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Storm update, important.
13 years ago
General
As you may or may not know, I live in NYC and almost a week ago the east coast was hit by Hurricane Sandy. Widespread power outages, destruction and flooding ensued.
Our apartment on Roosevelt Island escaped unscathed, although I watched flood waters rise around the riverside jogging paths next to our building. Shit was crazy Monday night. The subways have been out of commission ever since and it's by sheer luck that we kept power and plumbing intact. Axiom and I were EXTREMELY LUCKY. Lower manhattan, Brooklyn, and most of all Staten Island were not so lucky, and many many people have been living without power, food, water, heat, and in some cases their entire home is gone. It is heartbreaking to see. Power just came back on and things are slowly getting back to normal but in some cases it is going to be weeks, or months before things are truly fixed. Some people lost everything.
Couple of things: If you can spare $10, please donate to Sandy relief, the easiest way is to text ICARE to 85944 (more here: http://newyorkcares.org/donate_now/text_giving.php ) that sends $10 to New York Cares, probably the best way to help. You can also donate to the Red Cross, but tbh they have a ton of money already and efficiency problems. If you live in the affected area, consider volunteering, there's a number of initiatives springing up. The Occupy people have one of the largest and most effective ad hoc networks that is doing amazing things right now, helping hurricane victims in Staten Island before FEMA and the larger orgs can even get there.
Also, whether or not you can help Sandy victims, be sure to be prepared for emergencies in your area - have a supply of food, batteries, etc. on hand for a week or so of losing power and water. It is not a matter of if but when. A lot of New Yorkers who rolled their eyes at the "hype" of the "superstorm" last week sure aren't laughing now. Emergency preparedness is not a joke. Be safe everyone.
Our apartment on Roosevelt Island escaped unscathed, although I watched flood waters rise around the riverside jogging paths next to our building. Shit was crazy Monday night. The subways have been out of commission ever since and it's by sheer luck that we kept power and plumbing intact. Axiom and I were EXTREMELY LUCKY. Lower manhattan, Brooklyn, and most of all Staten Island were not so lucky, and many many people have been living without power, food, water, heat, and in some cases their entire home is gone. It is heartbreaking to see. Power just came back on and things are slowly getting back to normal but in some cases it is going to be weeks, or months before things are truly fixed. Some people lost everything.
Couple of things: If you can spare $10, please donate to Sandy relief, the easiest way is to text ICARE to 85944 (more here: http://newyorkcares.org/donate_now/text_giving.php ) that sends $10 to New York Cares, probably the best way to help. You can also donate to the Red Cross, but tbh they have a ton of money already and efficiency problems. If you live in the affected area, consider volunteering, there's a number of initiatives springing up. The Occupy people have one of the largest and most effective ad hoc networks that is doing amazing things right now, helping hurricane victims in Staten Island before FEMA and the larger orgs can even get there.
Also, whether or not you can help Sandy victims, be sure to be prepared for emergencies in your area - have a supply of food, batteries, etc. on hand for a week or so of losing power and water. It is not a matter of if but when. A lot of New Yorkers who rolled their eyes at the "hype" of the "superstorm" last week sure aren't laughing now. Emergency preparedness is not a joke. Be safe everyone.
Survivalism is about walling yourself off from everyone in a bunker, laughing as they die outside your well equipped shelter and calling them 'sheeple'. Those people are basically jerks, and it's dismaying to me that the emergency-prep community is so full of those misanthropes. It's pretty much the exact opposite of what I believe in.
It's the difference between dumping one hardcore survivalist on an alien planet and seeing how long he lasts... and dumping a hundred loosely-grouped people from anywhere on an alien planet and seeing how long it takes for them to set up a village.
When answering the question "how do we survive a catastrophe", it naturally extends to the question "how do we live", and is the goal of 'survival' just to extend that arbitrary life to X number of years more, or can we do better?
The fact is something like this overwhelms even the best organization. There is going to be entire buildings or entire neighborhoods that get forgotten and overlooked. NYC has a very well developed infrastructure designed to handle emergencies, years of training and experience and even they are overwhelmed right now trying to get the subways and electrical grid back in operation. In the meantime, helping people rebuild their lives is up to all of us.
Glad to hear that you didn't really lose anything in the storm, and I hope the City recovers quickly. This was a big one though- it will probably take a while.