October 30, 2012
Hurricane Sandy roared into New York. While New Jersey and the Jersey Shore suffered the worst damages, New York had huge sections under water, power losses, fires, floods, and explosions. The damage to property was enormous. The 40 pictures in the slide show below represent a small area of south Brooklyn, mostly along Bay Parkway up to Gravesend Bay, which you may know better as The Narrows, the body of water spanned by the Verrazano Bridge. Many of the pictures were taken in Seth Low Park. I was there Monday night while the winds howled and branches fell and it was not a good idea. Literally, branches fell around me, large branches as you’ll see in the pictures. However, the worst for me came the next day. The winds had died and I went to the water. It was covered in mud. Sections of seawall were broken and tossed around, fence and all. Rubble and wreckage covered streets and parking lots. Sections of building facades were pulled off their walls. Many people arrived, just like me, to take pictures. We all had the same shell-shocked expressions on our faces. These pictures below were all taken by me but they represent only a fraction of the hundreds of photos I took during and after the storm.
Looks bad but I’m glad to hear you made it through. I’ll be keeping you in my prayers.
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Thank you Matt.
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I’m surprised to see a fair amount of lights on. I guess a lot of buildings had emergency / backup generators.
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Most of Brooklyn, except Coney Island and Brighton Beach, had power. Our power flickered but never went out.
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I saw an aerial view of part of NJ. Only the roof – tops were visible in one image. Unreal. NASA videos & other videos on Youtube have really covered this, more extensively than I w / have given them credit for.
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Have you seen this?
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Is that the Plant near Avenue C…? I’ve driven past there a lot..My Favorite Cuban Restaurant is like right near there…wow Crazy
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Yeah, that’s it.
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I think I saw that same footage on BBC America, but I can’t be 100 % sure. Were you anywhere near that !?
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No, thankfully not. I’m in Brooklyn, that was Manhattan.
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I remember when I 1st came to Middle TN 4 years ago. We had some monstrous tornadoes & severe thunderstorms. A gas storage plant got struck by lightning, resulting in a fireball that could be seen from nearly 50 miles away. So I can identify w / this to an extent. Some IDIOTS went outside to photograph the explosion & resulting fire with their cell cameras. Brave / gutsy or idiotic actions.
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Speaking as someone who ventured out in a hurricane to take pictures, it was idiotic.
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I was in a physical therapy & rehab facility at the time, & NOBODY went out to take a look, except for the previously mentioned nut – jobs. These storms did almost as much damage as a hurricane.
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The wind was amazing. There is an old cliche about hearing voices on the wind. I am sure I heard ghostly voices in this storm.(I don’t mean actual ghost voices, just an unearthly sounding wind.)
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In Tornado Alley, you get a nice, runaway freight – train – y sound as the ground is being excavated by a ” Wrath – O’God ” ™ funnel cloud.
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Amazing pictures. Glad you are all right! How close to the water do you live?
The picture of the dead rat made me wonder how many rats got drowned in the subways.
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I am about a 15 minute walk from the bay in the pictures. I’m not far from Coney Island, which had been evacuated. To put it in perspective, Coney Island is evacuation zone A, I’m in C, just on the border of B.
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Glad you’re good! BTW we get ‘canes often down here. Yawn. But up there they are unique. It could have been worse!
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