Reason Magazine 2014 Quartal 2 Seite 49

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city one of the first steps taken by Pan Am Equities following recovery from Sandy was to find and install flood protection sys tems This was not only prudent but viewed favorably by those reeling from massive Sandy losses When the Pan Am Equities manage ment team looked at available flood control solutions the temporary perimeter barriers from the Norway firm AquaFence emerged as a good choice We liked the effective ness ease of installation minimal setup time compact storage and reasonable cost says Pan Am Equities president and CEO Scott Solomon We believe our purchase of the perimeter barrier may have actually made us insurable with respect to flood loss at this location Pan Am Equities purchased approxi mately 400 feet 122 meters of the perim Donna in 1960 The water rose to 46 inches 1 17 meters in the lobby and 9 5 feet 2 9 meters in the cellar The Pan Am Equities team used a rented generator and was able to pump out the cellar within 48 hours Electrical switch gear equipment was power washed to clean the salty water and blowers and dehumidi fiers were used to dry equipment prior to restoring power Lobby finishes had to be replaced as well as electrical switchgear boilers pumps and controls air condition ing fire alarm system security cameras and door access systems and the New York Health and Racquet Club NYHRC space in the cellar No damage was sustained to ele vators and associated equipment however a service company performed cleanup and preventive maintenance Damage amounted to approximately US 15 million working on other deals in the city They also were aware of our ongoing test program with FM Approvals and the Army Corps which really helped Nehad and his team received delivery of the perimeter barrier and set up a large section around a portion of the building However high pedestrian traffic in the area prevented a full test deployment We d like to do a test deployment once a year to keep the building staff familiar with the system and be prepared to deploy quickly in case of another flood emergency We d treat it as an annual deployment drill Nehad notes MANITOBA SUPPLEMENTS FIXED FLOOD DEFENSES WITH FLEXIBLE RESPONSE In the southern region of Canada s Manitoba province flood control is serious business The province employs a wide array of flood defense systems to control a variety of chal lenging flood risks Manitoba is part of the Red River drainage basin that drains por tions of Manitoba as well as South Dakota North Dakota and Minnesota USA As with any north flowing river in the Northern Hemisphere snowmelt in southern sections may cause river levels to rise before north ern sections have had a chance to completely thaw leading to ice jams and flooding In the spring of 1950 this situation led to devastating floods in the capital city of Winnipeg To protect the city from future floods the Manitoba government con structed a massive system of diversions dikes and floodways The system kept Win nipeg safe during the 1997 Flood of the Century which devastated many communi ties upriver from Winnipeg including Grand Forks North Dakota and Ste Agathe Mani toba This network of water control sys tems is managed by the Manitoba Depart ment of Infrastructure and Transportation The department oversees the construction maintenance and operation of 11 806 miles 19 000 kilometers of all weather roads 1 367 miles 2 200 kilometers of win Thanks to the hard work of Nehad and his crew the residential portion of the New York Plaza tower was able to restore all building operations and reopen just 10 days after Sandy The NYHRC a tenant occupy ing the lower floors of the tower was able to restore the cellar portion partially on May 15 2013 However the facility was not fully restored until January 2014 Like many property owners in lower Manhattan and other low lying areas of the eter barrier system enough to surround the building with a continuous temporary flood protection The barrier is stored at another nearby Pan Am owned building and can be readily moved by truck Pan Am was somewhat concerned because they would be the first company in New York City to purchase our flood protec tion solution notes Adam Goldberg direc tor of New York operations for AquaFence They were aware that we were also ISSUE 2 2014 Reason 49 When I first started in this business I looked at these towers and huge facilities with hundreds of millions of dollars invested in them and I couldn t believe they were trying to protect them from flooding with sandbags Everything about these facilities is engineered and properly maintained Then when it comes to something that could potentially put them out of business many rely on sandbags It didn t make sense PAUL VICKERS President U S Flood Control