Rain's stopped. Was out at 7:30, when it was still windy and pouring. The park along the river was closed as of yesterday afternoon, but only by little signs on the lamposts at the entrance. Not even police tape. So there was nothing preventing folks like me from sneaking down to the river to see what was up. (And I wasn't the only one, either.)

So, the news: very little damage on my end of lower Manhattan. The winds never got as high as predicted and it's almost all over now. Some giant puddles, but nothing above the tops of my boots. The river did, in fact, make it over the seawall, but only barely and at high tide.






I don't know how the ducks and geese are doing but I'll go out again later and let you know. I'm hearing the racket of crows as I write this, so at least some birds have come out of wherever they were hiding.

The streets are emptier than I've ever seen them. This is Hudson Street at 8 a.m..



The city's still unsure about when transit service will be restored, but they'll be able to start inspecting the system soon. I've heard a figure of about 400 trees down around the city, which is a city this size isn't all that much. In the river park, I didn't see any trees down, or large branches, even. Two trees did fall over in one of our neighborhood parks. This is especially a shame because that park was in the middle of a renovation.




Also, a huge vine was ripped off a building near me -- you can see the one climbing the far corner, and that mess on the ground is the one that used to cling to the north corner.




And the downspouts are working overtime.