Re: Management "strikes" again!!!
Yup - i suspect these as well. You don't want the tank of fuel on top of a building; too heavy for one, and if it starts leaking, the whole building may be damaged.
And that probably goes for pumps as well. If these pumps start leaking, it's better to have them leak in the basmement, rather than somewhere higher up.
Guess you're damned either way: have a 'rare' weather event destroy stuff in basements and deal with the aftermath, or have several events with leaky pipes, pumps and containers to deal with, while hopefully during a rare event stuff remains working.
Take that into a larger scale as well. The subways in NY are critical to everything going on - so why not spending a little more on prevention, rather than dealing with the aftermath?
Again, it's probably something similar to 'why do this for a rare weather event', compared to spending money up-front.
After a deadly flooding in 1953, the Dutch spent a whole lot of money on the Delta Works; preventing flood surges reaching the inlands. But, of course NL is only about twice the size of New Jersey, and the Dutch coastal line is again shorter as well -- so there's again that scale issue. Could there have been built higher (taller?) protection along the rivers, creeks, seafront all along the East Coast?