Friday, August 26, 2011

Hurricane Watch

What a week it's been for New York City. First we felt the earthquake in VA which was a big shock for some people, especially those higher up in buildings. I felt our building move a bit, but I'm only the fourth floor so it was minimal. We all thought we were getting dizzy/fainting then realized the lights were swinging.

Now we're preparing for the possibly extreme threat of Hurricane Irene. You can never know how great the impact is going to be until it actually happens so this city is taking a lot of precautions. Some of which, like shutting down all public transit at noon tomorrow, seem like overkill. Luckily, our apartment is outside of the evacuation zone in Astoria on the East River, so we will not need to leave if an evacuation is ordered. However, I might end up spending the weekend at work, given that there's a need for "all hands on deck" and we have already opened evacuation centers and will be opening shelters as preparedness measures so that if people need somewhere to go, we will be ready. Right now, there's probably nobody there, but the Red Cross is nothing if not prepared.

It is definitely an interesting time to be working at the Red Cross and seeing first hand the kind of planning that goes into major weather events!


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