Hi All:
Thanks for your concern about Hurricane Sandy of 2012.
As you know, New York City is a collection of islands. Of the 5 Boroughs (Counties) that make up the Big Apple, only 'Da Bronx' is part of mainland USA. The ocean energy of the storm and the coincidence of a full moon combined to create a huge tidal surge that rose more than 12 feet above normal in many places. Add 4 to 8 inches of rain and you have very serious flooding.
My location is Midtown Manhattan about 60 yards from the East River. Luckily, we have a seawall at this point so street flooding did not happen here but downtown near the 911 Memorial, Wall Street, and the Battery at the southern tip, were all inundated. The damage included flooding of the vehicular and subway tunnels. The storm passed on Monday and Tuesday. It is now Wednesday and there is still no subway. NJ and NY commuter transit service is out. The NY NJ train (PATH) is not expected back for a week. The PATH tracks are under the Hudson River.
Many trees down. Tourists in the city are wandering around on foot as they cannot go to the sights (all closed), no transport, many eateries are closed. Even Broadway went dark for a couple of nights.
But we are cleaning up and in short order things will be back and the beat of the City will resume.
My car is in the basement of a residential High Rise building. I have not looked at it but I assume (hope) it is high and dry.
Hope all is well all along the Sandy's path, After NYC, she took a trip as far west as Ohio and Illinois, kicked up the Great Lakes...did a lot of damage to much of Eastern USA and Canada. I have been in Hurricanes before...a lot of wind and rain but none compared to the the ocean surge of Sandy.
Richard M, NYC