“I was scared we weren’t going to see the balloons,” said Ms. Guidry, an actress who moved to Edgewater, N.J., from Michigan two months ago and had never before attended the parade.
“This was on my bucket list,” she said. “When you see it on TV you’re like, ‘How do they do it?’ And with the balloons and the weather you think, ‘Oh lord, how are they going to be able to do it?'”
But despite fears that unusually high winds would force their grounding, the giant balloons of characters like SpongeBob SquarePants and Snoopy indeed made their annual march in the parade.
The decision was greeted with relief by the families who lined the streets and endured the bristling cold to take in the spectacle. But the challenges of maneuvering the giant balloons in the high winds were apparent even before the parade began.
While floating in place on 77th Street, the Sonic the Hedgehog balloon was at times wildly flailing, crashing into a tree and sending branches and twigs tumbling down. Shortly afterward, a parade official ordered handlers to significantly lower the balloons.
The decision had been up in the air because of concerns that the winds would exceed the city’s limit for flying balloons, sustained winds of 23 miles per hour and gusts exceeding 34 m.p.h. Those limits were put in place after a Cat in the Hat balloon hit a lamppost at 72nd Street and Central Park West in 1997, knocking down part of the pole and injuring four spectators.
Above the parade route on Thursday, a few wispy, white clouds scooted above the skyscrapers. But on the streets the winds were milder than the cold. Parade watchers blew in their cupped hands and stomped their feet to stay warm. A few shook chemical heat packs as they bunched against the Police Department’s crowd-control fences.
cortesia nyt.com
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