Hurricane Shelters Unveiled

Maria Haymandou’s latest blog post

When Hurricane Sandy hit New York some two years ago, it didn’t fare well for a lot of New Yorkers, who faced a nigh-impossible search for temporary housing.  Vacant apartments quickly got gobbled up, and cramped hotel rooms were less than desirable; many people simply chose to stay in dank, waterlogged houses.  Ever since, emergency planners have been obsessed with finding a better response to such natural disasters, which scientists predict that such incidents will only become more common.

At a Tuesday news conference, New York unveiled a prototype for emergency housing structures.  The three-story unit, made up of three small apartments stacked on top of each other, was erected at a parking lot at Cadman Plaza East in Downtown Brooklyn.  The cork floors and plain bathrooms hardly give these shelters a homey feel, and remind one of a bleak college dorm.  However, with full kitchens and yellow coloring, the apartments are a lot better than the disastrous Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers, where the dangerously high levels of formaldehyde poisoned occupants after Hurricane Katrina, or the illegal basement apartments that were available during Hurricane Sandy.  Joseph F. Bruno, commissioner of the New York City Office of Emergency Management that helped oversee the project, praises the construction as a “dramatic improvement” to what New York could currently offer victims of disaster.  Of course, it could be a tough time for a family living there, but it’s also a nice environment.

Hurricane Shelters

The new hurricane shelter, revealed in Brooklyn yesterday.

Although even Bruno noted that this was only a prototype, and just the first step toward building more humane and reasonable post-disaster housing.  The design process reveals the challenges in balancing cost with comfort and stability in emergency shelters, especially as more people migrate to the densely-populated coastal cities.  Units range from a 480-square-foot one-bedroom to an 813-square-foot three-bedroom.  Each unit costs $350,000 to $400,000 to build, which Bruno hopes will be cut in half in mass production.  It ultimately took seven flatbed trucks to carry the structure from where they were originally made, a factory in Indiana.  Nonetheless, that sum doesn’t account for the land costs associated with finding sites for the emergency shelters.  Since the buildings would be made into permanent housing units, they would face complex inspection and permit processes before they could be approved.  It took officials about a year to sort out permit issues for even the prototype, and the building still doesn’t have a certificate of occupancy.  However, the city plans to have some staff members stay in the units for as many as five days at a time to help evaluate them.

In the aftermath of a disaster, waivers would accelerate the permitting process.  In a city like New York, where there’s little space for trailers, such buildings can be assembled off-site and erected within days of a disaster, which could allow families to stay in their neighborhoods.  Through trying to create durable housing, officials are learning another lesson from recent disasters, that temporary housing could actually be used for years.  Given the growing risk of natural disasters, it’s worth investing in buildings that last longer.  Indeed, the cheapest way to build isn’t worth rebuilding.

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