What Hurricane Sandy Taught Me

Photo sources: various facebook pages

I've lived my entire life, almost 60 years, in New York City in the borough of Brooklyn, and never have I seen the amount of destruction that took place here from a natural disaster as I have seen from Hurricane Sandy. The wind, the rain, and the high tide surge of sea and bay waters, all combined to bring severe flooding, loss of power, fires started from electrical transformers being ripped open and gas lines exposed from houses ripped from their foundations. The loss of life is still being determined, as each day new victims are being found in their destroyed homes.

 Photo Source: Wikipedia

Manhattan is an island surrounded by water, as are the boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn and Queens, which are part of Long Island.  I've been noticing for many years that the height of these waters has been rising slowly and steadily.  Call it global warming or not, the fact that the polar ice caps are diminishing is certainly having an effect on the height of waters surrounding our city. It was inevitable that a major storm would bring flooding to these areas, yet I believe that many New Yorkers never believed how high or fast these waters could rise and the damage they could cause. Hurricane Sandy brought this new reality into focus.

My husband and I brought over a few boxes and bags filled with nonperishable foods, toiletries, cleaning products and warm clothing to a local church which is collecting and distributing these items to a Brooklyn neighborhood hard hit by flood waters. The church's school is acting as a temporary shelter for families whose homes were totally destroyed. We went another day to help in the sorting and distribution of goods as we will probably keep going back as long as volunteers are needed to help.

As we drive through the streets of Brooklyn we see countless destroyed homes, cars and businesses.  The contents of flooded homes are at the curbsides, there are many uprooted trees and the lack of electricity remains in many hard-hit areas.  I felt such sorrow for all that are suffering and count my blessings that we did not sustain any damage.  My husband's office building in Lower Manhattan was severely flooded and his company informed the employees yesterday that they will not be able to return to the building for weeks, possibly months!  Luckily they will able to work from home or satellite offices in the interim.

I'm sure you have all seen the heartbreaking images on TV, and know how much the hurricane victims in various communities of New York and New Jersey need help. The American Red Cross and The Salvation Army are two organizations that have been providing much-needed assistance and would welcome your donations. My husband and I have donated to both as well as local charities that are aiding victims.

I also thought about all the things this hurricane taught me:

If you are in doubt in any way about your personal safety and if you live in an area that is deemed by your local authorities as prone to damage in a hurricane or major storm, please evacuate well before the storm arrives. Nothing is as valuable as your life! There were many sad stories of people who died that stayed behind in flood-prone neighborhoods, as they wanted to protect their homes and valuables from the storm or from robberies.

Trees are deadly.  If you live in close proximity to large trees you might also consider evacuating your home or at least stay far away from rooms that could be crushed by a falling tree. Many of the deaths that occurred in Hurricane Sandy were from trees falling on houses and cars. Large trees often have shallow root systems and high winds and heavy rainfall cause them to topple. A young couple in Brooklyn who were walking their dog during the early hours of the hurricane were crushed by a falling tree.

Be prepared for the worst!  I've always been the type to heed storm warnings and I've always made sure to have flashlights and extra batteries ready. Now I would add a battery-powered radio and a battery powered cell phone charger. I have seen portable battery and hand crank radios that also charge cell phones for sale online, and I am definitely buying two of them to keep one in my house and one my car from now on. Most likely your power will fail in a hurricane and you will be without power for a long time. Keep the phone numbers of your local municipalities, electrical companies, and emergency services nearby, so you can call right away to report your outage and downed trees and get help.  If you feel there is a chance you may have flooding turn off your circuit breakers and gas lines if possible. Stay away from downed wires and do not enter flooded basement until you are sure that there is no live electrical charge in the water. As much as possible stay connected to the media during a storm--they will give out lots of valuable information as to impending changes in weather conditions and give updated warnings.  When high tide occurred during the hurricane and the greatest storm surge occurred my husband and I were very alert and ready to take precautions in case we were inundated with water.

Prepare a "Go" bag and have it easily accessible. In a satchel place fleece blankets, plastic ponchos, changes of clothing, perhaps a few packages of underwear and socks reserved to take with you in case you need to evacuate. In this bag place your hand crank portable radio/flashlight/cell charger, enough cash to last a few days, nonperishable foods like granola bars and bottled water. Keep in it a list of prescription medication information and reorder numbers, the name of your doctors and a list of any medical conditions you have, your insurance numbers and your social security numbers which you will need in case you have to file a claim.   

