November 19, 2018--Ice Storm
For a moment late last week it did feel as if the world was ending. It didn't, but perhaps we got a preview.
In the West, mainly in California, it felt that the entire state was being consumed in flames, with hundreds, perhaps thousands incinerated. It felt literally hellish.
Some of the millennialist persuasion, always alert to signs of the End, claimed that it was in fact the (upper case) End and that the Antichrist was in our midst (someone other than Hillary Clinton this time) and the Rapture was imminent.
And in the East, not nearly as deadly or terrifying, the entire region was shut down in tri-state gridlock that was the result of a paralyzing snow and ice storm. Though "only" 6.4 measurable inches fell in New York City, a city that both never sleeps and prides itself in shrugging off 20-inch blizzards, this time, as the storm struck at rush hour, we more than blinked.
Commutes that typically take up to two barely endurable hours, on Thursday evening stretched from five to 10 hours. Yes, 10. There was a 20 car collision on the westbound side of the George Washington Bridge that took more than 12 hours to untangle. After an hour or two of frustration, sitting stalled in cars, commuters realized they were hopelessly stranded and that they would soon run out of gasoline and as a result would not have heat, they abandoned their cars and did who knows what or went who knows where.
Even in solid-as-a-rock, New York City, even in our shady West Village, half the trees either lost main branches or collapsed entirely under the weight of the ice and snow. There were cars that were abandoned near midnight on our block between Broadway and University Place. Trapped between fallen trees. At least they were only blocks from various subways that thankfully continued to run. If the subways had shut down without notice, I can't begin to imagine what would have happened. Even in the secular Big Apple I suspect that there would have been more than a few conversions to Evangelicalism.
Even if neither coast provided hints of a biblical ending it did offer more than a glimpse of how our country, the world is collapsing under the weight of overpopulation (rarely mentioned as it urgently should be), overconsumption, climate change, and the related collapse of infrastructure.
Driving from Maine to our city home we got a full taste of the latter.
I generally hate the FDR Drive which runs north-south along the East River, but because of the aggressive flow of traffic that didn't allow me to shift lanes we wound up swept onto it, forced to go south on the FDR at 125th Street. (Confession--I did not as yet have my NYC driving chops and for the city was driving too passively.) This last few miles took almost an hour of tense stop-and-go driving. Not helped by the lack of lighting in the half dozen tunnels one has to negotiate, not aided by white lines to help keep everyone in lane, and with a road surface that felt it was built and not maintained for a hundred years. Only a modest exaggeration.
"Worse than a third world country, what a way to welcome visitors to the city," I muttered to Rona, with whom, as a result of the driving tension, I was already spatting.
She grumbled something at me and that was our last exchange in 40 minutes of mounting aggravation.
In fact, they have been working on the FDR for almost as long as I have been driving (about 50 years) and rather than things improving the road surface it is getting worse and about to collapse entirely.
Two weeks later (actually, a couple of days after the storm with fallen trees and limbs still not removed from our street), we needed to take the car to the VW mechanic in Brooklyn for its annual inspection and assorted repairs.
We took the Manhattan Bridge between Manhattan and Brooklyn. As with the FDR, they have been working on the road surface for more than three decades and since traffic was slowed because of volume and potholes, we were able to catch closeup views of the road surface as we inched along.
It is sad to report that in spite of all those years of effort in many places the potholes are so gouged out that one can see the East River flowing beneath the bridge.
Doing something about infrastructure is more than a subject for political oneupmanship. We will see that aspect of it played out as soon as the Democrats take control of the house. It is more about taking care of some of society's essential assets. What would happen to NYC, for example, to in fact the nation, if both the FDR and Manhattan Bridge collapsed? As I feel certain one day not too far from now they will. What will workers do if their commutes routinely require 4-5 hours each way? When every day is like last Thursday?
Extrapolate this across the country and, what with the incessant fires, perhaps the Preppers have it right and the End is approaching.
