Winds may Damper Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
VELSHI: Well, there will be clowns and confetti, food and fanfare, and, certainly, plenty of floats. For nearly 80 years, Macy's has pulled off its Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City, mostly without a hitch. But that wasn't the case in 1997. In a freak accident, a Cat in the Hat balloon injured several people. Now, today, despite new safety guidelines for the floats, some people still want to know that the parade is safe. CNN's Mary Snow is in New York City with more. Hello, Mary.</s>MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there, Ali. And, you know, this is a tradition. The night before Thanksgiving, you see Macy's blowing up these balloons. This is Humpty Dumpty behind me. The crowds have streamed in. Tomorrow, Macy's estimates that there will be two-and-a-half million people here watching the parade. But there are forecasts for winds. And the city will have to decide whether or not some of those balloons can go up, this because of safety guidelines put into place a few years ago.</s>SNOW (voice-over): With forecasters expecting strong winds on Thanksgiving, Macy's and New York City officials will be closely monitoring the weather, this after updated safety guidelines were put into place following a tragic accident in 1997, when handlers lost control of the Cat in the Hat balloon in 40-mile-per-hour winds. The balloon sliced the top of a lamppost, injuring several people, including a woman who ended up permanently brain-damaged. A year later, the city came up with new safety guidelines, including increasing the number of balloon handlers. They announced:</s>JEAN MCFADDEN, MACY'S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE DIRECTOR: We have increased the number of handlers from 40 -- what used to be 40 to 50 people per balloon is now 50 to 60 people per balloon. Plus, they had a much more intensified training program.</s>SNOW: Macy's says training for all of the 2,000 handlers is not mandatory, but it is required for about 300 members of the flight management team.</s>JOHN PIPER, VICE PRESIDENT, MACY'S PARADE STUDIO: The training is more extensive. The training has been updated. The training is very successful.</s>SNOW: John Piper, who oversees the balloons, says the emphasis is on training pilots and flight managers, who go through courses several months before the parade. About 1,700 other balloon volunteers get manuals, like this one, and watch videos before navigating through the parade. Macy's say handlers must be at least 125 pounds, 18 years of age, and be able to walk two-and-a-half miles.</s>PIPER: You have got to be able to hold, all right? And that weight is pulling up on you, instead of carrying a weight that would -- you know, that would be down.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How am I doing?</s>SNOW: Handlers say each balloon line weighs about three to five pounds, and the lines can be a handful.</s>MICHAEL GIURICI, MACY'S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE: It is a bit of a challenge. The golden rule is always to watch the pilot.</s>SNOW: Now, there is a rule that, if the winds are 23 miles an hour, gusts of up to 34, that some of the balloons won't be able to go up. The city will make that determination before 8:00 tomorrow morning -- Ali.</s>VELSHI: Yes. And, Mary, you're high a high-tech whiz when we are up in New York. You don't have to wait for the city to make that determination. There's some kind of technology to figure out how windy it is?</s>SNOW: Yes. One of the stipulations that came about in these safety guidelines is, these teams that are with the balloons, one person actually has a portable wind meter -- since you're Mr. Gadgets, I'm sure you're familiar with this -- to watch the wind. But, also, you know, forecasters are in touch with the police department. And they're really monitoring this.</s>VELSHI: Mary, they equipped me here at CNN with a windbag meter, not a wind meter. But thank you for joining us. Stay safe out there. It's -- it's going to get windy -- Mary Snow getting ready for those -- those parade balloons. Now, the parade route winds through many of New York City's most well-known streets. It's got a lot of spots for optimum viewing, none better than the ones that our Tom Foreman has mapped out for you.</s>TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. It's a beautiful place to go, even if you're just there visiting for the day or you get to see it on TV. Let's take a look at where the parade route is, because it starts right up here, in front of the Museum of Natural History. On Central Park, if you're ever there, it's up on the western side of the park, right around there. And it starts moving down the way. As it goes down, you will find out that it goes right down to the mother ship for us. This is where all of our programming in New York comes out.</s>VELSHI: That's right.</s>FOREMAN: That's where you work most of the time.</s>VELSHI: That's where I work. That's right.</s>FOREMAN: And then it keeps going right down this way here. This is where they keep things under control as they go past the park. They try to keep them under control as they go further on. But they let them go up higher between the buildings. And, then, they finally get down here. If you get those gusts tomorrow, 35 miles an hour, like they're talking about, you are going to get this wind-tunneling effect between all of these buildings. And we have an example here. This is the latest balloon they're developing. This is a -- the Blitzer balloon, which...</s>FOREMAN: Well, they're not actually developing it, but they ought to. If you're wondering where Wolf was, they're doing the final fitting today. This is where they really have to hold on. You get between the buildings here and your Blitzer balloon gets caught by the wind. And what you don't want to do is have it get spinning out of control, because then look what is going to happen.</s>VELSHI: Look what is going to happen.</s>FOREMAN: The Blitzer balloon will take off.</s>VELSHI: It is going to be Wolf everywhere.</s>FOREMAN: And before you know -- oh, yes, it's going to be unbelievable. And then it's just going to be out of control from there. And it's just -- the whole Blitzer thing, it could sail off into space. Interestingly enough...</s>FOREMAN: Interestingly enough, in the past...</s>VELSHI: Wolf will be in China.</s>FOREMAN: ... they did...</s>VELSHI: In India.</s>FOREMAN: ... let the balloons go. It was an old tradition. They let the balloons go at the end.</s>VELSHI: Yes.</s>FOREMAN: And, if people could find them, they could turn them in for a prize -- but not anymore.</s>VELSHI: As you know, because you have been everywhere in the world, New York in particular, Manhattan can be windy even when there isn't any wind outside.</s>FOREMAN: ... Capitol Hill over here.</s>VELSHI: Yes. No, exactly.</s>FOREMAN: Right.</s>VELSHI: Good to see you, my friend.</s>VELSHI: Tom Foreman. Up next, a record-setting season reaches a new milestone with a brand new tropical storm. It's named Delta. We will show you where it's headed. And something fishy in a big way. We are going to take you live to the world's largest aquarium, opened its doors for the first time today.