Hurricane Sandy: The Storm After the Storm

[lacajun]

NSPE's forum posted this recently, which punctuates ethics and that a PEs legal responsibility is to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public. When you have such overwhelming problems to deal with, the last thing you need to deal with is people not doing the right things. I applaud the engineers who did the right thing.

60 Minutes The Storm After the Storm

50 Indictments from NY AG Eric Schneiderman

Pamela K. Quillin, P.E.
Quillin Engineering, LLC

 

[berkshire]

One of the things apparent in the 60 minutes story is that engineering reports were altered without the knowledge of the engineers concerned ,and that when the engineers found out ,they were pressured to accept the doctored reports. This should have raised red flags that should have sent engineers running to the state, why did this not happen?

B.E.


You are judged not by what you know, but by what you can do.

 

[dik]

Something wrong here?

Reported in June, 2014... investigation commenced in Dec, 2014... and charges filed recently...

Some of the recommendations:

Implement a national certification process for all engineers retained to provide structural damage assessments in the wake of a flood event; and

Ensure the transparency of fees paid to engineering experts by implementing a standardized fee schedule for all engineering services.

Dik

I'm with the government and here to help you...

 

[SteelPE]

Ensure the transparency of fees paid to engineering experts by implementing a standardized fee schedule for all engineering services

That's kind of a broad statement. One would think this would apply to the e perks used to asses the damage after a flood, but it is not written that way.

 

[Forensic74]

I suggest you read this

http://www.propertycasualty360.com/2015/10/28/hurricane-sandy-engineering-reports-explained

This details that first court case that blew this whole issue up. Per that article, while the engineer was conducting a supplemental inspection, the homeowner reportedly went through the engineer's bag and photographed the engineer's draft report.

Looks to me that the engineer didn't quite know what he was doing and got ripped by his peer reviewer to properly explain himself. This is not what 60 minutes construed to everyone.

 

[controlnovice]

I always think of this story and Bob Ebeling:

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...ster-challenger-engineer-still-blames-himself

______________________________________________________________________________
This is normally the space where people post something insightful.

 

[lacajun]

I don't believe we need a national certification process for all engineers to assess storm damage. The basics should be learned in school and the rest will come with experience. I do not believe we need to be transparent with fees either.

I'll read the casualty report later. It should be interesting.

Pamela K. Quillin, P.E.
Quillin Engineering, LLC

 

[bridgebuster]

I wonder why Eric Schneiderman isn't going after the insurance companies? There must have been kickbacks. Afterall, GEB would have no reason to falsify reports since the repair costs weren't coming out of their pocket. They were just a FEMA contractor.