EJECTED BY KATRINA: A satellite photo of the costliest hurricane to hit the U.S. as it terrorizes the Gulf Coast, displacing students and scientists from New Orleans universities for monthsJEFF SCHMALTZ, MODIS RAPID RESPONSE TEAM, NASA/GSFC/WIKIMEDIA COMMONSAs Superstorm Sandy ripped northward along the East Coast of the United States in October 2012, it caused more than $75 billion in damage, making it the second-costliest hurricane in US history. Indeed, for survivors of Katrina, the costliest hurricane, Sandy was a grave reminder of just how merciless nature can be. “It was painful watching the Northeast going through the same mistakes we made,” says Katrina survivor Arthur Haas , a biochemist at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center (LSUHSC) School of Medicine—mistakes such as moving generators to the roof, but forgetting that a working elevator would be required to get massive diesel tanks up to the top floors to keep them going. “You could watch the news, and I remember thinking one night, ‘We tried that, and that’s not going to work.’”
Researchers working in New York University’s Smilow Research Center on Manhattan’s East Side lost countless genetically modified mice when the storm surge flooded the basement that housed the research animals—an estimated tens of millions of dollars’ worth of rodents. In addition to the floods, Smilow and other East Coast research labs suffered extended periods without electricity, irreparably thawing frozen reagents, cell lines, and samples.
For the few labs with disaster plans, the consequences were less severe. Thanks to diligent preparation, including a well-maintained backup power supply and a fleet of mechanics and electricians on standby, plus a little bit of luck—the surge hit at mid-tide, rather than at high tide as it did in Lower Manhattan—the research labs at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on the ...
