Hurricane Sandy Hitting NYC

I am typing this up as I keep staring at the huge window in my room howling at me! Worrying that it could shatter any minute, I am tucked away in the corner of my room as far away from it as possible!

Hurricane Sandy hit NYC around noon the 29th October 2012. I would say I've been rather lucky and unlucky at the same time: stuck here without any form of transport, but I am able to take some photographs of what they called 'frankenstorm' right next to the Hudson River in uptown Manhattan. I've been out twice today, both in the day and night, and the differences are very dramatic as Sandy getting nearer when the night falls. There are still fair amount of people out and about during the day, when the wind speed reaches 50mph with gust of wind around 65mph.

For what I’ve seen, most people was actually having fun and was taking photos near the pier, accompanied by 10s of police cars. 

But by night, I’ve been out for just under 1 hour and have seen hardly any people! Sandy peaked around 8pm with wind speed up to 70mph and wind gust of 100mph in some places! It was truly insane out there: fallen tree branches and debris all over the roads; needle like raindrops and very fine rock pebbles smashing me in the face, on my hand and on my camera as I tried to push through the wind! 

But the flooding at night was what drove me outside, battling the storm for some pictures! It was full moon and high tide at the same time so the flooding was pretty bad near the river.

The tide rises so quickly that this man got stuck while taking photos!

Below show some of the images from today, you can really compare how far the water came up to!

Before the flood, people can get to the other side of the highway bridge to take pictures of the roaring river. But...

... by night, the rain and the wind really crashing down, the flood went at least 30 meters inland and covered the ground under the bridge!

Here are some more images I've taken today, where I tried to illustrate 'Frankenstorm' through the lens of my trusted camera:

NYPD keeping people off the pier

Branches come crashing down onto the road!

Motorcyclist riding under extremely strong wind  

'It's raining and windy... lets get home!'

Sandbagged - well prepared!

By night, the flood got serious

The deep end

People wading across the water

"MY CAR!" 

A police waiting with people taking pictures

The street was almost completely empty, except a few police cars driving around

Well thats all for now people, its time for me to go sleep and lets hope the window stay strong and don't come shatter down on me!