Sigal Sharoni Dix Hills, New York 3 p.m. Friday, April 3
The emptiness is eerie
It’s finally April, and springtime on Long Island usually calls for blooming trees and warmer breezes, but COVID-19 has stripped my commnunity of being able to fully savor this luxury.
The focus on the weather seems irrelevant: Gov. Andrew Cuomo has warned New York residents that the apex of the virus could be just a few days away as the number of positive cases soared above 120,000 today.
New York’s stay-at-home order remains in effect and has almost completely cleared the roads in my town. Aside from the government order, there’s obviously no school, no after-school sports or any other activities, which make the roads near my house ghostly.
My high school, Half Hollow Hills East, is located on Vanderbilt Parkway just five minutes away from my house. Two days ago I went for a run in my neighborhood and crossed Vanderbilt Parkway without a second thought– a street I used to worry about turning left onto.
In total I saw two, maybe three, cars throughout the entirety of my 45-minute run. On a Friday afternoon.
For such a busy part of town, the emptiness is eerie. I don’t know how long this is going to last, but I know that the state of New York is not doing well. I just want it to go back to normal around here.
Click on one of the city names to read our correspondent’s blog post from that area:
