Hurricane Irene hits New York, City of Islands. Are you safe East Coasters?

Source: thedailybeast.com

"The edge of Hurricane Irene hit New York, bringing torrential rain and fears of widespread flooding. Irene is the first hurricane to hit the Big Apple in a generation. Overnight there's been lightning, reports of tornadoes and deafening rainfall. The city was a ghost town after 370,000 people evacuated flood-prone areas, including near Wall Street and Coney Island. "The edge of the hurricane is finally upon us," Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a press conference. "Nature is a lot stronger than the rest of us.""

We all love New York. The idea of New York bemuses those of us who've never had the fortune to visit the city regarded as the centre of the world. Thanks to Hollywood, American singers, and the general spread of American culture, even those of us living at the bottom of the world feel we know New York. She is a world city. She belongs to us all.

It is easy to forget New York is a city of islands and was once the world's busiest harbour.  So when the news says a hurricane is heading her way, we do a double take and say like, whaaatt??

Of New York's five boroughs, only the Bronx is on the mainland. For most of its 388-year history from the arrival of the first Dutch settlers, Manhattan was America's ultimate port, its shores criss-crossed by ferries and transports, the East River and the Hudson River as busy as I imagine Fifth Avenue is today.

When Herman Melville wrote Moby Dick, New York's waterfronts bristled with the masts of sailing ships. By the time Marlon Brando starred in On the Waterfront (shot in Hoboken) the maritime tradition had gone awry thanks to air travel and New Jersey's takeover of container shipping. By the 1980s, New York Harbour was derelict, a pile of rotting piers.

Happily I hear there is a renaissance taking place. Crumbling piers have become chic eateries, party venues and art installations.

Governors Island

Source:coolandsublime.wordpress.com

Governors Island intrigues me. I've read novels where it was full of spy activity and sounded so dark and creepy. Now it's a showpiece apparently, a gem off the glittering southern tip of Manhattan. Instead of being occupied by the US Army and the Coast Guard, it is now filled with quaint Victorian barracks and officers' houses dating back to the Civil War. On summer weekends, free ferries bring people across from Battery Park to spend a day in the leafy oasis ringed with imported golden sand.

We thought the Hudson River had an airstrip in the middle, but apparently it's had an overhaul too and now New Yorkers are being told they can eat fish caught in it, so clean has it become.

I've never been to New York, and only recently started to think I just might go there. Until now the only Statue of Liberty I've seen is the mini version in Paris (a gift from the Americans).

All I know about Coney Island I've learned from films and aVan Morrison song about his Coney Island.

Source: ronsaari.com 

The big picture of the Big Apple comes from the music of Frank Sinatra. 

Source:googleimages.com

Source:googleimages.com

I've never seen Ellis Island except in all those mini series and movies with the poor Irish immigrants arriving. How cool would it be to walk the halls seen in The Godfather:Part 11.

New York, City of Islands, I hope you survive Irene, clean yourself up, welcome your people back, stand tall and shine!
Other East Coasters hit by Irene, I wish you well and offer condolences to those who've lost loved ones and property!

I'll leave you with Van Morrison's Coney Island...and I know he's Irish and is singing about another Coney Island, but he moves me to think of New York...

• Do you live in New York?
• Have you been to New York?
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