35,000 gallons of prevention
Twenty years ago in Chicago, a small leak in an unused freight tunnel expanded beneath the Windy City and started a flood which eventually gushed through the entire tunnel system. A quarter-million people were evacuated from the buildings above, nearly $2 billion in damages accrued, and it took 6 weeks to pump the tunnels dry.
How much more costly – in lives and infrastructure – would a flood in a heavily used, underwater subway tunnel be today?
In January 2012 the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) successfully tested ...


