Last year, I gave a presentation on the probable impacts of a Cat 3 storm hitting NYC. Well, today we are faced with a possibility of all that occurring. Here are a few points from my presentation:
According to a 1995 study, a category three hurricane on a worst-case track could create a surge of up to 25 feet at JFK Airport, 21 feet at the Lincoln Tunnel entrance, 24 feet at the Battery, and 16 feet at La Guardia Airport. These figures do not include the effects of tides nor the additional heights of waves on top of the surge.
In the event of a hurricane, authorities would focus their efforts on moving those in low-lying areas of the city- roughly 3.3 million people- to higher ground. However, New York can provide shelter for only 800,000 people, leaving the potential of more than 2 million people to fend for themselves.
A category 3 storm would put Wall Street under 10 feet of water in moments, its winds would turn skyscrapers into perilous wind tunnels.
A major hurricane in New York would create a national setback of enormous proportions.
So, what about earthquakes? In NYC? Yep, very possible and has already happened -
The city can expect a magnitude 5 quake, which is strong enough to cause damage, once every 100 years, according to the report addressed in the following link. (Magnitude is a measure of the energy released at the source of an earthquake.) The scientists also calculate that a magnitude 6, which is 10 times larger, has a 7 percent chance of happening once every 50 years and a magnitude 7 quake, 100 times larger, a 1.5 percent chance.
http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/iotw/20080929/200/2660
So, the question is, ARE YOU READY?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment