At one point earlier in the week Hurricane Gloria was a formidable category 4 storm with winds approaching 145 mph. However, by the time it made its way up to the Mid-Atlantic region (after making an initial landfall in North Carolina) it had weakened somewhat, but was still a worry since hurricanes make so few landfalls in the New York metro area. And although a hurricane warning had been issued for Manhattan at 4 PM on Thursday, it didn't keep me from attending a cocktail party that evening hosted by Travel & Leisure magazine to promote its jungle safari-themed November issue. The event was held at The Safari Club, a few blocks north of Bloomingdale's.
For whatever reason, I wasn't feeling alarm over Gloria so when I arrived home I was surprised to hear on the news that the World Trade Center would be closed the next day as well as New York City schools. Furthermore, residents of high-rise buildings were advised to tape their windows to keep glass from showering sidewalks below if they were blown in. I didn't worry about that since I lived in a basement/garden apartment, but I had concerns about potential flooding.
To get in the spirit I went to the supermarket and bought candles (not that there were any above-ground power lines in Manhattan to be blown down). It was the first time I experienced panic-shopping and hoarding. Since a hurricane was a novelty in these parts few of us knew what to expect as we turned in for the night.
On Friday morning (Sept. 27) I got a call from my boss at 8:00 telling me that the office (ad agency Young & Rubicam) was closed because of the storm. However, not everyone got word and after coming in they were stranded when rail and subway tunnels were closed due to flooding. I ventured out to pick up the paper and breakfast but I mostly wanted to experience the storm. As I walked along Bleecker St. in the West Village I saw awnings tested mightily by the rain-blown gales and a few trash cans blowing down the street.
Manhattan was spared hurricane-force winds as the storm stayed to our east. Gloria's "eye" moved over the Nassau/Suffolk county line (50 miles east of Manhattan), with Suffolk Co. bearing the brunt of the storm. My friend Nina was impacted because she lived in a beachfront condo in Long Beach. Another friend, Marina, had just moved to Southampton in Suffolk Co. and her yard suffered extensive tree damage and power was out for more than a week. And out on Fire Island, Calvin Klein's oceanfront home in the community of the Pines lost part of its roof which landed in the swimming pool of the property behind it.
More than three inches of rain fell in Central Park that morning but skies cleared rapidly early in the afternoon. (This was much needed rain as New York was in the midst of a serious drought.) I went out for a jog to survey the damage, which was minimal. All I came across was a small tree blown down in the plaza of the World Trade Center. The storm was a quick mover so it spared us from more wind damage or flooding. I was relieved that disruptions were minimal because I had a date that night.
Previous posts I've written about Hurricanes Agnes, Gloria and Sandy have generated some of this blog's highest readership. And although I have memories of other hurricanes, they aren't rich enough to turn them into full-blown posts. Instead, I've written a few sentences about ten of them and put them all in this one post.
BELLE (Aug. 9, 1976)
I experienced this hurricane but didn't realize it until nearly 40 years later when I was doing research for my weather blog (New York City Weather Archive). On this day in 1976 my older brother and I drove from Pittsburgh to northern New Jersey for a vacation (which included my first time in the Atlantic Ocean, at Belmar, and my first visit to NYC), and when we got onto the NJ Turnpike we were met by sheets of heavy rain. This was before The Weather Channel, so we were completely oblivious to the fact that hurricane Belle was bearing down on Long Island at the time (it made landfall there shortly after midnight). It wasn't a strong hurricane, but memorable nonetheless.
ALICIA (Aug. 18, 1983)
This category 3 hurricane struck Galveston and Houston the day before I left for vacation in Provincetown. I was supposed to go with my boyfriend Rick but we had hit a rough patch (just a few months after moving in together) so I went there alone. I overslept by two hours and barely made my flight (on the now defunct People's Express).
GILBERT (Sept. 14-16, 1988)
Hurricane Gilbert was the most intense hurricane to ever enter the Gulf of Mexico and it devastated Jamaica and Cancun, but spared Texas (after earlier dire predictions). It coincided with my first time on jury duty. I was picked for a burglary case (that occurred on the Upper Eastside) and we ended up being sequestered for one night. Fortunately, I shared the motel room (near the Lincoln Tunnel) with a friend of my roommate. During the same week my boss resigned. (By the way, we, the jury, found the defendant guilty.)
HUGO (Sept. 22, 1989)
I stayed up into the wee hours on a Thursday night watching coverage on The Weather Channel as Hugo made landfall in Charleston, South Carolina. It was the strongest hurricane (category 4) to strike the Southeast in 35 years. The NYC area was under a tropical storm watch with 5-10" of rain predicted, but after Hugo made landfall he changed course and we weren't impacted (which was a relief since four inches of rain had fallen a few days earlier). A cousin in Charlotte, NC got married that weekend and had to contend with no power and downed trees after Hugo roared through. Also on this day Irving Berlin died at the age of 101 (he wasn't a hurricane casualty).
BOB(Aug. 19, 1991)
Like Hurricane Gloria six years earlier, Bob stayed to our east, but we still got a good deal of rain which was mostly over by noon on that Monday. My roommate Todd was on vacation out in Montauk and went without power for a few days. And my friend Tom was vacationing in Provincetown and had to contend with some inconveniences as well. He recalls a number of drag queens walking around town with signs that said "I got blown by Bob". I was relieved the storm was a quick mover because I had tickets for the Broadway show Grand Hotel that evening. (Yes, that's The Weather Channel's one and only Jim Cantore - when he still had hair!)
ANDREW (Aug. 24, 1992)
It may be hard to believe, but nothing memorable was going on in my life at the time. Ironically, the National Hurricane Center in Miami was largely destroyed by Andrew as was the ad agency that had the Burger King account. It was amazing how few were killed by this incredibly powerful storm (at one point there were rumors that hundreds of migrant farm workers had died).
OPAL (Oct. 4, 1995)
As Opal approached the Florida panhandle it strengthened just before landfall and became the second most damaging hurricane to strike Florida (after Andrew). However, this story was almost completely lost to the coverage of the not-gulty verdict in the OJ Simpson trial the day before. And the pope arrived for his second visit to the New York area.
EDOUARD (Aug. 31 - Sept 1, 1996)
For a brief time Edouard caused concern in NYC and on Long Island. It was Labor Day weekend and I was out at Fire Island (it was my first summer in the Pines) when word spread on Saturday that Edouard might strike and evacuations might begin that night. Fortunately, the storm took a turn to the northeast and no evacuations were needed. One other memory from that weekend - while cleaning the table after Sunday dinner a housemate's guest asked me if anyone had ever mentioned that I looked like "Smithers" from The Simpsons.
FLOYD (Sept. 16, 1999)
Powerful Floyd's approach resulted in the evacuation of 2.6 million residents between Florida and North Carolina. After striking North Carolina earlier in the morning he quickly moved towards NYC. Downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it reached us, Floyd was still a huge rainmaker - five inches fell, the greatest one-day total in more than 20 years (even greater amounts flooded Philadelphia and Newark). For a while many subway lines were shut down for much of the afternoon because of track flooding and some downed trees. My office at ad agency Foote, Cone & Belding closed at 1:00 (Macy's too) but I stayed until 5:45. When I got home I intended to go to the gym but it was so windy and rainy that I turned back after walking one block.
KATRINA (Aug. 29, 2005)
I was visiting my mother in Pittsburgh for the weekend when Katrina made its initial landfall in south Florida and then struck Louisiana and Mississippi on the day I returned to NYC (Sunday). At one point on Sunday it was a category 5 with winds of 175 mph - incredible. At first some meteorologists on The Weather Channel talked of how New Orleans had "dodged a bullet" when Katrina veered east and instead struck the Mississippi Gulf Coast head-on.
However, after the storm moved on the levees surrounding the city broke - and the rest is history. The number of deaths was shocking (more than 1,800), especially since stronger hurricanes such as Andrew and Hugo caused fewer than 100 fatalities. It took months before the final tally was determined. It was also, by far, the most damaging natural disaster in U.S. history ($100 billion+).
IKE (Sept. 13, 2008)
I watched TWC's coverage during the wee hours of Saturday morning as it struck Galveston and Houston (25 years after Alicia). One of its reporters, Mike Bettes, got knocked around by the high winds even though he was in a somewhat protected hotel entranceway. Later that night I watched SNL's 1st episode of the new season and it opened with Tina Fey's portrayal of Sarah Palin. Two days later the financial markets were rocked by Lehman Bros. filing Chapter 11, followed on the same day by word that Merrill Lynch had been purchased by Bank of America to avoid Lehman's fate.
The reason I was aware of Woodstock was because of Hurricane Camille. I had become interested in meteorology a year earlier while doing a 5th Grade science project so I was eagerly following reports about the hurricane. As I watched Sunday's evening news with rapt attention (no 24/7 coverage on The Weather Channel back in those ancient times) I was made aware of an outdoor music event on a farm south of Woodstock in New York state that had begun on Aug. 15, 1969.
Meanwhile, Camille was generating considerable interest because of how ferocious it had become as it approached Mississippi's Gulf Coast. Indeed, when it made landfall late on Aug. 17 it was one of the most intense hurricanes to ever strike the U.S. The number of deaths it caused (256) wouldn't be topped until Katrina killed an estimated 1,200 persons in 2005. Interestingly, veteran WNBC-NY news anchor Chuck Scarborough was a young local anchor in Biloxi, Mississippi back then.)
Camille's approach was very exciting for me, but Woodstock not so much. I was a bit too young (12 years old) to be enamored with "hippie rock" nor had I yet to develop any musical preferences (that would have to wait until Captain & Tennille came on the scene). Woodstock was more of an event for my sister and brother who were 18 and 16 at the time. My recollection was seeing aerial photos of the traffic jam leading out of the festival and naked concert goers covered in mud.
For me, Woodstock was just another news story that evening - along with the Tate/LaBianca (aka Manson) murders in L.A. that occurred the previous week. Camille was the main event (as it probably was for much of the nation at the time).
August 14, 2003 was sunny and hot Thursday in New York. In the middle of the afternoon I noticed that my laptop wasn’t working, so I mentioned it to my administrative assistant, Terri, who came to my office to take a look. She was fiddling around with the cables under my desk, but to no avail. Shortly thereafter, word came that the power was out. Most of us weren’t aware of it since the company I worked for (media agency Carat USA) was situated high up on the 36th floor (at 34th St. & Park Ave., pictured below), so our offices were bathed in sunlight, thus there was no need to have the lights on. I immediately looked out my window to see if anything looked amiss (a knee-jerk reaction ever since 9/11), and noticed smoke pouring out of the big Con Edison plant nearby, but it turned out there was no connection.
After congregating on the floor with co-workers, we broke into two camps - those who were unnerved and left immediately (again, memories of 9/11 still fresh in their minds) and those who hung around thinking the power might come on in a short while - I was in the second group. After 15 minutes or so even those of us who waited decided to leave.
I didn’t expect it would be a big deal, but soon learned otherwise as it took 30 minutes to walk down the stairs since all of the floors below were emptying out as well. And was the air ever stuffy! A further hindrance was a lack of working emergency lights in the stairwell, so we used light cast from each of our cell phones to guide us. Slowly making our way down the stairwell made me think of what a challenge it must have been for those in the Twin Towers on 9/11 who had to evacuate from much higher floors.
Eventually, I made it to the lobby and walked downtown with my boss, Joanne, who lived in Chelsea. I was among the lucky ones, since my walk home was only about two miles (down to West 4th St.). When I arrived at my apartment building I found my friend Nina, who couldn't get home to Long Island, waiting at my doorstep. (She had walked up from the the Financial District where her office was.) After freshening up a bit, we walked to the pier/park at the end of Christopher St. On the way there we bumped into my friend Tom, who lived in the apartment building next to mine.
We hung out on the pier with a throng of other "powerless" Village residents for an hour or so until it got dark, and then the police instructed us to leave (normally the pier remained open until 1 AM). Surprisingly, looking across the Hudson we could see that lights were on in the building in Jersey City and Hoboken.
Walking back to my apartment was a challenge because there were no street or store lights, yet the lights from cars were blindingly bright, much more so than when the power was on. Along the way we bought slices of pizza from a pizzeria that was serving in the dark from its takeout window. After finishing our meal back at my place there wasn’t anything else to do but talk and it became uncomfortably warm (eating hot pizza didn't help).
The discomfort I experienced was more of a challenge for me than on 9/11 because, although there was a lot more mental anguish on that day, I didn't experience the physical discomfort I did on this night. (It was a relief to wash dishes in cold water!) Also, I was feeling vulnerable because my cell phone had run out of juice, and I was running low on money - and ATMs weren't working. And despite Mayor Bloomberg's earlier assurances that power would be restored by 11 PM, it was not to be.
The next day, shortly before noon, Nina found a bus to take her back to Long Island (the trip took five hours). Meanwhile, l went over to Tom's apartment to savor his great cross-ventilation. I was dozing on the living room floor when the power finally returned at about 2 PM. I shouted "Hallelujah!" and immediately dashed out to get cash from the ATM. However, each neighborhood had a different schedule and some didn't get their power back until close to midnight.
A 10-day heat wave was about to end when Diana Ross gave her much publicized free concert in New York's Central Park on the evening of July 21, 1983 (the high temperature hit 95° that afternoon). And as hundreds of thousands of her fans streamed into the park severe thunderstorms were bearing down on the City. I wasn't part of these throngs since I was never one for huge NYC crowds, especially those attracted by a free event. Instead, after work I walked to Saks on Fifth Avenue to buy an outfit for my newborn nephew, Corry, who had been born the week before - making me an uncle for the first time.
After making my purchase (white terry cloth pajamas with blue polka dots) I hurriedly walked to West 34th St. to catch the 'F' train downtown to my apartment on West 15th St., hoping to get there before conditions got too bad. I almost made it. The image that stays with me was the creepy color of the sky as I walked along 34th St. With the rain pouring down the ominous clouds turned from a Wizard of Oz gray to a sickly mustard-yellow and moss-green, colors I'd never seen before - except in a J. Crew catalog. It was a true tempest and I wouldn't have been surprised if a funnel cloud had formed. (More than two inches of rain poured down between 6:30-9:00.)
Despite the turbulent conditions "Miss Ross" valiantly continued with her show (which began at 6:00) as she was pelted by rain and buffeted by strong winds. At one point she referred to the torrential downpour as a "love shower" before the concert was stopped after 45 minutes because of danger posed by lightning. And that's when things got even uglier. As the soaked crowd of 400,000 began streaming out of the park some concertgoers were set upon by marauding gangs. The press referred to it as "wilding". (It was a crazy, raucous time in New York back then.)
Happily, the concert was rescheduled for the next day, a Friday, and the weather couldn't have been more beautiful. And I took the train out to Roselle, NJ and held my little week-old nephew for the first time.
The book Diana Ross in Central Park provides an in-depth background into the planning and execution of the concert.
Because of its inland location Pittsburgh isn't susceptible to the furies of a full-blown hurricane (and its hilly topography largely protects it from tornadoes.) However, the city's famed three rivers (Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio) make it susceptible to flooding. Fortunately, the neighborhood I grew up in sat protected on a bluff overlooking the Ohio River about 10 miles down river from Pittsburgh's renowned Golden Triangle.
Hurricane Agnes was a rare June hurricane, but when it crossed the Florida panhandle on June 19, 1972 it was a weak storm that caused little damage. However, once it was downgraded to a tropical storm it turned into a prodigious rainmaker as it moved up the Eastern Seaboard. The storm became known for the loop it made over New York state and Pennsylvania where it stalled and caused catastrophic flooding that extended into Maryland and Virginia as well.
Although our neighborhood was out of harm's way from flooding my family was nevertheless impacted by the storm. My dad was a foreman at a steel fabricating plant on Neville Island, situated in the middle of the Ohio River, and it closed that Friday (June 23) when water began covering the main highway.
Meanwhile my sister Linda's job at Joseph Horne department store, where she was an assistant buyer, was interrupted for a few days when the waters of the Allegheny River overran its banks. To protect the store special floodgates were wrapped around the building. Linda's plans to see Alice Cooper in concert at Three Rivers Stadium on Friday were scuttled when the waters of the three rivers made their way into the stadium. And my brother Darrell, who was home from college after his freshman year had a summer job as an usher at the Roxian Theater in our hometown of McKees Rocks and helped bail water from the theater.
