Photos 20 Sep 2010 06:21 am
Trees Down
Reading Cartoon Brew, I just learned of Bill Littlejohn‘s death. I can’t tell you how sad this makes me. I’m heading out the door for a short vacation/honeymoon. When I return on Saturday I will post some of his animation drawings.
- On Thursday night, we were hit with a vicious storm. I was on a bus heading to a screening of “The Town”. It was drizzling until I pushed open the door to exit. At that very moment, a deadening driving rain smashed down on Manhattan. I sat in the shelter of doorway for a few minutes before running to a scaffolding overhang across Madison Avenue. I was able to walk two blocks without getting wet, thanks to the construction above.
Staten Island, Brooklyn and Queens were under a tornado warning, and, indeed, tornado like winds of 100 mph as well as hail and rain. More than 1800 trees were uprooted; countless cars were crushed; homes were smashed; cable and power went out, and numerous people were killed. It was a blow.
Steven Fisher, who lives in Queens, photographed some of the damage in his own back yard. Here are his photos sent to me.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
Juniper Valley Park, Middle Village. 16 Sep 2010.
14
15
16
on 20 Sep 2010 at 1:29 pm 1.Elliot Cowan said …
I wonder if he lives near me.
I took some snaps of the treepocalypse myself.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=302020&id=803514687&l=8987294c27
on 20 Sep 2010 at 9:31 pm 2.David Nethery said …
When something like that happened in Central Florida a few years ago (Hurricane Charlie) the insurance companies took advantage of the situation to raise our insurance rates through the roof (those of us who still had roofs , that is) .
One summer of bad weather six years ago and we’re still paying through the nose. I hope they don’t try the same ploy on you New Yorkers . Somehow in the intervening six years with no hurricanes hitting us they haven’t managed to make the home insurance rates go back down. How about that ?
Looking at those photos it looks like my neighborhood in the aftermath of Hurricane Charlie .
Your post title , “Trees Down” with the add-on about the loss of Bill Littlejohn fits metaphorically … I always thought of Bill as standing tall like a mighty oak tree. He will be missed. But 96 years is a good run . We’ll remember you , Bill.
-D
on 22 Sep 2010 at 11:25 am 3.Ray Kosarin said …
Tom Sito just sent us a beautiful obit of Bill for the ASIFA Magazine. You can read it here:
http://asifaeast.com/IntlUpdate/wordpress1/
on 23 Sep 2010 at 12:22 pm 4.Eddie Fitzgerald said …
I didn’t comment when you first published this post about fallen trees, but I found myself compulsively rereading it. Steven Fisher has a knack for disaster photography.
on 24 Sep 2010 at 6:00 pm 5.Steven Hartley said …
Oh dear, that looks bad man, I hope you were ok.
There was a storm from on England (where I live) about some 20 years ago in 1987 and it was one of the strongest storms in England ever and yes trees fell down and fences were flat like a pack of cards – yes it wasn’t a good time – and I know that in some places in America that there are quite a bit of heavy storms. Although I didn’t exist in 1987 but that was history for Britain.
Looks like something very serious happened and somehow it doesn’t seem to have reached the news much because I only first heard it until now!! Shocking. Hope everything is okay.