Back Stories: On The Ground In A Hurricane

NEW YORK (WCBS 880) – In today's Back Story, reporter Alex Silverman recalls being in the Battery during Superstorm Sandy.

He had to drive the wrong way on the highway just to get there.

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"Finally, I make my way down to the Battery, and already there are several inches of water in some of the streets. And I manage to convince a police officer who was standing there -- using my press credential, which you know almost never works when you try to show it to a police officer. This is the one time it probably shouldn't have worked, because she let me into Battery Park, which was completely pitch black," he says. "I think you could hear in my voice it really was a scary situation. We radio reporters are on our own. It was just me and my cellphone out there wandering through this eerie, flooded environment."

Silverman says he will never forget the smell of burning electrical equipment.

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"At one point, I just blurted out, 'I've never felt more alone in New York City.' It occurred to me that was sort of an odd thing to say, but it was the feeling, it was the firsthand knowledge that this was something that was going to change New York forever," he says.