Kermit the Frog and Hello Kitty apparently were spared by superstorm Sandy, even though Macy’s keeps the giant balloons, floats and costumes for its annual New York Thanksgiving Day parade across the Hudson River, in hard-hit New Jersey.
Macy’s parade design studio last year moved from Hoboken to Moonachie, a northern New Jersey town overcome by flooding when a levee broke last week, forcing mass evacuations.
Floodwaters did not creep into the design studio, near the Hackensack River, although streets and nearby businesses were inundated, said John Piper, vice president of the parade studio.
Nor, apparently, did the water damage a nearby warehouse where Macy’s stores more than 80 percent of its parade equipment, Piper said, adding that staff still needed to get inside the building to confirm that assessment.
The televised parade is still scheduled for Thanksgiving Day, just more than three weeks after Sandy wrought devastation across the Eastern Seaboard. Mayor Michael Bloomberg canceled the New York City Marathon, scheduled for last Sunday, after complaints that it would divert resources needed to aid the storm’s victims.
— Tribune Newspapers
