Deus ex machina

I suppose that there have been a zillion times in our lives when Deus ex machina would have been both welcome and prayed for.  I learned the phrase in sixth grade and imaged a Greek play with the hero in some sort of awful spot and Zeus dropping down a big mechanical arm to pull him to safety and the happy ending.  Probably on that same day, squirming in our seats while waiting to be called to the blackboard for some impossible fraction problem we looked longingly at the ceiling and hope for divine extraction from our plight.  New Jersey is chock full of folks waiting as well; wandering around a stage not of their choosing and no Zeus in sight.

Actually that stage spills over to that elbow with Manhattan as a nexus and extending out on Long Island and down the immediate shore to Staten Island, perhaps getting it worse than anyone and more in need of Zeus than we care to know.  Big neighborhoods all along that shoreline are simply gone. Not flooded as in Katrina but pounded out of existence by huge waves and tides that just ground everything up.  A friend of ours noted that Katrina, although worse in loss of life and perhaps overall damage costs, was a very contained event compared to this hurricane Sandy; most pronounced in that there are nearly 20 times the number of people effected and they live virtually on top of one another.

Not to minimize the tragedy of New Orleans but this is simply far worse in many respects.  One fellow we know was traveling out of JFK on Wednesday last - a full 10 days after Sandy - and in the teeth of a nor'easter.  Flights were cancelled of course.  No hotel rooms anywhere as they were full up from the previous week. $75 shared rides "if" the cab even was interested in taking you there, public transportation iffy if at all.  In short a real mess and our friend was just trying to pass through.  He didn't have to live3 nearby.

I suppose that someday there will be a predicament where even larger segments of our population are under the gun and we rue that day.  Now two full weeks out, in spite of best efforts, a lot of folks have no power and it is cold, they can't leave their homes for fear of looting, or, worse case, their homes have been replaced by a pile of sand. 

It might be of little wonder that Deus ex machina seems like the only solution.