UPDATE!!! NBC Nightly News is reporting that it is confirmed that an F2 tornado ripped through a two mile stretch of “Sunset Park” - although they are actually in Bay Ridge, go figure. 

First off while it was a rough ride trying to get into work this morning we’ve had worse commutes.  This one was only two hours door to door, as opposed to some three and four hour commutes that we’ve had in the past.

So yesterday I was listening to KROCK Cleveland because it is way better than KROCK NYC, and they kept talking about some wild and crazy weather that they were experiencing out there, and well, I think it came over my place this morning.

I was asleep in my bed with the air conditioner keeping me nice and cool while my cat was resting next to me and on my shoulder.  While dreaming I began seeing bright lights flashing through my eyelids.  Then, THUNDER!

When I finally awoke from the thundering and lightening I realized that I had to close a window in a different room.  I thought about going back to sleep, but instead chose to just lay across my living room floor and watch the lightening and heavy rain storm through my wide open front blinds. 

It was cool.  Lots of big thick sparks of electrical current flying all over the sky, with some direct hits to the ground as well.  Each thunderous bolt made the loudest sounds of thunder that I had ever heard. 

It looked and felt as though each lightening bolt was landing either on top of me or within 15 feet of me.  Everything was shaking which unnerved me slightly, my cat on the other hand was happy as a clam just wanting me to rub her belly, which I did.

BOOM!

I jumped off the floor.  The lightening was landing so close and loudly that I began fearing that a bolt would crash through my windows and find me laying on the floor, which would kill me dead.

So I did what any mature adult man would do and went back to bed.  I pulled the covers over my head as high as they would go, laid down facing away from the windows, and then closed my eyes as tight as I could - and it worked.  I was able to get another 20 minutes of sleep.

When I got up I turned on CW11 to listen to and watch Ms. Linda Church give me the weather.  She was about to do her usual and throw it to Larry Hoff for his usual man on the street goofing off routine, and instead said that she had breaking news. 

Breaking news from the weather gal?  That never happens, but she had some alright.  She popped up the radar and said that there was a tornado warning for Bay Ridge, Brooklyn and that there were funnel clouds spotted on radar but not touching the ground.

CRIKEY!  That’s exactly where I was.

I couldn’t do much about that, but I remembered from watching Rescue 911 as a child that in a tornado it’s best to be in either a basement or a bathroom, so I showered.

When I got out, the storm had finally passed over my place.  It had lingered with very strong winds, rain, and lots of lightening for well over an hour.

I ate my hungry man breakfast and got ready so quickly that I actually made it out to subway on time for only the second time in two months. 

Once there, I found my friend Jimmy who admitted to doing something similar to what I did in hiding from the thunder and lightening, only he used his pillow to cover his face as tight as he could, and then we waited.

We waited a few minutes, a conductor said that we would leave at 8:04AM - only five minutes away.  Come 8:05AM all service along my line had been cancelled.

All the R trains were stuck in Queens flooded, the N trains from Coney Island couldn’t run due to fallen trees down onto the outdoor tracks, and the D couldn’t run due to flooding between Pacific and 36th Streets.  What was a boy to do?

Harry Potter Magic!  Take the magical express bus of course!

So I hiked on over to the first stop of the express bus, got on the second bus, and then off we were.  Even though there were a handful of seats open, the driver had the okay from supervision not to make any other stops until we reached Manhattan - it was truly a magical express and air conditioned ride.

Along the way we saw lots of trees down.  I’ve lived in Bay Ridge all my life and have seen some bad storms come and go, however, the really bad ones have been mostly hurricanes and tropical storms.  This one wasn’t, it was just a passing front, and it did LOTS OF DAMAGE!

There were many, many huge trees that were either knocked over, or missing huge foot thick pieces of main branches.  Linda Church was right about that tornado having been sighted but not touching ground, for you could see that the damage wasn’t lightening, but that it was high wind.

As we passed Casa de ZFS! the side streets were all closed with firefighter and ambulances doing what appeared to be cutting people out of cars, and or cutting the huge trees that blocked the streets.

When we drove down 23rd and up Madison, I could see that there was no subway service, and wondered if I would make it all the way to work across the river in Long Island City.

Thankfully the 7 train was running, I think it was the only train running.  I finally go in to work an hour plus late, but at least I was dry.

Given all this, today I got to see that we are just a little tiny step away from complete and utter anarchy here in NYC.

From the looks of it, all it would take for all common decency and lawful citizenship to fall apart is just a little more rain and or the loss of electricity.