EDITORIAL: Life’s not always glamorous in glamorous places

Across the nation, especially in towns like Greeley, young Americans have dreams of moving to lands far, far away. Classically, San Diego, Portland and New York City are top on just-out-of-college hopefuls’ lists of magical places. Small-town fish pursuing New York City imagine a sea overflowing with opportunity, fashion and a little less dung. 

 

However, when they get there, they find grimy streets, a three-to-one homeless person-working person ratio and . . .  tornadoes? That’s not to say New York City doesn’t offer a plethora of internships, five-story department stores and glittered people — aside from New York City’s one-in-five poverty rate — Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island pull for one of the greatest diversified cities in the world. Furthermore, as newborn adults prepare for NYC, they should also prepare for something they thought would be left in Kansas: tornadoes.

 

As the Mayans predicted, the end of the world commenced this Saturday when two tornadoes invaded the one and only New York City. According to CNN.com, ominous clouds turned into threatening ones, a waterspout formed in the Atlantic Ocean and that waterspout decided to jump onshore into Queens. According to residents of the borough, “It literally looked like The Wizard of Oz,” as the tornado bullied trees and power lines to the ground. 

 

The funnel stampeded through 600 yards before boring itself, but not before the buildings in its path were left with minor injuries. A second tornado of equal potency was confirmed in Brooklyn at around 11:30 a.m., according to the National Weather Service.

 

Although flying cows and severe winds are not what wannabe New Yorkers imagine, tornadoes in the boroughs are not unheard of. Three tornadoes pummeled through New York City in 2010, and in July of this year, three people were killed during heavy storms in the northeast United States.

 

It seems life in the concrete jungle is not as hunky-dory as ‘Sex and the City,’ but more of a hybrid between ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ and ‘The Devil Wears Prada.’ 

 

Consequently, as those small-towners wave goodbye to Mom and Pop, they had better be prepared to say hello to even bigger nuisances.