Fill your car's gas tanks, and get cash. There have been long lines in New York as gasoline supplies run short and gas stations have no power to run their gas pumps. Many working ATM's are also in short supply. We also have a gas tank lock on our car's gas cap as it helps deter anyone from siphoning off the gas.

Be prepared to go without outside aid for 48-72 hours or longer.  While local authorities, the Red Cross and other charities, and FEMA will respond to destructive natural disasters, it often takes many days for them to organize and map out areas of the most need.  Have lots of safe drinking water on hand--as much as possible. Fill your bathtubs, large pots, any clean container with water.  Make sure to keep a supply on a high floor of your house in case you are isolated by flooding. Fill freezer bags with drinking water and fill any gaps in your freezer with them well before the storm.   Not only will the resulting ice help keep your freezer cold if your power goes out the bags will also become a source of drinking water as they melt. Stock up on nonperishable foods that do not require refrigeration and make sure to stock some food supplies on a high floor of your home if possible. If you have an electric stove you might consider cooking a few meals ahead of the storm and have dry ice in a cooler available to store those meals in case your power goes out.

None of us ever expect to live through a hurricane, tornado, flood, earthquake, fire, blizzard, or other natural disasters, but we should all be prepared! What would you add to the list? I'd love to have your advice in your comment. 

Sandy: A Hurricane of Epic Proportions

 Photo Source: Good Morning America Facebook page--a morning after the storm rainbow

A quick post to let you all know we survived Hurricane Sandy!  We were very fortunate that our neighborhood in Brooklyn suffered very little damage and that we still have electrical power. My brother and sister-in-law, and my three nephews that live in communities in Nassau and Suffolk Counties in Long Island are among the 90% of Long Islanders left without electrical power.

 Photo Source: The Atlantic

Much of New York City has lost electrical power...

Photo Source: The Atlantic

 ...as the storm surge poured into all the Boroughs of New York City last night it left a path of destruction.

Photo Source: The Atlantic

Do you remember my blog post (click here to read) about the charming Jane's Carousel in Brooklyn Bridge Park?  Last evening the East River overflowed its banks and it was almost submerged.  Sadly, the beautiful little neighborhood of Gerritsen Beach, that I blogged about on this post, was almost entirely destroyed by flood waters.

Photo Source: The Atlantic

The seaside communities of Breezy Point, and Rockaway, Queens (see this post) were severely flooded and suffered many fires. The community of Long Beach, Long Island, and City Island were left almost unlivable without electricity, water, and sewer service. I heard that communities in Staten Island had Katrina like rescues last night, as houses became submerged to the roofs by flood waters.  If there was one lesson learned by all with this storm is that orders of an evacuation of low lying coastal areas is important and not something to be ignored in future storms.

Except for minor basement flooding, roof and siding damage, broken tree limbs, and spotty power outages, my Brooklyn neighborhood did OK. We were so very fortunate!

My heart goes out to those whose families suffered the loss of life and property and business damage. You are in my thoughts and prayers. My sincere thanks go out to the first responders who worked tirelessly through the storm, risking their own lives to help others.

Thank you to all who e-mailed, called, and left messages on facebook to see how we were doing! I really appreciate your love, concern, and friendship!

Derek Jeter Honored for his 3,000th Hit!

On Saturday I went to Yankee stadium to see a game between the New York Yankees baseball team and the Tampa Bay Rays.  Before the game a few special presentation ceremonies were held to celebrate the Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter's recent historic milestone of being the 28th major league baseball player and the first Yankee ballplayer to get 3,000 hits.  Jeter accomplished this feat on July 9th, 2011, in a home game against the same Tampa Bay Rays.

First, Jeter donated to the Baseball Hall of Fame representatives the helmet and batting gloves that he wore when he homered for his 3,000th hit. Then the Yankees’ president, Randy Levine, and the team’s chief operating officer, Lonn Trost, gave Jeter a 14-inch inscribed Waterford crystal vase.

Jeter holding the commerative Waterford vase.

