Hot summer days are never a picnic in any big city, but yesterday, NYC was particularly nightmarish. Start with a torrential rainstorm overnight that dropped 3 inches of rain in an hour, causing massive flooding of roadways and the subway system, where service was seriously disrupted – in some cases, actually suspended – leaving many New Yorkers with essentially no way of getting to work. Resorting to auto transportation was not the best idea either. Traffic snarls were everywhere, as seen in the photo looking down lower Broadway.
A tornado (confirmed by the National Weather Service) hit the Sunset Park and Bay Ridge areas of Brooklyn (the first there since 1950), ripping up building roofs and felling trees. Click here for the Gothamist’s story of Wild Wednesday. As a result of the heavy rain, the combined sewer overflow (CSO) system (which I wrote about in Waterworld) dumped tons of sewage into the ocean and waterways around the city – there may be beach closings due to contamination. And we had blistering heat in the 90s with humidity typical of a hot, steamy, August day. It was stifling. More Air, anyone?
It was madness. But today is beautiful. Thank heavens (literally). I hope now someone of the powers that be are galvanized to do something about the clowns at the MTA — the system should not shut down for a rainstorm. You would think it was a terrorist attack…
Brian, what’s the cause of the distortion in the photograph?
an honest man –
I hope it’s obvious that this distortion was intentional (?) to create a heat wave effect. I used a filter in Photoshop.
I love to visit your blog, watching all your great photos. But your narrative makes that your blog is like sightseeing NY everyday. For me, from a far away Poland, it’s so great watch it, read about NY (city I’d love to visit) and be a part of NY just for a while.
;))
sooo traffic… by the way what happen to the pic? hehe
Brian,
I did wonder!
It is hot all over! It was 103 in Atlanta yesterday…101 today! Yuck! Unusually high for us.
Stay cool Brian!