This initial day was a catastrophe — a organic catastrophe.
When Cassidy Dangler was obtaining all dolled up for a night out with a 29-year-aged tech whiz she’d satisfied on Hinge final Wednesday, the New York Metropolis health and fitness instructor wasn’t informed that Hurricane Ida would rain on her parade.
“I had no plan that there was going to be a hurricane,” Dangler, 25, instructed The Submit, admitting she ordinarily doesn’t abide by weather conditions updates on the information.
But turning a cold shoulder to the forecast on Sept. 1 placed the unsuspecting Harlem resident knee-deep in flood waters that had gathered from the classification 4 tropical depression. The storm triggered an estimated $50 million in problems to the town as effectively as declaring a lot more than 52 lives throughout the northeast.
“Even however courting in New York is tough, if I would have identified I’d be jeopardizing my daily life, I would have in no way left my couch,” insisted Dangler, a native of central Maine who’s lived in the town because January. “No man is really worth that. Especially not the man I fulfilled up with.”
She took to TikTok to chronicle the harmful hike from her uptown condominium to Midtown’s Central Rock Gym, in which her possible paramour — whom she declined to name — had set up a rock climbing session for them.
“I figured I’d combat as a result of the rain to meet up with him, and even if we didn’t strike it off, I’d at least have a fantastic time rock climbing considering the fact that it is something I really like to do,” she mentioned.
But her sojourn of some 80 blocks soon turned soggy, and a collection of TikToks documenting her trek by means of the tempestuous temperature have garnered some 6.2 million views since past week.
“I was able to consider the subway from Harlem to Columbus Circle,” claimed Dangler, who is a trainer at Crunch Health and fitness. “But as soon as I got out of the practice station, the rain was pouring down and I experienced to slog one more 10 blocks to the locale.”
In the clip, Dangler says she regarded as canceling the date on leaving her digs through the early phases of the downpour, all around 6:00 p.m. But he didn’t want to reschedule.
So, despite the deluge, she determined to go by with their strategies mainly because she “felt bad” about calling items off appropriate just before the time at which they experienced agreed to satisfy.
Once she arrived at the climbing facility, the romance hit the rocks suitable absent.
“It was uncomfortable at very first,” Dangler mentioned. “He was not talkative at all.”
Then, even even though he experienced requested her out, Dangler’s admirer did not spend for her part of their excursion.
“The male at the counter asked him if we were paying out with each other and he let out a prolonged, ‘Umm,’” she recalled.
“I was pretending not to overhear them, but in my head I was like ‘Are you kidding me?’” she claimed. “‘You asked me out on a date. You suggested rock climbing. I just risked my lifestyle to get below. And you are not treating?’”
Right after a several moments of unpleasant silence, Dangler compensated her personal $40 protect price.
“I was a tiny irritated, but not about owning to spend for myself,” she stated. “I just feel it is well mannered for the man or woman who initiated the day to pay back for the day.”
Just after their hour-very long exploit, punctuated with vacant chitchat about rocks, Dangler was left to plod again residence amid the city’s initial-at any time flash-flood emergency.
“By the time we left the rock climbing gym, the rain was coming down in sheets, sideways,” reported Dangler. She claims her day, who lived 10 blocks away from the location, didn’t wander her to the educate or present to shelter her at his spot though the storm ongoing to rage.
Alternatively, he claimed, “‘You ended up proper, we really should have rescheduled,’” before producing the speedy excursion back again to his condominium, she recalled.
“He didn’t even text me to make confident I’d gotten household safely and securely,” Dangler claimed. “I could have died.”
Luckily, after 45 minutes of traipsing as a result of the torrent — which bundled accidentally lacking her end on the C teach, and obtaining to wander 12 more blocks — Dangler manufactured it household.
Even even though she was soaking damp, she emerged from the incident unscathed.
“I’m fully performed with hurricane dates,” she mentioned, laughing. “But this one particular working experience will not discourage me. There is additional fish in the sea.”