Wind had threatened to ground the giant inflated characters. But officials announced less than an hour before Thursday’s start time that the balloons could fly, if in a down-to-Earth way.
As the parade continued — even while city emergency officials sent out a public alert about wind gusts — handlers struggled with some giant balloons and pulled them close to the ground. Meanwhile, winds did keep giant balloons out of Philadelphia’s Thanksgiving Day parade.
The Macy’s parade balloons might have been lowered, but Susan Koteen’s spirits weren’t. She has traveled from Florida, three years in a row, to see the parade.