On March 16, a crane crashed to the ground at 90th St. and 1st Ave. in Manhattan, killing 7 people. A building inspector apparently had falsified a safety report.
Today, May 30, a second horrible crane accident occurred during rush hour this morning. Witnesses said it sounded like a train coming through and all of a sudden the ground heaved, huge crash of metal, and papers and smoke flying through the air, and then debris like snow.
I watched some of the people on camera. Their faces, you can tell: This disaster has caused some of the survivors of this crane accident to be dragged backward in time to another date. 9-11.
The firemen are on top of what’s left of the top of the building pulling away piece by piece , the twisted metal, sheets of blown drywall looking for people trapped.
Many firemen on the ground also, trying to plow through the debris. Building is many stories high and front and corner concrete walls are badly damaged from top to bottom. I have to say, all the firemen working shoulder to shoulder in the street in their black coats with yellow bands, reminds me too of another time I’d rather never again remember too… right before the second tower went down on 9-11.
Flashbacks: The mind is a funny thing: It keeps files of everything it has ever seen and experienced… and compares all current events against what is held in the archives. It happens so instantaneously that what’s in the archives, happy or horrific, comes leaping out before a person gets a chance to mediate it.
One person, said to be the operator in the crane cab, has died. One of his buds says he was married just a few weeks ago. Five others taken to hospital with serious injuries.
A piece of the crane broken off is in the street reaching up five stories. Surrounding buildings have been evacuated because the collar of the crane is hanging and could fall at any moment. Building walls were crushed and torn away as the crane fell. They are checking people in the apartments surrounding to make sure they are alright.
It is said that the weight of such a crane as this is equal to the tonnage of two Boeing 707s.
One of the young men who was working on the construction crew says there have been safety people all over the site for the last few weeks, more, he says, than he has ever seen before.
One informant on the street says he tried calling the city several times over the last few weeks to report that the crane ‘did not look right’ but could not get through all the layers of the city phone systems to anyone who could respond to his concern.
Heavy equipment is on the way, but right now, recovery and debris removal is all hand work by brave souls.
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CODA
Below is what a broken crane looks like; this one is from a different incident, not today’s in New York.