For NYC, A Frightening Scenario

[capecodder]

New York City is considered the third most dangerous major city for the next hurricane disaster. According to a 1990 study by the US Army Corps of Engineers, the city has some unique and potentially lethal features. New York's major bridges such as the Verrazano Narrows and the George Washington are so high that they would experience hurricane force winds well before those winds were felt at sea-level locations. Therefore, these escape routes would have to be closed well before ground-level bridges (Time, 1998). The two ferry services across the Long Island Sound would also be shut down 6-12 hours before the storm surge invaded the waters around Long Island, further decreasing the potential for evacuation. A storm surge prediction program used by forecasters called SLOSH (Sea, Lake, and Overland Surge from Hurricanes) has predicted that in a category 4 hurricane, John F. Kennedy International Airport would be under 20 feet of water and sea water would pour through the Holland and Brooklyn-Battery tunnels and into the city's subways throughout lower Manhattan. The report did not estimate casualties, but did state that storms "that would present low to moderate hazards in other regions of the country could result in heavy loss of life" in the New York City area (Time, 1998). Some of the key observations from the storm surge maps for Nassau and Suffolk Counties:
Category 1 hurricanes inundate just about all of the immediate south shore of the Island, including the north side of Great South Bay locations and both sides of the north and south forks. Montauk Highway (RT. 27A) is completely covered by flood waters during a Category 3 hurricane. Therefore, this road would be considered impassable during the storm. The highest storm surges (Category 4) would occur in the following
regions:
Amityville Harbor - 29 feet
Atlantic Beach & Long Beach areas - 24 to 28 feet South Oyster Bay, Middle Bay, & East Bay areas - 24 to 28 feet Montauk Point is completely cut off from rest of south fork during a category 1 storm. Much of the north and south forks are entirely under water during a category 3 hurricane.
(taken from the Long Island Express)

[JetMaxx]

Indeed frightening....the only good news is a category 4 into NYC at just the right angle is extremely unlikely.....

A cat-4 is concievable as far north as Long Island, but it has to be moving extremely rapidly (50+ mph) to still have that intensity after passing over sst's below 80° north of the Gulf Stream....it almost happened in 1938.

[msbee]

New York City is considered the third most dangerous major city for the next hurricane disaster.

what are the first two?

[weatherluvr]

I believe the first two are New Orleans and Tampa Bay.

[slosh]

Interesting post capecodder, thanks for sharing.