Page 2 - ARUBA TODAY

A2 UP FRONT
Thursday 28 November 2019

Continued from Front loon has a distinct risk pro- The NYPD will have thou-
The National Weather Ser- file, which factors in its size sands of officers stationed
vice is projecting sustained and weight and details the along the parade route.
winds of up to 24 mph (39 optimal altitude for a given They include counterter-
kph) with gusts to 40 mph wind speed. rorism teams with long
(64 kph) during the parade. The character balloons guns, plainclothes officers
The iconic characters that can go as high as 55 feet mixed in with the crowd
soar between Manhattan (16 meters) off the ground and about three dozen ex-
skyscrapers will be ground- and as low as 10 feet (3 plosive detection K-9s. The
ed if sustained winds ex- meters), said Chief of Patrol department also plans to
ceed 23 mph (37 kph) and Rodney Harrison, who has fly a drone to monitor the
gusts exceed 34 mph (54.7 the final say on whether the parade route.
kph) under city rules imple- balloons fly. All spectators will be
mented after wind blew a If the wind picks up and screened with metal de-
"Cat in the Hat" balloon into handlers struggle to keep tectors at security check-
a lamp post near Central control of a balloon, poten- points. Certain areas near
Park in 1997, critically injur- tially putting spectators in the start and finish are off-
ing a woman. harm's way, Harrison said it limits or will have space tak-
"It'll be a game-day deci- will be taken to a side street en up by staging for NBC's
sion on what we're going off the parade route and live broadcast.
to do with the balloons," safely deflated. Police cars and sand-filled
Chief of Department Ter- "At the end of the day, sanitation trucks are being
ence Monahan said at a public safety is paramount, positioned to stop vehicles
Wednesday briefing on the and we want everybody to from driving into the crowd
police department's pa- enjoy the event," he said. and technology is being
rade safety measures. Strong winds were also a used to detect drones,
If they're allowed to fly this concern last year, but they which are illegal to fly over
Workers carry a helium hose as the Diary of a Wimpy Kid bal- year, the intensity of the ended up staying calm crowds in New York City.
loon is inflated, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2019 in New York. wind will determine how enough to let the balloons Counterterrorism Chief
Associated Press high they soar. Each bal- fly — albeit some at no- James Waters said the
ticeably lower-than-usual technology detected sev-
heights. The outstretched eral drones flying in the vi-
hand of the "Diary of a cinity of the United Nations
Wimpy Kid" balloon, for General Assembly gath-
one, was so low it ap- ering in September. They
peared to hit some of his were all non-hostile, he
handlers on their wool cap- said. There are no known,
covered heads. credible threats to the city,
One bright spot in this year's police said.
forecast: the temperature A threat posted over the
is expected to hit a high of weekend on Reddit threat-
about 53 degrees Fahren- ening to bomb Times
heit (12 degrees Celsius). Square was deemed not
Last year was one of the credible, the police de-
city's coldest Thanksgivings partment said, though it
in decades. A temperature did increase counterter-
of 21 degrees Fahrenheit rorism deployments to the
(minus 6 degrees Celsius) area out of what it said was
at the start of the parade an abundance of caution.
prompted spectators to Big crowds are expected
bundle up in blankets and to line the parade route,
sleeping bags. which runs 46 blocks from
In addition to giant bal- the outskirts of Central Park
loons of Snoopy, Sponge- to Macy's flagship store in
bob, anti-wildfire warrior midtown Manhattan.
Smokey and others, the pa- In the past, spectators
rade features about 8,000 have lined up as many as
marchers, performances 15 deep in some places.
from bands and singers In 2017, four activists briefly
such as Idina Menzel of disrupted things when they
"Frozen" fame, Kelly Row- jumped over barriers and
land and Chicago, two- sat down in the street to
dozen floats and a finale protest changes in U.S. im-
with Santa Claus. migration policy.q