Although rainfall in Pittsburgh itself wasn't excessive (2.50" fell on Thursday and Friday) the watershed areas for its rivers and creeks received over six inches and caused the city's most serious flooding since 1936 (e.g., the Monongahela River crested 11-feet above flood stage). However, flooding in Wilkes-Barre (below), the state capitol of Harrisburg and Elmira, NY was much more destructive. These areas had in excess of 10 inches of rain. And despite the fact that summer had just begun temperatures in Pittsburgh got no higher than the mid-50s for three consecutive days (25 degrees cooler than normal).
Fortunately the hurricane season of 1972 was one of the least active on record which allowed the Mid-Atlantic to dry out. The U.S. mainland wouldn't be ravaged by such a destructive hurricane until 1983 when Alicia hit Houston. (For those fascinated by hurricanes a book to consider is Hurricanes & the Mid-Atlantic States.)
Spring had arrived two weeks earlier, the 1982 baseball season had begun the day before and Easter was less than a week away. Yet here it was April 6 and we were under a blizzard warning, the first ever issued for New York in April. Rain began overnight, changed over to wet snow by the morning rush hour and then the blizzard's full fury set in from 10 AM until 4 PM. Most offices closed at noon, and the Mets and Yankees postponed their home openers. I stayed at the office (ad agency Young & Rubicam) until the usual time because I lived in Manhattan and getting home wasn't an issue.
That evening when I emerged from the PATH station in my Greenwich Village neighborhood I turned the corner onto my street and was amazed by the drifts I had to trudge through to get home. However, despite the snow the bowling league I participated in at Bowlmor Lanes still met.
Although Central Park had 9.6" of snow many suburbs reported a foot or more (Albany had 17.3"). It was New York's biggest snowfall in four years. By midnight the temperature had fallen to a record 21°. Not much in the way of snow melt occurred the next day as the temperature stayed below freezing - as opposed to a typical high in early April approaching 60°. (By contrast, on the same date 28 years later New York would report its earliest 90-degree reading.) Three days later I flew home to visit my parents in Pittsburgh for Easter and it was snowing there (two inches fell). Thankfully, this wasn't a precursor to an unusually cold April as a string of mild days occurred mid-month and then on April 25 the mercury hit 82°.
If you love reading about snow, I've written five other posts about New York snowstorms:
And if you'd like to read about other New York City snowstorms, I've written a post on my weather blog, New York City Weather Archive, that recaps the snowstorms we've experienced since 1950. To go to it please double click here.
Some newsworthy events unfold over a course of weeks so they can't be pin downed to one moment in time. Such was the case of the unrelenting cold and snow of January 1994 and a number of high-profile criminal cases that received considerable attention in the same month.
For much of the nation it was one of the coldest and snowiest Januarys on record. New York was hit by a lot of sleet and freezing rain; a number of sub-zero mornings caused ice to form on the Hudson and East Rivers (which I could see from my office at ad agency NWAyer on the 34th floor of Worldwide Plaza on West 50th St.), making for slow going for river traffic. In the middle of the month I tried to escape the brutal cold by flying down to Orlando where I made my first visit to Disney World and Epcot. Unfortunately the Arctic chill followed me (the same misfortune befell me two years later when I took a vaction in Key West in February).
Before the introduction of the "reality" TV format, there was Court TV (now called truTV). During this frigid and inclement month I got into the habit of watching it because of its "gavel to gavel" coverage of a number of headline grabbing cases. First was the trial of Lorena Bobbitt who cut off her husband's penis while he slept and then tossed it out of her car window. Less salacious, but equally riveting, was the trial of the Menendez brothers, Lyle and Eric, for the murder of their wealthy parents. (Even more attention was generated due to the brothers' flamboyant attorney, Leslie Abramson.) Then feisty figure skater Tonya Harding was added to the mix when she was implicated in the pipe bashing of her rival Nancy Kerrigan a few days before the U.S. Figure Skating Championships and one month before the Winter Olympics. (Besides Court TV these cases received exhaustive coverage from CNN, Nightline and the Big 3's evening news shows.)
These cases also made celebs of legal analysts Jeffrey Toobin and Star "before The View" Jones (who knew she had a law degree?). I suppose these tawdry cases were a welcome diversion from that winter's onslaught. Of course, this was all just a prelude to the huge media circus created later in the year as the OJ Simpson murder case unfolded.
