Infrastucture

[saulteux]

Has anybody noticed, over the past several months, the seemingly "out of nowhere" sudden failure of infrastucture in major American cities?

For instance, yesterday, the power was down in S. Florida for several hours. Today, I read that Texas was in a Stage 1 power alert due to a decrease in electrical capacity. Of course, we all know the continuing power issues in California.

And last week, the latest refinery fire; how many of those have occured in the past year? I can think of a few, and probably find more if I googled around a bit.

There is also the collapse of the bridge in Minneapolis this past year. I can tell, in my area, that road work and improvements to other city services such as sewage has decreased.

It would seem, that even as politicians are telling us that everything's just fine, our "house" is collapsing around us because we can't afford the repairs.

[Amanda's mom]

I don't think that terrorism is at work here. The US infrastructure is old and outdated. It was built in a time of much lower population and traffic. I think congratulations should go to those who do keep it working because it wasn't meant to handle today's needs/traffic.

Our bridges are all old and have endured years of pollution and salting. They are tired and weakening. Nothing man-made will last forever. I was reading warnings about the nation's bridges two or three years ago.

Our roads are old and disintegrating with each winter (salt/freeze-thaw cycles), each storm (washing away the substrate), and each drought (draining the aquifers and causing wholes to form under the substructure).

Our power grids are old and not meant for the load we require of them. Look at all the electronic equipment we now deem "necessary" to our "survival." When I was a child, air conditioning was something that rich people had or the upper-crust department stores had. All of the rest of us used fans, opened windows, planted shade trees to block the sun, and took mid-day naps to avoid the heat. Somewhere in the 1980's, it became a "necessity of life" to have air conditioning (to use the words of the divorce court judge who presided over my sister's divorce).

Now we are at a point where the infrastructure put in place by our parents and grandparents is weakened and old. But we don't have the financial capability to fix it much less replace it. Our taxes are already high. Where are the funds to fix it all supposed to come from?

[Nova]

I read somewhere that US infrastructure (power plants, water treatment) is susceptible to computer hackers.