Sep 13 2011 Irene: the hurricane did to New York sleep

• Streets empty

  https://www.viajesalpasado.com/wp-content/uploads/Calles-vacias.jpg

  This is the chronicle of a city paralyzed by the threat of a hurricane. New York, the city that never slept, finally began closing for a few hours. Irene was at fault. If Frank Sinatra raise his head ...

• Moma cerrado

  https://www.viajesalpasado.com/wp-content/uploads/Moma-cerrado.jpg

  This is the chronicle of a city paralyzed by the threat of a hurricane. New York, the city that never slept, finally began closing for a few hours. Irene was at fault. If Frank Sinatra raise his head ...

• GAP sacks

  https://www.viajesalpasado.com/wp-content/uploads/GAP-con-sacos.jpg

  This is the chronicle of a city paralyzed by the threat of a hurricane. New York, the city that never slept, finally began closing for a few hours. Irene was at fault. If Frank Sinatra raise his head ...

• church without Masses

  https://www.viajesalpasado.com/wp-content/uploads/iglesia-sin-misas.jpg

  This is the chronicle of a city paralyzed by the threat of a hurricane. New York, the city that never slept, finally began closing for a few hours. Irene was at fault. If Frank Sinatra raise his head ...

• Store planks

  https://www.viajesalpasado.com/wp-content/uploads/tienda-con-tablones.jpg

  This is the chronicle of a city paralyzed by the threat of a hurricane. New York, the city that never slept, finally began closing for a few hours. Irene was at fault. If Frank Sinatra raise his head ...

• Planet Hollywood cerrado

  https://www.viajesalpasado.com/wp-content/uploads/Planet-Hollywood-cerrado.jpg

  This is the chronicle of a city paralyzed by the threat of a hurricane. New York, the city that never slept, finally began closing for a few hours. Irene was at fault. If Frank Sinatra raise his head ...

• Fifth Avenue

  https://www.viajesalpasado.com/wp-content/uploads/Quinta-Avenida.jpg

  This is the chronicle of a city paralyzed by the threat of a hurricane. New York, the city that never slept, finally began closing for a few hours. Irene was at fault. If Frank Sinatra raise his head ...

• Apple

  https://www.viajesalpasado.com/wp-content/uploads/Apple.jpg

  This is the chronicle of a city paralyzed by the threat of a hurricane. New York, the city that never slept, finally began closing for a few hours. Irene was at fault. If Frank Sinatra raise his head ...

It's my fourth trip to New York, the city that always surprises. This time, a lot more. We are lucky to see something unusual: the most vigorous city in the world gripped by the arrival of a hurricane. And that when you get everything seems normal. Good weather, heat, enough moisture and many people, usual in New York. Only the next day, Thursday, we started hearing something about the arrival of Irene, but we do not pay too much attention.
Friday nothing changes. There is no reason to worry. The day is even better than the last, bright, radiant. But leafing through the newspaper in a cafe, near the building of the United Nations, We began to take something seriously Hurricane. Announce the arrival of Irene to Manhattan for Saturday night. Almost in unison, We started receiving sms family worrying about our situation. A shiver runs down my spine uncertainty. A hurricane in Manhattan? Like in the movies?

A New Yorker with diving goggles

The plan is perfect. Take the subway and go to the Brooklyn Bridge to eat in Pier 17. But apparently seen, better to ask. New Yorkers seem to theme. I laughed even insist that there is no worry about. Back at the hotel, We put the tele. Big mistake. The looming is terrible. Even they advise fill the bath water, take money from the cashier if the power goes out and do not work, buy food, housebound from four in the afternoon on Saturday. In order, an almost apocalyptic scenario. Inevitable start worrying.

Given the barrage of disturbing news, We decided not to go to Pier 17. Better have a few beers at the bar Rockefeller Center. By the way, We asked about the hurricane policemen in Times Square. shocking answer.

-Quiet, See not until someone flying is not necessary that you leave the hotel 'says one of them laughingly.

Our mood is a carousel. Now we begin to cachondearnos Irene.

It is already dark when we had a drink on the hotel terrace. Sometimes you have to climb a floor 35 to give face to face with the picture of the day. Beside us, a young New Yorker wears glasses in front of diving. Manolo, my husband, asks for them with a gesture of complicity.

