America's infrastructure increasingly unsafe

In the link below you will find the tragic events that have taken place in our town this past week.
In brief, a gas explosion obliterated a home killing an 18 month old boy named Benji, his mother and grandfather was helicoptered to the burn unit in Rochester. This is the 2nd home in this neighborhood to be destroyed by a gas explosion. If you read the link you will find an overwhelming opinion that our local Utilities Company is going to engage in another cover-up. In reading more on this subject I find old gas lines, dilapidated bridges, ageing dams and many other catastrophic failures could be on the horizon.
Makes you wonder how safe we are in our daily life. Will I die tomorrow because that bridge failed or the stop light said green on both sides and I get taken out be a tractor trailer. Research on your own and lets just see how many events take place daily because our infrastructure is old and failing.



localsearch.stargazette.com...


Mod Edit: All Caps – Please Review This Link.

american business practices have spread throughout the world and the are all based around money the american people are wise but the people who earn the money are incharge are destroying your pride

S & F for you.

Our infrastructure is falling apart because of this economy and political climate...our roads, airports, libraries, police, fire and etc. With all the debt the states are taking on these days things cannot be provided for like we are used too.

Unfortunately it seems that many Americans want great service from all of those above things; however they don't want to pay for it with higher taxes to solve our budget crisis. At this points states have no choice but to leave these things in disarray. America, this is what you voted for and this is our future. A country with a failing infrastructure due to the fact that the citizens want everything for free; while places like China, Japan, and South Korea flying past us on the way to global domination.

I know what you are talking about...I am actually a maintenance person for a small town in Canada and I can say just from speaking with others that the problem isn't people slacking (trust me), it is that no one can afford to replace their infrastructure...a small town with 1000 ppl in it doesn't bring in much revenue...even with high tax rates...to just change one hydrant (here anyways) you are looking anywhere from $7,000 to $12,000 depending on the difficulty of it and the season. Take into account ALL the infrastructure and most ppl have no clue that just to replace a section of water main...it is a 3-4 day process and that is if everything goes right!! Alot of the towns around here are broke, and without help from the gov't, it will only get worse...

reply to post by zcflint05


I agree with what you say for the most part, but our local utility company charges one of the highest rates in the country and they make record profits each year. It is greed that puts our lives in danger. This is not a taxable matter this is all about profits.

In North East Philadelphia there was a gas explosion that killed 1 and injured six.

Link to Story

This happened just a few zip codes over from me. My parents in law had a water main break on their street last week. No one has been around to fix it. Instead they just blocked off the one end of the road which makes it really difficult to navigate around there.

The last one I'm going to mention is kind of silly but someone let go of several balloons right outside my window. They got tangled in the power lines right at the top of a pole with a transformer. The balloons are made of Mylar i believe but you can clearly hear electric crackling and see sparks. My wife called PECO (an Exelon company) and the emergency line is has no humans, just a computer system to enter info using the phone keypad and that's it. Not sure how dangerous it is but we can't even warn them about a potential problem. How sad.

Originally posted by HEATHERTHOMSON911
reply to post by zcflint05

 

I agree with what you say for the most part, but our local utility company charges one of the highest rates in the country and they make record profits each year. It is greed that puts our lives in danger. This is not a taxable matter this is all about profits.

edit on 29-1-2011 by HEATHERTHOMSON911 because: (no reason given)

Agree with you on that. Utility companies are an exception from what I said. Utility companies are always the biggest rip-offs in any municipality. And I can't understand for the life of me why cities negotiate "exclusivity" contracts. It's a big political screw in our butt that the energy companies aren't forced to compete for our business like other services and companies.

Originally posted by zcflint05
S & F for you.

Our infrastructure is falling apart because of this economy and political climate...our roads, airports, libraries, police, fire and etc. With all the debt the states are taking on these days things cannot be provided for like we are used too.

Unfortunately it seems that many Americans want great service from all of those above things; however they don't want to pay for it with higher taxes to solve our budget crisis. At this points states have no choice but to leave these things in disarray. America, this is what you voted for and this is our future. A country with a failing infrastructure due to the fact that the citizens want everything for free; while places like China, Japan, and South Korea flying past us on the way to global domination.

You fail to understand that we give so much money to other nations and spend so much money out side of this country. S Korea, Japan don't have wars to fight and countries to support. All taxes people pay are for them, stays within the country. The make goods like cars and consumer electronics and export them to us Americans who love to have all the gadgets.

reply to post by zcflint05


Funny thing is our state deregulated utilities, energy is competition, the problem , only one company is allowed to deliver it. So the lower energy cost you pay the higher the delivery cost is. Its all the same as far as the consumer is concerned. Sad thing is, after this tragedy our paper ran an article stating what high grades our Utility company has with State officials. How unfortunate that despite complaints of an overwhelming gas smell by the neighborhood the Utility company walked away without using protocol. And our paper praises them. So the cover up begins.

reply to post by Yurimaster

Not to change the subject But the US is no longer an industrial nation. Look around you and see all the closed industries.The industries we have left are either government owned or government subsidized The US just prints fake money to keep us afloat. If you are not needed you will be left for dead.

reply to post by HEATHERTHOMSON911

Thats absolutely true, isn't their debt now.... www.usdebtclock.org...