Mayor Says City Would Be Evacuated By Force If Needed

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The New York Sun

Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday that officials have plans for mass evacuations in New York City in a hurricane and would knock on doors and “get a court order, if we have to,” to get people out.


A day after he said the Bush administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina was “inadequate,” Mr. Bloomberg said it was “much too little and much too late.”


He said poor people didn’t get out.


“Whether it was because they didn’t get the message or they couldn’t get the transportation, I don’t know,” he said. “And then they didn’t get the services as quickly as they needed.”


The Office of Emergency Management has studied the city’s topography and has divided the five boroughs into zones rated by their risks for flooding during a hurricane. The areas at highest risk include Lower Manhattan, Brooklyn’s Coney Island, the Rockaways in Queens, and the perimeter of Staten Island. Emergency officials say 30-foot-high storm surges could drown those areas during a major hurricane.


The worst hurricane to ravage New York was in 1938, when more than 600 people were killed. The most recent major hurricane was Gloria in September 1985, disrupting trading on Wall Street and causing thousands to evacuate neighborhoods in beachfront areas.


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