"gas smell" in midtown Manhattan

[npincus]

a Dr*dge teaser with no story.

Anybody out there in the area to confirm? I smelled an odor of gas in Hoboken (across the river from lower Manhattan) this morning. I wasn't sure- I should probably call it in anyway.

[Graybeard]

1. CNN, MSNBC now reporting the story...

...widespread smell of gas or sewage in Manhattan and NJ.
Mayor Bloomberg to hold press conference soon.

[war on errorism]

8. smelled it strongly in Trenton,NJ too...

within the past hour. that's quite a distance from NYC.

[npincus]

10. Holy shit.

You are FAR FAR FAR away... this is f*cked up.

[npincus]

2. link to story:

http://www.wnbc.com/news/10694568/detail.html

no need to call it in... Shit.


NEW YORK -- People all over a large part of New York City are smelling a gas, and it's not clear where it's coming from.

Numerous people have called 911 concerned about the odor. Con Edison, the Fire Department and the U.S. Coast Guard are investigating.

PATH service has been suspended into the 33rd Street station. Service is still going into the World Trade Center station.


Macy's department store has been evacuated, according to reports.

There also are unconfirmed reports of a similar smell across the river in New Jersey.

[salvorhardin]

3. DU thread on this topic

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2679596

[npincus]

4. thanks

I called my husband- he works on 49th and Park-- he said he didn't smell anything.

It was a pretty strong odor here.

I'm going to tell him to stay off the subway-- if it's kept open.

[gatorboy]

5. Maybe Limbaugh is making a visit... n/t

[soleft]

6. I'm surprised our security dept hasn't come over PA yet

they usually make some kind of announcement about this sort thing.

[npincus]

7. where do you work?

[soleft]

31. wall st area

[bdamomma]

9. that is interesting because while listening to Sam Seder the

fire alarm started to ring off. Oh, they just made Sam's show a best of show.

[npincus]

11. is AAR rebroadcasting Friday's show now? He just mentioned

"it's casual Friday". ????

[bdamomma]

12. Yes they did,

[JackBeck]

33. So that's what happened.

I was listening on XM and around 10:10, in the middle of an interview, they went to commercial. I had heard the fire alarm earlier, but then they abruptly cutoff and interview.

[havocmom]

13. Yep, and a bunch of dead birds in Austin triggered closing an area of town

NYC gas small: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20070108/D8MH5JFO0.html

Bird Deaths shut down downtown Austin: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20070108/D8MH5FBO0.html

[MazeRat7]

22. wow... guess I should turn on the tv and listen up eh ? -nt

[Fridays Child]

14. Does it smaell anything like an impending attack on Iran?

Or maybe it smells like a troop surge.

[bdamomma]

16. you never know with these criminals we have in office

maybe it's the rotten smell coming from the WH.

[bdamomma]

15. this is all I got from CNN website

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/08/ny.gas.odor.ap/index.html

[elehhhhna]

17. This explains all:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x3067110

[NYCGirl]

18. Here's the news from Gothamist:

I agree with them that the maple syrup smell (no one's ever really pinpointed where that came from) that permeates the city once in a while is much better!

http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2007/01/08/maple_syrup_was.php

Maple Syrup Was Better: Smell of Gas Covers NYC

We don't know what's up with the crazy gas smell. The reports we've read had the location at 34th Street and 5th-7th-8th Avenues in Manhattan, but our readers are smelling it from the Upper West Side to downtown. WNBC reports that the smell is so strong on the 6th floor of 30 Rockefeller Center, "people are leaving the building." NY1 says the smell is strong around Herald Square and in NY1's neighborhood in Chelsea."

So far, Con Ed and the city's Office of Emergency Management are supposedly checking it out. There are also a lot of NYPD sirens - perhaps checking out the possible leak and trying to calm freaking-out New Yorkers?

We'll keep updating this story. Tell us where you're smelling it. Is it in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island - or just Manhattan? And we thought all we'd have to deal with today was a case of the Mondays!

