Inadequacies

Inadequacies abound in dealing with the threats to public health and safety. We saw one example where an emotionally disturbed man was able to get onto the suspension cables of the George Washington Bridge, which was forced to shut down for hours as emergency personnel talked him down. The traffic tie-up from that stretched for miles in all directions. The Cross Bronx Expressway was a parking lot, as was Routes 4, 80, 95, West Side Highway, Major Deegan Expressway, and the Harlem River Drive.

While the man was brought down safely, one has to wonder how he managed to evade security and get on to the massive cables. What if this was not an emotionally distraught person, but a terrorist determined to blow up the cables and damage the bridge? The Port Authority must look into their safety protocols and equipment and improve matters.

Then, we learn that many office buildings in New York City have not prepared emergency response plans, as required in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. That is simply inexcusable.

Just half of the estimated 1,200 to 1,400 commercial office buildings required by law to file detailed disaster-preparedness plans with the city have done so, according to the FDNY.

"Half of the buildings have; half have not . . . The law says you have to do it, and that's a really serious thing. We should have been done by now," Bloomberg said on his weekly WABC radio show.

Skyscrapers whose updated plans have yet to be filed include four deemed high-risk potential terror targets. The FDNY has begun fining building owners who missed the Nov. 30, 2006, deadline.

"Anyone who hasn't submitted the plans the Fire Department should deal with," said Steven Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York.

Whatever the fines are, simply aren't enough. The companies responsible for providing these plans are putting lives in danger.

Of course, the other major failing in public health and safety this week came courtesy of Andrew Speaker, who was able to enter the US despite border control knowing that he should be detained and treated as a biohazard because he had a dangerous form of drug resistant TB.

UPDATE:
It isn't just government that is not prepared to deal with various crises - many Americans are woefully unprepared for natural disasters such as hurricanes. Many don't recognize the threat posed by hurricanes despite the devastation wrought by major hurricanes in the past two decades and are unprepared to deal with having to survive for at least several days before help could arrive.