[thanksgiving] dangerous macy’s balloons and high winds this year

It was 1997 when the Cat in the Hat balloon crashed into a lamppost, injuring four people and leaving one of them in a coma, and last year, when an M & M balloon sent the head of a street lamp crashing onto a woman in a wheelchair and onto her 11-year-old sister.

This year new preparations were put into place. Seven pole-mounted anemometers are transmitting minute-by-minute wind measurements to handheld computers. Police and emergency management officials are relaying the data to balloon navigators. Aerodynamics engineers and a liaison from the National Weather Service will advise the incident commander, a three-star police chief.

In the worst case, as Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg warned yesterday, the hapless helium-filled creatures could be pulled onto side streets and summarily deflated. Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said, “We’re very well prepared to guard against any eventuality, as far as the balloons are concerned.”

However, guidelines adopted in 1998 prohibit the giant balloons from being flown if sustained winds exceed 23 miles per hour or if gusts exceed 34 m.p.h. Michael E. Wyllie, the meteorologist in charge of the weather service’s forecasting office in Upton, N.Y., projected sustained winds of 20 to 25 m.p.h. and gusts of 30 to 35 m.p.h. this morning. So the balloons shouldn’t be flown.

But they’re going to be flown, so stay tuned for this one.