Hurricane Sandy hits and the days after

By: Gabriela Yareliz

Hello beautiful friends!

My story begins with empty rooms and a lobby filled with students clutching their candles and flashlights.

This is how we arrive to the scene:

It has been such a long while. Well– not really; but kind of. It has been a crazy week to say the least. After my last post, about ten minutes later, we lost power. Almost immediately after losing power, some windows from a neighboring building blew out, so darkness was followed by a startling crash of shattering glass.

Darkness followed; a couple of trips up and down the stairs with a candle. I got candle wax on some corduroy pants (no idea how to get it out, I keep rubbing it which I think makes it worse). We were in the dark and cold for seven days. There was no power, no warm water, no heater (and it was freezing outside), no phone signal and no internet. That whole week, we were in the midst of disaster, and we had no idea how bad it was because none of us had communication to the outside world.  We were really blessed. It could have been worse. The flooding didn’t reach us, but it was about 6 blocks away.

Anyway, here are some images and bits and pieces of what kept us going while Sandy was ripping the city to shreds.

-Psalm 38: 9,10, 15

“Lord all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee. My heart panteth, my strength faileth me; as for the light in my eyes, it also is gone from me. For in thee, O Lord, do I hope: thou wilt hear, O Lord my God.”

My mom sent me these verses: Psalm 91: 15 & 16

“He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation.”

By: Gabriela Yareliz
One of the only places open the morning after. They were selling coffee (the fix for the desperate New Yorkers) and hot breakfast sandwiches.
By: Gabriela Yareliz
Street View
Me in the dark.
Me in the dark.

I was so blessed this week with a friend of mine who was gracious to let me come with him to his dad’s office in midtown so we could try to study in warmth with light and charge our devices. This was the only place I’d get signal. We would walk almost 40 blocks a day to get there. Who knew Midtown and Times Square were so close? Past 34th St. Manhattan was a different world. Even H&M was open down there. Walking up 5th Ave. was magical in its own way. I saw the Flatiron building, Eataly, a nice park that was closed, but the sunshine would go through the trees. The sky was gray, but it seemed that at that park, there was always sunshine. The streets were empty and dirty. Oxford Cafe has the best Eggplant Panini. I sat there one day eating in slow motion, so I could enjoy the heat and light. I shared a table with two young people who work in a real estate office nearby. I met a nice Punjabi gentleman who works there.

Con Ed people were everywhere. Trucks from all over the country took over Union Square. By Thursday, I began to get signal in front of a virgin Mary look alike at the park (it would make anyone catholic, nah? Kidding). Saigon Market on University Place had a charging station. They were also super nice.

People pulled together. Because devices and technology were down; people actually talked to each other. We sat in rooms together playing games, talking in the dark lobby, sharing food the university was providing–we met our neighbors and chattered nervously with people in line, realizing we had the same hopes.

Guys stopped shaving, girls had no makeup and stringy hair (because rumor had it, the water was contaminated, and it was coming out orange)….we had philosophical conversations, played 20 questions and truth or dare. God helped us through.

On Sabbath morning the building next door had lights. I was trying to get ready by my open window, trying to get some light (but it wasn’t working–my room is dark even during the day without light). When I noted the next door building’s lights I thought to myself, Have I been living this whole morning as if I had no power, but we do? I ran to the light switch and flipped it, and nothing. What a disappointment.

When the power came on this is how I felt!!! (One of my favorite songs to jam to)

kajra re kajra re tere kare kare naina

In the end, all izz well– and it is amazing how God can keep us sane despite the frustration of being in the dark always, and how Bollywood can light the darkest of days. A song in your heart– I can’t tell you enough how important it is to keep one there for the dark, cold days.

I hope people don’t forget how to be human, how we can uplift each other by talking to one another…

Now, with the power, heat and internet, the lobby is empty, and the rooms are filled.

Hurricane Sandy: Waiting for the tide

By: Gabriela Yareliz

(Below is my screen shot while watching the Weather Channel)

7:40 p.m.

