WTC fireproofing

Declarations

“One thing it does point out … is the absolute essential nature of fireproofing steel structures. This is something that wasn’t done originally in the World Trade Center when it was built. It wasn’t code at that time.”

— Christoph Hoffmann, a Purdue University professor and one of the lead researchers on a computer simulation of the 2001 World Trade Center attacks that supports a federal agency’s findings that the initial impact from the hijacked airplanes stripped away crucial fireproofing material and that the weakened towers collapsed under their own weight. The two-year study, funded in part by the National Science Foundation, was the first to use 3-D animation to provide visual context to the attacks.

Life-saving in mines

“The provisions in this new legislative package build upon the solid groundwork provided by the MINER Act and could result in lifesaving advances for years to come.”

— U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., who is sponsoring sweeping mine safety legislation along with Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Ky., and Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. that would ban so-called belt air ventilation and speed the installation of better underground communication systems and airtight refuge chambers.

No change

“I’m not going to do anything different.”

— Bill Proenza, the director of the National Hurricane Center, who has been outspoken in warning about an aging satellite, after he was chastised by a superior for his comments. Proenza has said that the QuikScat satellite, which was launched in 1999, is showing signs of its age and certain hurricane forecasts could be up to 16 percent less accurate if it fails.

School safety

“As the school-time trustees of our most cherished and vulnerable citizens, educators have the responsibility to protect the children in their care.”

— New Jersey Supreme Court Justice James R. Zazzali writing in a court ruling that school districts have some responsibility for what happens to students after they are dismissed from school. The court found that a lower court should have allowed a trial for the family of a student paralyzed after being hit by a car hours after school let out early. When schools dismiss students from classes, there needs to be a reasonable supervision policy, adequate notice to parents and guardians, and compliance with appropriate requests from parents concerning dismissal, Zazzali wrote.

Hurricane talk

“It’s always a little odd being in New York and talking about hurricanes.”

— Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff after touring a new command center at the Office of Emergency Management in Brooklyn and warning that America’s largest city needs to be prepared for a hurricane. Weather experts have said New York is about due for a major hurricane with 130 mph (209 kph) winds and a 30-foot (9-meter) storm surge that could cause the Hudson and East Rivers to overflow. Such a storm could inflict more than $100 billion in economic losses while forcing the evacuation of three million people — more than six times the population of pre-Katrina New Orleans.