What the F***? The hazardous bio lab in Galveston, TX is at only 30 feet above sea level!

[pnwmom]

And yet they were sure, as of 2008, that the lab could handle anything nature threw at it. Now they're not answering reporters' phone calls.

To put this into perspective: Houston is is 43 feet above sea level and Hurricane Harvey reached wind speeds as high as 130 miles an hour.

But no worries. Their facility was built to withstand winds of 140 miles an hour. And their emergency power system, located on the first floor, can keep samples of killer disease dormant for 4 whole days!


From 2008:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/29/us/29lab.html

How a laboratory where scientists plan to study viruses like Ebola and Marburg ended up on a barrier island where hurricanes regularly wreak havoc puzzles some environmentalists and community leaders.

“It’s crazy, in my mind,” said Jim Blackburn, an environmental lawyer in Houston. “I just find an amazing willingness among the people on the Texas coast to accept risks that a lot of people in the country would not accept.”

Officials at the laboratory and at the National Institutes of Health, which along with the university is helping to pay for the $174 million building, say it can withstand any storm the Atlantic hurls at it.

Built atop concrete pylons driven 120 feet into the ground, the seven-floor laboratory was designed to stand up to 140-mile-an-hour winds. Its backup generators and high-security laboratories are 30 feet above sea level.

SNIP

Even if the emergency power system were to fail, the freezers can keep the samples of killer diseases dormant for about four days, she said.

FROM YESTERDAY:

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a57276/harvey-longterm-effects/

There has been almost no news from Galveston as journalists have reported being blocked from reaching the island because of severe flooding. There has been no reporting at all on the condition of the lab. A call to the laboratory on Tuesday immediately went to voicemail.

[roamer65]

1. Why isn't this inside of a mountain like NORAD?

[customerserviceguy]

13. This is what happens when

politicians determine the locations of government facilities instead of scientists.

[FreepFryer]

2. And they pulled the original HuffPo piece by Joe Lauria referenced in the Esquire article...

...Consortium News republished it before it was wiped, but I don't wanna give an unreliable site like Consortium any clicks.

[pnwmom]

5. Yeah, I noticed that. I wonder what's going on. n/t

[ProudLib72]

3. This is exactly how the zombie apocalypse begins

Seriously, it reminds me of the background from some B sci fi movie. The set up is so moronic you would never believe it could happen in real life. Yet, here it is!

[world wide wally]

4. Kind of like building a nuclear power plant on a fault line...

Right, Diablo Canyon?

[GReedDiamond]

6. Yeah, and there's this, at San Onofre...

The "plan" is to bury San Onofre's nuke power plant nuclear waste under the beach.

http://www.ocregister.com/2017/04/11/plans-to-bury-san-onofres-nuclear-waste-near-iconic-beach-has-surfers-opponents-on-edge/

[C Moon]

7. That's what happens when a state is owned by corporations.

[pansypoo53219]

8. humans are idiots.

[Angry Dragon]

9. R&K

[CousinIT]

10. What GOP style DEREGULATION gets you. n/t

[raven mad]

11. Sigh............. what could possibly go wrong..............

[Vinca]

12. Now this scares the shit out of me.

[FLPanhandle]

14. Sort of like Fukushima

Build a nuclear power plant in an area known for Tsunamis and then put the critical backup power systems in the easily flooded basement.

[friendly_iconoclast]

15. The siting of the biohazard lab in Boston is equally fucked up:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/07/27/boston-university-biohazard-lab-classic-white-elephant-should-stay-that-way/JJjpKtpLe5N7GHjSGKLXML/story.html

Boston University’s Biohazard lab is a classic white elephant. Should it stay that way?
By Adrian Walker Globe Columnist July 28, 2014
4-5 minutes

Boston University’s $200 million biohazard lab in the South End is like no other building in the city.

The lab is visible from Albany Street but its entrance isn’t, which is part of the security plan for a place where scientists could eventually perform research on some of the most hazardous materials on earth. Walls and floors are roughly twice the thickness of a normal building.

It is built to withstand hurricanes, and its director brags that it will be the safest building in town if another earthquake ever strikes.

It is a lab, tucked in a densely populated neighborhood, that would operate with the most sensitive of designations, BSL-4. That denotes a lab that does research on deadly substances, ones with no vaccines or treatment. The pathogens, if mishandled, would almost certainly prove lethal.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/12/24/biolab-gets-cdc-green-light-for-level-research-but-still-needs-city-approval/xgYk6jljuTOyohcWRySTNI/story.html

BU biolab gets CDC green light for Level 4 research, but still needs city approval
By Evan Allen and Felicia Gans Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent December 24, 2016
6-8 minutes

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has approved a Biosafety Level 4 laboratory to operate on Boston University’s medical campus in the South End, according to the Boston Public Health Commission.

Scientists in the National Emerging Infectious Diseases lab would have clearance to study the world’s deadliest pathogens, such as Ebola. The biolab still needs to win approval from the city’s health commission before that research can begin.

It's not just the immediate neighborhood that has to worry; it's about a block from the
Southeast Expressway/I-93 and easily visible to commuters when they're
stuck in traffic during rush hour. Anything airborne that got loose
would get distributed rapidly all over the South Shore...

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. Pierce: An Important Clarification About the Galveston National Laboratory

Relying on a report from The Huffington Post, I may have been overdramatic in my initial characterization, and I apologize for any confusion and/or dismay that may have caused. Officials from the GNL, as well as John Wayne Ferguson of the Galveston County Daily News, have been in touch to say that at no time during the storm was the public in any danger, and at no time during the storm was the GNL anything less than completely secure. I thank them for their efforts at clarification and will continue to cover Harvey as accurately as possible.

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a57298/texas-chemical-plant/

[pnwmom]

17. Thats nice but I'm not thrilled that they feel secure at THIRTY FEET above sea level

for their lab and the back up generators. Or that they think that there was a comfortable margin between the 140 MPH wind speeds their facility was built to withstand and the 130 MPH that this hurricane reached.