Last to post wins

[Creeperopolis]

The Appellate Division Courthouse of New York State is a courthouse in the Flatiron District of Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. The courthouse is used by the First Department of the New York Supreme Court's Appellate Division. The original three-story building, at the northeast corner of Madison Avenue and 25th Street, was designed by James Brown Lord in the Renaissance Revival style and was finished in 1899. A six-story annex to the north, on Madison Avenue, was designed by Rogers & Butler and completed in 1955.

The facade of both the original building and its annex is made almost entirely out of marble. The courthouse's exterior was originally decorated with 21 sculptures from 16 separate artists; one of the sculptures was removed in 1955. The main entrance is through a double-height colonnade on 25th Street with a decorative pediment; there is also a smaller colonnade on Madison Avenue. The far northern end of the annex's facade contains a Holocaust Memorial by Harriet Feigenbaum, and the sculpture NOW by Shahzia Sikander is mounted atop the building. Inside the courthouse, ten artists created murals for the main hall and the courtroom. The interiors are decorated with elements such as marble walls, woodwork, and paneled and coffered ceilings; the courtroom also has stained-glass windows and a stained-glass ceiling dome. The remainder of the building contains various offices, judges' chambers, and other rooms.

The Appellate Division Courthouse was proposed in the late 1890s to accommodate the Appellate Division's First Department, which had been housed in rented quarters since its founding. Construction took place between 1896 and 1899, with a formal opening on January 2, 1900. Following unsuccessful attempts to relocate the court in the 1930s and 1940s, the northern annex was built between 1952 and 1955, and the original courthouse was also renovated. The structure was again renovated in the 1980s and in the 2000s. Throughout the courthouse's existence, its architecture has received largely positive commentary. The Appellate Division Courthouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and its facade and interior are both New York City designated landmarks.

[Creeperopolis]

Hurricane Hilary was a large and intense Pacific hurricane in August 2023 that brought torrential rainfall and gusty winds to the Pacific Coast of Mexico along the Baja California peninsula, and the Southwestern United States, resulting in widespread flooding and mudslides to the region. The hurricane was the eighth named storm, sixth hurricane, and fourth major hurricane of the active and highly destructive 2023 Pacific hurricane season.[nb 1] Hilary originated from a tropical wave south of Mexico on August 16, and strengthened into a hurricane a day later while paralleling the southwest coast of Mexico. The system underwent rapid intensification, reaching maximum sustained winds of 140 mph (220 km/h) and a central pressure of 940 mbar (27.76 inHg) on August 18, making it a Category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson scale. After environmental conditions became unfavorable, Hilary weakened as it approached land, making landfall on August 20 as a tropical storm in San Quintín along the western Baja California peninsula. Hilary became a post-tropical cyclone over land, before being absorbed into a new non-tropical low-pressure area early on August 21.

The threat from Hurricane Hilary prompted widespread and varied preparations. In Mexico, thousands of people evacuated to shelters as ports closed along the coast. In anticipation of "catastrophic and life-threatening flooding", the National Hurricane Center (NHC) issued its first-ever tropical storm warning for Southern California, extending from the Mexico–United States border to just north of Los Angeles. The Weather Prediction Center and various National Weather Service offices issued forecasts related to the rainfall potential, affecting about 26 million people across Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah.

In Mexico, the hurricane killed three people and left at least 854 million pesos (US$48 million) in damage.[nb 2] Power outages affected 315,929 people in the country, although most service was restored within four days. The storm left behind flooded roads, mudslides and downed trees in the Baja California peninsula and in Southern California. Some areas of the latter region received up to 600% of their annual rainfall averages for the month of August. The floods killed one person in San Bernardino County. The estimated damage total in the United States was US$900 million, much of it in Inyo County, where most of the roads in Death Valley National Park were damaged by floods. The park was closed for two months, its longest closure ever. Hilary broke records in four U.S. states for wettest tropical cyclone or its remnants.

[Giathio]

Creeperopolis