See:
‘Ice missile I’
‘Ice missile II’
Could have been cruise missiles, and one of the ABC reporters stated as much.
"Tough winter creates menace: ice from high-rises" by Verena Dobnik | Associated Press, February 20, 2014
NEW YORK — City dwellers facing one of the most brutal winters on record have been dealing with something far more dangerous than snow falling from the sky: ice tumbling from skyscrapers.
The West Side Highway and several streets around the new 1 World Trade Center, the nation’s tallest building, were closed during Wednesday’s morning rush hour when wind-blown sheets of dagger-shaped ice hit the pavement near the 1,776-foot structure.
The potentially deadly ice attack sent frightened pedestrians running for cover. Streets reopened by mid afternoon.
Brings back memories, doesn't it?
Around the country, sidewalks near high-rises in cities big and small have been cordoned off because of falling ice and rock-hard chunks of snow, a situation that experts warn could get worse over the next few days as a thaw sets in over much of the country.
‘‘The snow starts to melt and the liquid drips off and makes bigger and bigger icicles, or chunks of ice that break off skyscrapers,’’ said Joey Picca, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in New York, which has had 48.5 inches of snow since the start of the year, and several cycles of freeze and thaw. ‘‘Be very, very aware of your surroundings,’’ he said. ‘‘If you see ice hanging from a building, find another route.”
Some architects say newer, energy-efficient high-rises may be making the problem worse.
‘‘They keep more heat inside, which means the outside is getting colder, and that allows more snow and ice to form,’’ said engineer Roman Stangl, founder of the consulting firm Northern Microclimate in Cambridge, Ontario.
Stangl helps developers opt for shapes, slope angles, and even colors — darker colors absorb more sun rays — to diminish ice formation. High-tech materials can be also be used, such as at Tokyo’s Skytree observation tower, where heaters were embedded in the glass.
Such options are not always possible in older cities with balconies, awnings, and stone details.
Barry Negron said he saw ice hanging perilously off a four-story building near Rockefeller Center last month and was trying to warn other pedestrians when he was hit in the face with a football-size chunk. Cuts across his nose and cheek required 80 stitches....
How many pedestrians are hit by falling ice is not clear, but it’s a perennial problem in St. Petersburg, Russia, where dozens reportedly are injured or killed every year....
‘‘This happens all over the country, all over the world, in cold climates,’’ said architect Chris Benedict.
But even the simplest solutions can sometimes be problematic.
After ice was seen falling from 1 World Trade Center earlier this month, officials closed a nearby street and the entrance to the underground station for PATH trains, which link New York and New Jersey. That caused a logjam of thousands of commuters with nowhere to go.
Anthony Hayes, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, which owns the trade center site, said crews have been removing the accumulation of ice that formed on 1 World Trade Center and on an external construction hoist that stretches from the ground to the 90th floor.
A new covered entrance to the PATH station now protects commuters walking by.
‘‘Hey, what do you want? It’s winter, that’s what happens — ice,’’ said Mike McKenna, a 38-year-old management consultant who was under 1 World Trade Center when the chunks first started flying.
‘‘It was a mess,’’ he said. ‘‘But I went through 9/11. Falling ice is nothing.’’
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