Dear Aikido Friends,
First of all, thanks to you all for your concern about Yamada Sensei and the New York Aikikai. The dojo has suffered from the devastating effects of Hurricane Sandy in that we are in the area of Manhattan that lost electrical power. We are also experiencing communications complications. Phone service is poor, cellular phone service has been erratic and undependable and internet service has been problematic. Add to that the crippled city transit system and we’ve had, as the news media is fond of saying, the perfect storm.
Yamada Sensei and his family are safe and warm in a nice hotel where they will remain until power is restored to the area of the city where they live. We’ve emailed our dojo members to let them know that the dojo is closed until power is fully restored. We are hoping that will happen over the coming weekend and that we can open on Monday. But that may be optimistic. I’ve lived in New York City all my life and I’ve never seen the city reeling from a natural disaster like Sandy.
Please don’t get frustrated or worried if you are not able to reach any of us; we will keep the USAF community informed of our progress. We greatly appreciate everyone’s kind thoughts and good wishes.
Steve Pimsler
President, NY Aikikai Board of Governors
