Tuesday, January 26, 2010

high winds, falling construction debris, close lower manhattan streets



yesterday was an interesting experience for me. when i walked by city hall park on the way to the office fire trucks, with lights flashing, blocked spruce street, adjacent to pace university. i soon learned that day classes had been cancelled because of falling debris from the construction site on spruce street. since the only day classes were cancelled, i expected to teach my monday night class - the first of the semester, in fact.

around noon, there were additional fire engines closing off traffic at the southern end of city hall park! apparently the 60+ mph wind gusts had caused additional debris to fall from other buildings in the area. the wind advisory that was in effect until 4 was extended until early evening. pace then followed up with a second announcement that evening classes would also be cancelled.

i've had classes cancelled for plenty of weather related reasons, administrative reasons, and personal ones. but cancellation because of high wind gusts (absent a hurricane or tornado watch) was a first. while my students are probably happy with a class-free evening, i need to make-up that time to cover the assigned material!

i used my new found free time to get in a windy 5 mile run (on what would have otherwise been a rest day) :D

4 comments:

Generation X (Slomohusky) said...

Lesson in being flexible I guess? At least your flex time allowed for a run. Can't beat that?

I have heard Pace is excellent in teaching Enviromental Law.

Maria said...

So that's what was going on downtown! I went to yoga around 6:50 on Warren St. between Broadway and Church and it was all closed off with firetrucks, etc. They did let me past the barriers tho.

A Plain Observer said...

It rained and it rained and it rained and the winds were attrocious overhere. If you remember I sooooo dislike wind! I would never run in a windy day like that.
So, are you making your students come on Presidents day to make up?

rundangerously said...

haha! myriam, i haven't figured out how to make up that lost class yet :D

i hate running into the wind. yesterday, whatever direction i ran it seemed to be into a headwind - argh!