Posted on 09/02/2005 9:16:42 PM PDT by neverdem
Why is New Orleans in so much worse shape today than New York City was after the attacks on Sept. 11?
The short answer is that New York was attacked by fire, not water. But then why are urbanites so much better prepared to cope with fire than with flooding? Mostly because they learned to fight fire without any help from the Army Corps of Engineers or the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
For most of history, fire was far more feared than flooding. Cities repeatedly burned to the ground. Those catastrophes occurred sporadically enough that politicians must have been tempted to skimp on fire protection - like levee maintenance, it was a long-term investment against a calamity that probably wouldn't occur before they left office.
But urbanites learned to protect themselves through two innovations Benjamin Franklin introduced to America. He started a fire department in Philadelphia, as well as its first fire insurance company. Other cities followed, often with the firefighters organized by insurance companies with a vested interest in encouraging public safety.
Their customers had a vested interest, too, because they had to pay higher premiums if they lived in homes or neighborhoods that were prone to fire. As fire insurance became a standard requirement for homeowners, they and their insurance companies kept pressure on politicians to finance firefighting and tighten building codes.
As a result, the risk of a fire leveling a city like New York is lower than ever. Although the number of fires has dropped so much that experts routinely advise cities to close firehouses, voters' fondness for the stations makes local politicians loath to close any.
But as we've learned this week, few people seem to care passionately about maintaining levees or preparing for a predictable flood. They've left that to Washington, which promised to...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I was expecting to get a sign in page for the Gay Lady. So nice to have an active link with an article for once.
"C'mon, Mark, what the hell are we doing?" I looked over the edge, feeling a little
sick. Thirteen stories of Riverside drive apartments, topped by a twenty foot wall
around the water tank.
All of those old New York buildings have water tanks on top – the city water pipes
are so unreliable, each building has to have it's own supply, in case of fire.
"We are going for a run," Mark said, "and then we will climb down." I thought, is he
nuts? This damn wall is all of ten inches wide.
"I can see Grant's Tomb from up here," I said. We had my birthday party in the park
next to it. I was eight at the time. Some people created about an acre of paper mache
sculptures around the benches. But Mark knew that – he was there, of course.
The sun was shining – it had rained earlier, so the smog was washed out of the air. I
always loved the rain, because I could breathe when the air got washed. This day was
glorious, and the sun framed Mark as he stood on that wall, 15 floors over Riverside
Drive.
"Are you ready?," he asked.
A flood, on the other hand, is one of the most destructive forces of nature and cannot easily be controlled at all. Water will always find its natural level and will go to great lengths to get there. That's why the most devastating natural disasters in recorded history have all been floods. You can always construct a building to survive a fire (we don't see cities burning to the ground anymore, for example, because we build them out of steel and concrete). There's no way to construct a "flood-proof" building, though.
9/11 attacked the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. The hurricane and its flooding attacked every building in New Orleans.
Had 9/11 been similar to our napalm attacks on Tokyo, there would be no New York. The times and its staff would have been burned to a crisp.
In New Orleans five days after the hurricane the city is still only accessible by interstate from the west. There are very few roads into and out of New Orleans. There are far more routes into and out of New York than there are in New Orleans.
Also thanks to Ben Franklin -- who designed and built blocks in Philadelphia that isolated the flammable woodwork in one apartment from the woodwork in the next apartment so that any fire could be contained within a single unit. I'm surprised Tierney didn't include this among his examples, as well.
The water tanks on top of all apartment buildings, which are and have been there, since tall apartment building were built in Manhattan, are there for the water pressure in the building!
Of whatever that thing is, was about the recent cave-in of the wall, onto the HENRY HUDSON PARKWAY ( it was NOT on Riverside Dr. and I should know, I've seen it before and after the slide ) had NOTHING at all to do with water pipes and water tanks; NOTHING!
bttt
With 9/11 the damage was very contained. If you were next door to the WTC, all you had to do was run two or three blocks and you were out of danger. Food, water, and toilet facilities were close at hand.
Katrina's damage is very widespread. You can travel for many miles and still be in the damaged area. Food, water and toilet facilities are not available.
With the WTC there were less than 20,000 people affected. And, for those not killed in the terrorist attack, for the most part, the only physical damage was to their workplace.
Katrina has affected hundreds of thousands of people. And, considering that many of them no longer have a home, the fact that their workplace may be damaged means little to them.
The terrorist attack on and subsequent collapse of the WTC did little damage to the surrounding infrastructure. First responders had little trouble getting to the site and even going into the buildings. The surrounding streets, even after the collapse, provided relatively easy access.
The devastation of Katrina is spread over many, many square miles. Infrastructure damage is massive and may take years to repair. IMHO, this damage contributed a great deal to the delay in getting emergency personnel to the scene.
In sum, 9/11 was a horrible day for our country. Made all the worse because it was caused by a bunch of scumbag terrorists.
But Katrina, since she has affected so many more people and caused much more widespread damage, has stolen the spotlight.
Now if every man woman and child in NO had stayed armed with mop and sponge, the damage would be much less I presume?
It was just something I saw.
But flying through NY - that is not a joke. I was there.
Sorry if I got the plumbing details wrong, I was a little kid. I really don't care.
"That bumbling white knight from Washington" LOL
Obviously, you have. Well done!
Riverside Drive and Grant's Tomb ( which I am more familiar with, than whoever wrote what you CCPed !) is nowhere near the WTC, by the way, so it would be impossible, for anyone, with even a scintilla of an idea of Manhattan geography, to confuse the events.
And for the record, I was living in Manhattan, in '72.
The wall, which fell onto the HHP, occurred in July of this year.
Whatever you imagine happened on Riverside Dr., near Grant's Tomb, in '72, didn't.
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