A-Ok in NYC

Of course I haven't tried to get home yet.....

But at 5:30 am I was woken up by a spectacular display of thunder and lightning. I was due up in 5 minutes anyway, and when I left the apartment at 10 after 6, I might as well not have had an umbrella, as I was drenched by the time I got to the subway a block and a half away.

My R train left as scheduled and caught an N at 59th Street. My commute was positively normal. Had I left 15 minutes later, however, I would have been most likely delayed significantly.

Bay Ridge is in the news because we sustained some damage, although not in my neighborhood, but close to 30 blocks away, from what I can tell. The winds that ravaged the borough must have passed through after I hopped on the train. Here's a shot from the hood:


I had little trouble at lunch when I took the train down to Trader Joe's in Union Square for salsa re-stocking.

Yet, many people had problems with buses (which I rarely take)

the shot above is from in front of 7 Penn Plaza, where I work. People are standing two lanes out in traffic jockeying for best bus-boarding position to avoid this:



and apparently the subways looked more like this


than what I had (seated all the way in....).

Update: Took an extra thirty minutes to get home. Grrrr. Could be much worse.

And The New York Times is reporting:

According to the National Weather Service, the tornado produced winds reaching speeds of 113 to 135 miles per hour. It touched down in Bay Ridge just after 6:30 a.m. and traveled northeast, damaging homes and tearing the roof off a Nissan car dealership before dissipating.

The tornado forced the evacuation of 20 buildings, leaving 32 families without shelter, the city buildings department said. Another 50 buildings experienced some damage.

Fortunately, these damages occurred down in the 60s and we live on 92nd Street....and at 6:30 a.m. I was safely underground rolling toward Manhattan.