2 for the price of one!

So I have been in New York a little over 5 weeks. How luckly or unlucky am I to have TWO natural disaster events occur in the one week. Natural event number one hits us.....an earthquake! I was out to lunch with a friend and saw the lights flicker in the cafe we were in. Neither of us took any real notice of it. Then a few minutes later Bryan calls me to see if I am all right. "All right?" I say......"Why?"  He then proceeds to tell me about the earth quake.

Then later in the week we get confirmation that a hurricane (natural disaster number 2) is heading straight for New York city (right over Manhattan).

By the end of the week I had started to stockpile some basic food (you know - gross stuff, out of a can you can eat, when you don't have electricity) as well as other basic essentials such as torches, candles and water. By the time Saturday came (D- Day) we were ready.

The hurricane was not going to hit until late Saturday night/early Sunday morning so Bryan and I decided that we would go out to see a movie but everything was shut. Only the trusted Diners and the odd Deli and bar were open. Not even the cinemas were open! They could've made a killing that day. Manhattan had an eerie feel to it.

Experts say that you should have 3 days worth of food and water ready in the event of a hurricane.  But, some people had left it to the very last minute to get food so they were down at the local pharmacy/convenience store buying whatever they could.

Water cooler (holds 20 litres of water)

Some of the basics we bought - just in case!

We thought we would risk it and buy some yummy ice-cream to eat while waiting out the hurricane.

When we went out to dinner on Saturday night the concierge told us that they were locking the lifts at midnight. This had been ordered by Mayor Bloomburg - in case the city needed to switch off some of the electricity grid, So we thought, well if we are going to be stuck in our apartment - let's be stuck with Ben and Jerry! :)

Bryan had set the clock early Sunday morning to be awake for when the hurricane hit. When it did hit, it had been downgraded to a tropical storm. Once again I missed it - this time I slept right through it! But it did continue raining for most of Sunday morning.

By Sunday afternoon the lifts were working again and we were back to normal.