We did not make it back to our neighborhood. Midway through our drive from Maine to the Binghamton area yesterday, our son called and told us about an 8pm curfew. So time suddenly became of the essence.
According to 511NY, I-88 was open all the way. It wasn't. The detour cost us time. We got to our neighborhood at 7:40 pm, Main Street was closed and blocked, the emergency worker told us they had closed at 7:30. He would have "turned his back" if we parked in a certain place and walked in "just to take a look" but it was dark and it would have been too dangerous.
We quickly found all the area motels were full. We ended up in Cortland, NY, about 35 miles from where we live, totally exhausted. We will be leaving later this morning to go back to the Triple Cities.
I am watching the 9/11 ceremonies live as I blog this. I just finished chatting with the one neighbor who didn't evacuate and he advised there is traffic in the neighborhood once again. What a juxposition. 9/11 ceremonies and wondering what we will find in our devastated neighborhood. I saw a picture on the TV as I ate breakfast.
I want to note there are a lot of people in our area worse off than we are. Please do not feel sorry for us. Our house is still there.
During our brief visit to near our neighbhorhood there was an indescribable haze, a haze of dust being raised by people plowing the road (yes, they were plowing Main Street) The flood smell I can't even describe was there.
Remember the Michael Jackson song describing the "funk of 40 thousand years"?
It would not have been a pleasant night.
My heart goes out to all the emergency workers and rescuers on this special 9/11. You are at work once again. You are keeping my home and neighborhood safe. And my son's. I haven't even talked about my son's situation yet. Stay tuned.
Wish us luck as we try to go back today.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
2 comments:
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Touching post. Sending my prayers to everyone in the area affected, and those workers yet again coming to New York's aid. Thinking of you and yours, too.
ReplyDeleteThank you for all your prayers. It is amazing; we have out of state firemen and firemen from other parts of NY helping our neighborhood. Everyone has pulled together. I'm taking a break and will blog more shortly.
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