Midtown NYC Explosion

Last night as I was getting ready to pack up for the day, I heard people in my office saying that there was an explosion at Grand Central and telling me to evacuate the building immediately. Some of the associates that have offices facing Madison Ave saw lots of smoke and felt the floor rumbling, so they started running for the stairs/elevators and were telling other people to do the same. When I got to the first floor, there was a mad exodus – seriously – everyone in our building was running to the exit and trying to see what all the fuss was about. Apparently, there was a steam pipe explosion near grand central and the smoke people thought they saw was actually steam coming up from the ground. One woman died from the explosion (cardiac arrest) and 44 other people were injured. Here are the pictures I took from the street as I was walking home:

The debris that fell onto all New Yorkers in the area:

Also, there was asbestos in the debris that fell from the explosion, so if you were in the area, you should probably either 1. throw away your clothes that you were wearing or 2. get them cleaned so you won’t be breathing in the asbestos.

Trains are running again, but there’s still a lot of cleanup and there’s no traffic along 42nd street near Grand Central.