8:07pm — the wind gusts are very loud out there now. I heard glass breaking outside but it wasn’t my windows.

#sandy lights out in lower manhattan twitter.com/LauraTrevelyan…

— Laura Trevelyan (@LauraTrevelyan) October 29, 2012

This is crazy … 

It’s 7pm and the advice here is to definitely stay inside for the evening. From the Mayor’s most recent address:

Time for relocation or evacuation is over. Conditions outside are dangerous, and they’re only going to get worse in the hours ahead.

So I’m in my place for now. It’s a cozy spot, and it’s surprisingly quiet here; I’m at the back of the building, away from the street. This photo is from last week:

Even in my sheltered location, I can still hear the wind gusts getting louder and louder right now.

Con Ed may be shutting off power as a preventive measure in southern Manhattan this evening — it looks like this will be south of me. If my power does go out, however, I’ll post additional updates from my phone.

A crane in midtown has partially collapsed this afternoon, partially collapsing a construction crane.

From the post on the Architect’s Newspaper Blog:

The storm snapped the boom of the crane at the summit of the 95-story, 1,004-foot-tall residential tower, which now dangles precariously over the streets of midtown Manhattan. The scene on the street is still developing, but NY1 reports that the crane could become off-balance causing a further collapse.  Surrounding streets have been closed and emergency crews are on the scene. 

I went out to check out the neighborhood this morning around 10:30. Streets are fairly empty except for some joggers, dog-walkers, and people seeking out fodder for Facebook status updates. There are already some windblown branches (this one looks to be featured heavily in Facebook status updates).

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Went out for a walk in the East Village from 5:30 – 6:30 this evening. It’s getting gusty out there. The park is closed.

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Hurricane Sandy is coming to NYC, and we’ll soon see how big and bad it is. This note was posted on my apartment door yesterday:

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At St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery, there stands a statue of Peter Stuyvesant, featuring the world’s most unreadable block of text. I was only able to read through 10% or so before my eyes crossed and I had to look away.

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After countless moves and whittlings-down of belongings, I’ve somehow managed to save this Seattle Y2K readiness flyer for posterity.

The frenetically-designed Y2K logo and then-mayor Paul Schell’s letter attempt to convey confidence in the face of what was then a frightening question: will bugs in our computers inadvertantly trigger an apocalypse scenario? Continue reading →