we want to keep everyone safe

Feb 05, 2016 11:01

I was sitting on the 1 train this morning and at Houston they announced that the train would be skipping the Franklin and Chambers Street stops because of "police activity" and that people who needed those stops should go to Rector Street station and walk, which is much further south than I needed to be.

So I got off the train at Canal, and because it's snowing, all the street signs were covered, and it was very difficult to tell which way was which (and the wind wasn't helping), so I started walking up Varick Street and realized I was going in the wrong direction, so I went back to Varick and Canal and picked another direction (also wrong) before just giving up and using Google maps and discovering I was only about four blocks north of my office. (I am pretty hopeless direction-wise below 14th Street at the best of times.)

In addition to snow and wind, the streets were packed with people wandering around trying to figure out how to get to where they needed to go and also with tons of emergency vehicles and cops. It was about 9 am at this point.

I got to Franklin and Varick (it splits there into West Broadway and Varick), and everything was blocked off, with tons of cops and construction workers and people trying to figure out how to get where they needed to go. A co-worker and I recognized each other and did a little freaking out together, and so when they wouldn't let us through on West Broadway, we walked east to Church Street, but they weren't letting people pass through there either, and we discovered that a crane to the west of our building on Worth Street collapsed. You can see pictures here.

One person was killed and three were injured (all by falling debris), and that's terrible, but it could have been a lot worse. Apparently the crew was trying to lower the crane because of the wind when it collapsed (it had been inspected yesterday because they were adding an extension(!!!) to it). The crane was visible from boss1's office and we were all kind of side-eying it all week because it was pretty huge and, well, things happen.

Apparently the building I work in - 40 Worth Street - was not hit; the crane fell into the street, and the whole area - south from Canal / north of Chambers / west of Broadway / east of Hudson is closed off and will be for a couple of days. So my office is closed (I couldn't remember how to check my work email on my phone but I did check the staff emergency notification site, which is how I learned my office was closed so I emailed my boss and told her I was going home) and I walked over to the 6 and came home, which is where I am now, watching the Mayor's press conference.

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life, nyc

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