My Hurricane Irene Diary [part 3]

 South Beach, Staten Island, New York, USA
No people allowed on beach due to Hurricane Irene
It was being cleaned.  Not many people on the FDR Boardwalk
[Coney Island, Brooklyn is in the far distance.]  Verrazano Narrows Bridge
that connects Staten Island to Brooklyn in back on left.
 It doesn't look like a Hurricane happened two days before.

Today, I took the bus over to South Beach in Staten Island.  South Beach is at the tip of Staten Island as one enters the harbor, and it was an evacuation zone in Staten Island.  I wanted to see if there was any damage.  The only damage I could see was on the beach the life guard stations were all over-turned.  There was some pools of water before coming to the boardwalk. Some people had their garages flooded and were busy throwing out things.  I'm the kind of person who looks through trash to try to find interesting things that I can use in my art or otherwise.  I had some good finds today.  I feel very lucky.  There was no serious flooding near where I live in Port Richmond, Staten Island, and I didn't lose power, which worried me because I hate not being able to go on the Internet, and I had a refrigerator full of food.

Today was the most beautiful beach day I've ever seen in my life.  The air was perfectly clear, and it was maybe 80 degrees at the most. I could see Coney Island clearly.  I didn't see any damage of the FDR boardwalk whatsoever. Yellow tape was up on the ramps that go from FDR boardwalk to the beach, to keep people off the beach and no one was on the beach except for a man in a tractor driving around cleaning the sand.  You can see all the tractor tracks in the photo above.  The sand was probably still wet, which is why the tracks show up so well and there was no wind.  A few people on the boardwalk sun bathing, or jogging, or riding bikes, but nothing like it usually is on a beautiful, sunny day.

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South Beach being cleaned after Hurricane Irene.  Red flag is up meaning no
 swimming, but people aren't being allowed on beach either.
Verrazano Narrows Bridge connecting Staten Island to Brooklyn.
FDR Boardwalk with a few people.
 Ships go under bridge upon entering New York Harbor from the Atlantic and points east