1 year after Sandy, New York beefs up emergency response capacity

A year after Superstorm Sandy tore through the East Coast of the United States, recovery and rebuilding efforts still continued in hard-hit parts of New York, where measures are taken to cushion the impact of future extreme weather. New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday toured the World Trade Center with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, to view the site's progress in recovering from damage sustained during Superstorm Sandy. The New York and New Jersey Port Authority have spent more than 100 million U.S. dollars on repair and mitigation measures throughout the site and approved more than 300 million dollars in additional repair and mitigation funding. "Superstorm Sandy caused significant damage at the World Trade Center, but in the year since then we have made considerable progress toward both rebuilding and strengthening the site for future extreme weather," Cuomo said. Construction has made progress within the last year, and it is now well on its way to full completion. As of Tuesday, 98 percent of the concrete has been in place and the facility will be operational in 2014. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) subway system suffered 4.8 billion dollars' worth of damage during Sandy. The MTA estimates that 5 billion dollars will be needed to gird it against future storm by waterproofing stations and tunnels, and moving sensitive equipment out of harm's way. On Tuesday, Cuomo also joined MTA officials in unveiling designs for the waterproofing stations and tunnels as part of the 3.5-billion-dollar package under the federal Sandy aid. Fred Smith, the MTA's chief engineer and capital program executive, said water had seeped into the subway system of lower Manhattan and caused serious damages. "We would look for something that could be quickly deployed over the front of the entrance," Smith said. The MTA is looking at barriers for station entrances where at least three sides can withstand 11 feet of water. A year after Superstorm Sandy tore through New York State, the full extent of its damage on the subway system is still being assessed by the MTA, with efforts to safeguard the system against future storms to potentially last beyond 2016. A total of 258 gas stations in the downstate New York area are already in the process of installing back-up power capacity, making it possible to avoid long lines and restore normalcy as quickly as possible after a major storm or other disaster. According to a new law of the Unite States, more than half of all gas stations in New York City, Long Island and Westchester and Rockland counties are now required to have back-up power in the event of an emergency. On Oct. 29, 2012, Superstorm Hurricane Sandy landed in New Jersey and New York. 24 states were affected by the storm which caused more than a hundred deaths in the country, as well as over 60 billion dollars of economic losses.