The Conservative Cave
Current Events => The DUmpster => Topic started by: SSG Snuggle Bunny on August 31, 2017, 10:33:42 AM
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pnwmom (84,832 posts)
What the F***? The hazardous bio lab in Galveston, TX is at only 30 feet above sea level!
And yet they were sure, as of 2008, that the lab could handle anything nature threw at it. Now they're not answering reporters' phone calls.
To put this into perspective: Houston is is 43 feet above sea level and Hurricane Harvey reached wind speeds as high as 130 miles an hour.
But no worries. Their facility was built to withstand winds of 140 miles an hour. And their emergency power system, located on the first floor, can keep samples of killer disease dormant for 4 whole days!
From 2008:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/29/us/29lab.html
How a laboratory where scientists plan to study viruses like Ebola and Marburg ended up on a barrier island where hurricanes regularly wreak havoc puzzles some environmentalists and community leaders.
“It’s crazy, in my mind,” said Jim Blackburn, an environmental lawyer in Houston. “I just find an amazing willingness among the people on the Texas coast to accept risks that a lot of people in the country would not accept.”
Officials at the laboratory and at the National Institutes of Health, which along with the university is helping to pay for the $174 million building, say it can withstand any storm the Atlantic hurls at it.
Built atop concrete pylons driven 120 feet into the ground, the seven-floor laboratory was designed to stand up to 140-mile-an-hour winds. Its backup generators and high-security laboratories are 30 feet above sea level.
SNIP
Even if the emergency power system were to fail, the freezers can keep the samples of killer diseases dormant for about four days, she said.
FROM YESTERDAY:
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a57276/harvey-longterm-effects/
There has been almost no news from Galveston as journalists have reported being blocked from reaching the island because of severe flooding. There has been no reporting at all on the condition of the lab. A call to the laboratory on Tuesday immediately went to voicemail.
roamer65 (12,407 posts)
1. Why isn't this inside of a mountain like NORAD?
customerserviceguy (17,667 posts)
13. This is what happens when
politicians determine the locations of government facilities instead of scientists.
Remember this post the next time they tell you government is better at making business and economic decisions than people actually running businesses.
FreepFryer (2,726 posts)
2. And they pulled the original HuffPo piece by Joe Lauria referenced in the Esquire article...
...Consortium News republished it before it was wiped, but I don't wanna give an unreliable site like Consortium any clicks.
So, this may be completely baseless.
world wide wally (10,400 posts)
4. Kind of like building a nuclear power plant on a fault line...
Right, Diablo Canyon?
Were any government permits issued?
C Moon (4,422 posts)
7. That's what happens when a state is owned by corporations.
Let's revisit the article:
"...the National Institutes of Health...is helping to pay for the $174 million building"
pansypoo53219 (13,892 posts)
8. humans are idiots.
I'm a bunny.
CousinIT (1,891 posts)
10. What GOP style DEREGULATION gets you. n/t
One more time:
"...the National Institutes of Health...is helping to pay for the $174 million building"
Vinca (34,531 posts)
12. Now this scares the shit out of me.
Banana peels scare you people.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029536417
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Stupid scrunt. Harvey hit Corpus then slid up the coast. We didn't get 130mph winds here. Not even close.
We did get some nice summer rain showers that broke ALL existing records.
(I got 49 inches)
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CousinIT (1,891 posts)
10. What GOP style DEREGULATION gets you. n/t
:thatsright: Is this a poorly done mole? :thatsright: The lab is a partnership between the Federal Government and the University of Texas Medical School. :thatsright: :banghead: IOW, purely government run. :banghead:
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(I got 49 inches)
That's what she said
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The primitives have some gall, whining and griping about poor placement and poor construction of this government-created and government-operated building.
They've never seemed to be upset and bent out of shape over governmental constructed and managed facilities in places such as Boston or Minneapolis, where shoddy construction led to some rather catastrophic events.
I suppose it's due to whether or not big-city machine bosses and their pals get a "cut" of the action, in which case it's okay.