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Datagram Recovers From 'Apocalyptic' Flooding During Sandy

Posted by Unknown on from the mother-nature-wants-you-to-die dept.

1sockchuck writes "During SuperStorm Sandy, few data centers faced a bigger challenge than the Datagram facility in lower Manhattan. The storm surge from Sandy flooded its basement, disabling critical pumps. 'It was apocalyptic,' said CEO Alex Reppen. 'It was like a tidal wave over lower Manhattan.' While companies like CoreSite dealt primarily with the loss of ConEd power, the Datagram team sought to recover operations in an active flood zone. Why was mission-critical equipment in the basement? Because city officials restrict placing fuel tanks on rooftops and upper floors, citing concerns about diesel emerging from the 9-11 attacks."

5 of 114 comments (clear)

  1. Smart thinking by Qzukk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Everyone knows that flying airplanes into the tops of buildings happens more often than floods in the basement. Gotta keep the priorities straight.

    --
    If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
    1. Re:Smart thinking by torkus · · Score: 5, Informative

      I'm sorry but how often does lightning crack the roof of a skyscraper after splitting open a double-walled fuel tank all while missin the lightning rods? That also assumes an exposed tank on the roof. Generators and similar equipment is typically anywhere above the 5th floor. For example the new 4WTC building has it's generators on the ~50th floor.

      Equipment malfunction or sabotage could easily have the basement pumps pushing diesel fuel into a huge puddle in the generator room that's on fire. When, excluding 9/11, did generator fuel spill from a roof tank in a skyscraper in the manner you describe?

      It's overreaction to a single event. Just like every plastic bag is labeled to remind you not to let infants play with them, poison labels also explicitly state not to eat, and anything with an open flame usually says it's hot.

      There are many disadvantages to putting critical infrastructure in the basement as well...as we've seen.

      --
      You can get rich if you own a politician, but you have to be rich to buy one in the first place.
  2. Hmmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    If only there was some sort of technology that allowed us to keep fuel in one place and the generators somewhere else...

  3. Why? by NetNinja · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you questioned why and you still placed your companies life in that data center you should be fired for stupidity.

    It's the same reason I won't place my companies data at a DC in a crowded downtown area. Sporting events, politcial events, terrorist events.

    If you say you don't have a choice then you haven't thought of alternative means. Cloud, managed hosting, or a more weather stable state.

    Lower Manhattan is pretty much land filled area and 911 showed how vulnerable the WTC was below ground. They were extremely concenred about the Hudson flooding lower Manhattan.

    Again if you placed your companies data at a DC in lower Manhattan you should be fired.

  4. Re:And Another Thing... by Ixokai · · Score: 5, Informative

    That's what I thought at first, having lived through Andrew in Florida -- I was all, "psh, its only a category 1". However, thi sisn't a Yankees media situation. Sandy was significantly more powerful then the category would imply.

    For one thing, by the time it hit NYC, it was no longer a hurricane -- it had merged with one or two cold storm systems that were coming in from the other direction. This changed the dynamic of the storm significantly: whereas hurricanes gain their energy from the warm ocean waters, this type of storm gained its energy from the difference between the cold and hot storm systems merging together. Or something. (The precise details are not clear to me: I'm not a meteorologist)

    Sandy was also *huge* -- measuring the total energy in the storm, it was bigger then Katrina. Hurricanes can get intense but the brunt of their power is focused. They may have a lot of wind speed, and strictly by that measure Sandy wasn't very impressive... but when you have a cat 1 spread out as far as Sandy was, its pulling in a HUGE amount of water.

    It wasn't the wind that was so destructive here: it was the storm surge that the huge storm system brought with it.

    More sciency stuff at http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/post/sandy-packed-more-total-energy-than-katrina-at-landfall/2012/11/02/baa4e3c4-24f4-11e2-ac85-e669876c6a24_blog.html (Warning: yankee media)

    But, really. Its not just rhetoric of omg the Yanks are finally getting hit that made this seem bad. It really was a very, very, very bad storm and the hurricane classification only makes it seem small.