Emergency Preparedness

Property damage in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut caused by Hurricane Sandy is still being evaluated. The New York Times reported estimates of $30 to $50 billion of losses due to the storm. Roads and offices were closed. Tunnels were flooded, homes destroyed. Train service and electricity were disrupted. Raw sewage and oil spilled into waterways, mold grew on walls, construction debris was carried away out to sea and far inland.

Talk has turned to cleanup and preparation for whatever comes next. Ready.gov advises, "be informed, make a plan, build a kit for disasters, get involved and prepare your business."

The ANSI Homeland Security Standards Database provides centralized access to standards critical to the jobs of first responders, code officials and others charged with maintaining pubic safety.

Emergency preparedness standards are organized in categories:

Emergency Preparedness and Response 

•    Incident Management 
•    Communications 
•    Training 
•    Personal Protective Equipment 
•    Urban Search and Rescue Robots 
•    Geospatial Information Standards 
•    Medical 
•    Equipment 
•    General

Other standards that pertain to construction and demolition, mold remediation, water damage restoration and inspection and cleanup, oil spills and health and safety are available on webstore.ansi.org.

For a time, lower Manhattan with its busy streets was dark, subways flooded, office workers walked to the office and waited on line for buses. This video discusses the impact of Sandy on foot traffic in NYC in the immediate aftermath of the storm and how it affected retail.