up main street and passed by gunthers with had a band in it. dan just crossed the street dancing, and then entered the bar and me kels james and cait were like wtf. so me and kels followed dan and some guy stopped us before we went in and said “hey you guys look like 16 17 you can be in here!” and we were like “our friends in their lolol” and he said “oh okay well go in, whats the worst thing that can happen? kick you out?” so we jumped into gunthers dancing trying to look for dan while sweaty drunk people rubbed against us and i messed some girl up while she was playing pool„,woops. we found dan and dragged him out and fuck… LOL. wow it just was a grand and swell night and so many epic things happened and i just want it to happen again. AHH maronis meatballs <333333333333
