As we recover from hurricane Sandy we should learn and ensure that everything is better prepared in the next storm. Now I’m not being pessimistic, but realistic. Sooner or later there will be another storm.
One area that suffered a unique catastrophe was Belle Harbor in southern Queens. Firefighters answered a call for a fire, but when they got there the fire trucks could not get close enough to fight the fire. As a result close to one hundred homes were destroyed in the blaze. Fortunately no one lost their life.
The fire trucks could not get closer to the fire because of the depth of the flood water. The trucks could physically navigate the flood water, but the modern fire truck is a sophisticated machine with numerous computers. If the computers got wet, the truck would be disabled, possibly increasing the risk to the fire fighters.
The lesson here is that emergency vehicles should be exempt from modern regulations and kept simple in their design to enhance its capability and reliability. A diesel fire truck from the 1980’s would have been able to get closer and save many homes. The number of fire trucks in service is to small to have a big impact on air pollution, and its arguable that the Belle Harbor fire was more pollution than any fire truck could expel.
If we learn from this storm, it will be a constructive circumstance that makes us better prepared the next time.
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