Newsletter article featuring NYU engineering interview, Sept 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

This was accomplished using the Hospital's paramedics and ambulances. To get an idea of the scale, our hospital has approximately (170) beds in operation. We even used a newly constructed 26-bed medical/surgical unit, undergoing punchlist work for ambulatory patient care.

Shortly after Tower 2 collapsed, we lost gas and high-pressure steam service to the hospital. This was a part of a large-scale shutdown of services by Con Ed based on their concern about gas and steam leaks. In addition, due to the number of hydrants opened by the fireman, to fight the fires, the Hospital also lost water pressure to the building, causing the fear of losing water all together. Immediately staff were notified to conserve water.

As each of the two towers fell, it caused the ground below the hospital to shake and the windows to rattle, much like an earthquake. While this caused significant fear in many of our employees, staff continued to provide emergency medical attention to victims. By 4:00 PM on Tuesday, gas and high-pressure steam had been restored, based on re-routing done by Con Ed. Before the gas was turned on, Con Ed made extensive tests to assure that there were no leaks. Also by 5:00 PM, the water pressure had slowly started to increase, and the Hospital was able to begin again sterilizing instruments and providing domestic hot water. However, a little after 5:00 PM, after Building #7 collapsed (this was the third building to collapse), the hospital lost electrical power from Con Edison. The emergency generator immediately came on, which would allow us 24-36 hours of power, based on the diesel fuel on-hand and demand.

We were concerned that we do whatever was necessary to keep the generator functioning, as it is located on the roof and was being covered by inches of dust during this period. So we stationed maintenance staff, in protective clothing, in four-hour shifts, to keep the machine clean and to check controls on a regular basis. We needed a tank of diesel fuel for refilling the generator, but having a fuel truck in the area, during that period, was deemed unsafe. So Con Ed agreed to "top off' the generator twice a day (which they did through the following Monday, six days later, when power was finally restored).

In addition, we arranged for Con Edison to provide an additional generator outside the Hospital in case ours failed. Unfortunately, they were only able to provide a smaller generator (1200kW) than our existing equipment (1500kW) --- therefore, if our generator had failed, it would have been necessary for the Engineering staff to manually open and close the service and distribution switches, to maintain power in the hospital.

Since the electrical power was out all over lower Manhattan, we also had no streetlights. GE delivered portable light towers and those were set up outside of the hospital. GE also delivered and set up a portable Cat Scan

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