Infuriated UN Delegates Complain About Handling of Hurricane Sandy

By Stefano Gennarini, J.D. | 2012

NEW YORK, November 9 (C-FAM) UN delegates and staff were not immune from the disasters wrought by Hurricane Sandy. Delegates vented their frustration with the UN bureaucracy’s handling of the storm during a UN General Assembly briefing on Monday.

UN headquarters in New York shut down during the worst storm to ever hit New York City. The UN building, adjacent to the East River, sustained “unprecedented damage,” especially to machinery located in basements that flooded. Only essential meetings were held Wednesday, two days after the storm, and a limited schedule was in place for the rest of the week.

Communications between the United Nations and delegates of UN member states broke down on the night of the storm, leaving delegates scrambling for information on conditions at UN headquarters, as well as a timeframe for returning to business.

At a briefing for the Budgetary Committee of the General Assembly on Monday, Under Secretary General for Management, Yukiyo Takasu, explained that computer equipment located in a flooded basement was damaged. A small fire forced a system shutdown and the backup system, located in New Jersey, was simultaneously affected by power outages. As a result the UN Secretariat was unable to communicate with delegations effectively. The UN website was down for two days.

Mr. Takasu said the total costs of the damage are not yet known, but would mostly be covered by insurance.

Despite the extraordinary circumstances, delegates were frustrated with the UN Secretariat, which oversees the day-to-day operation of the UN infrastructure and bureaucracy. Abandoning the cordiality that is customarily on display at UN meetings, delegates openly vented their frustration.

Head of UN security Gregory Starr was publicly scolded by Ambassador Mourad Benmehidi of Algeria, the chairman of the Group of 77 and China. “I don’t agree to the self congratulatory assessment of Mr. Starr,” the Ambassador told the General Assembly. He cautioned, “let’s be more humble in addressing this situation and let’s be more prepared to discuss the issue.”

“We all feel that the United Nations has disappeared from the screen for quite a long time. It has disappeared from the screen of the member states. It has disappeared from the screen of the Secretariat. It has disappeared from the outside world,” he explained. “We were out of touch. No mention of the United Nations for six, seven days.”

The ambassador was clear about the standard he expected, “Wall Street opened. Wall Street closed. We have been relegated to the level of primary schools.” But he humorously couched his criticism in the crisis experienced by New York City more widely. “Today is time for anger management on the part of either the membership or the larger public of New York.”

Representatives of Brazil, Denmark, the European Union, Cote d’Ivoire, Japan, Mexico, Pakistan, Russia and Singapore voiced similar concerns. The criticism prompted Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to follow up with a report on the “lessons learned” during Hurricane Sandy.

Thousands of employees of organizations that work closely with the United Nations were also impacted by the storm. Many live in areas that sustained flooding, power outages, disrupted public transportation and poor phone and internet services.

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