Magazine Covers and Developing Stories

The hurricane continues to be an unfolding story here.  I have friends in New Jersey who are facing their 6th day without power and light.  I saw long lines -- and I mean long lines out of sight -- of cars waiting to buy gas on Jerome Avenue in the Bronx yesterday, on McGuiness Boulevard in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and right outside our building on Meeker Boulevard next to the Brooklyn Queens Expressway.  The line in front of our house is still there, and was there all night.  I heard fights break out in the line at 5AM.
As the days go by, the damage gets bigger and bigger.  A friend of mine from Bay Ridge in Brooklyn down by the Verazanno Bridge writes that most of the sea wall there was destroyed along with the board walk.  There was much more damage on the west side of Manhattan than was previously reported.  The Hudson river flooded much of the west side of Greenwich Village.  The devastation out in Staten Island and in the Rockaways gets worse and worse with each inspection.  Most of those areas are still without power, and shut-ins in the high rise housing projects out in Far Rockaway have been trapped in their apartments without light, heat, or running water for days.
The situation on the Jersey Coast gets worse and worse with each passing day.  The damage was even worse than the first reports; sea walls, boardwalks, hotels, houses, amusement parks, all destroyed by the storm surge and washed out to sea.

I was glad that the Marathon was canceled for Sunday November 4th, but I think our petulant mayor could have postponed the run rather than cancel it altogether.  The problem with the Marathon was not the race itself, but the timing.  Diverting so much public resources to the race at a time when people are still digging out was bound to provoke deep and widespread resentment.  Moving the date back another 2 or 3 weeks I think would have been the better option.

This story definitely is not over yet.