UN's
Post-Sandy
Review Admits
Snafus, Urges
Plan to
Relocate to
Another
UNHQ
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 6 –
The effects on
the UN of
Hurricane
Sandy,
even after
more than
three months,
continue to be
felt. And now
a
copy of the
UN's “After
Action Review
- Storm Sandy”
has
surfaced,or
leaked, and
Inner City
Press is exclusively
publishing it
here.
There
are many
understatements,
for example
that
“communications
to
Member States,
staff and to
the wider
public during
the immediate
period
following the
storm were
unsatisfactory.”
Member
states led by
Algeria, then
the head of
the Group of
77, lambasted
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon and
his team for
failing to
send them a
single e-mail
during the
storm.
The
Review
recounts that
the UN didn't
even have
current
contact
information
for its own
member states:
“On Monday 29
October at
11:35am, a
broadcast
message was
sent out,
advising
Member States
and
all staff of
the need to
relocate all
vehicles to
the 2B Garage
level
as a
preventative
measure. It
was later
discerned that
the mailing
list used to
contact Member
States did not
contain the
latest
accurate
contacts for
all Member
State Missions
to the UN.”
In
one of most
interesting
recommendations,
the Review
suggests that
the
UN beginning
planning to
work out of a
headquarters
other than in
New
York City:
“events
could affect
the UN
Secretariat
campus in NY,
requiring
closing for a
much longer
period because
of severe
damage to UN
facilities,
infrastructure
(including
disruptions to
New York
City’s core
infrastructure
(i.e. public
transportation;
electricity;
wireless
communications,
etc.)...
Recommendation:
SEPT should
take up the
issue of
contingency
planning for
major events,
ones that
could
realistically
require
relocation of
UN functions
to another UN
headquarters.”
The
Review does
not say where
this might be,
or how it
might impact
UN
staff. Some of
the staff most
impacted are
in Publishing,
“affecting
approximately
300 staff and
included three
leased digital
printers
which produce
95-99% of all
the official
documentation
requirements.”
Now
machines are
running even
after-hours on
the North Lawn
Building's
second floor.
Many functions
in the third
sub-basement
3B are still
suspended, as
in the less
known 4B and
5B.
As
Inner City
Press reported
earlier today,
after a fellow
member of the
Free
UN Coalition
for Access
was injured
and put into a
UN
wheelchair,
the UN
Medical
Service still
has no X-Ray
capability.
So
who will be
accountable?
Watch this
site.
, 
