It’s been a crazy week (understatement of the year). Last Friday I flew into Las Vegas from NYC for a birthday party. Everyone on the flight was tracking Sandy as she moved up the coast. Halfway through the flight JetBlue said they would waive fees for changing flights because of the storm. I decided to cut my vacation way short – to 24 hours – so I could get back to NYC and be with my family when Sandy struck.
First thing I did when I landed was call JetBlue. I was on hold for an hour and when I got through the customer service person told me it would cost $500 to change my flight. I explained the situation and was put on hold for another 20 minutes. When the customer service person came back on the line she said I was all set to fly out on the redeye the next night, Saturday. I would go to the party, leave a little early and fly home.
I think I was on one of the last flights that made it back into NYC on Sunday morning. The city was extremely quiet and the wind was already picking up. For the last couple of weeks I’d been helping a TuneFund artist prepare their campaign. The campaign was set to launch on Sunday the 28th – the night Sandy was going to start pounding the NYC area. The artist, Manitou, had booked a show at the Mercury Lounge for that night also.
Around noon the announcement was made the subways would be closed at 7pm. That was it for Manitou’s show. They cancelled the show and put their TuneFund campaign on hold until the storm passed and things could get back to normal.
Obviously there are many, many more serious tragedies that Sandy has caused – no one died from Manitou canceling their show and TuneFund campaign – this is just another example of the collateral damage the storm caused.
Our thoughts are with all who have suffered at the hands of Sandy.
