THE AFTERMATH

I was pretty tired and distracted when I posted last night and hope I didn't sound like I was in any way equating my teenage son and his friend having their skateboards taken by a local cop with the devastation and hardship being faced by many of our neighbors and friends and fellow Jersey and New York and the rest of the Eastern seaboard citizens.

It just seemed emblematic to me of how we've gotten our priorities so screwed up. I heard our mayor on NPR this morning, a Manhattan based show that preempted the usual BBC fare that's on at 9AM to bring news of the aftermath of the storm. And it isn't good. Our town was spared the flooding so only suffered wind damage. But even though it's a small town there's over 9,100 of my neighbors still without power and according to the mayor the town hasn't even seen one gas and electric repair crew yet.

That's probably because they're being used to help out in worse hit areas. There are neighborhoods in next door Newark and nearby Hoboken where residents are still in need of evacuation, and fires starting up in communities all around New Jersey due to gas leaks and in some instances power coming back on where electric wires are exposed etc.

One of the reasons I was put off by the cop citing my youngest and his friend for skateboarding in the center of the little village area of our town is that most of his friends, including the ones he was with, have no power, the schools have been closed and still are, so they've been cooped up mostly at my apartment for days. They can't skate where they usually do due to downed wires and fallen trees still not repaired or removed, and our little village business area that I live in has been shut down for days as well.

But last night several of the restaurants and bars opened especially for people without power to get a fresh warm meal, and my son and his friends were able to get something besides pizza. This little main street style area is only four blocks long and the part they skated was less than two blocks and for this, a young new looking local cop with stores with windows gone and merchandise exposed and wires lying in streets and alarm sirens going off for whatever reasons etc. takes time to actually write up tickets on these kids as well ad confiscate their boards.

It's like our politicians, especially the rightwing Republican ones, ignoring global warming and climate change and actual infrastructure needs for our future rather than our past (Romney wanting to cut funding for wind and solar energy innovations and instead spend our tax dollars on the same old greedy oil corporations tax cuts and subsidies etc. as well as the completely outdated and worst polluting coal corporations etc.) to focus on whether a raped woman should be forced to carry any fetus that might result from that!

There have been some statements made by Democratic politicians since Sandy hit inferring a connection to global warming and even talking about the need to change the ways we think about infrastructure in New York and Jersey and the rest of the Northeast and the country, but where are the bold statements about how this is an opportunity to rebuild for the future, to use the models of European and other advanced nations' (and even some so-called underdeveloped countries) in dealing with rising sea levels and stronger weather events etc. to create a city of the future on Manhattan island and rethink the Jersey shore entirely, etc. etc.

But it will take vision and money to make safer and cleaner and fairer cities and communities and there is no doubt which political party is more apt to stay mired in some imaginary past and continue to give breaks to those that contributed most to the predicament we've found ourselves in (i.e. big oil and coal etc.). As lame as the Democrats can be, at least they are forward looking when it comes to scientific research and fact based realities.

Now my new worry is that the worst hit areas that will take the longest to recover from the devastation of Sandy are the poorer communities in my state so least likely to be able to have working polls or be able to get to the polls to vote in the rapidly approaching election. Let's see if anyone has a big vision for correcting that (let alone the scandal that many electronic voting machines are too easily able to be hacked or owned by rightwing Republican families or corporations!).

[PS: Just got back from trying to get the skateboards from the police station where I was told the property officer wasn't there because he was out dealing with the emergency. It took me a half hour to make the five minute drive because every traffic light but one was out and the route I had to take, detouring around streets closed due to fallen trees and wires, was down the main business street (not our little village area) that runs from communities way to the west all the way to downtown Newark which has traffic lights every few blocks, every one of them was out, and the many businesses that line the street were closed or boarded up etc. which is why our little village area was swamped with more traffic than it has ever had because it's the only area with power for miles around.

Yet not one cop in sight. I'm sure they are dealing with more important things than traffic so why did one of them take the time last night to confiscate a couple of teenagers' skateboards?! I left a message to that effect on the property officer's voicemail pointing out that I have stayed off the roads as recommended but just had to spend a half hour making a five minute trip and thus contributing to the traffic in order to.... I know, I know, and I am truly and hugely grateful that this is the main thing I had to deal with this morning compared to so many others. But like I said above, getting their priorities straight would surely make life easier for all of us, while understanding that no one's perfect, not even young healthy seemingly smart enough cops with more important things to do...]