-It is for Irene, as they say comes tonight…

We stick the strand and reassures us skeptical tone.

-Nothing to worry about. be calm. Everything is a story. a fat be mounted to justify the huge budget emergency services and maybe you can not return to Spain the day planned, but other than that…

At this point, and say, we laughed Irene.

New York surrenders

But Saturday there is little reason to laugh. The first surprise, cafeteria where breakfast. Close at eleven thirty, as all the shops, restaurants, shopping malls and museums of Manhattan. What he did not get even 11-S, the Big Apple will cast closure, He has achieved the threat of a hurricane. Katrina shadow is too long…

Unheard! Does anyone remember the movie "The Day After Tomorrow"? Well, that

At noon there is no subway or buses and tonight suspended Broadway shows. Unheard! Does anyone remember the movie "The Day After Tomorrow"? Well, that. Plans change at the same rate as the alarming news happens. We went to breakfast and, aimlessly, We walked drifting. We ended up in Central Park. Where but in a city where everything is closed? Rains, Now, and the sky has darkened. Fifth Avenue is deserted, you have to rub your eyes to believe it. Traffic is almost non-existent. Swanky shops are a sight. They have covered their windows with wood paneling and sandbags accumulate on sidewalks. Even the great Apple store, which boasts in its slogan to open 24 hours, missing closure after covering all its facade panels. rocambolesco.

Identical in all posters. "Closed Saturday and Sunday due to Hurricane Irene". ¡Ah! A still open defiance of the doomsayers! Cartier keeps all its employees to soldier, customer waiting for a splendid among foreigners who roam the streets of New York with its tourism catastrophe in tow.

By Central Park just sees us. Only some tourist, insist, unaffordable warnings. Van camera in hand, as saying "since I have annoyed vacation at least I took some unusual pictures of New York". And positions, photo in the middle of the lonely Fifth Avenue is inevitable. without cars, no pedestrians, with red light. But is this really New York? It seems another city.

McDonalds resiste

Afternoon, I start to panic. At six, the streets are deserted. It gives almost afraid stroll through a city under siege. Manolo insist to go to the hotel. Let's see if it will be true about the happy Huracan… But when in doubt, we had a beer at a nearby bar. At seven, Now, we entrench ourselves in the hotel. The lobby abuts. It shows that people have happened here in the afternoon. The atmosphere is oppressive, suffocating, and we are so crazy that we go out again. We ask at reception and an umbrella we will get dinner at MacDonalds, the only thing that seems to be open around Manhattan (at least one of the American symbols resists), at the junction of the 47 con Madison, just two streets.

Luckily, Irene is just another notch in the City of Marvels

With our dinner in hand, back to the hotel. How not, we eat it watching the news, ever-present, Irene. In alarmist tone, announce that at two o'clock we have here. On Sunday, better not leave home, advise. I begin to fear, truth. I feel reckless for having taken rechifla Hurricane. I almost did not sleep all night. Manolo, more skeptical, sleeps soundly. I wake up several times. I pray a lot. I look out the window. Nothing, everything remains the same, even rains. Spend hours. Two, the four, six o'clock. Nothing at all. At seven I can no more, silent grief to indignation. I wake my husband and I am surprised to hear me:
-This is a joke! Nothing has happened, hardly rains. I step around and go to the street.

Turn on the TV. no longer speak of the dreaded hurricane, now reduced to a tropical storm, little more than a tormentone the Pyrenees, we. Not even that. It rains until eleven o'clock. Everything is over, if at some point started. Hurricane Irene never Manhattan.

In case, Sunday all, absolutely everything, remains closed. To Episcopalian Church Fifth Avenue suspends all Masses. St. Patrick Catholic, in. I can vouch for it. At twelve, Mass is celebrated normally. Afternoon, people start out relieved of their mousetraps. New York is again what has always been, bustling, unpredictable, eternal. Manhattan, the heart of the city that never sleeps, It stretches from his doze. The next day we returned to Spain without incident. Less fortunate are those who should fly the weekend. Most have to extend to force his stay in New York a few days. Now, luckily, Irene is just another notch in the City of Marvels.