explosion: con ed style!

As many of you know, I work in the Chyrsler Building. Which is a lovely, old, creaky-ass building that, whenver there's a high wind situation, sounds like we work in the hull of a ship. (Those are the days on which we play Pirates!) (but that's another story.)

Last night, there was Ye Goode Olde Explosion of a steam pipe (which, apparently dated back to ye goode olde days of yore... i.e., 1924) just down the street from us. Luckily (or unluckily, depending on how you look at it), I had spent the day worring that I had left my laptop near an open window during a downpour, so I left the office at 5:30 on the nose, to make sure my 'puter hadn't died. (It hadn't.) So I didn't even know about the steam pipe explosion until I got to Lisa & RJ's house and RJ said, "Hey, look, your building's exploding."

Aghast, I ran to his computer screen. And sure enough, a big chunk of Lexington Avenue was exploding. It apparently looked like this (not my photos: thanks, AP!)

My phone rang. I was out with friends so I ignored it.

It rang again. I realized there were probably a few people who might think I was dead. So I started answering calls and texts. It seemed only the polite thing to do, considering I had even been spared the transit nightmare of trying to leave the scene of a Possible Terrorist Explosion.
My bosses, however, weren't worried about their computers, so they were here when the rumbling began.

"It sounded like a series of bombs," Boss 1 said. "I thought, for sure, with our location, this was terror-related."

"Well, terrorists with bad aim, maybe," non-boss lawyer said. "I mean, it was a couple blocks south..."

"I looked out my window [on Lexington Avenue] and the windows of the building across the street were shaking, like that building was going to explode next. And after that? Maybe us. So I picked up my purse, left everything else, and just ran. I really thought it was my time to die. As I ran down the stairs, I thought 'ok, I have enough life insurance, the girls are going to be ok, and my husband's going to be ok...' I haven't been that scared since my hotel was taken hostage in the '70s." And Boss 1 looked visibly rattled.

Boss 2 didn't have as bad a time. "We just got into the stairwell and everyone was moving along at a pretty fast pace. But by the time we got to the third floor, it was crowded and people were really panicking. Shouting, pushing and sobbing. I mean, we didn't know what was going on out there -- if there was some sort of nuclear explosion or fire or what, and we didn't know where this stairwell was going to put us out, and I wasn't in a big rush to be the first one to find out, you know?"

You can see why they might have freaked -- the steam and shitstorm was racing up the sides of buildings (ours is the one behind the cloud):

As a result, the office was closed yesterday. It was part of the "Frozen Zone" where they claimed they weren't letting pedestrians go. Apparently that wasn't true at all, as several industrious (and nerdy) folks found their way to the office. I found my way to DSW and bought a new pair of shoes. Then I found my way to the hair salon and got a hair cut! (No mushroom head this time, thank god!)

What was left, after the steam stopped?

A big, fat hole. And a few dead and injured people. In many of the ways I look at it, that's a huge blessing, especially considering how much worse it could have been. In many of the other ways I look at it, it's a disaster that ConEd, the city's perpetual ass-monkey, should have foreseen. I know, I know, you can't prepare for a disaster, but that's a steam hole that's been covered by metal and poked at periodically by guys in hardhats for MONTHS now. (I know, because it's part of my regular route to the library.) It was not news to ConEd that something was going on down there. They apologize up and down, for one catastrophe after another, but they're a utility that's got the city by the balls. And constantly pinches them.

While my mother worked in the city (and terror alerts were higher), I always thought, if something's going to happen, I hope it happens to me and not to her, because I always thought I could get away from danger faster, I could handle the stress better. And I didn't want my mother to be scared. Hearing my bosses' stories makes me really glad she doesn't work in the city anymore. Because no one can control where things like this happen.

I'm grateful not only to be alive, but to be loved, worried over and completely unaffected (except for my new shoes and hair) by the whole encounter. And who doesn't love a free, bonus day off??