THE NIGHT AFTER

So turns out there was more than one store window broken by flying debris in our little village section of my town. And the cops finally cordoned off the part of my street with the live wire hanging low across it. They also took my son and one of his friend's skateboards away for skating in the center of the little village section, and without helmets. 'Cause lawd knows there ain't enough for the police to be doing.

I love what we now call "first responders" because they are constantly displaying their courage to protect strangers, usually, including me. And I come from a clan full of cops. And it's not the police's fault that the town passed a law forbidding skateboarding anywhere in the village part of our town. But as I told the cop, there are drunken jocks and ex-jocks coming out of the bars from midnight until they close, so loud they wake me up sometimes with my windows shut. No cops seem to bother them. Or the upright citizens who forget to stop for pedestrians in the crosswalks, or drive over the speed limit on my street all the time, or jaywalk constantly, or etc. etc. etc. Why is it the kids who skateboard who always get the most flack.

I know, I know, they're noisy and sometimes seem reckless or at least unaware of those around them. I wish they weren't those things too. But I'd rather have them hanging around our little village and using their boards to get from one end to the other, than have them off in the dark somewhere getting into private trouble the cops don't notice but cause more damage in the end.

I'm just venting before I turn in, with my son and two teenage skate buddies (one a female) still up and discussing skaters techniques etc. before they finally crash and their low level noise is distracting me and delighting me at the same time. Youth. A great antidote to the tragic news of more bodies discovered from the storm and more dire predictions on how long it will take to put my home state back together again.

THE DAY AFTER

Some wind, some rain, but basically calm. A lot of neighbors and family and friends have no power and some have house damage from fallen branches and trees, but all safe and uninjured thankfully.

Unfortunately there have been casualties, as I'm sure you've heard on the news. Some the result of not taking the recommended precautions. So many people returned to undamaged homes after Irene they decided to sit this one out despite evacuation notices and ended up stranded and having to be rescued, or in a few cases dead. Our hearts go out to those who lost friends or family and those who lost their homes. Most of them are down the Jersey shore and on Long Island.

My teenager and his friend are out assessing the damage around our neighborhood. That line I mentioned in the last post is still strung across our street, high enough for low cars to pass under so they are, despite the yellow tape, but SUVs can't make it. And the giant branch, big as many trees is still in the street as well and another in the back of this building.

Interestingly, my teenager came home with a phone photo of the only store in town that was obviously damaged and it was one of the liquor stores, their front window was all smashed. Hmmmmm. Wonder if some bozos might have had a bad idea in the dark last night, or if some flying debris just happened to single out the store with the bottles in the window.

And thankfully at least Mayor Bloomberg raised the possibility of climate change contributing to this historic storm, unique in the weather history of this area (including a record breaking almost 33 foot high wave in New York harbor!). It's clear that the structural engineering of a hundred or fifty or even twenty years ago is now irrelevant in the face of the extreme weather systems being produced by the changes in the global climate brought on by global warming.

Suddenly have a houseful. My teen's mother here to take a shower and use her computer since her power and heat and hot water are off, and friends of his whose homes have no power. Everyone using our power to charge their phones. Life goes on, thank God.

THE WORST IS OVER

Police came by and closed my street, put up that yellow tape etc. due to a downed wire. A lot of my friends nearby (and the restaurants right across the alley from me) have no power, but gratefully we still do. Maybe it's a kind of cosmic justice since we've lost power in my building many times in recent years, one time for a week, while everyone else seemed to have power. So tonight I guess it was our turn to have the power stay on.

Gusts were recorded in Newark which is right next door, as high as 75 miles per hour. I suspect some of the gusts we felt here were even higher. But the rain was pretty minimal and we're a few blocks from the river and the wind seems to be calming down a little (supposed to be windy for the next two days but not as bad as the peak) which means it still sounds pretty wild at times but nothing like a few hours ago.

