Hang on. (Getty)

Superstorm Sandy has been full of dramatic events, from the fire in Breezy Point to the flooding of all those tunnels, the explosion of the Con Edison plant, submersion of the Rockaways... it has been a terrifying 24 hours. But perhaps no moment typified the New York-iness of this storm quite like the crane accident at One57. Where but here would you find a death-defying incident 1,000 feet in the air involving a home for the world's billionaires?

With that in mind, many New Yorkers have been wondering just what the fate of the crane boom that has been hanging precariously for more than a day would be. According to the Department of Buildings, inspections reveal that the crane should be safe for now, but given the difficult conditions from the storm, it has been very difficult to inspect the damage directly.

"Our engineers have been on the scene all day now with the crane," Tony Sclafani, the DOB spokesman, said in a phone interview. "Up until this point, they have not been able to access the building due to high winds. But last night, two inspectors made their way up to the 70th floor, floor by floor, step by step, to make sure all the connections to the crane were secure. They were accompanied by firefighters along the way."

The crane currently sits near the 90th floor of the building, which is the penthouse, so it was difficult to inspect everything, but the department remains confident that the boom will not be falling barring some unforeseen disaster. Mr. Sclafani stressed that the inspection was in the early stages and the department was more concerned with securing the crane than determining what caused the accident, though it appeared to be a wind-related issue.

"Right now, the concern is stabilization, and we are working on a plan to fully stabilize the crane," Mr. Sclafani said.

He said that it could take a few days before the crane is secure, but the exact measures required would become more clear "in the next few hours." He said the Department of Buildings, along with the Fire Department, would be working around the clock to secure the crane and one possible solution would be to tether the boom to the building or the body of the crane until a new crane can be erected to disassembled the damaged crane. Such an operation could take days or even weeks according to industry experts.

For the time being, construction will be halted at the site and an evacuation order for the surrounding area remains in effect. Mr. Sclafani said Extell Development, the firm behind the city's tallest apartment building, and its contractors are fully complying with the investigation.

In a brief phone call with The Observer, Mr. Barnett said simply, "It is what is is and everything is being dealt with. It's going to be O.K." He said his p.r. firm, Rubinstein Associates, had prepared a statement, but that was more than an hour ago and none has materialized.

Mayor Bloomberg did not mention the accident in his morning press briefing, but it was mentioned in a statement sent out by his office after the event: "Yesterday a partially damaged at a site on West 57th Street required evacuation of the immediate vicinity. The Department of Buildings has determined that the crane is currently stable, however we can’t fully secure the crane until the wind dies down. The procedure there, when the winds die down, will be to try to get the boom and strap it to the building, and then we could reopen the streets, and then over a period of time the contracting company will have to figure out a way to build a new crane on top and take that one down."

We may be in the clear, but the wait continues.

Update 6:20: Extell just released the following statement:

Responding to press questions, we can confirm that LendLease took all recommended measures to position the crane in anticipation of a hurricane. This was inspected and approved by the Department of Buildings and is the standard for hurricanes.

LendLease together with members of the Extell construction team and with supervision and direction of the Fire Department, OEM, DOB, along with other city agencies, are planning a recovery procedure to secure the crane. As soon as the Fire Department deems it safe, that procedure will begin.

We apologize for the considerable inconvenience experienced by our neighbors, but safety is paramount. We are thankful that no one has been hurt.

Prosecutors painted James Lomma, the head of New York Crane & Equipment Corp., as a man who passed on a crucial repair job on the faulty crane in favor of the bottom line.

Wreckage from Upper East Side Crane Collapse.

"They were killed because of one man's greed," said Manhattan District Attorney Eli Cherkasky in his opening statements inside a packed Manhattan Supreme Courtroom Tuesday, according to an Associated Press report.

Mr. Lomma is currently standing criminal trial for the 2008 crane collapse that took place on East 91st Street. The 200-foot crane was working on the 14th floor of a high rise residential development when the top part of the crane broke off. The debris then fell into the building and down below, crushing a sewer company worker, Ramadan Kurtaj, 27. The collapse also nearly beheaded Donald Leo, 30, who was in the crane's cab during the time of the accident. Both men died. A third construction worker, Simeon Alexis, was seriously injured.

In its 2010 indictment, prosecutors said Mr. Lomma, 66, and mechanic Tibor Varganyl used Chinese firm RTR Bearing to replace a cracked turntable on the crane, which allows the upper parts of the rig to swivel.

Mssrs. Lomma and Varganyl were told by two other companies that work on replacing the turntable would take at least seven months and $34,000. RTR Bearing pledged to come up with the part for nearly $20,000 in three months, prosecutors said at the time.

But even RTR Bearing had its doubts about the repair, sending an email that warned "we don't have confidence on this welding," prosecutors said.

Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, Jr. accused Lomma of wanting to speed up repairs to the 25-year-old crane to prevent losing roughly $50,000 in rental fees for leasing out the rig to other companies.

Mr. Varganyi, 65, plead guilty to criminally negligent homicide and is expected to be sentenced in April. He could possibly avoid jail time if he testifies against Mr. Lomma, The Associated Press reported.

"This five week trial will show that James Lomma had acted entirely responsibly, and the prosecution's opening statement was more fiction than fact," Paul Schechtman, one of Mr. Lomma's defense attorneys, told The Commercial Observer yesterday.

This crane accident happened two months after a separate crane collapse in Manhattan killed seven people.

Since 2008, the city Department of Buildings has implemented more than 25 new construction safety laws, created new inspectorial units, and increased training of its employees, said Tony Sclafani, a spokesman for the city agency.

"The Building Department has really clamped down on who is operating, who is responsible, who's got licenses, whether they're trained, I think there has been a vast tightening of the protocols for insuring greater compliance and the penalties for non-compliance, if there are any future incidences," said Barry LePatner, an authority on construction and founder of law firm LePatner & Associates who authored the books "Broken Buildings, Busted Budgets" and "Too Big to Fall."

The new mandates pushed forth by the Department of Buildings, which includes increasing the number of crane parts privy to inspection from 35 to 200, has lead to a 18 percent drop in construction accidents in 2011, added Mr. Sclafani.

"Stricter enforcement and increased industry outreach has created a greater result of safety throughout the industry," said Mr. Sclafani.

That's not to say crane accidents no longer occur in New York City.

Last week, a crane situated atop the 4 World Trade Center development was lifting a load of steel beams when its crane cable popped, sending the steel to fall 40 stories below and on top of a flatbed truck. A construction worker was slightly injured on the scene.

That accident is still under investigation, said Mr. Sclafani.

Drosen@observer.com