It was "Armageddon" at One Police Plaza.
For a brief moment during a multi-agency training in advance of the pope's visit next week Mayor Bill de Blasio, NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton and top officials from various different state and federal agencies were warned to brace for impact as an asteroid sped toward the city.
During the super-sober briefing, full of screens and men and women hurrying about in various government uniforms, the room paused "for two seconds" after a colleague took the podium and announced that NASA had reported an asteroid headed for New York City, Counterterrorism Deputy Commissioner John Miller said.
De Blasio, himself no stranger to dad jokes, smiled after being told it was just a joke to lighten the mood.
"Have people ready for every occasion," the mayor said, according to a pool report.
The exercise was held in conjunction with 48 agencies in preparation of Pope Francis’s visit to New York next week that coincides with the United Nations General Assembly.
The mayor then listened as officials explained how the various agencies would coordinate in the case of a terrorist attack or natural disaster.
“I’m going to interpret as a layman up here,” de Blasio said. “[The police department] is doing a lot.”
