Raincharm’s Weblog

That is how Ashlan has described her situation for the last week.

I don’t have her pictures yet, so you will have to use your imagination. For the last two days (Wednesday and Thursday) she worked at the Potbelly 44th St. Store.

It is helpful to understand the 34th St demarcation in NYC the past week. North of 34 th there is power,
and subway service (at least the last few days). South, not so much. In fact, not at all.

Ashlan lives at 14th, adjacent to the exploding transformers that were a frequent news clip a few days ago.  Her store is in the financial district, north of Battery Park.  Her apartment complex was at least partially surrounded by flood waters. Her store was flooded.

Ashlan’s first impression of the store on Wednesday, from the sidewalk, was 100% trashed. Yesterday she got an up close and personal view and verified her initial assessment.

She and her GM spent six hours cleaning out the walk-in cooler and freezer. Just to get in they had to take off a board from the doorway. Then to get to the back of the store they had to climb over furniture and whatever else had ended up in their way.

The flooding had been bad enough that the cooler had moved. The walls were bowed. A hole to the business beneath the store had opened and allowed their flooding to drain down.

Their task included inventory of the spoiled food, and then bagging it for  disposal with a folklore of bleach. (The bleach is intended to discourage dumpster divers.) All of this work required several trips back and forth over the store debris.

Oh, and no water service or power. They were able to use a nearby porta-potty for a construction project. Hazard pay?

When I spoke with her she was on her way to or from her apartment. She had at least one more night at a friend’s apartment, a different friend this time. On a bus line, north of the 34th line of power.

Prognosis – power back sometime this weekend. Sleeping in her bed by Monday. Work? A bit less clear. Hopefully she will get enough hours somewhere. They are estimating 4-6 weeks to get her store back into service.

As for us? Same as usual. Sounders are in the playoffs.

Yesterday we spent a few hours in the rain watching a 0-0 first leg of a two-leg game against Real Salt Lake. Their goalie had an outstanding game. Hopefully the Sounders will prevail in SLC.

This entry was posted on November 3, 2012 at 4:11 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.