Emergency management in SimCity 2000

Contributor/author(s): John Merryman, Dave Cook

You've worked hard on building your masterpiece city, rising it from a infant into the full grown adult, and then it happens: a plane crash, earth quake, twister, those annoying acts of nature that test the metal of the human spirit.

You watch feeling helpless as block by block goes up in smoke, your efforts to save your labor of love not making a dent in stopping the rising water or wall of flames. What do you do? In most real towns there in a group of people who are trained in such matters, dealing with the raw power of nature: Emergency Managers. In SimCity, that would be you. Sure, you can turn off these destructive forces in the game, but why? You'll never find out how creative you can be when faced with a nearly impossible situation.

Flooding

Flooding can be easily controlled, even held at bay with some preventive measures when you are building your city. Using the terrain editor before you start zoning to make hydro-electric power walls in a easy way to protect your city. Build mounds that will either channel or block the angry waters advance, and use them for power and water supply (see the tip about efficient water and power). Not only do these hold back flooding, but also give your city "zones" that are low no risk to flooding while adding some landscape feature that will make your city more appealing. Who would want to live on a flat plain, especially close to a river, or in a coastal area that has a risk from a hurricane?

Fires

As you've built your city, you've added fire stations along the way, but when it's a large city how well do they work? Most cities I've tested are one plane crash, twister, or earthquake away from being almost completely destroyed. The organic firefighters can contain a small blaze, but in the case of a large fire its a loosing battle. The solution is quite simple, lower the ground until water is exposed. Contain the fire, then put it out. Again it's easier to build these "firebreaks" before you start zoning, using the terrain editor. Adding these small canals also enhance the appearance for your city, making nice spots for large or small parks, stadiums, or colleges.

While not having a flat plain will decrease your cities size, it increases the survivability of the city and make it far more attractive place to live. After all, anyone can build a huge city, but it takes someone special to save it.

Dave Cook adds the following in regards to fires:

For those of us who like large flat plains, here is what I have found. If the fire is small, try to surround it with fire fighters, this will usually keep it from spreading, if you can't surround it, you can also demolish the buildings immediately around the fire, I personally have never seen fire spread through rouble. If you have ever tried using the fire storm cheat, you know that this is a hard fire to contain (I like to keep clicking it to get a huge roasting fire going ). Place the fire fighters in the most dense fire zones, you will probably have to keep moving them around for optimal placement, and remember, you only get as many fire fighters as you have fire stations, so don't go cheap on fire houses.