from the other thread ....

mikaloyd: Medic Zero: Your first two guesses would be wrong because hospitals test their generators every month.

Every week by law here

I like that law. Basic life safety is something every libertarian worth the air he breathes can support. It preserves life without fraud or force.

The involved houses on Ocean, Fulton and Gotham Walk are completely burned to the ground in Breezy Point. FDNY command at the scene is reporting heavy fire on two of the three fronts they've been able to attack the fire on.

keytronic: I'm completely baffled by all this criticism about failing generators.

For the most part its just immature bravado. A particularly desperate response in the face of fear. They will say to themselves that they are "just trolling" but its really just whistling past the grave yard.

Yoyo: quickdraw: [The city natural gas] distribution system needs electricity to work.

That's kind of dumb. Where I live the natural gas distribution system runs on natural gas.

No it doesn't. It needs electricity to work. Really.

keytronic: I'm completely baffled by all this criticism about failing generators. This is one of the worst storms/floods in NY history, and people are going apeshiat because some generators are failing?

The hospital is being evacuated right now, tonight. There may be life lost, but New York is one of the most densely populated cities in the world, casualties are inevitable.

When hospitals in New York start euthanizing patients because there is no one to help evacuate them, then I'll get worried.

If you came to that opinion from this thread, please read backwards.... pretty much one person did that and a whole lot of people, me included (a lot) took the bait and then the thread went sideways because (I need to be careful here so I don't get deleted) that guy was very skilled in the art of seeming like a completely ignorant dick.

cuzsis: Somacandra: BronyMedic: Considering NYU is a level IV surgical NICU, and those babies are completely dependant on specialized, very large machines to keep them both warm and alive, yeah. It's a big freakin' deal. The cold alone can kill a medically fragile baby very quickly.

Couldn't have said it better. These are the most vulnerable of the most vulnerable in place that was especially designed for them. This is in fact a really really big deal.

Curious...

with the impending storm coming (and storm surge) could they not be moved to another facility ahead of time that was less likely to go on the blink?

/not snarking

When moving a patient that may die just from the transport you dont do it unless you know for sure you have to.

No_Good_Name: They learned nothing from Katrina and Ike! Really. Come on. Put the generators above the third floor. Evacuate the neediest patients. What the fark?

Quick! Call them up and give them your valuable insight! What are you doing wasting your time on fark? Youre clearly a very highly skilled expert in disaster prep.

WhyteRaven74: No_Good_Name: Put the generators above the third floor.

The problem isn't the generators. It's the fuel supply. Now if you can convince NYC that a few thousand gallons of diesel in an enclosed space inside a hospital building isn't a major fire hazard, well, go you.

Store it with the Oxygen

alienated: Damn that Queens fire looks really bad on msnbc right now

They've got 170 firefighters on it now. Field command is requesting a 6th alarm. Notes that they're having serious water problems.

fire and flooding is bad, bad,bad, bad

FDNY dispatch just asked if they heard correctly that field command was requesting a 6th alarm. Sounds like they can't even believe what's happening.

No_Good_Name: quickdraw: No_Good_Name: They learned nothing from Katrina and Ike! Really. Come on. Put the generators above the third floor. Evacuate the neediest patients. What the fark?

Quick! Call them up and give them your valuable insight! What are you doing wasting your time on fark? Youre clearly a very highly skilled expert in disaster prep.

No, but I work in a hospital that has yet to fully recover from Ike. That was five years ago, there has been a chance for others to learn from our mistakes.

It's not the same situation at all. Even though its a hospital in a hurricane - they really are completely different. The main problem with NOLA was the delay. It was very odd. Fark was one of the very few places you could get any news about NOLA at all - there was this bizarre disconnect. I remember reading the stuff on fark and being absolutely horrified. A co-worker asked me what was wrong and she didn't believe me because the regular news outlets werent covering it. It took 2 full days for the media to catch up to reality.

During those 2 days a lot of very bad things happened. This is another situation entirely. They did the best they could but you cant keep fuel containers inside a building (fire safety) and you certainly dont want to move them into the open just before a hurricane comes through.

No_Good_Name: It is the frustration of it all. No one wants to think that the worst can happen. But thinking that more might have been done is just overwhelming. I can't solve anything, I just wish that more could be done.

I hear ya. It is very distressing. I too wish there was more I could do.

themeaningoflifeisnot: FDNY dispatch just asked if they heard correctly that field command was requesting a 6th alarm. Sounds like they can't even believe what's happening.


That's heartrending.

I hate, hate, hate that this is happening.

No_Good_Name: I'm not in NOLA. That frustrates me more. I survived Ike. And we did little to learn from Katrina. I would have hoped that others would have learned a bit more than we did.

Just wondering - why do you assume nothing was learned? The response to this has been phenomenal. Nothing like the foot-dragging we saw with Katrina. Im sure that Katrina is a big part of why there are so many people in place now doing as much as they possibly can.