...where the hell are the Rockaways anyway?

It occurs to me as I sit here waiting to see who our president is going to be for the next 4 years that many people across the country may not know exactly what the layout of the city is like. I thought I would use a Googlemap to show you the main locations that were hit. Let me explain:

• Just for perspective, the top center of the map is the Bronx. I teach on the west side of the Bronx right on the water. On that piece of land, look down and find the word Manhattan. That's Times Square. Cross over the water to the right, and that's both Queens and Brooklyn. There is no definite line between the two, but Queens is on the top and Brooklyn is on the bottom. Staten Island is the bottom left hand corner.
• The left side of the map is the top part of New Jersey. See the map below for a better idea of the size of the state in relationship to New York City and Staten Island.

Now that you have an idea of what the boroughs look like...

• You see areas of orange, yellow, and green. Orange highlights the worst affected areas. Staten Island has large sections of orange around the entire island, indicating the scope of damage that was done over a large portion of the place. You need to cross a ferry or drive to get there.
• Look to the right of Staten Island, and you will see the long, finger-like piece of land that is completely orange. That is all Far Rockaway. It's isolation explains why it's been so difficult to get aide all the way out to the end of the land.
• At the end of the Rockaways, look across the water to Coney Island in orange and follow the entire bay of Brooklyn over in yellow and green. Widespread damage far inland.
• Right in the center of Brooklyn above East New York is where I live. The first big pin drop right there is where I took all my pictures and videos. My central location was the reason I didn't evacuate.
• Look up, you can see the green and yellow. Note to the left edge of Brooklyn there is orange. That's the Red Hook area I posted about trekking over to volunteer.
• Cross over the water there back to Manhattan, New York and you'll see the island rimmed with orange (because Manhattan is technically an island since it is rimmed with water, you just can tell). All of the footage of flooded tunnels came from the tip. The entire bottom half of Manhattan was pitch black during the power outage. Imagine 5 blocks of complete flooding all around the bottom, and gradual tapering off toward the center. Lots of people, small area. No lights, no power. Scary stuff.

So there you have it! This seems complex, and I know it is. But the amount of destruction here as far as land mass goes doesn't compare to New Jersey:

The area of New York City is located on the top right side of this map in the green between Long Island the rest of New Jersey. We're like the dingleberry of New Jersey, lol. That one was for you, Caitlin :) Hope this helps!