It was a relatively brisk day for September in Houston. Felt good to be outside.
Day started out pretty normal, and proceeded that way. Arriving at the office, I picked up where we’d dropped everything when we left yesterday. No point in pursuing my usual habit of checking certain markets.
During the course of several smoke breaks today I become aware that there is a police guard on the building.
But the one thing I notice most, that I would never have thought would stick out so much, is the complete absence of air traffic. Usually, if I go outside for a few minutes in Houston, there will be more than one aircraft visible and audible at any time.
Nada today, not even a cop chopper. The silent sky.
I know how you feel. St. Louis is (was) TWA’s hub. I live and work close enough to Lambert International Airport that I can take surface streets the whole way, no need for the highways for me. The lack of seeing/hearing planes taking off and landing is a bit… well, odd to say the least.
Outside my office on smoke breaks, we usually watch the planes coming into Providence. Sometimes they’re low enough to see the colors, and we try to identify them. Today there was not a cloud or a single plane in the sky. Some people said they saw military planes, but I didn’t see anything while I was out there.
When I was a kid, the Blue Angels would put on shows over the beaches. Towards the end of the school year, we’d hear the jets overhead and we’d get all excited and yell and stomp our feet if they were really loud. The Blue Angels were here, summer was close, all is well.
My mom said she heard the fighter jets all night last night.
And this time it was for real.
I live near downtown Houston, and I echo beatle’s observation. Since I’ve been off work for a while, I’ve noticed there is a lot of traffic, which is to be expected. Yesterday, however, there was little to none. The skies are quiet overhead, although I think I heard a helicopter last night. And I think both the HFD and HPD are responding to all calls with both police and fire vehicles because I’ve been hearing a lot of sirens, more so than usual.
Late last night, I had a knock on the door from a policeman. It scared the bejeezus out of me because when I heard downtown Houston had been shut down, I assumed we’d be instructed to leave, too. So I saw this cop and thought I had fifteen minutes to pack a bag and get out. Fortunately, he was relaying a message to my neighbor about her family in New York.
I also noticed a lot of increased security in the Medical Center when I went to give blood. Every building had security posted outside, and St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, where I gave blood, had security in all lobbies and outside as well.
Crunchy, I know what you mean. Yesterday and today, it’s just been TOO quiet in the air over St. louis. I about jumped a bit this afternoon when I was leaving work, as there was a Arch lifeflight heli that flew overhead on it’s way to Barnes.
Kinda underscores how one gets used to hearing/seeing things, that normally you don’t give a second thought to, but when they’re gone, they stick out like a sore thumb.
Although this may sound crass, I am actually a little worried job-wise. I have two trips scheduled, both of which were within the next 9 days, and they likely will be cancelled. These trips were actually pretty important to my consulting work, and it will make things really unpleasant for me if I can’t get out to at least one of the two.
I live within walking distance of the entrance to DFW airport. It’s a big airport, it’s still miles to the terminals from the entrance. The flight path is within a mile outside my backyard and planes are only a few hundred feet off the ground. Many nights I could look off to the north and count a dozen planes approaching. They looked like a dynamic constellation. To go 2 days with no planes out there, is just eerie.
Another unusual thing that happened was 2 fighters went over. We seldom see that here being in the flight path of airport. Some, uh, not too bright, person tried to take off in his little private plane and the fighters politely forced him back to the ground.
Anth - does your consulting absolutely require physical presence? Or is it possible to use net-meeting technology? I’m aware that you consult on some kind of energy issues, but more than that I don’t really know. I do know that in the past when I or a colleague have been unable to attend a meeting in person, using a speakerphone and internet connection has been an alternative. An admittedly poor alternative but better than nothing. I understand that this wouldn’t work for all businesses however.
In a similar semi-crass style, I think those of us working in the London Market area of insurance (where they insure things like the WTC against things like terrorist attack) are a little concerned that there is going to be some serious fall-out from this financially. The losses are going to make hurricane Andrew - previously the biggest catastrophe - seem like a fire in a sweet shop. Given that everyone’s been losing money hand over fist for the last three years anyway, I’m half expecting to see some high profile reinsurers get worryingly shaky.
The economic cost hasn’t even started to be counted.
I work accross the street from Hartsfield airport in Atlanta. The last two days have been quite surreal. I look out the large windows and see planes, but absolutely no movement. No cars, no support vehicles, no people. The busiest airport in the world looks like it’s been incorporated into a Steven King novel. I half expected to see the blackness begin to eat away at the runways.
About noon today I saw a Delta jet land. Probably empty, being repositioned for when operations begin to slowly restart at about 6:00 PM eastern today. But it was a plane, doing what planes normally do. One would have thought that the Concorde had returned to Atlanta the way people stopped what they were doing and just watched that plane land. Big, silly grins on their faces. What a welcome sight. A little normalcy goes a long way just now.
I’m in Providence, RI myself, right in the approach/departure path to TF Green airport (which isn’t actually in Providence, but in Warwick) and yeah, it’s eerie.
I don’t really find that too crass, Anth. The point of this thread was not necessarily air traffic; rather I meant to address the changes we all might see in our own lives as a result of this. And your post fits the bill.
I have tickets to Spain; departing 18 October. Have been talking to people and trying to justify my “whininess”. May not be able to go; may be able to go but, because the person I’m to meet is military, may have to go it alone…
Minor in the scheme, no? But one more straw on that pachyderm’s back.
Anyhoo, the area in which I live is about an hour from the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport and a lot of flights float over us - close enough to see the red Northwest tailfin. They’re gone. So are the LifeFlights out of the St. Cloud hospital, and the helos from Camp Ripley. And the private planes out of the muni airport, and …
I can’t say I miss them, but it’s like waiting for the fridge or furnace to kick in during a power outage, you know? It’s something that’s supposed to be there but isn’t.
