November 26, 1998
Web posted at: 9:46 a.m. EST (1446 GMT)NEW YORK (CNN) -- Spectators lining New York's streets should feel safer Thursday, as marching bands, giant balloons and floats make their way along the route for the 72nd annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
The parade began about 9 a.m. EST at the American Museum of Natural History. It goes south on Central Park West to Columbus Circle, and then south on Broadway, through Times Square, ending in front of Macy's flagship store in Herald Square.
Parade organizers and a mayoral committee have spent the past year figuring out how to avoid a repeat of the disaster that occurred last year, when high winds caused the Cat in the Hat balloon to knock a lamppost into the crowd.
Kathleen Caronna, a Manhattan resident, suffered a skull fracture from falling debris and was in a coma for nearly a month.
Caronna, who is still recovering and says the accident caused permanent brain damage, filed a $395 million lawsuit against the city, Macy's and the lamppost manufacturer.
The Cat in the Hat balloon has been retired after last year's accident
This year, balloons can be no larger than 70 feet high, 78 feet long and 40 feet wide. That meant bidding farewell to a few lumbering creatures: the Pink Panther, Woody Woodpecker and the Cat in the Hat.
WTF!!???
Sorry...didn't read the whole thing. Thought this was a news realease about the M&M float.