LINES OF THE DAY

". . . But the past does not exist independently from the present. Indeed, the past is only past because there is a present, just as I can point to something over there only because I am here. But nothing is inherently over there or here. In that sense, the past has no content. The past -- or more accurately, pastness -- is a position. Thus, in no way can we identify the past as past." p. 15

". . . But we may want to keep in mind that deeds and words are not as distinguishable as often we presume. History does not belong only to its narrators, professional or amateur. While some of us debate what history is or was, others take it into their own hands." p. 153

Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (1995) by Michel-Rolph Trouillot

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Hurricane Irene

The mayor is telling us we should figure out now where we want to evacuate to -- preferably we're all supposed to go stay with friends and relatives out of the city. Right. The flood zones are classified as A -- most likely to flood,  B -- less likely to flood, and C -- unlikely to flood under circumstances that aren't a direct hit by a hurricane. We're not on the Atlantic side of lower Manhattan, though we're on the edge of a B zone that bleeds into the least likely to flood C zone. Our emergency shelter is a school where we vote, that's in this zone too, a couple of blocks down.

We're expected to get clobbered on Saturday and Sunday. It's not as if anything is being done to tape windows, for instance, or sandbag the basements. I would leave town now, if I had anywhere to go within the region. All our friends in this part of the world are on the Atlantic coast too. As I know all too well, it's not the storm itself that's the real danger. It's afterwards with no water, food and power. My nerves are shot. el V on the west coast isn't helping matters. He's not getting home until at least 9 pm tomorrow night. If we are to leave town it should be NOW, not Saturday, when the storm arrives.

It's August 25th, you all.  I have all too personal knowledge of the horrors of the aftermath of that flooding.

I'm trying to figure out where to go after the flooding if we can't live in the apt. for some days.  Our last greatest storm that took out the power as well as flooding the subways, left big parts of the city without electricity for ten days.  That's an impossible time to live without electricity in this city at this time. That time we were without here only about three days, which long enough in August.

I'm making lists of what to pack for the shelter, and what to pack for leaving town all together.  I'm trying to get food together that can utlized without electricty, or cooking -- stove is gas, but ?  Flashlights, batteries, candles, water -- I sure wish el V were here, and I wasn't trying to do this by myself.

3 comments:

Foxessa said...

El V is determined we leave Sat. AM.

I have a freezer filled with meat and other things like a bag of pork wontons.

Should I throw it all out before we go?

Love, C.

T. said...

Damn.

Wish I could help.

Be safe, be well.

xxoo

Foxessa said...

We have a Plan now, and it's much better than anything that doesn't involve having flown out of the region on Wednesday to one's third home in the Rockies.

Which makes more sense on a lot of levels than anything else under the circumstances.

K & C's brownstone off Jumel Terrace. The drawback is that it is Harlem, and with power out, you never know.

But being with dear friends, and still near home relatively speaking, is best, and as the trains are still running until tomorrow night I can start running stuff up there now like el V's guitar, my hoards of toilet paper and other supplies, and the meat too! They're on the highest ground of the island and they have a backyard and a big old grill, with all that southern heritage thing with this stuff going on.

C's sister, niece and nephew are there too, as sister came up to place nephew at Cooper Union. Plus there's K's son.

Trees are the biggest concern, along with power. Their backup generator is still on order, alas.

Also just bought ten lbs of coffee. So I know el v won't go insane at least. You can make coffee with a cold water technique.

I feel so much better now. What I can't figure out is why I didn't think of this right away? Of course K & C. I had to lay awake in a State to have them enter my mind. It must be that I don't have the smart gene that tells you when to ask for help. It never occured to me.

Or -- it didn't occur to el V either. We were both not functioning yesterday, or rather trying to function on too many levels at once. For one thing he had this big presentation at the Getty to do last night on Cuba, which is an important professional event for him.

He's getting progressively angry with himself for not canceling rather than cutting his participation short and coming home four days early. But all's well that ends well, as they say. I'm feeling very hopeful now. :)

Love, C.