Police evidence warehouses destroyed by Hurricane Sandy

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Perched on a narrow crook of land jutting into New York Harbor, the Erie Basin auto pound and evidence warehouse seems a logical place to store hundreds of seized cars, thousands of guns and 9,846 barrels of evidence containing sensitive DNA material.

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As Hurricane Sandy lashed the city, the surge breached the warehouse’s roll-top doors and hurtled hundreds — perhaps thousands — of its barrels into the wet muck. The storm wreaked similar havoc at another Police Department warehouse by the water, along Kingsland Avenue in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.Now, the damage is having an impact on the courts.In at least six criminal trials in recent weeks, a police official has had to testify that evidence was inaccessible, but still existed, said Paul J. Browne, the chief spokesman for the Police Department.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/02/ny...ce.html?_r=0#h[]

Wow, what a headache. I wouldn't want to see every case tossed because of this, but some are gonna have to be. Some, they'll just have to give it a shot & take their licks.

While I don't claim to be a genius , it seems to to me that your asking for trouble when you store evidence on a coastline, an island or a pennisula , especially DNA evidence.