Next, Hal Steinbrenner, the managing general partner of the Yankees, and his wife, Christina, presented Jeter and his father, Dr. Charles Jeter, with commemorative rings, while Jeter's mother and sister were presented with pendants of the same design.  The rings Jeter and his father received have 50 diamonds each, 14 making the No. 2, whcih is Jeter's uniform number.

Finally, the entire Yankee team presented Derek with a a 225-pound, mirror-polished stainless steel sculpture. It featured the No. 3,000, topped by a triple-layered bust of Jeter waving his helmet to the crowd. The inscription under the number 3000 reads: "To our captain, leader and friend. Congratulations on a great achievement, from your teammates."

The Yankees went on to win the baseball game by a score 9-2, including two more base hits by Derek Jeter and a grand slam by Jorge Posada!

I wasn't lucky enough to be in Yankee ballpark attendance when Jeter got his 3,000 hit, but I was excited to be present for the special pregame ceremonies honoring him, as he is one of my favorite players and definitely a baseball legand in his own time in the manor of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe Dimaggio and many other Yankee and baseball greats.  Congratulations to Derek Jeter!

I'm linking to "Mosaic Monday" with Mary of The Little Red House blog, Sally's "Blue Monday" on her blog Smiling Sally, and the My World Tuesday crew. Please visit their blogs and enjoy their special blog events!

The Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden in the New York Botanical Garden

After visiting the beautiful waterlily and lotus pools in the New York Botanical Garden, which you can see in my prior post (click here), my husband and I decided to walk across the garden to see The Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden, which is open May through October in the garden. The NY Botanical Garden has a tram tour that will carry visitors around the 250 acres of the garden, but as we like to walk for exercise, we decided to stroll through the lovely grounds and woods of the garden instead, to get to our destination.

We passed some interesting examples of bedrock, part of the billion-year-old Bronx borough's "Fordham Gneiss."  Bedrock is what has allowed the borough of Manhattan to build such tall skyscrapers as their foundations can be solidly anchored to support their weight.

We walked over a footbridge over the Bronx River and saw this bucolic scene in the distance.

It was the The Lillian and Amy Goldman Stone Mill, one of New York City's most picturesque pre-Civil War industrial buildings, restored with leadership funding from The Lillian Goldman Charitable Trust and the Amy P. Goldman Foundation.   The Stone Mill was built in 1840 by the Lorillard family and designated a New York City Landmark in 1966 and a National Historic Landmark in 1976. You can watch a Youtube video about the restoration of the mill at this link.

You can enlarge this photo, and all other photos in this post, by right clicking on them once and then again for an even larger image when they reopen. Use your "back" function to return to the post. This placard describes the origins of The Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden. Originally designed in 1916, completed in 1988, and beautifully renovated in 2006-2007, this stunning garden now displays more than 4,000 rose plants and over 600 varieties, with roses blooming for six months out of the year.

It has been a hot and humid month of August, so I did not expect to see too many roses in bloom during our visit last weekend, but I was pleasantly surprised by the beauty of the garden as we walked down the steps towards it.

The NY Botanical Garden web site calls it: "One of the world’s most environmentally-friendly rose gardens. Overcoming the rose's reputation of being among the most chemically dependent flowers, we celebrate the addition of more than 1,700 new, hardy varieties. Hybridization efforts from all over the world are on display."

It was certainly beautiful and very well maintained!

 

Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a wedding ceremony here and then a reception held in the Stone Mill? I am a little sorry I did not know about this wonderful venue until now, but my daughter's wedding plans for next spring are already booked in another pretty NYC place which you will have to stay tuned to see next year.

I enjoyed strolling through the paths in the garden reading all the informational placards that were scattered through out the rose bushes. Remember you can click on each photo to enlarge it.

Beginning in 2009, hundreds of the newest disease resistant roses have been planted in this garden. You can enlarge this placard to read a list of them. If you have not been successful growing roses in the past perhaps these varieties will give you success?

While the roses were not at their peak, I still found many beautiful varieties of roses to photograph as you can see in the collage above. I'm sure when the weather turns slightly cooler there will be a last gorgeous bloom of new buds. Roses are certainly flowers that keep on giving all summer long!

After leaving the rose garden we decided to take a different path back on our walk to the main gate of the garden, and we entered the 50-acre native Forest.  It is the largest remaining expanse of the majestic woodland that once covered almost all of New York City.

With rustic paths that wind beneath magnificent American trees—some more than 200 years old—and past the Bronx River and its rushing waterfall, the forest is another magical place to see.

