Editor’s Note: In the wake of Hurricane Sandy we asked Erik Fabian ’00 to share his experience from New York City.

Erik Fabian ’00 lives in Clinton Hill neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY and works in Manhattan where he manages the Moleskine brand in the Americas from Moleskine America office in Chelsea.

As we cross the cusp of October and November in 2012, Hurricane Sandy has redrawn the lines that define and divide the northeastern United States. A new line that divides the haves and have-nots in NYC currently stretches east to west in a band near 30th street in Manhattan. To the south, a third of Manhattan island is without power. There is little traffic except bikes and taxis during the day, no working stop lights, no working subways, office building are shuttered, grocery stores are closed, and people are without running water. Night brings a spooky, suspicious, desolation that is exhausting the locals as much as is the lack of showers. Most restaurants are closed but you see a few curbside fridge clean-outs – like a westside steakhouse that caters to Wall Street executives selling their $70 dollar steaks as $10 steak sandwiches from curbside grills. To the north, the coffee shops are full of refugees seeking WIFI, warm drinks, and electrical sockets.

I typically work on the 10th floor of a westside building in Chelsea in an open office overlooking the Hudson River, but the building is currently a mess and will likely continue to be closed until the middle of next week. It is full of water, darkness, and some kind of foggy turpentine-smelling fumes. Our neighborhood of high-end art galleries is crisscrossed by hoses spewing putrid water drawn from their high-end basements into the street. Across the Hudson river to the west is New Jersey, a dark mystery that is illuminated to me in fragments by New York Times articles and second-hand stories from my co-workers.

As the sun sets the streets go dark. Photo taken by: Fred Benenson

My 20 co-workers are scattered about the region and disconnected: the New Jersey residents are all without power and communicate in bursts during morning visits to coffee shops with WIFI; those of us in Brooklyn were spared the worst of it, but are isolated en-mass from Manhattan by the lack of public transportation; and there are those that live on both sides of the power-divide in Manhattan, one person in upstate New York who is without power and easy access to the city, a few to the east of Manhattan across the other river in Queens who are both powerless and isolated. The experience for us lucky ones has gone from an being an extended weekend to a reimagining how to get work done with a distributed workforce.

It is 5 days since the 80 MPH winds made landfall in Atlantic City, NJ and the storm met a front of cold northern air that produced wild weather and storm surges that devastated Long Island homes, killed 100+ people, and that reshaped our coastlines. The city has started picking itself up but things are not normal. Halloween stumbled by mostly to keep little kids busy who have been home from school. A line for the bus to Manhattan stretches along the new Brooklyn basketball stadium. They had to postpone the first face-off between potential cross-river rivals in the NY Knicks and new Brooklyn Nets. I imagine many ticket holders wouldn’t have been able to make it across the river to attend the game.

Robert Connolly, left, embraces his wife Laura as they survey the remains of the home owned by her parents that burned to the ground in the Breezy Point section of New York, Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012. More than 50 homes were destroyed in the fire which swept through the oceanfront community during superstorm Sandy. At right is their son, Kyle. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

The politics that have been held at arms length are creeping back as people run out of patience and navigate the question if it is time to signal we have overcome the worst or if we are still in the worst of it. The New York Marathon has been canceled after days of angry debate. Cycling advocates are chipper as people bike to work for the first time and as they watch the city function with less cars. President Obama and Republican Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie have put their differences aside to oversee the clean-up the Garden State, but of course the presidential election is a few days off and Republican challenger Mitt Rommney is stuck on the sidelines.

In my apartment, on relatively high ground in the back of a solid building in Brooklyn, we were fortunate to be spared. We have cleaned up the leak that soaked our bed, we are killing off the hurricane spawned mosquitos that have snuck into our home, we have power and food and the meager irritation of spotty internet service that makes online movies stutter. I have been home to help my girlfriend nurse a nasty cold. I have cooked maple flaxseed shortbread cookies, tofu coconut curry, white bean congee, and braised beef stew. I expect in a week or so, we will all be drawn back to a bruised Manhattan on illuminated subway cars. Our 40+ hour work weeks will pull us apart again but for a few more days we get to enjoy being a bit closer together, living in a city that feels a bit smaller, where people overcome a habitual isolation to rally and help each other.

You can find ways to help those most impacted by Hurricane Sandy at the NYC Service website.

-Erik Fabian ’00 lives in Clinton Hill neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY and works in Manhattan where he manages the Moleskine brand in the Americas from Moleskine America office in Chelsea.

Editor’s Note: Do you have a Sandy story to tell?  Share your experiences by commenting.