Ferry system studied as a possible primary disaster recovery service for San Francisco Bay… The Blue Ribbon Task Force will be asked to assess: what infrastructure is needed (ships, terminals, routes); what legislative changes are needed to make it happen; and what capital outlay and operating funding are needed. Eight years ago, in a bill authored by Senator Perata, and signed into law by the governor, the Bay Area Council conceived a comprehensive water transit system that, in addition to significantly improving daily traffic, would provide a highly flexible disaster recovery transportation system. Ferries would shuttle supplies, responders, and victims around the region, even while roads, bridges, and trains would still be closed for inspection and repairs. It would have terminals ringing the Bay - from Alviso and Moffett Field close to San Jose, to Port Sonoma and Benicia in the North Bay, to Oakland and San Francisco. Yet the system has never received the funding nor authority required to build more than a modest system with three or four new routes, the first scheduled to start in 2009. Senator Perata's letter follows a written request by Jim Wunderman, president and CEO of the Bay Area Council, to Senator Perata - and an Op Ed by Wunderman published by the San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday, February 5, 2006. Following recent major disasters, ferries have played a decisive role in recovery. On September 11, 2001, the New York Waterway ferry service responded to the destruction of the World Trade Center towers within 15 minutes of the attack. Ferries helped evacuate more than 160,000 people from Manhattan on September 11, including over 2,000 injured persons within the first hour. "The Bay Area is not prepared for its next major disaster," said Wunderman. "The painful lessons that emerged from recent disasters in the United States drive our passion to protect the Bay Area. The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina revealed the unthinkable cost in terms of lives and money of haphazard planning and irresolute leadership. Not putting ferries on the Bay for disaster recovery is like New Orleans not strengthening its levees, knowing a hurricane was coming. The threats to the Bay Area are well known and we must act urgently to avoid repeating this tragedy." Many recent reports delineate the severity of major threats facing the Bay Area. According to the national Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 - reauthorized in December 2005 - Washington, D.C., New York City, San Francisco and Chicago are the areas most likely to attract terrorist attacks. Regarding earthquakes, an authoritative analysis by the U.S. Geological Survey found that there is a 2 in 3 chance of a major 6.7 earthquake or worse in the Bay Area in the next 30 years. In 2001, a FEMA report ranked hurricane damage to New Orleans, a terrorist attack on New York City, and an earthquake in the Bay Area as the three most likely catastrophes facing the country. Two of those have now struck. "The advent of global terrorism, the ongoing scientific advisories about the Big One, the ongoing population and economic growth of the region, and our experiences from Loma Prieta, all militate for greater disaster preparedness and relief preparedness using the water," said Senator Perata in his letter. "In the event of a disaster ferries will transform the waters of the bay from a transportation obstacle into a transportation asset, especially with bridges and roads down for repair or inspection" said Wunderman. "Both cost effective and environmentally friendly, no other transportation investment can match ferries in the Bay Area to both relieve day-to-day traffic and prepare us for the next nearly inevitable disaster. While water transit is not the only answer, it is the most glaringly missing element of our infrastructure in a region defined by such a magnificent body of water." Since 1979, a number of events have disrupted travel in the region, resulting in significant use of ferry use, even though the system is currently considered modest: * 1979 BART Transbay tube fire These past events underscore the critical role ferries can and do play following disasters, primarily because they are less likely to be disrupted. Source: Bay Area Council
•Date: 21st Feb 2006• Region: US • Type: Article •Topic: DR general |
