Hearing from the Mojave Desert’s “Pinto Mountain” outside Rancho
Mirage and Palm Springs, Hurricane
Sandy 3000 miles away at Manhattan
Beach ( once the site of Gene Tunney’s WW2 Naval Training Base,) the bridge
washed away at the cornr crossing of El Greco’s diner and Emmons Avenue, the
touchstone of Sheepshead Bay and Ira Waldbaum’s
supermarket on Ocean Avenue off the Belt, a far cry from his mother’s
pot cheese grocery on Coney Island
Avenue.
II
“All of Manhattan Beach and a good part of Sheepshead Bay
were impacted by the surge. The family’s basement was flooded and she lost
everything in there as well as in the garage..
“She had to have the burner repaired, replace the water heater,
washing machine and dryer..
She had about 12 people in, throwing out everything. Tearing
out the sheet rock on the walls, and cleaing out the mud.
“No electric heat or hot water for many days. The streets
are full of mud.
“Most of the schools in the coastal area were flooded,
including our JHS. A friend in Seagate, lost her house tro the surge. Four
families lived there..
“ Disastrous force of Nature unlike a man made blitzgrieg, A
tremendous outlay of money.- she’s still waiting for adjusters from insurance
companies. And FEMA to inspect and make a decision about reimbursement.
“Many businesses on Emmons Avenue were destroyed or bardly
damaged. I imagine the diner and the Lundys building were badly damaged.. Dr
L’s office on the second floor?
“ Coney Island Hospital was badly hit. Where will all
the patients go.?What clinic will take
them?
IV
Meanwhile Marie
Antoinette and Hedda Gabler were playing out their roles in “Thelma and
Louise”, their Corvette streaking toward their doom.
4 star General David Petraeus crashing, the sassy scribes
500-1000e nails , thrown to the winds as
the storm gobbled up Bogy’s gold
dust.... John Huston’s “Treasure of Sierra Madre”....
“If they want bread, let them eat cake” said the social climbing “Princess”, sipping
her wine from the goblet.
November 18, 2012
