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My wife and I and our families, and I think my colleagues at the Hall of
Science, have been very lucky compared to others. The storm was devastating
to NJ, NY City and Long Island as it hit us directly. Power is out all over
the area far more than the estimated 2 million homes.  Two major hospitals
in NYC, Bellevue and NYU each have had to move more than 250 patients to
other hospitals due to back up generator failures. More than115 homes were
destroyed in a conflagration in Queens fanned by winds in excess of 65 mph;
the largest residential fire since 1865. They are just beginning to pump
water out of various subway and tunnels and I think they are optimistic
about how long that is going to take; then repairing salt water damage. Con
Edison is just beginning to access damage, determine what it will take to
repair their infrastructure and get electricity to the lower 1/4 of
Manhattan.  And then there is NJ and LI; both have extensive water damages,
power outages and the potential for water borne illnesses.

The big problem facing us is planning for upgrading an infrastructure that
is aging rapidly in the face of potential 'super storms" and other
unidentified and identified problems. Though i think engineers have been
pointing out potential problems for some time. Unfortunately I don't see
the political will to make the difficult decisions about our infrastructure
that need to be made not only here in the NE but across the country. We
have just let things go to far.

Martin

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–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Martin Weiss, PhD
Senior Scientist
New York Hall of Science
mweiss at nyscience.org
cell   347-460-1858
desk 718 595 9156

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