In the West, mainly in California, it felt that the entire state was being consumed in flames, with hundreds, perhaps thousands incinerated. It felt literally hellish.
Some of the millennialist persuasion, always alert to signs of the End, claimed that it was in fact the (upper case) End and that the Antichrist was in our midst (someone other than Hillary Clinton this time) and the Rapture was imminent.
And in the East, not nearly as deadly or terrifying, the entire region was shut down in tri-state gridlock that was the result of a paralyzing snow and ice storm. Though "only" 6.4 measurable inches fell in New York City, a city that both never sleeps and prides itself in shrugging off 20-inch blizzards, this time, as the storm struck at rush hour, we more than blinked.
Commutes that typically take up to two barely endurable hours, on Thursday evening stretched from five to 10 hours. Yes, 10. There was a 20 car collision on the westbound side of the George Washington Bridge that took more than 12 hours to untangle. After an hour or two of frustration, sitting stalled in cars, commuters realized they were hopelessly stranded and that they would soon run out of gasoline and as a result would not have heat, they abandoned their cars and did who knows what or went who knows where.
Even in solid-as-a-rock, New York City, even in our shady West Village, half the trees either lost main branches or collapsed entirely under the weight of the ice and snow. There were cars that were abandoned near midnight on our block between Broadway and University Place. Trapped between fallen trees. At least they were only blocks from various subways that thankfully continued to run. If the subways had shut down without notice, I can't begin to imagine what would have happened. Even in the secular Big Apple I suspect that there would have been more than a few conversions to Evangelicalism.
Even if neither coast provided hints of a biblical ending it did offer more than a glimpse of how our country, the world is collapsing under the weight of overpopulation (rarely mentioned as it urgently should be), overconsumption, climate change, and the related collapse of infrastructure.
Driving from Maine to our city home we got a full taste of the latter.
I generally hate the FDR Drive which runs north-south along the East River, but because of the aggressive flow of traffic that didn't allow me to shift lanes we wound up swept onto it, forced to go south on the FDR at 125th Street. (Confession--I did not as yet have my NYC driving chops and for the city was driving too passively.) This last few miles took almost an hour of tense stop-and-go driving. Not helped by the lack of lighting in the half dozen tunnels one has to negotiate, not aided by white lines to help keep everyone in lane, and with a road surface that felt it was built and not maintained for a hundred years. Only a modest exaggeration.
"Worse than a third world country, what a way to welcome visitors to the city," I muttered to Rona, with whom, as a result of the driving tension, I was already spatting.
She grumbled something at me and that was our last exchange in 40 minutes of mounting aggravation.
In fact, they have been working on the FDR for almost as long as I have been driving (about 50 years) and rather than things improving the road surface it is getting worse and about to collapse entirely.
Two weeks later (actually, a couple of days after the storm with fallen trees and limbs still not removed from our street), we needed to take the car to the VW mechanic in Brooklyn for its annual inspection and assorted repairs.
We took the Manhattan Bridge between Manhattan and Brooklyn. As with the FDR, they have been working on the road surface for more than three decades and since traffic was slowed because of volume and potholes, we were able to catch closeup views of the road surface as we inched along.
It is sad to report that in spite of all those years of effort in many places the potholes are so gouged out that one can see the East River flowing beneath the bridge.
Doing something about infrastructure is more than a subject for political oneupmanship. We will see that aspect of it played out as soon as the Democrats take control of the house. It is more about taking care of some of society's essential assets. What would happen to NYC, for example, to in fact the nation, if both the FDR and Manhattan Bridge collapsed? As I feel certain one day not too far from now they will. What will workers do if their commutes routinely require 4-5 hours each way? When every day is like last Thursday?
Extrapolate this across the country and, what with the incessant fires, perhaps the Preppers have it right and the End is approaching.
Labels: End Times, Evangelicals, FDR Drive, Infrastructure, Manhattan Bridge, Millennialists, Overpopulation, Preppers
posted by Steven Zwerling at
5:01 AM
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