It rained 2.5 inches in 2 hours early this morning when i was tucked up in bed (actually more like peeling off sweaty sheets, the humdity is insane). There was lightning and thunder, so loud and so close that I actually got scared for a second and allowed myself to wonder whether I would stop to find my passport and 'if you don't have one you may as well not exist' social security card etc if I had to run out of the building as it started to burn.
The morning news was 100% weather: trains from Long Island and New Jersey coming into Grand Central were cancelled due to flooding on the tracks, trees came down in streets in Brooklyn, 5 subway lines weren't running due to flooding on the tracks, cars were being stranded in waist deep water in Newark where the streets became rivers. Someone died!
Commuters were stranded and got in their cars, which clogged up all the beltways/parkways/turnpikes, and flights were delayed for hours due to storms. People surged to the bus stops, spilling off sidewalks trying to jostle onto packed buses, while officials recommended people avoid the subway system (which transports millions of people into the city each day.) Then the Mass Transit Authority website crashed, as people were trying to find alternative transport options.
I was meeting Natalie for lunch today but she's stuck in Brooklyn because none of her local subways are running. Women are wearing wellington boots to work. The city has almost come to a sweaty, puddly, sticky stop. There is talk that NYC is due for a hurricane: they do come this way apparently, there hasn't been one for 70 years and the city has stockpiles of food and first aid supplies ready to go. If 2.5 inches of rain can cause this much mayhem, then a hurricane would turn this place into Thunderdome.
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