South Florida collapse shows infrastructure is an ongoing threat to public health

The fatal building collapse in South Florida is a painful reminder that fragile infrastructure can have tragic consequences for public health.

Although exceptions can and have occurred, 72 hours is the primary rescue window for people trapped in rubble after a building collapses. Then, without a constant source of oxygen and water, especially in the presence of severe injuries, survival becomes increasingly unlikely. Should the 13-story Champlain Towers South apartment in Surfside, Florida, collapse early last Thursday morning, that deadline came and expired at 1:30 a.m. last Sunday. Hope is now fading fast for the 126 people still unaccounted for.

There are major concerns, too, about the two adjoining Champlain Towers units. As all three structures were built using similar architectural plans and building strategies, the potentially serious design flaws identified three years ago in the ill-fated apartment must be presumed to pose an imminent threat to the structural integrity of the other two buildings in the same complex. As an immediate precaution, people should be evacuated from nearby buildings so that proper inspections can be carried out.

Besides what appear to be design flaws in the Champlain Towers apartments, there may be additional damage from frequent flooding caused by sea level rise linked to climate change. This does not bode well, of course, for coastal communities in Florida and elsewhere in the United States where about 95 million Americans currently live.

What about the resilience of the built environment in areas where earthquakes, wildfires, or hurricanes are a frequent risk? It is estimated that about 143 million Americans live in areas that are likely to be seismically active, while another 43 million American homes are in areas prone to wildfires. It is precisely in areas like these where good typical building standards are not sufficient to withstand threats from strong earthquakes, strong winds or raging wildfires. Such risks test the resilience of America’s built environment, a key component of our total infrastructure that also includes thousands of dams and dams, water and water treatment systems, power plants and complex national grid systems.

So what is the relationship between the disaster at Surfside and the infrastructure bill currently the subject of heated debate in Washington?

What do we mean by the term “infrastructure” itself? Should building safety installation and modernization be included, especially multi-family apartment buildings? I think so. In earthquake-prone areas, including California, new construction for hospitals and schools must meet standards that provide earthquake protection. Older construction must be appropriately modified to meet similar standards. Why not apply the same protection to multi-family dwellings?

Notably, President Joe Biden on Richardson’s comment: “Rules are rules” There is no “third way” for Iran diplomacy Republicans are looking to the White House for a tough line on immigration. home care”, schools, workforce development and research. In fact, the president originally proposed investments of more than $200 billion in affordable housing, including retrofits and renovations between 2 to 3 million homes and housing units. All of these investments go to what It is beyond bridges, roads and dams.

Although not every failed component of our nation’s infrastructure has been addressed in the latest release of what has become a $1.2 trillion infrastructure package, it is clearly a very important first step forward. Ultimately, however, infrastructure modernization and repair across the board may require an additional $2 trillion over the next 1-2 decades.

However, this first investment package will make the country safer and less fragile while creating countless well-paying jobs, providing universal access to broadband and improving resilience to climate change.

And we should not forget that while the term “infrastructure” itself refers to physical systems and the “built environment,” every infrastructure failure represents a potential public health crisis.

When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf in 2005 as a Category 3 storm, about 40 percent of all deaths — or more than 1,000 people — drowned due to avoidable dam failures. Poorly constructed homes in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico, along with fragile electrical grid infrastructure, killed thousands from a series of major storms in 2017, including Hurricanes Harvey, Michael and Maria.

In 2013, seven children died in Moore, Oklahoma, when a tornado hit an elementary school there that was being built without proper shelter. And in 2010, a BP offshore oil rig exploded off the coast of Louisiana, killing 11 people and spilling 134 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico – causing one of the worst environmental disasters of the past century.

Perhaps the most serious infrastructure threat America faces is large-scale electrical grid failure due to design flaws or a cyber attack. A relatively small, time-limited failure in Texas last winter left 4.5 million people without power, resulting in at least 150 deaths. One can only imagine the catastrophic consequences of a large-scale and long-term network failure.

But above all, while reforming America’s infrastructure is necessary to operate optimally and compete in the twenty-first century, these upgrades and reforms may be the most important public health investment we have ever made. Let us hope that this agenda will serve as common ground for Republican and Democratic leaders alike.

Dr. Irwin Redlener (IrwinRedlenerMD) is the founding director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University’s Earth Institute as well as a senior researcher. He is also a public health analyst for NBC/MSNBC and author of “Americans in Danger: Why We’re No Longer Prepared for Major Disasters and What We Can Do Now” and Our Future: What Children’s Dreams Mean for 21st Century America.

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