Officially Evacuated

We were officially ordered to evacuate this morning. I wish I could say I knew this was coming but every moment brings a new surprise and today it brought tears as well.

We received an email earlier in the week from our landlord advising on preparations we should take inside of our apartment to prepare for hurricane flooding. We weren't surprised that the slumlord's plan was to "take books and jewelry off of the floor".. Umm what kind of Wizard of Oz apartment do YOU live in? We had no idea that preparing our apartment's transition to the lost city of Atlantis would rival the worst moving day possible. Every closet needed to be cleaned out- yah yah, we're aware that New Yorkers don't have many of these but the ones we do have are packed as solid as possible. Since the couches had to originally be moved in through the windows, we knew that they were now permanent fixtures, so we hiked them up on cinder blocks and did our best to cover them in plastic should the windows be blown out. The televisions were moved to the main room along with picture frames and anything else of value that could be blown off of the wall or didn't know how to swim. Every bottom drawer was cleaned out and even the ones above that, just incase. We then covered the carpet in plastic and brought any soaking wet patio furniture (newly purchased!) that would fit in through the door as the rains were starting already. We hope that what we couldn't bring in will at least stay within the confines of the backyard fence and not wind up in one of our many neighbors' living room.

Afraid we would be affected by tunnel closures, we left as soon as we could. Tears streamed down my face as we left the apartment with as much as we could carry. Trust me, it's no love lost should Hoboken be pulled into the Hudson (minus some things of value that can't be replaced) but the emotions involved in days of preparing for a hurricane that just ruined my ultimate vacation, just became too much to bear for the moment.

My tears dried as the rain continued to fall. It was a day of eerie moments that were magnified with the emptiness of the Holland tunnel. Appearing to be the only ones in the tunnel at the moment, we feared NYC may not be on the other side. Lucky for us there was still an island, just not sure for how long. We pulled up to the Benjamin hotel- Trav's work- and unloaded the dog which seemed to scare the bellman more than the hurricane. "Sir, please remove the bear from the backseat"... We had the car parked in the garage which is underground. Yes, that thought is unnerving to us as well.


They gave us a giant room on the 18th floor. I get winded walking to the bathroom. I was hoping for a lower floor for when the power goes out and my lazy ass has to walk downstairs or when scaffolding decides to take flight at 100 mph but understood that they wanted employees to have the rooms with the terraces since guests seem to do stupid things while unattended. Understood.. I've been on the terrace every 10 minutes since we've gotten here.. with the dog... point taken.

By the time we were settled, Irene was 293 miles away and was beating North Carolina to a pulp. The entire NYC transit system had been fully shut down and mandatory evacuations were occurring on the lower portion of Manhattan as well as all outlying areas. For those dumb enough to stick around, Hoboken had issued a mandatory order to close all bars at 8pm and closed all streets to any moving vehicles. Newark, Laguardia and JFK were closed as North Carolina, New Jersey, Connecticut, New York, Virginia and Massachusetts were all under a state of emergency. The National Guard has now been called in for reinforcements. Even more promising is we were told Hoboken fire engines have now been equipped with boats on top of the trucks, so they can perform necessary rescues... awesome.

In the meantime, my mind is continually blown as Trav was pulled into work downstairs in the fully operational and extremely busy restaurant (that part was actually expected). His staff planned ahead and everyone is holed up in the hotel so they are able to handle the business that no one thought would be occurring in the middle of a hurricane. James Cromwell is staying here and is probably tucked in with room service watching the news while Matt Lauer just sat down for dinner at a corner booth. The restaurant's reservations started at 31 tonight, which sounded like a fair amount since people in the hotel are probably tired of being cooped up and have probably read the amazing NY Times review and/or Sam Sifton's Sifty Fifty, and wanted to try the awesome food at the National. However, in the last hour, that number has risen to 210 reservations for the evening. Who has time to eat out, never-the-less, make reservations in this storm? Not to mention, this city is empty. I just walked a 100-pound golden retriever down the street with no problems- we're talking empty. Where did they come from? And where are they going when they realize the hurricane just hit while they were finishing their creme brulee?

Not usually a storm or celebrity chaser, I think it might be wise to get showered up and head down to the National to see what's happening. I have a feeling things are about to get crazy.. or weird.. and probably a little bit of both.

Stay tuned...