Flood and Storm Protection

[deanwebb]

Here's a topic that we should pay more attention to in coming days. Basically, the sea levels are rising. A coastal community in Louisiana in the USA is the first to be evacuated because of sea level rise, as it is now effectively an island, when it used to be an area of relatively high ground in a swampy coastal wetland. That's the gradual issue, not so hard to deal with: plan to move to higher ground, then move to higher ground.

But the flip side of the gradual rise is the catastrophic rise, such as experienced in the strong storms that hit the coastal USA in the hurricane season of 2017 and the winter of 2018. I know of a major, Fortune 500 firm in Houston that had catastrophic flooding of its main datacenter. Since quite a lot of datacenters are also near coastlines, I thought it would be a good idea to open up a discussion about what to do when it looks like your gear is about to get hit with a tidal surge or a lot of rain after the roof blows off.

What are good precautions in advance of a storm?

Is there a way to recover electronic equipment that was exposed to water while it was powered down and unplugged?

Are there precautions to take to reinforce the structure of a datacenter to keep flooding from happening?

Any other constructive questions are welcome.

[icecream-guy]

Is there a way to recover electronic equipment that was exposed to water while it was powered down and unplugged?

if were talking sea rise and flooding from that, once salt water gets into electronic components, they are effed.
think of all the cars that got flooded in Texas, all with electronic components, all effed.

also note that  any home owner with a basement knows that when the water table rises, areas will flood, it'l come up through the concrete basement floor, that's why we have sump pumps, to try to keep that from happening.

Also, water is heavy, ~8 1/3 pounds per gallon,   (taking pool sizes to calculate,  1 12'x24' pool 4.5 feet deep is ~9700 gallons),
that's be ~80,500 pounds,  so if you have a 24' long storm surge 4.5 ft deep with 12' of water behind it, that'd be like 40 tons pressing up against your data center wall. A 24' wall 5' high or 348 sq/ inches, load would be about 231lbs per sq inch. which would be quite tolerable. but you get the idea,  there's much more than 9700 gallons of water in a storm surge.

[deanwebb]

So, basically, it's keep that stuff dry in the first place, because there's only replacement that follows afterward.

And, yeah, water table rising is why I'd like to NOT have IT gear stored in a basement...

[SimonV]

Also, water is heavy, ~8 1/3 pounds per gallon,   (taking pool sizes to calculate,  1 12'x24' pool 4.5 feet deep is ~9700 gallons),
that's be ~80,500 pounds,  so if you have a 24' long storm surge 4.5 ft deep with 12' of water behind it, that'd be like 40 tons pressing up against your data center wall. A 24' wall 5' high or 348 sq/ inches, load would be about 231lbs per sq inch. which would be quite tolerable. but you get the idea,  there's much more than 9700 gallons of water in a storm surge.

As a European, I am really scratching my head here 

[icecream-guy]

Also, water is heavy, ~8 1/3 pounds per gallon,   (taking pool sizes to calculate,  1 12'x24' pool 4.5 feet deep is ~9700 gallons),
that's be ~80,500 pounds,  so if you have a 24' long storm surge 4.5 ft deep with 12' of water behind it, that'd be like 40 tons pressing up against your data center wall. A 24' wall 5' high or 348 sq/ inches, load would be about 231lbs per sq inch. which would be quite tolerable. but you get the idea,  there's much more than 9700 gallons of water in a storm surge.

As a European, I am really scratching my head here 

Also, water is heavy, ~3.76 Kilos per gallon,   (taking pool sizes to calculate,  1 3.65m,7.3m pool 1.37m deep is 37.1 cubic meters in volume),
that's be ~39500 kilos,  so if you have a 7.3m long storm surge 1.37m deep with 3.65m' of water behind it, that'd be like 39.46 metric tons pressing up against your data center wall. A 7.3m wall 1.5m high or .16 sq m, load would be about .149 kilo per sq  meter. which would be quite tolerable. but you get the idea,  there's much more than 37.1 cubic meters of water in a storm surge.

[DesertFox]

...

Is there a way to recover electronic equipment that was exposed to water while it was powered down and unplugged?

...

This one shouldn't be so much of a problem if you have the free time and the equipment was powered before the flooding. In my previous job due to a bad sewer system into the town 2 linear accelerators were flooded (not really the accelerator tube or the most sensitive/HV parts but anyhow). It took 2 weeks for one engineer to drain everything / clean each PCB with contact cleaning spray. He replaced 2-3 PCBs per Linac.

But it was a sweet water. For saltwater - probably you will see a major corrosion in several hours. I doubt anything that was really soaked in salt water could be saved.

[deanwebb]

... and salt water is generally the type involved in coastal flooding, such as what is associated with hurricanes and tropical storms...

But, inland, you've got a chance if it's just local rainfall causing the flood.

[mlan]

https://www.nautilusdt.com/ 

They just need to make them mobile and storm-resistant.

[icecream-guy]

https://www.nautilusdt.com/ 

They just need to make them mobile and storm-resistant.

so they are warming up the ocean even more so?

[deanwebb]

https://www.nautilusdt.com/ 

They just need to make them mobile and storm-resistant.

If your floating datacenter goes down, you're really sunk.