The crane collapsed into a building on the Upper East Side (50st Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues, I believe). 4 people are dead - all construction workers, and 18 others are injured. It's a terrible situation, but a complete freak accident. Unfortunately, the construction area (they were building a high rise) had been issued 13 violations within the past 27 months and occupants of the nearby buildings were quoted as saying they've been afraid to walk by the area in recent weeks.

I don't want to say that none of the Grease cast members live in the area (can't speak for sure), but, honestly, the area is too expensive for most Broadway performers to afford. And as far as I've heard, Max and Laura/Nate live on the Upper West Side, close to the theater. So no, they are unaffected, I'd say.

Tops off a helluva week for New York, which began with the governor getting caught with his pants down...

-- Edited by MrE1111 at 14:18, 2008-03-16

Nate and Laura and Max don't live in the area where the crane went down, thankfully. I have spoken to Laura and she said the cast all had two shows yesterday so no one was out on the street at all in that vicinity when the accident occured. Interestingly enough, however, there are cranes on buildings near where they live--working on buildings just like the site that involved the accident, so unless safer conditions are reinforced in the future, that appears to be another potential hazzard of living in New York City. Laura was aware of other crane accidents like this one in the city and the same violations that Mr. E. described. Too bad it always takes such a tragedy for the reinforcement of safey to be taken seriously. I can't quite believe more people were not killed in this accident. It sounds like it completely destroyed one restaurant. How did all those people escape with their lives? And it apparently struck apartments on it's way down. No one home or what? How fortunate is that? Interesting how often we get reminded of the fact that life is very fragile with no guarantees for tomorrow. It is good to know the Lord and good to use our days wisely. And New York, you're unfortunately not alone with your govenor's disgrace. Once again, it's interesting how "getting caught" all of a sudden shines a powerful truthful light on the actions of the person caught so he can now see just how many people his actions hurt and just how foolish he really was. Once again, philosophically I wonder why it takes "getting caught" to turn that light on? Have we no internal compass anymore? Is wisdom only gained in hindsight? This is one of those examples where I reinfornce to myself the wisdom I spoke about in another forum earlier. Here's my learned life philosophy: "Look to the left and look to the right. Are my actions taking me towards good or towards something of question. If something of question, DON'T GO THERE. Don't play with fire so sure of your immunity from getting burned. Turn around and go back. There's lots of good in life to be had on the right side of the street."

Thanks so much Mr. E and Laura Mom. Isn't it sad that the people responsible for that crane seem more concerned about finishing the job than they do doing the job right, proper safety precautions and so forth. They interviewed the man who was in charge of the site and he just mouthed a bunch of emotional hooey. So much for personal integrity. I don't know about the governor and I don't think I want to. I'm just glad to know that Nate, Laura and Max are away from that particular danger.
God Bless All!