Hurricane Irene Wreaks Havoc On One Man's Wall Street Commute

As you may have heard, the East Coast got some rain this weekend, which affected a bunch of people's abilities to get to work. Goldman Sachs employees who reside in the city and work at 200 West were given vouchers for car service for this morning's commute, though, according to Heidi Moore, everything was booked by last night, and some people were left slumming it on the subway with Mayor Bloomberg or hoofing it downtown. Citi employees were given remote access to the network in order to work from home, while those determined to make it in got their pick from of a box of rollerblades, wrist guards, and elbow pads left in the lobby of 388 Greenwich on Friday afternoon, among other “transportation alternatives” they were offered. Many of those who live in Connecticut (and Westchester) and work in New York or vice versa most likely stayed put this morning, on account of Irene seriously fucking up the Nutmeg State, battering roads and putting the BarCar out of commission. Some of those who did get in shared a closer look at how the weather affected their routines, like Susanne Petronella, who didn't have time to put on her face.

Petronella, a floor clerk for GI Brokerage at the NYSE, lives in the borough of Queens. She drove into the city with four other people over the Brooklyn Bridge. "I'm usually still in bed right now," she said in front of the NYSE before 7 a.m., while smoking a cigarette. "My hair's not done. My makeup's not done."

One guy thought the lack of humans downtown was great, and welcomed whatever further natural disasters it would take to make this the norm.

Phil Prothro lives in Jersey City, New Jersey and left his home at the usual time, arriving in Manhattan by PATH train. "It was actually a pleasant commute," said Prothro, who works at GDS International. "No problems at all. It was on time and empty, and I was expecting it to be late and full." He said Wall Street was more empty than it normally is. "This is very unusual," he said, while waiting for an egg and cheese sandwich from a cart at about 7:40 AM. "It's how I wish it was every day."

Then there was Duncan Niederauer, whose morning was an absolute nightmare.

"The hardest part of getting to work this morning was the two blocks getting out of our street because there are trees down and a lot of flooding in New Jersey," said Duncan Niederauer, the chief executive officer of NYSE Euronext, which owns the New York Stock Exchange. Niederauer, who lives in Somerset County, New Jersey, spoke after being dropped off by a black sport utility vehicle at Wall Street and Broadway at about 6 a.m.

Do you have any idea what it's like 1) having to wait an extra 5 minutes for your driver to show up in the morning and 2) having to suffer through a hellish commute that forces you to bring out your inner backseat driver tendencies when all you want to do is plug in your Rosetta Stone German tapes and fantasize about Dick Grasso's package? Having to yell "No, no, no you should have turned left! Now we're going to have to go around because there's a fucking tree in the road!" and "I said right on Maple! Right you moron, right!" is no way to start the morning. He might as well have walked.

Traders Navigate Trees, Skip Grooming in New York Commute [SFGate via BI]
How Wall Street Prepared For Hurricane Irene [MarketPlace]