Watch Sandy Calmly Topple This Tree

With the exception of CraneGate, I’ve done my damnedest to avoid any and all Sandy storm porn. Sure, we’re wired to be fascinated by catastrophes. So to a point I get all the jaw-dropping photo round ups—cascades at the new World Trade Center site, row upon row of submerged cabs, etc.—that have blitzed the Internet since Monday. And to a point I maybe got the sly chortling that came along with being high and dry in an otherwise unaffected corner of a hurricane’s path, laying there under that new Afghan like a beached whale, live tweeting a special storm screening of Wrestlemania on VHS between pulls of La Fin Du Monde.

To continue this breathless gawking, though? That’s some callous shit. People died in this storm. Stop staring, assholes, and move forward.

But, shit. Now’s my breaking point. Because sweet Mother of Kolob, if this isn’t the most visibly striking example of Sandy’s incredible strength. More so than any other video that I’ve seen of the Frankenstorm ripping through New Jersey and New York City, this one is chilling in that it all unfolds with such unthinkable calmness, and in relative daylight, to boot. Oh, a giant tree? Guess I’ll just set you down like a big chess piece.

Why dudes run out to size up the damage afterward is beyond me. At least they weren’t wearing horse masks.

via NPR

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