There's been a lot of transformer fires as well, lighting up the dark like lightening coming from the ground. One of my teenage son's friend's home has no power so he came over several hours ago to spend the night here. They seem to be on a conference call with other friends who have no power. A great adventure for them, which I remember feeling about natural disasters when I was a kid.  

Now I'm just happy my youngest and I are safe and the friends and family I've been in touch with are safe as well. Hope wherever you are you're safe too.

SO FAR SO GOOD

Landfall within the hour they say, but well South of here. We still haven't had much rain, just a lot of wind, knocking a few things around (and ripping a screen off a screened in porch attached to my apartment). Someone left the front door to the building unlatched and one gust not only blew it open but that in turn blew my apartment door open, a door most people think is still locked when I shout "Come on in" because it's so heavy. I fixed the building front door and locked mine so no more gusty interruptions.

We're safe and sound and the power's still on. No school for my teenager tomorrow either. So things ain't too bad for us. It's the people close to the shoreline or rivers or especially inlets that are getting the worst of it.

PS TO LAST POST [+THE COMMITMENTS]

This morning things still not too bad here, though down the Jersey shore it's already gotten bad in many places, as well as parts of New York. Power is out in sections of Jersey (mostly down the shore) and Brooklyn and other areas, but so far okay here.

It's still interestingly quiet and not quiet. Now and then there's a wind gust that whistles around this old house our apartment is in. The rest of the time there's kind of a low hum as though we lived near a busy highway. But we don't, and there's almost no traffic except now and then a siren.

There's already branches down in the street here, but the Indian restaurant across the alley from my son's bedroom has left their sign out by the front of our building and it hasn't blown away yet. But a parking lot sign I notice is tilting and it wasn't when I went to bed.

The NPR station had people calling in and already folks who didn't evacuate in some spots are in trouble, with in one case—Shark River Island on the Jersey Shore but inland on The Shark River inlet—already has water so high there's no chance of getting out now.

As I type this more sirens, and those deep horn beeps that indicate a fire truck nearby. I'm letting my teenage son sleep in, as schools are all closed and we stayed up late watching a DVD of THE COMMITMENTS, one of my favorite movies and I'm happy it's one of his too. Hadn't watched it in years and was once again overwhelmed by the level of acting talent Alan Parker got out of what was essentially an almost all amateur cast, and all singing and playing the songs live (with the gravelly voiced lead singer who seemed at least in his mid-twenties only sixteen at the time!).

As always, throughout my life ever since my first memories, it's creative accomplishments like good movies and good poetry and good music and art and the rest that not only continue to give me much pleasure and relief from some of the more serious realities, but, as I've said many times, continue to save my life in ways that nothing else can. SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS and THE COMMITMENTS (we watched the added on features after the film and it was a gas to see most of the members of the cast a decade and more older reflecting on their experience and showing where they were then, around 2004).

Hope everyone's safe and sound and curled up with your own favorite movie or poem or novel or music etc. or soon will be.

SANDY'S & SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS

Between watching the news about Sandy's eventual landfall in Jersey, checking the eeriness of our town closed up for the night, no rain yet, gusts of wind all day but also moments of an almost unnatural calm, I managed to get in the entire SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS on TCM.

Is there anyone in movie history as adorable as Veronica Lake in that flicker? My first childhood crush on a movie star and when my fifteen-year-old joined me to see what I was watching he had the same reaction wanting to know who she was. Nice to know we share some basics.

We still haven't gotten word about school closings here tomorrow though nearby towns have notified their students and our governor has recommended all school districts close. Irene last year was pretty erratic, with some areas suffering terrible flooding others not, and some suffering power outages and/or water problems (that was us, we had to boil water for several days and avoid getting any in our moths if we showered).

As an ex-weather observer in the military, I understand why these weather people are getting so overexcited about Sandy. It's a combination of weather factors that have never occurred in nature before. But nobody on any of the channels I've been watching has mentioned global warming or climate change at all. Even though this is the kind of unusual weather pattern scientists have been predicting will begin occurring and obviously have been for the past few years.

We'll see if we still have power tomorrow to check in here, if not, see you after it's over. Meanwhile, if you still have power I highly recommend watching an old classic movie, and one with a happy ending.