{"id":22292,"date":"2011-08-29T17:19:40","date_gmt":"2011-08-29T21:19:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=22292"},"modified":"2013-01-21T15:30:07","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T20:30:07","slug":"the-view-from-nyc-of-hurricane-irene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/08\/29\/the-view-from-nyc-of-hurricane-irene\/","title":{"rendered":"The view from NYC of Hurricane Irene"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Former Spacing Radio producer Megan Hall was in New York City during the days leading up to Hurricane Irene. Here is her report on how NYC dealt with the mass evacuation. <\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

NEW YORK<\/strong> \u2014 New York City was not the best place to live in last week. On Tuesday we experienced an earthquake and a day later, news of a giant impending hurricane.<\/p>\n

It is a fascinating experience to see a city such as New York mobilized to protect itself against an unpredictable natural force. I found out on Thursday morning that my apartment on East 10th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues<\/a>, was just a half block away from the Zone C evacuation area, and while chances of mandatory evacuation in Zone C were rare, the fact remained that they were announced, and there was a plan in case they had to be used.<\/p>\n

On Thursday afternoon my neighbor knocked on my door, telling me he was going door-to-door to find out who was going to be home over the weekend, because odds were that we were all going to be together without power, possibly for several days. We might need to ban together. Friday morning, I went to the Kmart (the only big housewares store in lower Manhattan) to stock up on flashlights, batteries, and duct tape for my windows but I was already too late. Kmart was sold out, and I soon found out that Best Buy, Radio Shack, Staples, Dwayne Reade, Walgreens and others were all out of stock as well. The city was panicking.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

By Friday afternoon we knew that the transit system would be shut down on Saturday afternoon at noon, until at least Monday morning. No buses or subways. And later in the day came the announcements that bridges off the island would likely be closed down as well. Mayor Bloomberg held multiple press conferences strongly urging anyone who could get out, to leave the city.<\/p>\n

I was torn, as were my friends in other boroughs. A friend from Long Island came to stay with a friend on the Upper West Side, another drove west to Pennsylvania, while most of my friends in Brooklyn stayed put, whether or not they were in mandatory evacuation Zone A or not. I\u2019d heard that the East Village might be hit hard with flooding, but it wasn\u2019t until Saturday morning that I made the decision to leave. I woke up at 9:30am to a yellow-gray sky and completely empty streets. My neighborhood, especially on the weekends, is filled with people, and the empty stores, sidewalks, and lack of taxis made the decision for me. I didn\u2019t want to be the last person in my area who decided not to get out of harms way.<\/p>\n

Now that we know that Hurricane Irene was mostly hype and not a lot of action, we realize that the majority of the preparations for the storm were unnecessary. However, I must give props to Mayor Bloomberg for swift action: organizing New Yorkers is no small task, and getting them to leave Manhattan is an even bigger feat. If the Hurricane had hit New York with the ferocity that was predicted, I believe we would have been prepared. But I\u2019m also glad we didn\u2019t have the chance to find out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Spacing Radio producer Megan Hall was in New York City during the days leading up to Hurricane Irene. Here is her report on how NYC dealt with the mass evacuation. NEW YORK \u2014 New York City was not the best place to live in last week. On Tuesday we experienced an earthquake and aContinue reading “The view from NYC of Hurricane Irene”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1020,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[2541,18274,18275,593,426,9640,469,564,21,1284,1896,18276,81,5073,55],"class_list":["post-22292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-green-space","tag-best-buy","tag-dwayne-reade","tag-kmart","tag-location","tag-mayor","tag-megan-hall","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-other-cities","tag-pennsylvania","tag-producer","tag-radio-shack","tag-spacing-radio","tag-staples","tag-weather"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe view from NYC of Hurricane Irene - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/08\/29\/the-view-from-nyc-of-hurricane-irene\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The view from NYC of Hurricane Irene - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former Spacing Radio producer Megan Hall was in New York City during the days leading up to Hurricane Irene. 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