Photo by Samer Farha

D.C. officials often point to the sky when speaking of the city’s economic recovery, saying that the number of cranes dotting the skyline are an indication of how well things are going. But with Hurricane Sandy’s winds expected to sweep across D.C. from early this evening into tomorrow, do the 150-foot-tall construction cranes pose a risk?

Sure. Last month, for one, high winds caused a crane to collapse in Cyprus, killing one person. And this afternoon, a crane on top of an apartment building in New York City snapped.

But if you happen to see a crane swaying from left to right like a weather vane, don’t panic—that’s exactly what it’s supposed to do. When winds above 45 mph are expected, the cranes are allowed to “free wheel,” or move back and forth with the direction of the wind.

“Yes, the cranes are in weather vane mode and are designed to survive winds speed of 100 mph in that mode,” said Mayor Vince Gray’s spokesman Pedro Ribeiro, who additionally said that wind speeds weren’t expected to get that high.