Storm Recovery in Western MA.

By any standard, this has been one hell of a week in Western Ma. The rare October snow storm that caused wide spread power failures for millions of people in the Northeast downed thousands of trees and left many in Western Mass without electricity, heat, food, or gasoline. Thousands are still without power over a week later.

I flew through the height of the storm from Madrid into JFK airport in NYC on Saturday night. It was a nerve racking landing. A friend gave me a couch to sleep on (thank you Jason Kaufman). Sunday morning I grabbed a bus to Springfield. Let me just say that if Port Authority at 6:00 am was your first introduction to America, even if you floated over from Cuba on an inner tube, you would jump back into the sea and take your chances with the sharks. Nothing works, nobody really seems to know which gate what buses are leaving from or where they are going. Wolves roam the halls eying your baggage looking at you for signs of weakness. It smells like piss, what food there is sucks, and everybody hates their jobs. America the beautiful.

The trip took about 5 hours. As we drove into Springfield I could see only three open gas stations from the highway each with mile long lines. Another friend helped me out and picked me up from the station ( Thanks Nancy Cohen ) and after 30 hours of travel I finally made it back to a cold dark home. Going out to gather supplies, the supermarkets had empty shelves and there was a community wide search for a cup of coffee. On the positive side , at the shelters and throughout the valley during the past week, people have really helped each other out.
We were lucky in Northampton, power was restored within a few days. I feel for all the people who have gone without any for so long.