Developer who wants to build world's biggest Ferris wheel not slowed by Sandy

The man who wants to build the world’s biggest Ferris wheel in a flood zone of Staten Island says he wasn’t scared off by the damage and death caused by superstorm Sandy.

But Richard Marin, the developer of the plan to erect the 625-foot structure, said he's been been forced to confront the fears of residents of the ravaged New York City borough.
Marin said he can “thank Hollywood” for doomsday scenarios in which people envision his wheel snapping off its posts and “rolling across Staten Island” the next time a hurricane blows up the East Coast.
Even though the $500 million project – which includes mall and hotel -- would be built on land that took on four feet of water during Sandy, Marin told NBC News that he doesn’t share those worries.
For one thing, he expects to build at least one or two feet above the level that the federal government deems the flood zone, with all the vital mechanical and electrical equipment safely out of reach of a storm surge.
At meeting after meeting, he’s told residents that even if high winds somehow loosened the wheel, it wouldn’t crash down; it would be left dangling by cables much like a Midtown Manhattan crane that came loose during Sandy.
With an independent power “microgrid” that relies on alternative energy, a kitchen and a first-aid facility, the complex could even be used as a public shelter if Staten Island gets walloped by Mother Nature again.
“All of those things have helped a lot with the natural knee-jerk reaction of: ‘What happens when the next big storm comes and this thing falls on our head?’” said Marin, a former Wall Street banker.