Morning View - 41st Street

I'm sure by now that most of you heard of yesterday's explosion near Grand Central Terminal. I was at home, 30 blocks away, when the explosion took place around 6PM, and immediately got a dozen frantic phone calls from friends who know that my office is about 200 feet from the site of the explosion. It's just amazing that more people weren't killed - these AP photos hardly do justice to the damage. Transit is fucked today, of course, with most trains bypassing Grand Central.

The news coverage of ash-covered and bloody pedestrians running down the street was riveting, of course everybody thought it was a truck bomb, not an 80 year old steam pipe. The city's response was amazing, within minutes the entire area was locked down. If you work within a couple of blocks of Grand Central there is no access to your building today.