David Cay Johnston: 12 ways to stop the next Sandy

David Cay Johnston was on NPR this morning talking about this excellent article he wrote. He also mentioned the possiblility of the govt taking over these power companies hit by Sandy.

12 Ways to Stop the Next Sandy
Far greater disasters loom—unless we move fast to fix a badly broken system. David Cay Johnston lists a dozen possible solutions, from building seawalls to getting tough on AT&T.

by David Cay Johnston | November 18, 2012

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If we are to avoid the next major -catastrophe—and it will come—then we have to start paying the bill now. America spends just 2.4 percent of its economy on infrastructure, compared with 5 percent in Europe. In Germany, the roads are smooth. In France, city halls do not have buckets to catch water from leaky roofs. In Italy, the trains actually run on time and serve surprisingly good meals in the dining car. And in the Netherlands, where existence depends on maintaining the sea gates and seawalls that hold back the North Sea, since much of the nation is at or below sea level, people feel safe from flooding.
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These are the kinds of observations that organizations like the American Society of Civil Engineers have been making for years. The society gives America’s infrastructure a grade of D and says $440 billion more must be spent annually just to keep up the existing infrastructure. That is more than $100 each month for every American.

Mayor Bloomberg’s point—that America is falling behind the rest of the modern world economically because we’ve shortchanged infrastructure spending—is bolstered by a new report by accounting firm Ernst & Young that examines the foundations of national economic success. The report hints at looming public-health disasters because sewage treatment plants built when America had 100 million fewer residents are now wearing out, and no governments at any level are financing their replacement.

If we fail to demand sufficient investment in infrastructure, the results are predictable. We can expect more hell and high water in the decades to come, as a half century of quiescent meteorological conditions gives way to the extreme weather that accompanies climate change. But we also can mitigate the damage from nature. If we fail to act, this is what we can expect:

--Bursting dams after heavy rains, especially warm rains falling on deep packs of wet snow. There are more than 1,800 dams located above populated areas that pose a high risk of collapse, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers.

--Falling highway and railroad bridges, as decades of salt and wear leave them vulnerable to high winds, earthquakes, and fast-running water at their bases.

--Sinkholes swallowing cars, buses, -houses, and maybe even schools, because water mains and sewer lines long past their replacement age remain in use until they burst and quietly, but quickly, wash away the underlying soil...................

.........................the 12 ways>

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/11/18/sandy-aftermath-how-to-fix-a-broken-system.html