MDC Brooklyn is the largest federal detention center in the country, housing 3,000 inmates and is close to the Battery Tunnel. MCC New York is at Foley Square, less than a mile from Wall St. It houses more than 750 inmates. Are the lights and power out? Are the cells flooded?

MDC Brooklyn:

MCC New York:

The Bureau Of Prisons website for all federal prisons was down for hours tonight. Which means there was no place for the families of the inmates to get information.

Michael Bloomberg, who this week was so insensitive to the Riker's Island prisoners, does not speak for the feds. But what are the feds doing at MDC and MCC? Where is their emergency preparedness plan?

MDC Brooklyn apparently uses Programmable Logic Controller (PLC)-based door monitoring and control . What happens in the event of a power failure? Is it remotely controlled or does it rely on a back-up generator and battery operated low-level lighting. Some jails now have their own power grid. Here's a video.

Here is NCIC's 2009 report, "A Guide to Preparing for and Responding to Jail Emergencies."

Hopefully, BOP learned something from Louisana's deplorable treatment of inmates during Katrina and has a humane and safe plan in place for the federal inmates impacted by Sandy.