Hurricane Irene

Why write about this? So many words have been written and spoken that it feels almost wrong to say any more. And yet, there is this need to say something. After all, it's been the first hurricane I have experienced in my life - even though, technically, it slowed down just before reaching NYC and became degraded to a tropical storm from category 1 hurricane...

I was going through this 'experience' alone with my two kids. One day after returning from Poland. What a nice way to be greeted, New York! I spent the whole Saturday unpacking, cleaning the apartment, trying to make sure we have all kinds of emergency supplies, listening to hurricane news, and freaking out from time to time. My older son was a great help - surprised me so much with his mature behavior, willingness to help, no complaining about the tasks I gave him. He made me feel better, not alone.

Yes, Irene did not do as much damage as some predicted - although it did have an impact and many people are right now sitting in the dark, some have their homes flooded, transport is still far from being back to normal. But this is not the point. There are some other things that have been striking. Apart from the fact that I was alone but I don't want to go there. It's completely pointless to say anything about that. The thing that I wanted to remember from all this is people's arrogance. So many were joking about the situation, so many ignored the warnings, so many are unhappy that MTA takes so long to be in service again, and even more joking now... Some people appear to think they are invincible. They are the center of the universe just because they live in New York. Nothing can touch them. They want to run in the hurricane. Surf in the hurricane. Go kayaking in the hurricane. They need to be at work on Monday because, well, you know, nothing happened... If you call this hurricane 'lame' - do you mean you are not happy with it? Would you prefer to have a decent one, one that would ruin half the city? Then it would not be lame. You are unhappy it ended too soon? Unhappy that you bought all these things for nothing? I just cannot understand. Being in New York is not a guarantee of safety. Where does this self-assuredness come from? "We can weather any storm because we are New Yorkers and nothing will break us." Yeah, we must be so much better than the Japanese and Haitians and any other poor suckers that could not defeat some natural disaster.

I don't know why but I have a bad feeling that this attitude shown by some New Yorkers may prove deadly one day. It may be the undoing of New York. This city is not indestructible, its inhabitants are not invincible. I'd like to be happy that we are safe but I cannot stop feeling that we did not pass the test. And the more we joke about it and belittle it, the deeper we sink.