Walking along Native American hunting trails, under the cool and quiet canopy of the forest trees, was an extraordinary way to end our visit to the New York Botanical Garden, a place we hope to visit and explore many more times in the future!

I'm linking this post to "Outdoor Wednesday" on Susan's blog A Southern Daydreamer and to "Pink Saturday" on Beverly's blog How Sweet the Sound. Please visit these wonderful blogs to see all the wonderful enteries.

Waterlilies and Lotuses in the New York Botanical Garden

My husband and I took a ride to the New York City borough of the Bronx this weekend to visit the New York Botanical Garden.  Like the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the New York Botanic Garden has beautiful aquatic waterlilies and lotuses. The Waterlily and Lotuses Pool in the courtyard of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory is a serene and magical place in summer. The colors and lingering aromas of these wonderful exotic flowers are a feast for the senses.

The lilies and lotuses were at their peak.

Their colors and shapes were exquisite!

As I walked around the lily pond pool I had a wonderful time photographing all the beautiful flowers.

They were all delightful....

...and a wonderful array of colors.

Dominating the tropical pool is the Victoria amazonica, the world's largest waterlily, whose leaves can span seven feet across!

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The tropical pond also had a large array of the lotus, Nelumbo nucifera, which symbolize eternal life in Buddhism, and are called "sacred lotus" for that reason.

They shimmered in the sunlight.....

....and their buds and pods were so exotic to see.

Both of the botanical gardens in New York City are gems waiting to be discovered and enjoyed. Come back next post and I will show you the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden. 

May I ask a favor? Flowers have been on my mind quite a bit lately, as I'm in the middle of planning my daughter's spring time wedding, and I have also been visiting local florists to look at table centerpieces and floral decorations.  My daughter loves the color purple and wants it to be the predominate color of her arrangements.  If you have some suggestions for beautiful purple flowers, websites that have floral arrangements, or even general wedding websites, I'd be thrilled if you place them in your comments. Thanks!

I'm linking to "Mosaic Monday" with Mary of The Little Red House blog, and My World Tuesday with Klaus and all the My World contributors. Please visit their blogs and enjoy their special blog events!

Pink Orchids and Pastries for Pink Saturday

For Beverly's "Pink Saturday" event on her blog How Sweet The Sound I thought it would be fun to show a collage of some of the beautiful pink orchids, I saw last weekend at the New York Botanical Garden's Orchid Show. Click here my full to see my full post about the orchid show and to see more of the outstanding displays of over 5,000 live orchids!  (All photos will enlarge if clicked on once and then again when they re-open)

Some more of my photos from the show..

In close proximity to the New York Botanical Gardens is Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, which is a wonderful area full of many old-world Italian shops and restaurants. I did a few posts showing some of the delicious ethnic Italian specialties you can find there on which you can read on this link and this link. We stopped to make another visit after going to the gardens but because it was a Sunday not many establishments were open except for bread and pastry stores and restaurants. 

We decided to go into this pastry shop in the area with the pink awning for a special reason.

Cafe Egidio located at E. 187th Street between Arthur Avenue and Hughes Avenue, in the Bronx, and established almost a hundred years ago, is well known for its authentic cookies and pastries. We wanted to buy special St. Joseph's pastries for the St. Joseph's Feast Day which has just passed on March 19, but the sign in the lower portion of the window for "Sanguinaccio" really caught my husband's eye with delight!

Here it is!

I will leave it up to your imagination as to what sanguinaccio is, as it is not something everyone would find appetizing unless you grew up eating it. My husband's mother used to make this special sweet treat once a year, and he declared that Egidio's sanguinaccio was as good as his Mom's! A wonderful compliment to them.

We did purchase a couple of the special St. Joseph's pastries to take home to enjoy later.  On the left are Zeppole di San Giuseppe, which are fried dough, layered with a vanilla egg custard, then topped with a candied cherry on top, and on the right are Sfingi di San Giuseppe, which are reminiscent of a cream puff, and are filled with cannoli cream, chocolate chips and topped with a candied orange peel. I think it would be safe to say almost everyone would enjoy eating them...they are so good!

Pink orchids and pastries ...who could ask for a better treat to welcome Spring?

Thanks,  Beverly for another wonderful Pink Saturday weekend!