Newsletter article featuring NYU engineering interview, Sept 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

studies, immediately after the incident and since. We followed the advice of our Environmental Consultants and mobilized cleanup operations. In addition, my peers from Mount Sinai NYU Health really came to our rescue. After working around the clock for over 80 hours, I could see my staff needed rest. All of the pre and bag filters on 25 or so air handling units had to be changed before the Engineering Department could restore the building to normal operations. A team of 25 HVAC Mechanics and Electricians from Mount Sinai and NYU Medical Center came to our rescue on Saturday morning. They worked like gangbusters performing preventative maintenance on each of the units, washing heating and cooling coils, replacing all HVAC filters, greasing bearings and motors, and replacing belts. They also relieved my staff by provided electricians to continually monitor the emergency generator. I am grateful and indebted for their assistance during the Crisis, since without their assistance, it would have taken weeks to prepare the Hospital's physical plant back for normal operations.

I must say that every single Engineering Department employee at NYU Downtown Hospital did an outstanding job of responding to the many needs of the facility. They demonstrated extraordinary courage and dedication to the Hospital, its patients, and Community we serve.

Being informed by Con Edison that the power interruption was likely and would probably last another week, we were concerned that our emergency generator had been running for (4) days,. With the assistance of Mount Sinai NYU Health and HO Penn, we secured a larger generator (1875kW). We requested that Con Edison remove the smaller generator and disconnect us from their electrical grid. Late Saturday evening, the larger generator on the street was connected to the normal distribution service and power was systematically transferred from our emergency generator on the roof to the temporary one on the street. After the generator on the street was fully loaded, our emergency generator went into it's cool-down cycle and stopped, after running for over 110 hours. HO Penn performed a quick PM on our generator, while the Hospital's normal power was now being fed by the temporary generator on the street, a much more stable environment. Monday morning, 140 hours after the incident, Con Edison finally tied the Hospital back onto a temporary electrical grid.

As of today, Tuesday, September 25, 2001, the Hospital continues to be very seriously affected by the tragedy. Access to the facility is blocked by police barricades and National Guard, so it is very difficult for staff and patients to travel to the hospital. Patients who come by car are turned away. Even some staff --- when deemed "non-essentials" by the police at the roadblocks --- are turned away. Wires from Con Edison's temporary power grid are still running along every sidewalk, and phone service is still out to our Faculty Practice and off-site offices.

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