New Yorkers like to think of themselves as tough and resilient in challenging times when disaster strikes.
And with good reason: They are.
They’ve already begun to prove that, as the devastated region begins slowly — but very surely — to recover from the effects of Hurricane Sandy.
City buses began running yesterday, packed with riders still shut out of the flooded subway system.
Parts of the underground are set to roar back to life today, joining Metro-North and the Long Island Rail Road, which resumed very limited service yesterday.
Bridges are now opened, though the flooded tunnels — including the Hugh Carey/Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel — remain closed.
The stock exchange resumed business after being shut for its longest storm outage since 1888.
Broadway resumed performances, although Carnegie Hall had to cancel all concerts because of that dangling crane on West 57th Street.
Organizers said Sunday’s New York City Marathon will proceed as scheduled.
And though many still remain in the dark — and will be for days to come — power is slowly returning to the city’s blacked-out areas.
Yes, there were other setbacks:
The NBA, at Mayor Bloomberg’s urging, reversed course late yesterday and canceled tonight’s scheduled game at the Barclays Center between the Nets and the Knicks.
(The Nets will now open their new arena on Saturday against Toronto.)
Bellevue Hospital had to be evacuated, as NYU-Langone was on Monday, because its back-up generators failed.
Cellphone service throughout the region was compromised by the loss of many towers in the storm.
And there was no way of swiftly reversing the horrible destruction that visited places like Breezy Point, Gerritsen Beach and the Rockaways.
But as with 9/11 — a much less widespread disaster, to be sure, despite the calamitous loss of life — New Yorkers wasted no time in beginning the hard work of rebuilding.
No, the region has never before seen a swath of devastation quite as wide as the one unleashed by the monster storm.
The 9/11 attack, for its catastrophic cost in human life, was more or less localized — making the task of returning to a state of normalcy less complicated.
But no matter how hard the punch, New Yorkers always manage to bounce back — and stronger than ever.
As Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday: “We are on our way back to normal. We are on the road to recovery.”
We never doubted it.
Doubters will soon learn.