EARTHQUAKE WEATHER
So what was with that storm yesterday? I left the apartment with no thought of an umbrella, let alone wearing head-to-toe rain parka gear. And then something like 30 minutes later the sky turned brown, then black then something that looked like mosquito-infested highway-motel-pool green. We took shelter at the entrance of an apartment building on the upper east side with a changing cast of about 10 other super-drenched people who looked out at the wind and sheets of unbelievable rain with almost as much awe and fear as my 6-year-old stepson who was pretty certain it was an actual hurricane that was going to start sucking skyscrapers up to the heavens at any moment. As soon as we coaxed him to walking back into the rain with thoughts of imitating heroic Gandolf or King Arthur, our planning was undone by a new intense round of lightening, thunder and wind gales warning of the apocalypse. With the storm showing no sign of abating and three long blocks between us and our destination, and a very frightened lad, I remarkably saw a cab with his light on. Wearing sandals that are impossible to walk in when wet, I dashed out into the storm, ran between double parked vans and out into the street to wave down the cab like a mad woman. Clearly my most impassioned cab-hailing event as a New Yorker. A moment later Christopher was shoved into the backseat by his dad. As I was buckling him up, I saw he had a tear drying by his eye, but he was brimming with his bravery and already laughing with the cabbie and joking that he saved our lives.

And then this morning, an earthquake in Manhattan. It was a decent little roll, I'd say about a 3.1 or so by the time it got to us.

I just went looking for stories to find out how intense that wind was. The Weather Channel said it was 78 mph in parts of Jersey. And here's a New York Times story clearly written by someone who didn't go outside.
- posted by Amy @ 4/20/2002 11:18:00 AM