The Forgotten Borough

Two weeks ago I ferried across the lower harbor to Staten Island. My college friend Nick had invited me to watch the Jets versus the Patriots at his house on Lighthouse Hill. We have a lovely day drinking wine, eating homemade Italian food, and even better the Pats beat the Jets. Nick drove me down to St. George to catch the 9pm ferry. It had been a good day. I just got off the phone with Nick, who's general practitioner of medicine. "We still don't have lights and there's no sign of any help on the way. Worse is that we have no TV or radios, so we don't know what's happening." Nick complained, having spent the greater part of his day giving tetanus vaccines to survivors of the Hurricane Sandy. "I drove down the bungalows on New Dorp and most of them are destroyed along with the million-dollar mansions. There's boats and debris everywhere. And the mayor wants to run the Marathon." I could hear his wife shouting in the background. "Rose is real happy about that." "Fucking Bloomberg." She shouted louder, as if to be heard in City Hall across the harbor. "One guy was guarding the boats with a gun." "Against looters?" "Yeah, they're going through the wrecks for the electronics and the old houses for valuables. There's no cops anywhere." "Except for those getting ready for the Marathon." Rose must have been sitting at his elbow. "If it gets really bad, come stay with me." It was a crazy offer, but these are going to be crazy times. Looking out the window of the Fort Greene Observatory I see the skies getting dark. The weatherpeople are predicting rain for tonight, but tomorrow is supposed to be a sunny day. Don't forget Staten Island and to see the CNN report on that borough, please go to the following URL http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/01/us/sandy-fema/index.html doctor