Dive summary:
- Fresh Kills, an emergency landfill in Staten Island that was used for debris after September 11, has been reopened to deal with the heaps of wreckage following Superstorm Sandy.
- Cleanup has been a 24-hour-a-day military operation, moving an estimated four million cubic yards of debris to landfills.
- Long Beach, N.Y., is hiring its own contractors, which is estimated to cost approximately $100 million -- more than the annual city budget, which is approximately $87 million.
From the article:
Amid the clanging of dump trucks, a crane with a clamshell scoop hoisted a pile of debris as big as a minivan and dropped it onto a waiting barge -- striking evidence that New York City has revived a place it just cannot seem to do without.
The Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island, where tons of debris were dumped after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, once again has been enlisted in the aftermath of a disaster, this time to serve as the staging area for the monumental cleanup job underway since superstorm Sandy hit. Again and again, that scoop plunges into a three-story hill of debris and lifts out pulverized drywall, floorboards, furniture, clothing, photo albums. ...
