At
UN, Sandy
"Blew Out"
Chiller Unit
and Email,
UNSC
Lights Went
Out
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 1 --
Even after a
$2 billion
Capital Master
Plan
renovation,
when Hurricane
Sandy arrived
in New York on
October 29,
it flooded the
UN's
diplomatic
pouch unit and
shut down its
basement
"chiller"
unit, Inner
City Press has
learned.
This led to
a shutdown of
the UN's
server and
e-mail system;
a supposed
back-up in New
Jersey didn't
pick up the
slack. Some
wonder, is
this
any way to run
an
Organization?
When
the UN
Security
Council was
moved out of
its Chamber by
the storm on
October 31,
Inner City
Press went
and covered in
person the
Council's
rare meeting
and vote on
Somalia in the
North Lawn
building.
Afterward it
looked into
what damage
had caused the
relocation.
Even
Thursday
morning, there
were no lights
in the
Council's
offices and
consultations
room. Incoming
president for
November India
held its
bilateral
meetings
outside of the
UN in its
Mission on
43rd Street,
while telling
Inner City
Press it would
return to the
Council suite
to adopt the
program of
work on
November 2.
By
noon on
Thursday, the
lights in the
Council had
been fixed.
But the
UN Office of
the
Spokesperson
of the
Secretary
General once
again
held no noon
briefing, now
making it a
week.
Nor did they
answer
e-mailed
questions, on
Sudan,
Bahrain,
Myanmar and
Sri Lanka,
even as
the latter
country's
Universal
Periodic
Review took
place November
1
at the UN in
Geneva.
Well
(and
dangerously)
placed UN
sources tell
Inner City
Press that a
locker room in
the third
sub-basement
filled with
four feet of
water, which
came
"shooting" out
of the storm
drains, and
cascaded over
the
UN's loading
dock. Could it
happen again?
It could. What
will be
done? Watch
this site.
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