One of the apartments destroyed in the crane collapse that killed four on Friday belonged to John Odermatt, the former commissioner of New York's Office of Emergency Management. In his old job, he was responsible for coordinating the city's response to 9/11 and the blackout. Below, a video tour of his ravaged domicile.
@SarahHeartburn: That 1st five minutes for me was spent trying to figure out what was wrong with the stereo... the next 48 hours was spent with a smile on my face...
It was the like the bizarro September 12th, a mirror image opposite sort of deal... I can't speak for the people who had to walk through massive underground tunnels, or commute to Westchester or for the miserable tourists who slept on cots in Times Square... but downtown was filled with people on the streets, making eye contact (like after 9/11) but then similing... it was a shared clusterfuck and we were pretty happy to know that nobody was dying b/c of it... and people were sharing ice cream - just sharing it, with each other, for free...
@jackvinyl: The blackout was fun-after the first 5 minutes or so when everyone was very quiet, waiting to see if it was something ever so much worse. I was thrilled-I had just gotten home the day before for my yearly home visit and so grateful that I got the chance to live through my 3rd major blackout.
