I was walking down Yanonali Street the day after the spectacular summer squall of the day before on my way to an AA meeting. I wasn’t even sure there would be one since there had been so much damage done, but AA people don’t let things like unthinkable natural disasters deter them from their singleness of purpose, which after something like this is especially significant.
At Garden Street, the damage I had only partially noticed on my way back to the Mission last night became obvious and even more so because of the darkness. The street lights were out as were the traffic signals. The only light on this hot tropical morning at six o’clock through which rain was still falling came from the work lights at the 101 exchange where workmen were struggling to repair the damage done to the power lines.
Beyond that point the streets were ravaged with fallen trees still blocking the street and the standing splintered trunks of trees that had been snapped like twigs. The wind seemed to have skipped along, leaving one block virtually untouched and the next slammed.