A hurricane could drown N.Y.C.

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/344477p-294002c.html

Experts say New York is vulnerable to a deadly hurricane that could inundate low-lying sections of the city.

"It's inevitable," said geologist Nicholas Coch, a hurricane expert at Queens College. "The only question is, Are we prepared?"

New York is a coastal city in a vulnerable spot, where hurricanes can gain speed and energy as they rage up the East Coast - and where ocean waters, backed into a corner where New Jersey meets New York, have nowhere to go but up.

It has happened before: An 1821 hurricane cut Manhattan in two, with Canal St. completely underwater from the Hudson to East rivers.

The 1938 hurricane that killed hundreds in Long Island and New England passed just 75 miles from the city.

[swimmernsecretsea]

1. Isn't NY also in a fault zone...

with no earthquake-reinforced buildings? I read this a long time ago.

[stray cat]

2. It is at risk. If it ever happens it better be in an election year

It seems thats the only way to ensure federal disaster relief. However, since it isn't a swing state they may not get any help even then.

[phantom power]

3. Warm ocean water is creeping north every year.

Therefore, hurricanes become more likely to thrive at NYC lattitude every year.

[Cassandra]

4. I think in those days...

Canal Street was really a canal; or a partially-filled in canal.

[smirkymonkey]

7. It was - there were also a lot of ponds and reservoirs in the

area as well - there is a lot of landfill in NYC in certain areas. Not good for floods or earthquakes.

Unfortunately, I live here - in Greenwich Village which will no doubt be toast in the event of a Hurricane.

[Radio_Lady]

5. My husband remembers seeing the aftermath of the 1938 'cane --

He was four years old at the time. He lived in Brockton, Massachusetts, and his father took him around to see the damage. He remembers big, old trees torn out of the ground by their roots.

It's something to remember after almost seven decades!

[newscott]

6. Shout out for Brockton

my hometown!

I grew up there.

I missed the 1938 Hurricane. My dad remembers the roof to his school was destroyed. No school for a whole month. He was quite happy.

[Radio_Lady]

8. My husband was born in Brockton Hospital in June 1934. The famiy lived on

the east side of Brockton (on Gladstone Street). My husband even lived at home while going to Northeastern University. He graduated in 1957 and got married to his first wife the same year. (She died of cancer in 1971; I'm his second wife.)

His mother lived in the house on Gladstone Street well into her older age, then moved in with his younger sister in Sharon, Mass. until her death at age 83.

My husband is 71 years old. In 1938, he wasn't going to school!

Hubby says "hello" and "nice to meet a former Brockton native"! We moved to Portland, Oregon in 1998 and miss New England sometimes, but "not in the winter!"