Hurricane Sandy: A Photo Essay

The Empire State Building as seen from Church Street in Tribeca

One of New York’s Finest cordons off an area around Pier 85 as the weather grows increasingly inclement.

A woman walks her dog as the storm approaches Manhattan’s Westside.

The waters of the Hudson River shortly before the notorious and destructive surge

The Space Shuttle Pavilion on the Intrepid Air and Space Museum collapsed during the storm and is currently being re-built.

Several large and magnificent trees were uprooted in Central Park and elsewhere throughout the city.

A parking meter in Coney Island

A woman at Columbus Circle looks at a street light that is neither where it should be, nor where it recently was.

The crane at the 57th Street construction site that collapsed during the storm

It takes more than a goddam hurricane and the chaos and destruction that it brings to keep this woman from getting in some cardio.

One of the many fallen trees along the Hudson River Park

If you tend to hold your head sideways, you may notice nothing wrong with the traffic light in this photo. Those who orient their heads vertically, however, will notice something amiss.

The boardwalk at Far Rockaway Beach was completely destroyed.

Solar One, a sustainable energy advocacy group, offered free phone charging at its solar-powered facility under the FDR.

Time’s Up, a bicycle advocacy and direct action organization, also offered free phone charging by means of a human-powered bicycle generator.

An Anarchist with a pair of scissors could have done enormous damage in the days following Hurricane Sandy.

These fliers notwithstanding, the situation in Far Rockaway was awfully grim, even two weeks after the storm.

A pedestrian surveys what remains of the facade that collapsed on Eighth Avenue and 14th Street.

With the subways closed and very few buses running, those of us with bicycles were at a great advantage in the days after the storm.

A woman shovels sludge off the esplanade under the FDR.

A Con Edison van rushes past a large plume of steam on West 40th Street.

Debris and detritus near the Westside Highway and Gansevoort Street

A volunteer stands in the basement of the Mt. Carmel Church in Far Rockaway.

This was a ubiquitous sight in Lower Manhattan in the days following the storm: water being pumped out of basements.

Volunteers clear the basement of the Mt. Carmel Church in Far Rockaway.

With no electricity throughout much of New York City, traffic cops were a common sight.

The sandbags in this photo differ from normal sandbags in one significant way: they are Wall Street sandbags, so they’re filled not with sand, but with gold coins and enormous diamonds.

…and counting

UPS was on the ground, delivering packages the day after the storm.

American Exceptionalism: Volunteers and donated provisions were both abundant at the MCU Park in Coney Island, though people often waited in line for up to four hours to claim food, water, and toiletries.

Two attractive people ignore each other and focus on their phones. Once power went out in Lower Manhattan and much of Midtown, cell phone reception was least dodgey along the river, which is where this was taken.

Urban hunting and gathering

Members of the National Guard make a rare appearance on a New York City sidewalk as patients are evacuated from the ICU of Bellevue Hospital.

Uprooted trees were and are a very common sight in Far Rockaway.

Post-hurricane traffic is the worst!

A pedestrian looks at a toppled phone booth on First Avenue.

A resident of the East Village prepares food for anyone who asks for it. Naturally, there was a separate grill for vegetarians. In this photo, she’s turning over some delectable tofu patties.

Like so much else in Coney Island, The Shore Hotel took a terrible beating.

The South Street Seaport was flooded with several feet of water and the smell of diesel fuel was thick in the air for days after the storm.

A few days after the storm, this banner appeared on the north side of the Manhattan Bridge. The connection between extreme weather events and climate change is incontrovertible, as the good folks at 350.org are very aware.