Here we are. This morning, the people across the street were watching Spongebob (their window was open). Now, they are watching the Weather Channel like the rest of us. I have been watching all day. I like how professors still expect you to read. Like we can focus in a time of emergency. They are apparently not in Manhattan too? OR IN ANY OF THE 8 STATES BEING AFFECTED! It is like there is nowhere to go. Virginia is under snow, and it won’t stop snowing. New Jersey is underwater. Boston has billboards falling, Penn is shut down, Conneticut and Rhode Island have new lakes (former parking lots), and Manhattan has a crane dangling from a building and NY has 600,000 + without power. Chicago is even experiencing amazing waves. THE GREAT LAKES. North Carolina has flooding. Shall I continue?

This is incredible. That is what the weathermen have been saying all day as the wind blows their hoods off, and they try to open their eyes while looking at the camera. It is incredible to see as conditions have changed in the same places throughout the day. One more hour for high tide. I want to see how much the water will rise. I have a bag packed so if I have to run up a couple floors, I can.

I have been nervously eating Kbars (which I got yesterday after my self-defense class–yes, I can break your nose or worse), apples and macaronis with cashew cheese (that I made with my mom’s yummy recipe). I will be 5 pounds heavier by the end of the week. Kidding. Thank God Con Ed hasn’t shut down power in my area.

It is crazy, but I haven’t heard any rain. The wind has been howling, but no wind so far. I am tired of hearing weather channel music. I am amazed that someone woke up one morning and said they wanted to be the guy getting blown across a platform during a storm, but God bless them.

8:11 p.m. “Hurricane Sandy’s Devastation Imminent”– who told that person the headline was calming and informative? Talk about raising panic. Battery Park is flooding. The Weather Channel is still super excited about the tide, as if they want it to be worse than Irene. They say the East Village is flooded up to E. 14th Street. That means flooding might reach Union Square and Gandhi… :/ Lights are flickering…

James Bruno (Commissioner, NYC OEM): “We are 30-35 min. of the peak of high tides… winds at 60-70 mph… A lot of flooding.”

And we wait… which is what we have been doing all day.

Hurricane Sandy

By: Gabriela Yareliz

So… this is me. Trying to finish off as much frozen food as I can before Hurricane Sandy hits. They are closing the mass transit system down, so there will be no transportation, hence no school. (They still haven’t officially announced it, but I will do it for them.) So I am trapped in the middle of Manhattan not far from the ocean on all sides. GREAAAAAAATTT. This afternoon, I am going to a self-defense class and then returning home to keep amassing my cans. Yesterday, my friend and I went out, and the shelves were bare. We got some stuff, including some pathetic scented candles and water. No flashlights left. It is the NYU students hoarding all the flashlights. I know it.

Please PRAY for us. This storm is a category one, yet it is a unique and strange little psycho creature. It is taking a left hook and entering through Long Island.

Halloween (which I don’t celebrate), for the strange law students dressing up as Jersey Shore characters, is ruined. Yes, I am talking to you.

Anyway, here comes Sandy. I literally have to go, and eat some defrosted and cooked food before I head out to find more food that won’t “perish.”

Peace and love. And PRAY.

God is in control.

-Gabriela

Student of the Year: Siddharth Malhotra

By: Gabriela Yareliz

I thought Student of the Year, Karan Johar’s new film, was going to be lame–that was until I saw Siddharth Malhotra’s face.

                                           

Amazing.

I am Gabriela, and I approve this movie.

Extravagance

By: Ellen G. White

To Meet the Demands of Fashion—In our day, people talk of the dark ages, and boast of progress. But with this progress wickedness and crime do not decrease. We deplore the absence of natural simplicity, and the increase of artificial display. Health, strength, beauty, and long life, which were common in the so-called “Dark Ages,” are rare now. Nearly everything desirable is sacrificed to meet the demands of fashionable life. – {Te 147.1}
A large share of the Christian world have no right to call themselves Christians. Their habits, their extravagance, and general treatment of their own bodies, are violations of physical law, and contrary to the Bible. They are working out for themselves, in their course of life, physical suffering, and mental and moral feebleness. – {Te 147.2}

Daniel loved, feared, and obeyed God. Yet he did not flee away from the world to avoid its corrupting influence. In the providence of God he was to be in the world yet not of the world. With all the temptations and fascinations of court life surrounding him, he stood in the integrity of his soul, firm as a rock in his adherence to principle. He made God his strength and was not forsaken of Him in his time of greatest need.—Testimonies for the Church 4:569, 570. – {Te 190.3}