NYC NOW - April 8, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: April 8, 2024

If you're headed to upstate New York to watch Monday's solar eclipse, be prepared for heavy traffic. The state thruway is expected to be congested as people from New York City and parts of southern Canada converge on the prime viewing spots. Meanwhile, nurses at Staten Island University Hospital have a new 3-year contract that includes improved staffing standards and wage increases. Lastly, after Friday's unusual earthquake shocked the region, WNYC’s David Furst discusses New York City's earthquake readiness with Professor John Mutter, who studies seismology at Columbia University.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Monday, April 8th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. If you look at a view today's solar eclipse and upstate New York, officials are urging a whole lot of patience. Traffic is expected to snarl. Much of the state throughway is spectators from the city drive north, and folks from Canada head south into the prime viewing area.

Watertown Police Chief Charles Donahue says with hundreds of thousands of people expected to descend on the area, public safety officials have prepared for the worst. You know, this could end up just becoming a big parking lot up here in northern New York. And, you know, people are just going to have to be patient and eventually, you know, we'll get everybody out of there. But, you know, we're expecting gas stations to run out of gas. We're expecting, you know, restaurants to run out of food. The eclipse should begin about 210. this afternoon and by 325 the moon will obscure most of the sun. Staten Island nurses have a new

contract after narrowly avoiding a strike last month. Nurses at Staten Island University Hospital have voted in favor of a new three-year deal. It includes boosted staffing standards, a new paid holiday for employees, and a more than 20% pay increase for nurses. The deal and its wage increases start right away. Nurses get wage increases retroactive to January 1st of this. year. Staten Island University Hospital did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 58 with sunshine now. Mostly sunny today in 65, but at the time of the eclipse, as we said, some clouds at that time, so we'll have to navigate that. Tomorrow, mostly sunny and warm, 72 for a high, and then shower and rain chances all the way through Friday night. Once again,

58 with sunshine now. Stay close. There's more after the break. On WNYC, I'm David First. As you probably heard or felt, New Jersey and New York experienced one of the largest earthquakes to hit the region. The rare earthquake didn't cause any major widespread damage, but how prepared is the nation's largest city for earthquakes? And what should New Yorkers look out for? Joining us to talk more about this is Professor John Mutter, who studies seismic. at Columbia University. Professor Mutter, earthquakes in the region certainly do not happen frequently.

How prepared is New York City and the state if an even larger earthquake ever hits, especially in a city full of very old infrastructure? Yeah, well, in the area, there are actually quite a few earthquakes, but they're very small, and they're only detected by seismometers. We would never notice them. The earthquake that happened was relatively high in magnitude compared with most earthquakes that occur in this area. Historically, there has been a few earthquakes a bit above magnitude five, but there's no reason to think we'll have earthquakes of the magnitude that they have in California, you know, up seven and eight.

That almost certainly will not happen here. New York City's emergency management officials took more than 20 minutes to send out the first public alert about the earthquake. Why is it so difficult to predict when an earthquake will happen? Yeah, it's not just difficult. It's pretty much impossible. You're asking, it's very different from weather forecasting. You know, weather is sort of a continuum process.

You know, it's changing all the time. Whereas you're trying to predict an instantaneous rupture for which there is almost no premonition. It's very difficult to do. No earthquake has ever been predicted. In the few seconds we have left, John, where were you when the first quake was felt? I was on the 15th floor of a building on Columbia's morning site campus

at a conference. It was like 50 people in the room. And, you know, we felt it. And even though this is, you know, my work, I was just as baffled as anybody else about what was going on. Well, thank you for admitting that. I didn't yell earthquake. Well, Professor John Mutter, who studies seismology at Columbia University, thank you for joining us. Oh, you're very welcome.

Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines, and occasional deep dives. Also subscribe wherever you get your podcast. We'll be back this evening.