Technically, the big blow was what the National Weather Service calls “an extra-tropical cyclone”-better known as a nor’easter to those who have ever battened down underneath one. Off the coast of southern New Jersey and Delaware it began to sulk and circle like an eddy in a river. Finally, breaking loose, it spewed out blizzards in Pennsylvania and parts of New York state and torrential rains in New Jersey, New York City and Long Island.
Like a werewolf, the storm struck at full moon, when tides along the coastal areas were higher than normal. Waves ate away sand dunes and beaches, tossed the Staten Island Ferry like a bathtub boat and spilled over the runway at La Guardia Airport. Along Manhattan’s East River Drive, scuba divers paddled to trapped motorists, and boats cruised streets in low-lying New Jersey towns. Purists may now argue over whether this was the worst such storm in 100 years. The nor’easter of 1950 blew six miles per hour faster in Central Park, and the storm tides last week were about the same as those of 1950 and 1953. Whatever the case, the blow surely made its point. “When you don’t have events like this for a long time,” observed NWS weatherperson Anthony Giggi, “people get kind of complacent.” When you do, they get very soggy and mad.
