CCNY After the Storm

 School’s still closed until tomorrow, but here’s a brief report on how the campus fared. by Hannington Dia

Hurricane Sandy stormed through the tri-state area, killing dozens of people, leaving millions of residents without power, knocking out the transit system and flooding the streets–not to mention sticking New York City and state with a $6 billion tab for clean-up. 

Uptown, anyone out and about witnessed something rare over the past couple of days:  CCNY, totally quiet and empty. Save for the odd passerby using the NAC stairs to cross over to Amsterdam Avenue and security guards, an eerie feeling engulfed City College, where all classes are cancelled until Friday. 

Complementing the awkward tranquility was the relatively minimal damage CCNY took from the hurricane. Except for a few downed trees near the Aaron Davis Music Hall and a damaged scaffold outside the main entrance, our campus was relatively unscathed. As a matter of fact, Hamilton Heights looked as normal as usual.

“It wasn’t that much,” said a woman right outside 477 W. 140th Street, a building right across the street from Townsend Harris Hall. “It was like ok. Nothing compared to downtown.” 

Susan Yang, the manager of nearby Cafe One, came into work Monday and Tuesday, but noticed little damage from Sandy.
“There were a lot of branches and leaves, scattered garbage, that sort of stuff on the street,” Yang said while closing up shop Wednesday night. “I didn’t see major damage. I wasn’t able to drive around the neighborhood. But just on my way into work, that’s the damage I noticed. Hamilton was pretty safe compared to the other areas that got hit really hard.”

In a show of ever-burning New York resilience, children and their parents were out hunting for candy in the neighborhood. With our school standing strong in the background, this Halloween gave CCNY more treats than tricks.