Hot weather and the 4th of July seem to go hand-in-hand. And hoping for sizzling temperatures on that day is on par with dreaming of a white Christmas. However, like snow on Christmas, a 90-degree reading isn't all that common in New York City. In the years I've lived here (since 1979) it's hit 90 just eight times on this holiday, about once every four years.
One of the eight July 4th sizzlers occurred last year (2010) when the afternoon high in Central Park topped out at 96, tying 1999 and 2002 for the distinction of being the hottest July 4th. However, if the low temperature is considered as a tie-breaker then 2002 was the hottest overall as the morning low that year was a sultry 81 while 1999's was 79 and last year's was a relatively mild 73.
New York's hottest 4th of July of all time was in 1949 when the mercury soared to a sizzling 102. FYI, NYC's hottest temperature of any date is 106, occurring in 1936 five days after 7/4. A few July 4ths (again, in the years I've lived in NYC) have been the 1st day of prolonged heat waves. In 1993 every day was 87 or hotter between July 4-18, with 13 days in the nineties, including three consecutive days of 100+. In 1988 another prolonged hot spell lasted 17 days between July 3-19. All days but one were 88 or hotter and 11 were 90+. Last year between July 4-7 every day was above 96, including 103 on July 6. (July 2010 tied July 1999 as NYC's hottest July on record.)
While on the subject of hot weather let me leave you with a few more statistics: July 18 is the day most likely to have a 90-degree reading. Since 1979 it's happened 17 times on that date, so in any given summer there's a 50/50 chance it will reach 90 then. And 100+ readings have been experienced during eight summers over the same period, including the past two summers.
Long before Lady GaGa there was Lady Godiva who on July 10, 1050 rode nude on horseback through the streets of Coventry, England in a protest over taxation (imposed by her husband no less!). 916 years later she was immortalized in song when the British singing duo Peter & Gordon released their single Lady Godiva which reached #6 on the U.S. charts in the fall of 1966.
Nudity also broght attention to Madonna this week in 1985 when Playboy published "full frontal" photos of her snapped before she became a sensation. This controversy erupted as her career was in rapid ascent - her album Like A Virgin was still high on the charts and her movie Desperately Seeking Susan was a summer hit (I saw it twice). However, rather than being a ruinous scandal it was the first in a string of controversial career boosters.
12 years later Madonna starred in another movie, Evita (which I also saw twice). And on July 7, 1947 the cover subject of Time Magazine was none other than Argentina's notorious, but beloved, first lady, 28-year old Eva Peron. Sadly, she would die 5 years later from cancer. (Personal anecdote: The super of my apartment building is from Argentina and when she was a small child Eva Peron handed her a small toy when she made a visit to her town of Rosario.)
Two of rock music's seminal hits reached #1 on the charts this week, the Rolling Stones'Satisfaction in 1965 and the Doors' Light My Fire in 1967. 4 years later, also in early July, Doors frontman Jim Morrison would be found dead in a Paris hotel room of a drug overdose at the age of 27. And on July 6, 1957 17-year old John Lennon & 15-year old Paul McCartney met for the first time when they attended the same church picnic.
On July 9, 1936 New York City recorded the highest temperature in its history - 106. (And this was before air condtioning was the norm.) In my lifetime the hottest temperature I've experienced was 103 on August 10, 2001 and again last year on July 6. Some wonder if this temperature will ever be matched since the official readings for the city are now reported from grassy Central Park while before 1961 official readings came from concrete encased Rockefeller Center.
Up until 1979 hurricanes were the domain of women but on July 11, 1979 that all changed when the first hurricane named after a man formed. And although Hurricane Bob was relatively benign others such as Hugo (1989), Andrew (1992) & Ivan (2008) showed that they could be as ferocious as Camille or Katrina. In 1991 another Hurricane named Bob struck and was a bit more destructive than the first as it clipped the eastern tip of Long Island and then barrelled through Rhode Island and Cape Cod.
Finally,telegenic & cocksure of himself, Oliver North captured the hearts of the Conservative right on July 7, 1987 as he masterfully portrayed himself as an uber-patriot in front of TV cameras at the Iran-Contra hearings. Sarah Palin, who possessed the same skills in front of TV cameras, would pull at the same patriotic heartstrings two decades later.