Vicious Rants of an Angry Yellow Man

First a water pipe broke near UCLA spewing millions of gallons of water, breaking concrete roads, flooding parking lots and buildings, including the famous Pauley Pavilion.  Then underground gas lines exploded in Taiwan, destroying buildings and killing people.  Then the water supply in Toledo got contaminated with a toxin from algae, causing a run on bottled water and shutting down restaurants.  All of these may seem like isolated incidents but I am wondering if more of these things will increase in the future.

I am not sure what happened in Taiwan.  It maybe an accident from nearby petroleum companies.  The UCLA situation is obviously a sign of crumpling infrastructure.  The pipe that broke was over 90 years old.  It is estimated that the pace of repair and changing pipes in southern California is such that it will be 300 years before all the pipes will be repaired or changed.  So if the pace is not picked up greatly soon, I see a lot more pipes bursting.  And it is not pipes underground but bridges are not being maintained in this country also.   Remember the bridge that broke in Minnesota a few years back?  That bridge was fixed but I have not heard of a national effort to check and repair all the bridges.  There will be more collapsed bridges for sure.

The detection of toxins in Toledo actually worked well, giving warnings before anyone got sick.  But isn't algae always going to be growing in Lake Erie?  Are there any proactive plans to prevent contamination in the first place?  I think most of the time, the local government spent money on what the people can see, such a police, fire and schools.  Most people never think about what is under the ground or the electric grid until something happens.  So unless we demand that our infrastructure be upgraded, we are just waiting for the next disaster to happen.

Besides exposing our poor infrastructure, I am worried that what happened in the last few days also give terrorists ideas.  It seems to me that if they have a few smart scientists they can figure ways to cause explosions in gas pipes or contaminate our water supply.  So besides upgrading, we also would need to find ways to protect our infrastructures.

Meanwhile I am thinking what my late grandmother used to admonish me:  stock up on more rice and water!  I am also going to drive faster when on a bridge so that I will spent less time on it!