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A Year After Sandy, Do You Approach Disaster Differently?

A year ago today, Superstorm Sandy struck the northeastern U.S. The storm destroyed homes — in some cases entire neighborhoods — and brought unprecedented disruptions to the New York City area's infrastructure, interrupting transportation, communications, and power delivery. It even damaged a Space Shuttle. In the time since, the U.S. hasn't faced a storm with Sandy's combination of power and placement, but businesses have had some time to rethink how much trust they can put in even seemingly impregnable data centers and other bulwarks of modernity: a big enough storm can knock down nearly anything. Today, parts of western Europe are recovering from a major storm as well: more than a dozen people were killed as the predicted "storm of the century" hit London, Amsterdam, and other cities on Sunday and Monday. In Amsterdam, the city's transportation system took a major hit; some passengers had to shelter in place in stopped subway cars while the storm passed. Are you (or your employer) doing anything different in the post-Sandy era, when it comes to preparedness to keep people, data, and equipment safe?

3 of 230 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Arizona... by mythosaz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Two quick things:

    Actually, as much as you personally are intellectually lazy,

    You're a dick.

    has elaborate plans in case of drought. and severe floods aren't unheard of either.

    These "disasters" aren't. We regularly have flooding (localized, due to rains, not rivers or levees), excessive heat (110+ for weeks straight), and drought. That's normal here, benign, and we're not doing anything differently because of disasters elsewhere, because we're mostly immune from anything other than what passes for a curiosity story on CNN/Fox when we hit 118 in the summer.

  2. Re:Arizona... by i+kan+reed · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Oh come on, you're a dick too, patronizing people who suffered extraordinary disasters with your post.

  3. Re:Being prepared by mjr167 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You must not have been in New Orleans after Katrina...