Are Northeast Hurricanes the "New Normal"? (New York, York: homes, live)
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Last year Irene, this year Sandy. It seems that the Northeast is now getting storms of the caliber that they never saw before. I was looking at a newscast and the weatherman predicted this was the "new normal" for the area because of climate change.
I grew up in the Southeast and hurricanes of Cat 1 were not really that much to worry about so I find it hard to fathom that a Cat 1 could cause so much damage up north. I guess that not being prepared or tested by hurricanes regularly means the infrastructure is not really in place. I mean, was it wise to build subways in a city surrounded by water? Is it wise to have basements along a coast? In the South, nobody has basements and along the Gulf Coast all homes are elevated around 15-20 feet. When they rebuild those Queens/Jersey Shore homes, will they elevate them so they won't be flooded next time?
Then I started to think about what if a Cat 5 hurricane hit NYC like Katrina did to New Orleans? I was thinking there could be millions dead. Just imagine a hurricane that is many times what hit, that's what hit New Orleans back in 2005.
I also remember friends up in the Northeast always saying that "I couldn't live down South because of all the hurricanes." It seems nobody along the East/Gulf coast is immune and they are eating crow.
So my question is, if this is the new normal, is the Northeast going to start adopting some of the building codes of the Gulf Coast (elevating homes, building homes of solid concrete, etc...)?
In any case, I'll be hoping/praying for y'all to recover quickly.
New? They have always been normal. This is an especially bad one, but especially bad ones have happened before too. Best I can tell, wind damage to buildings was quite limited, so building codes don't seem to be an issue. Even in more hurricane prone areas there's little you can do about storm surge -- it isn't really practical to build a 20 foot wall around the city.
Most damage and deaths are due to Dense forests in the Northeast compared to the south, only a few died in the surge.
Also Sandy covered an area 3.5x the size of Katrinia, the storms pressures where only 14mbs apart at landfall.
By the way 6<1893 (deaths in the City), New Orleans was much less prepared for Katrina than NY was for Sandy.
6/8,500,000 is .00007% or 7 in 10,000,000 of the Population of New York, 1893/350,000 is .5% or 1 in 200. and the Northeast is Woefully unprepared?
Irene was normal. Sandy was not. Irene followed a path that a hurricane typically makes when going into the NE. Sandy merged with a Nor'easter and was strengthened by the jet stream and got swung into the coastline. I'd expect if hurricanes were to become more common in the NE, they'd be more like Irene and a lot less like Sandy. Either way, I'm sure those affected by Sandy will pay closer attention to future warnings of any storms regardless of size and strength.
And really, if a CAT 5 hits any major city, whether it be Miami, New Orleans, or New York, it's gonna be a pretty bad day for everyone involved. The best that we can do is get people out of the way since we don't have the ability to pick up and move cities. Every city is vulnerable from nature in some form or another and I think it's unwise to fault people for not being prepared enough if nature were to strike.
Most damage and deaths are due to Dense forests in the Northeast compared to the south, only a few died in the surge.
Also Sandy covered an area 3.5x the size of Katrinia, the storms pressures where only 14mbs apart at landfall.
By the way 6<1893 (deaths in the City), New Orleans was much less prepared for Katrina than NY was for Sandy.
6/8,500,000 is .00007% or 7 in 10,000,000 of the Population of New York, 1893/350,000 is .5% or 1 in 200. and the Northeast is Woefully unprepared?
6 deaths in the city? what? It's 24 and counting.
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