City Prepares in Case of Hurricane
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Charley is gone, Danielle is way out in the Atlantic, and Earl seems happy to rain on the Caribbean, but it’s hurricane season and New York City is ready.
The Office of Emergency Management has established hurricane evacuation routes, put out a system to inform citizens of their flood-risk, and put out a pamphlet dedicated to hurricane readiness.
“We’re concerned most with storm surge,” said an OEM spokesman, Jarrod Bernstein. “We’ve seen storm surges become more and more hazardous than just the winds of the hurricane.”
High winds from a hurricane push a wave of water ahead of the storm, called a surge, which can lead to flooding of beaches, basements, and streets. The OEM Web site includes a tool to check addresses and determine a building’s level of flood danger. Signs are posted along major roads to guide coastal New Yorkers inland to evacuation centers from where they can be guided to shelters.
Community boards representing shore neighborhoods are prepared with lengthy call lists to help them coordinate with OEM and the police, and they’ve made phone trees to alert residents of an evacuation order.
“I don’t see us getting hit straight on horribly – that would be an unusual occurrence,” said the district manager for Brooklyn Community Board 13, Chuck Reichenthal, representing Coney Island and Brighton Beach.
A spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Luis Martinez, said the agency lowers posted speeds on bridges when winds are above 50 miles an hour, but has never closed bridges or tunnels for weather reasons. He also said the authority has never closed the port to ships at sea.
OEM’s pamphlet advises New Yorkers to keep a readiness bag with nonperishable food, water, flashlight, copies of important documents, and, perhaps most importantly, about a week’s supply of important medications.
The last major storm to really pound New York was Tropical Storm Floyd, which brought 50 mph winds and flash floods in 1999. Mr. Reichenthal remembers floodwaters reaching all the way out to Surf Avenue.
The nastiest hurricane to hit the New York area was The Long Island Express of 1938. A Category 3 hurricane with wind speeds of up to 130 miles per hour, the Express killed 200 people on its way across central Long Island and into Connecticut. The city was spared somewhat by being on the western, weaker side of the storm.
