Singing a Song of Sandy Survival

This past Sunday, we visited the campus of Kingsborough County Community College in Manhattan Beach (one of the many neighborhoods in the New York City borough of Brooklyn) for their annual Spring Concert.

Kingsborough County Community College is considered one of the top five community colleges in the United States.  One of the perks springtime students enjoy is the ability to use a private beach on the campus - what could be more perfect than a New York City college campus with its own beach?

Well, not when a Superstorm like Sandy hits.

All but the last picture were taken on the campus of Kingsborough Community College.

As we approached the campus, we started seeing a lot of damage - and a lot of dead trees, especially conifers.  Our friends told us cleanup work began immediately, along with measures to leach salt out of the soil, but the trees took it hard.

A beautiful work of modern art with "Sandy Trees" in the background.  What is that woman thinking?  What did she witness during the superstorm?

Some flowering trees in the background.  These deciduous trees in the foreground may have a chance at recovery

(More damage still being fixed near the college).

Meanwhile, at the concert auditorium, people were arriving, many of them (and many of the musicians) senior citizens.  I heard more than one friend greet another with tales of losing their homes or apartments.  That story is all too familiar to me, in my area of upstate New York, due to our own flooding in September, 2011.  But our flood was river water, not the ocean.

Two choruses performed - the "Day Chorus" of day students and volunteers, and the "Night Chorus" of night students and volunteers.  One of my friends is a member of both choruses.  We were also treated to the Brooklyn Wind Ensemble and Concert Band.


There were a number of songs with a religious theme, or "river" imagery (as in "crossing over to the other side").   One song in particular, Arlo Guthrie's "Valley to Pray", was an absolute pleasure to listen to, as was a medley of song from Les Miserables.

In the aftermath of Sandy, it just seemed surreal to sit in that audience.  But, after all, life doesn't stop after a disaster - nor should it.

Later this month - more on Brooklyn's Sandy survival.