Crane Climb

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hotel room had a perfect view of one of the storm's signature disasters: "You know that crane that came down? We were the closest living things to that crane!"

A week later, with O'Neal back in Ann Arbor, the Washtenaw Fire Rescue team climbed one of the two cranes on the site of the Ann Arbor City Apartments. Long planned, the drill seemed even more timely after Sandy. The team members were climbing in full gear, pretending to rescue a man up in the high cabin. "That's what makes it really hard," the supervisor explained from the ground. "It's like climbing up fourteen stories. I'd rather [fight] eighteen fires than climb up there."

Neighbor Mark Hodesh felt completely the opposite. "I thought it would be cool," says the owner of Downtown Home & Garden. So after getting permission from O'Neal Construction's site superintendent, Hodesh also climbed the taller crane.