Cleaning Up

The preferred soap of Sandy refugees cleaning up at our house! 

Manhattan, at least, is cleaning up, from people taking showers (some of them at our place--I'm giving them North Street Bubble soap!!) to major work in Central Park and Riverside--bags of swept of debris lined Riverside by the end of the day yesterday when we biked along it.

Buckled pier at 79th Street Boat Basin

Manhattan is cleaning up, but lights are still coming on in New Jersey.  And the damage in parts of lower Manhattan, Queens, Long Island, Staten Island and Jersey (as seen from Riverside Park at right) is of a mindbloggling scale.

Cleaning up trees in Central Park

Supply Lines

Walking up to our synagogue to drop off water for caravan of cars headed out with supplies for the people in the Rockaways, I see people loading up cars at churches and community centers. In Staten Island, would-be marathoners are running to drop off backpacks intended for them at the end of the race to people in that hard-hit borough.

Meanwhile, power's back on in Lower Manhattan, so my cousin has moved back home, making room for three classmates of my older daughter's. No power yet in their part of of New Jersey!

And, seeing slide shows of the damage in New Jersey, I am wondering when life will return to normal there! 

Helping Hands

Helping Hands from Kate Rice on Vimeo.

No classes 'til Monday, but the girls' school opens up so students can put together toiletry bags, make sandwiches, raise money with a bake sale and write cards as part of efforts going on throughout the city to help Sandy victims.

Subway's Back Up!

IMG 1934 from Kate Rice on Vimeo.

Wow-No School All Week!

Subways are scheduled to start running tomorrow (which I find amazing).

But only above 34th Street, so apparently that's not enough to get everyone back in the classroom.

New York Goes Back to Work!

Took a jog down Central Park West to take a photo of the dangling crane for work and the town is hopping!

My cousin Nate, who has moved in with us until the power in his downtown apartment goes back up, walked to work and phoned in traffic reports to me from his office overlooking Times Square.

So I headed out for a jog with my camera.

Click here for the slideshow, click here if you're viewing on an iPad or iPhone.

Meanwhile the debate rages: if there is not going to be any subway service for four or five days, how can there be school?

No School Tomorrow! AGAIN!

Jubilation reigns! Three days off!

Unprecedented!

However, even as I write this, I hear frightening sounds: three ten-year-olds in the kitchen.

Meanwhile, a refugee relative from Lower Manhattan is moving in.

Maybe the 10-year-olds can make dinner!