Welcome to New York

I felt a thrill reading the "Welcome to NY" sign in La Guardia when I arrived this past Sunday. Yesterday, I got a whole new "thrill"...

I took off from the office around 3:30 to go look at some itty-bitty apartments. The leasing offices all close around 5:30, so I jumped on the subway to head back to Midtown, where my office and my hotel are, planning on getting off at Grand Central.

"Ladies and gentlemen, there has been an emergency evacuation of Grand Central station and this train will not be stopping there. We will stop at 51st Street."

Ok, a little disconcerting, but you try not to panic.

Exiting the subway terminal at 51st and Lexington, I followed the crowd as we headed south on Lex back towards Grand Central.

A large plume of smoke rose between the tall buildings. People stopped in the middle of the street to stare. Everyone was on their cell phones at once, and those not talking were taking pictures of the explosion. 9-11 was on everyone's mind. I immediately thought of notifying my family that I was ok. I couldn't get calls to go through because the network was busy, but I did get a text message out to them all.

Fortunately, it was not a terrorist attack and relatively few people were injured. A transformer fire caused a steam pipe to explode, raining down boiling water and chunks of concrete.

As of this morning, there is a "freeze zone" of several blocks that are completely shut down to pedestrian or motor traffic. There is also a question of asbestos lingering...I saw two policemen this morning wearing bright pink masks. My office building is just beyond the freeze zone, as is my hotel, so I am fortunate not to be too affected by the disruption. It is strange, though, and does give me pause about moving to the city.