Workers REMOVED sandbags at Pier A before Hurricane Sandy

The head of the Battery Park City Authority admitted he intentionally allowed Hurricane Sandy floodwaters to inundate a historic city pier — a controversial move that could soak taxpayers.

Dennis Mehiel, speaking to the authority’s board at an Oct. 22 meeting, admitted workers were ordered to remove sandbags from the doors and windows of Pier A because he didn’t want the barricade to trap seawater inside.

“It was clear there was a lot of water coming. Gwen [Dawson, senior vice president of asset management] says, ‘We gotta take down these sandbags to let this place flood so that when the water recedes it will be empty and we won’t end up with a bathtub of salt water and all of the impact of what that would mean — corrosion and mold and everything else,” Mehiel said.

“They called me at 11:30 at night,” he added, boasting that “just that one little very significant change to a standard protocol had an enormous impact on what we confronted at Pier A after the floodwaters had receded.”

The 320-foot-long pier, which boasts a century-old clock tower and was once home to the harbor police, juts into the Hudson River just north of Battery Park. It was built in 1886 and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The pier building wound up with 5 feet of water flowing through it, damaging the floors, doors, walls and wiring, and resulting in a $2.5 million insurance payout, authority spokesman Matthew Monahan said.

That windfall, and ­future FEMA funds, enabled the authority to replace yellow pine doors with mahogany ones.

Critics say the authority’s rationale is murky.

“It just seemed like a fraudulent FEMA claim. None of it made sense to me,” said Dr. Steven E. Greer, a local activist who runs BatteryPark.TV and attended the meeting.

Authority officials told The Post they removed the sandbags in an effort to save the pier, not create more damage that would result in greater reimbursement.

“There was never any thought to try to game the system or in some way take advantage of one of the largest catastrophes that came our way,” Monahan said.

What's Your Take?


Hmmm, what a great piece of journalism.  No comments requested from engineers.  No comments requested from construction experts.  No comments included from anyone who deals with protecting marine structures or knows the Pier A project.  But there are unsubstantiated accusations from... activists.  Innuendos, loaded wording like "admitted" and "boasting"... C'mon Mr. Gartland, you can do better than being a mouthpiece for an insurance company.  

Releasing the pressure of a rushing water on structures, especially older ones and ones as exposed to the flood surge as Pier A, dramatically improves the survival of buildings and reduces damage.  Ever heard of opening your mouth during explosions to reduce the pressure on your ear drums?  Same idea.  Opening the doors very likely prevented an extensive and very costly damage to exterior doors, walls, and possibly the entire structure of the historic pier, which would have been flooded anyway, considering the size of the surge.  Not that hard to figure this one out, really.  You made the right decision, Mr. Mehiel.

And to the reporter: opinions are just like the part of your body that you sit on - everyone has one.  Doesn't mean every one of them is worth looking into or mentioning.


Didn't they try the same thing in New Orleasn during Rita...and back when they intentionally blew up a damn and flooded New Orleans ON PURPOSE?  Same logic as Mayor McCheese Bloomberg claiming City Time scandal was actually good for the City, because once the fraud was found (over 1 billion) then they got some of the oney paid back (about $60 million).  Folks, during a 'great depression' and 'recession'....somehow, Mayor McCheese went from multi-millionaire to Billionaire.  And nobody questions a least, nobody in the paid-stream media.  Folks at the Post know who butters their bread.....too bad crime families now own the US Media.

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