Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Observations from the Earthquakepocalypse

You just know I would be remiss if I didn't report in from one of the greatest natural disasters in the gallery's history. Well maybe a minor disaster, alright it felt like an overloaded trash truck driving down our narrow street. A 5.9 magnitude earthquake centered in Virginia rattled our windows and sent Ash scurrying for bottles of wine as she is wont to do during natural disasters.

I shouldn't joke because I did see video of the crowds in Times Square which looked to me like New Years Eve had come in the afternoon. One thing I hadn't thought of was how people in the towers would react to the quake. People thought of the 9/11 attacks and had a 'oh god not again' reaction than instinctively got out. Thinking about it now I have to say I would have done the same.

With the Mets visiting the Phillies tonight the best tweet I saw was from Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer who covers the Phillies. “Citizens Bank Park was evacuated. No one allowed in. But the Mets are still inside. Really.” Another, which came from the Phillies, was funny just because I couldn't believe I was reading it. “Tonight's 7:05 Mets Phillies game at Citizens Bank Park will be played as scheduled following today's earthquake."

I did learn a few important lessons today. During an earthquake do not under any circumstances stand next to tall buildings, duh. Do not immediately check twitter because if you do you won't get in that all important cell phone call because the system will already be down till you get to it. Do not whine about the quake online because anybody you know on the left coast will laugh and call you a drama queen. Do get on foursquare as soon as possible and check into earthquakepocalypse because if you are lucky like I was there will already be 8,000 people there and you can score the 'epic swarm' badge.

In the end we of the gallery survived the quake but we can't dwell on our luck for long as Hurricane Irene is bearing down on the east coast and is expected to be in the New York City area late Saturday night or early Sunday morning. "Quite honestly I am more concerned about our preparations for the approaching hurricane," said New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg at a press conference on the earthquake.

Stay tuned.

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