Powerless in New York
Other flights might have been cancelled, and others rerouted to D.C. And Boston, but our little planeful sailed right into JFK. Never mind that the jetways weren't working and we had to climb down stairs on to the tarmac, and the baggage had to be unloaded by hand, we had arrived.
Usually the drive into Manhattan is heralded by the buzz of the city, the traffic, the shops and people trooping in and out, the pulsing energy. This time as we entered the city everything was closed. People were in the streets, but not rushing here and there. The city that never sleeps was walking around in a sort of sleepwalk.
New York walks home
People were sitting on benches and chairs, sitting together and reading and chatting and simply cooling off. No one who lived more than a few flights up was in the mood for the elevator-less trek, and why bother: once you were there you couldn't have a cool drink. In fact, above the twentieth floor or so there was no water! Telephones didn't work, and cellphones were sporatic. New York had pared down to a very basic human level and had become a surreal and increasingly primitive, though warm and friendly, village.
Shops sold drinks at tables set up outside as inside was too dark and by now, smelly, as the food spoiled in the heatwave.
New York was into hour 27 of the power outage when the lights flicked back on. I was in Mike Dues buying an eggplant parmigiana sandwich (one of the only things to eat in the few block radius). I hadn't eaten since the plane. With a wood burning oven they didn't need electricity to cook. The lights flicked on and we all just looked at each other blankly: what is this thing, this light thing? We had been hearing that the power would go on soon, but by now, had pretty much given up hope. This sudden burst of light, burst of airconditioning, burst of refrigeration for the food, suddenly registered. Yes, The power is back on! All the eggplant parmigiana-eaters in Mike Dues started clapping, everyone on the street burst into applause, the city was full of applause.
And then it started getting itself together again. Garbage men picked up the black bags that had accumulated on the streets, delivery vans began immediately to make their deliveries of food from the countryside. New York without food was a strange place to be, its a hungry city. The deliveries stepped up pace.
This morning the world is creeping back to normal, with Manhattanites searching for fresh milk for their lattes, walking their dogs and buying bagels.
© Marlena Spieler 2003