Task Force Urges Manhattan to take NYC Storm-Protecting Measures

A taskforce devoted to better preparing New York City's buildings for storms made 33 safety recommendations in the event of a natural disaster, Bloomberg Businessweek reported.

The Building Resiliency Taskforce is made up of more than 200 landlords, property managers, architects, attorneys, city officials and consultants. The group is managed by the Urban Green Council and urged a wide range of safety precautions.

The taskforce was formed to prepare for another storm like last year's Hurricane Sandy.

"Another Sandy is inevitable, and New York isn't ready," Russell Unger, executive director of the council, said in a statement issued Thursday by Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office. "But it can be. The task force recommendations are tangible and economically achievable steps."

The safety measurements would require NYC buildings to provide drinking water in common areas and power plugs for temporary generators, as well as reinforcing the buildings before another storm hits.

Preventative measures against flooding included raising homes off the ground and keeping toxic materials away from flood-prone areas.

Hazardous materials "can turn floodwaters into a toxic soup," the group said in their report.

The group proposed a competition for designing raised homes, with the goal being to be make them attractive and disability accessible. Similar homes were constructed in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward following the destruction brought about by Hurricane Katrina.

The report came only a couple days after Mayor Bloomberg proposed billions of dollars in spending on infrastructural improvements for the city's 500 miles of coastline. Sandy tore through a large part of the east coast last October and relief efforts are still being made in the city and in New Jersey. The "superstorm" was the largest recorded in Atlantic storm history and left 43 dead and more than 1,000 homeless.

The taskforce's recommendations are just that at this point. They acknowledged that business owners would have to decide for themselves whether to take the precautions.