Aurora

“Sandy, the aurora is rising behind us.”

      — Bruce Springsteen

Last night an unearthly aurora filled the sky, lighting up the raging storm-tossed air from my Greenwich Village window. Sandy has apparently been downgraded from a “hurricane” to a “super storm”, but she certainly hasn’t lacked for ambition.

The glow, it turned out, was from the explosion of an electrical power station, which knocked out electricity for a third of Manhattan — including here. I took a walk out today with my visitor from Scotland (who is quite accustomed to raging storms), and we came upon a building that had been completely blown out, the entire front wall gone, turned to bits of rubble strewn upon the street. We are guessing that this is the site of the explosion. I’m not used to seeing this sort of vision in Manhattan. Apocalyptic indeed.

Apparently the electricity may be out for a week, perhaps more. Fortunately civilization is but a walk uptown away. It’s strange to live in a city become so eerily quiet, all stores and restaurants shuttered, and yet be able to stroll for twenty minutes to arrive at life as usual.

Ah well, thanks to a thoughtful friend we have our huge supply of candles, matches and ready flashlight, and civilization is near enough that foraging for food will be no hardship.

I suspect Halloween tomorrow will be even more joyous than usual. A day for New Yorkers to dress up and laugh at make-believe dangers will find itself particularly welcome this year.

2 thoughts on “Aurora”

  1. To paraphrase, neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night nor super storm stays this blogger from the timely posting of his daily missive. Glad to hear all is well with you!

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