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A Tornado in Brooklyn

19 years ago

Just wanted to let you all know, if you remember hearing from me in the past, that I'm doing fine. The tornado that touched down in Brooklyn yesterday did not come very near my house, but since I live on the top floor, I sure took notice when the high winds came by! A colleague lives four blocks away from where it hit, and the street is impassible, with trees down and wrecked cars and a torn roof or two and broken glass everywhere. Those of you who live in tornado areas would probably look at this damage as nothing out of the ordinary, but it's a once-in-a-lifetime event here, the forecasters say. I hope they're correct.

I'd gone on a five-mile hike over the weekend, so I was able to survive my two-mile walk yesterday morning to find a working subway. The most difficult part of it was when I had to walk through an industrial neighborhood lined with auto-body shops; the wet sidewalks were streaked with oil, which made walking on them with rubber-soled shoes rather dicey. But as I walked along my fellow pedestrians and I exchanged more and more information, opening up into the realization that we were, again, all thrown into an extreme situation together, and needed to help eachother out. By the time I got near the bridges, I'd told half a dozen people which subways in south Brooklyn were not working, and they'd told me which ones in Downtown Brooklyn were. After a sweltering fifteen-minute wait on the subway platform -- all pretensions to remaining well-groomed were abandoned as everyone was dripping sweat, and cotton and linen clothing melted on our bodies -- an almost vacant train arrived with beautiful working air conditioning. The train was rerouted and ended up making an unusual journey over three different lines to land up at a station ten blocks away from my job.

I was relatively lucky with a two-hour commute. Some people spent four or five hours getting to their offices. This made me very proud to be a New Yorker. There are lots of very hard-working, committed people here.

I got home last night on my regular subway, and after two stops a whole family got off and I took one of the seats. I nearly fell asleep on the ride home, and when I got back to my apartment, had just enough energy to eat dinner, feed and medicate my ailing cat, check my computer, put out the trash, and haul myself into bed at an astonishingly early 10 pm. I slept like a brick and woke up this morning ready for a nice big breakfast, but before I ate I opened my deck door and assessed my garden. Only the tomato plant looked cowed; everyone else was OK, and I realized one good thing: I sure won't have to water those plants for a while.

Comments (9)

  • 19 years ago

    I saw the news last night about the freak weather there
    and wondered how you were doing.
    Much like the blizzard in the south in '93, if you've
    never had to deal with it before and aren't prepared it is
    a major happening.

    I admire the tenacity of people to cope but I certainly
    have a deeper respect of New Yorkers after 911.

    I'm so glad that you are okay and thanks for checking in
    to let us know. Please check in more often, I miss your voice here.

  • 19 years ago

    Mary,did Park Slope get hit?

  • 19 years ago

    So good to hear your distinctive "voice" again, even if it took a tornado to bring it! Glad you're safe and I've not heard of any major injuries which is amazing considering the density of your area. I too am anazed how people seem more friendly and helpful when problems out of the ordinary arise...gives one hope.

    Would love to hear more from you...last thing I remember was the plant table setup (?) you found on curb. I get such a kick out of tomatoes growing in Brooklyn...surely they will recover with this heat we're all experiencing. josh

  • 19 years ago

    The neighborhoods affected by the tornado are Bay Ridge and Sunset Park. I've heard rumors that some areas of Windsor Terrace were damaged, including trees along Prospect Park South West, but I haven't been in that neighborhood since, so I can't say.

    Here is a link that might be useful: New York Times regional news

  • 19 years ago

    Very glad to hear from you, and please do bop in more often. Tornadoes are terrifying, twisty things; it's a relief that you were not in it's path.

    -- yeah, I think of that plant table every time I pass a house with stuff piled up for the trashman, but your luck hasn't rubbed off on me yet.

  • 19 years ago

    I'm so glad you checked in: I wasn't sure where you are in Brooklyn. Himself grew up in Bay Ridge, so he was pretty shocked.

    He had to get into the City for a meeting and driving took forever, since there was no Metro North at that time either. And he recorded the temperature in Mid-town in the afternoon at over 100F - he said people looked just terrible, having walked to work all that way and now struggling home in the heat. Tempers were getting very frayed at the parking lot too.

    All we got here in CT, luckily, was rain : we had our little tornado back in April.

  • 19 years ago

    Glad you checked in! I was thinking about you yesterday when I heard that, indeed an F2 tornado had hit Bay Ridge. Has that ever happened before? The weather has just gotten too weird! Plus all that rain shutting down subway lines &, I heard, the Long Island RR. No fun when you live in an area that depends so much on public transportation.

    Glad you're OK.

  • 19 years ago

    The forecast for tonight has a flash flood warning for the city AGAIN: the subway is likely to flood again. Andie, the NYTimes said there was no record of a tornado in Brooklyn since records started being kept.

    MR, hope you stay dry tomorrow.

  • 19 years ago

    Funny I checked all the news stations (CNN FOX etc) and haven't seen anything about it. Just on the internet

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