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Structural Damage to the Financial District
An anonymous submitter sent in a couple of links to damage reports on the World Trade Center complex - a nifty 3D map of the center and surrounding areas showing which buildings have been damaged or destroyed, and a discussion of how exactly they're going to excavate the below-ground area of the complex considering that it is below sea level.
On a somewhat related note, a German news channel stated today that the impact of the falling WTC was 1/25 of the power of a A-bomb. That's massively, if you take into consideration that the whole energie is unsealed within a place with one of the highest population densities in the world.
My office is in a building which appears in the deep-ocre colored section; lower, right-hand corner - listed as "damaged but stable". I've been in the building working all last week and besides the fact that they're hestitant to run the AC (too much dust) there's nothing wrong with it.
Maybe they classify dusty filter systems as "damaged"?
There have been some 1500 workers at the scene constantly since Tuesday, and I believe they are working as fast as they can. You have to realize just how dangerous the rescue efforts are.
Consider that the only survivors they found (last I heard) were rescue workers -- fire department, police, etc. These were people who arrived after the fact, but before the buildings collapsed. There is still danger of more collapses, especially when dealing with the rubble that is piled on top of the massive basements of the WTC towers. One false move and you could lose any remaining survivors down there.
As for the subway, they did try, and it's hopeless at this point. I believe it was flooded or something to that affect, and possible the subway tunnel could collapse; there's simply too much risk in that route. I do know that they did consider that possibility, and came to the conclusion that it simply wasn't worth the risk.
I can certainly understand your feelings on this, but believe me they are and have been trying to move as fast as they possibly can. It's just very dangerous, not to mention just how massive the destruction is...
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In an interview with the architect of the building on CNN, he said that in the event of a collapse, they were designed to collapse as they did, inward, so they wouldn't level half of lower Manhattan.
bin Laden was a wanted man before September 11. There was a $5million award for his arrest in connection for the death of over 200 people from bombings of American embassies in Africa. Bin Laden also claimed resposibility for the death of about a dozen American military members when they were ambushed, killed, and dragged through the streets in Northern Africa.
An article from today's NY Times has disturbing topographic images of the site generated using lidar.
I am waiting -- the U.S. government has not bombed anyone yet -- but I refuse to look the other way as we slaughter an innocent people to get to a few criminals. The total dead at the WTC is around 6,000. How long before we can count 6,000 dead peaceful Afghan men, women, and children? 60,000? Will that be a tragedy or a triumph? I guess it depends on political boundaries, not on innocence or guilt.
President Bush has said "you are either with us or you are with the terrorists". He's confusing mourning the human tragedy of the WTC attack with agreement with political policy (deliberately of course, so there can be no dissent). I mourn those dead and their families. That does not mean I must also agree with the U.S. response. If that makes me a terrorist, so be it. Too many people are afraid to speak their conscience for fear of appearing un-American, un-patriotic, unsympathetic, and the consequences that go along with it.
And don't even try to say that the U.S. has done anything wrong in the past. It's very 1984: The U.S. is right. The U.S. has always been right. Anyone who thinks different is a terrorist.
I've never really been the protesting type, but I think I might just start. Either that or just leave the country.
May God bless the people of Afghanistan too.
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Today's New York Times has an article linking to images derived from infrared laser measurements taken from a plane orbiting 5,000 ft ASL. The link is the first one in the "multimedia" box.
In order to manage a problem like this one, one needs to communicate effectively between all the different stakeholders that are interested in the problem. To this end, NYC has a group just for the purpose. They are called The City of New York Emergency Mapping Center. They produced the parent of all these status maps which is located here.
There wasn't a 'big' map before now because the assessments (as noted elsewhere in these postings) take considerable skill & time. It will not be until the surveyers and the structural engineers get together and measure each building against known locations that we'll really know what will become of some of these buildings. The risks to be still standing buildings are by no means over yet. No one knows the damage that has been done below goround -- nor will we for weeks to come. There are many stories about earthquake damaged buildings that looked fine but had failed foundations in the literature -- those kinds of problems will have to be found by non /.ers who have gone to school for a zillion years. Just because you're in a building and it appears to be working 'ok' doesn't mean that it will ultimately not be raised because its foundation is unsafe.
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Now for the creeper part of this posting. Have a look at New York City Mayor's Office of Emergency Management. It is amazing that the rescue and recovery is going so smoothly when the people charged with the problem are office-less.
And finally to the scum below that said "rescuers took to long". They've hurt post-collapse several hundred rescuers already with many hundred if not thousands more to be hurt. The site is extremely dangerous in terms of both individual hazards like sharp objects and biohazard as well as bigger hazards like debris piles collapsing, fires or even some of the still standing frames collapsing. They are making a trade-off between danger and speed and their families will argue they're already going too fast. To you (the scum) I say go enlist so you can be canon fodder someplace where we won't miss your /. postings.
-- Multics
Is anyone aware of the fact that more British nationals died in the WTC than have in most, if not all, the IRA bombings in London (or the rest of the UK), ever?
Tons of non-americans died in the WTC, a fact that i haven't heard mentioned on the news at all..
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