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Something Stinks in NYC

Katana

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CNN is reporting that there are complaints of a strong gas-like odor being reported throughout Manhattan and possibly across the river in New Jersey. A large office building in mid-town Manhattan has been evacuated. No links on it quite yet.

More to come...
 
CNN is focusing on a shot of Manhattan, presumably in case something blows up really cool.

Within five minutes:
'Gas leak in lower Manhattan'
Bleecker & 4th st
Fire department reports no leaks there
 
The smell was real bad here for a few minutes at around 9:00 in my office (65th floor in midtown), but then dissipated. I'm still hearing sirens outside, and my boss sent an email saying that if you wanted to leave, you can. I'm not leaving yet, primarily because I live 70 miles away, so where can I go. During 9-11, I was able to walk from my office to the NY Blood Bank in the east 60's to donate blood, and then walked home to Brooklyn. I'll probably leave in a little while anyway.

Michael
 
The Washington Post is reporting that "the Department of Homeland Security reassured that the smell was not from terrorists." So, apparently, terrorists don't stink.
 
If it's a huge natural gas leak, they should be able to just light it up and follow it back to the source, duh. :teacher:
 
Yet another reason why I'm happy I work in Brooklyn now. I didn't smell a thing out of the ordinary today.
 
I was in midtown (42nd & 5th) for class earlier today, and didn't smell anything out of the ordinary. Maybe my nose is broken.
 
Katana said:
CNN is reporting that there are complaints of a strong gas-like odor being reported throughout Manhattan and possibly across the river in New Jersey. A large office building in mid-town Manhattan has been evacuated. No links on it quite yet.

More to come...
Click to expand...
No kidding. This has been the complaint for at least 30 years.
 
This is pretty serious. From what I understand, the smell has been detected all across Hudson county. No official word yet on what's been causing it.

NYTIMES:
Throughout the day, possible culprits — among them a minor gas leak in Greenwich Village and natural-gas pipelines in northeastern New Jersey — were considered and ruled out.

The olfactory mystery in the New York region was matched by strange activity elsewhere. In Austin, Tex., police cordoned off 10 blocks of the downtown business district early yesterday after more than 60 birds were found dead overnight along Congress Avenue, which leads to the State Capitol. Air testing there failed to find a cause, but preliminary results determined that people were not at risk.
Click to expand...

The blogs on the nytimes websites are allready bogged down with CT's and references to 9/11 (the unproductive kind). *insert rolls eyes smilies that the damn editor won't let me insert* ><
 
The coverage of this on CNN made any regard I have for that service drop a few points.
Bloomberg came on and positively stated that there had been a small gas leak, but nothing to account for the pervasive smell, which he identified as mercapatan, the substance added to natural gas (odorless) so as to identify it.

He said there were no air-quality problems, and that sensors all over the city were reporting clear. A gas leak large enough to cause city-wide stink would have been huge, whereas an accidental or deliberate mercaptan leak might have been quite small.

For at least the next two hours, CNN continued to report on a "mysterious smell, possibly gas", with on-scene reports from correspondents all over the city.
 
So, no story here at all?

It's almost as if CNN news trucks drove around town with little mercaptan spritzers.

Or maybe it was brimstone and NY is finally going to hell.

We should learn something from this. I did not know the name of the chemical that makes gas stink, and now I do.

https://www.columbiagasva.com/safety_info/mercaptan.htm

It is good to learn something new each day.

I would apologize for making light of what could have been a dangerous terrorist attack, but I'm tired of the stories that seem designed to keep us scared. Needs a new word, something like 'terrofatigue'.
 
I saw something online today, CNN.com I think, to the effect that it's now suspected that the smell originated from industrial plants on the New Jersey side of the river. Of course, NYC would say that regardless.

Last time, the mystery smell was maple syrup; that was a much better choice.
 
I've been to New Jersey twice - both times by taking a wrong turn across a huge bridge. Cost me a couple bucks each time. One place named Camden reminded me of a Mad Max movie set. The other 'lost' was some place across the Delaware bridge. Nice bridge. Not expecting to ever go there, I hadn't loaded the New Jersey routing maps into my gps, and everything on the other side was little gray grids that looked like the twilight zone. Dark and scary.

I believe anything anyone says about it. :p

I could live with a maple syrup smell, that must come from Vermont!
 
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