[no_hypocrisy]

19. Is it safe to light a match in the NYC metropolitan region? n/t

[Marie26]

20. Wasn't it candy, awhile ago?

Anyone remember that story?

"Good Smell Vanishes, But It Leaves Air of Mystery"

By ANTHONY DePALMA
NY Times
Published: October 29, 2005

The night air all over Manhattan was brisk, with a hint of winter and a dash of something sweetly out of the ordinary. Some thought it smelled like maple syrup. Some said caramel, or a freshly baked pie, or Bit-O-Honey candy bars.

From downtown Manhattan to the Upper East Side, Prospect Heights in Brooklyn and parts of Staten Island, the question was the same on Thursday night and into early yesterday: What was that smell?
The aroma not only revived memories of childhood, but in a city scared by terrorism, it raised vague worries about an attack deviously cloaked in the smell of grandma's kitchen.

Late yesterday, nearly 24 hours after the smell had spread through the city, sparking hundreds of bewildered calls to the city's 311 emergency hot line, officials said that they had determined that the smell had not been hazardous and that it had dissipated as quickly, and mysteriously, as it had appeared.

Even after chasing down anonymous tips and chasing up several blind alleys, however, they did not know where it had come from.


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/29/nyregion/29smell.html?ex=1288238400&en=2b6682ea524d89cd&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

[NYCGirl]

23. It smelled like maple syrup. NT

[npincus]

21. sirens non-stop...

http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_008093506.html

Some school evacuations, PATH service suspension.

CBS) NEW YORK A strange odor is being reported across Manhattan Monday morning. The Office Of Emergency Management says all agencies are checking out an unknown natural gas odor, which stretches from lower Manhattan to Midtown.

Con Edison is investigating a possible gas leak in Chelsea.

The 23rd Street subway platform on the F Line is being evacuated. PATH service from Hoboken and Journal Square to 33rd Street has been suspended.

At least four Manhattan schools were evacuated but students are being allowed to return to the buildings. The evacuated schools included the Norman Thomas High School at 33rd Street and Park Avenue; P.S. 3 at 490 Hudson St.; P.S. 11 at 320 W. 21st St.; and Greenwich Village Middle school near Hudson St.

[Norquist Nemesis]

24. AP reporting it also. Reminds of August occurence

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/NYC_GAS_ODOR?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=HOME

"The smell was very strong. It was very scary," said Yolanda Van Gemd, an administrator at ASA, a business school near the Empire State Building that was evacuated as a precaution.

In August, seven people were treated at hospitals after a gaseous smell in the boroughs of Queens and Staten Island.
.....

[seabeyond]

25. people from nyc.... how comfortable are you with all this. are you

more bothered now, or are you less concerned than initially.

[NYCGirl]

27. No problem. We get strange smells here in the city all the time. NT

[seabeyond]

28. thanks for sharing. n/t

[NYCGirl]

32. It's a BIG city — just comes with the territory. NT

[Graybeard]

30. Paris:"City Of Light", NY:"City Of Smells"...

...most are good..fresh baked bagels, walking by a
delicatessen, some not so good. We cope. 

[Strelnikov_]

26. Several Years Ago A Facility In Des Moines Had A Leak Of The Chemical

that provides the natural gas 'smell' we know and love.

There was a strong odor of natural gas 30 miles+ away where I was.

Hope that is all this turns out to be.

In any form, a minute amount of odorant such as t-butyl mercaptan, with a rotting-cabbage-like smell, is added to the otherwise colorless and odorless gas, so that leaks can be detected before a fire or explosion occurs. Sometimes a related compound, thiophane is used, with a rotten-egg smell. Adding odorant to natural gas began in the United States after the 1937 New London School explosion. The buildup of gas in the school went unnoticed, killing three hundred students and faculty when it ignited. Odorants are considered non-toxic in the extremely low concentrations occurring in natural gas delivered to the end user.

[Saboburns]

29. Natural Gas is odorless.

The smell one associates with a natural gas leak is man made and added to the gas simply to identify leaks.

This may, MAY, simply be a leak in the storage pipes that contain these additives.