From Yahoo(AP):When experts sketch out nightmare hurricane scenarios, a New York strike tends to be high on the list.
Besides shaking skyscrapers, a major hurricane could send the Atlantic Ocean surging into the nation's largest city, flooding Wall Street, subways and densely packed neighborhoods.
As a new hurricane season starts Monday, some scientists and engineers are floating an ambitious solution: Barriers to choke off the surging sea and protect flood-prone areas.
The plan involves deploying giant barriers and gates that would move into place — in some cases rising out of the water — for storms. One proposal calls for a 5-mile-long barrier between New Jersey and Queens.
No one has formally proposed the structures, which would require extensive government reviews and billions of dollars.
But a first-ever conference on the subject this spring drew 100 researchers and engineers, who provided various conceptual designs. City emergency management officials say they're interested in hearing more if details develop.
15 comments:
Fooling around with Mother Nature is never a good thing.
It could be Trojan horse to build a wind farm.
A sea barrier will kill most native wild life, fish, sea mammals, and birds that feed, to protect against a storm that may never happen.
In the mean time every new building in New York costs 10 to 15% more for special structural enhancements against an earthquake that may never happen.
If government is loopy to spend our tax dollars, how about more parks. A major expansion of Flushing Meadow Park into Willets Point reclaiming wetlands. Add to that Flushing airport and all the wet lands there would allow people and nature to get to know each other again.
You would think that after 400,000 years of evolution, humans might stop fighting nature and live with it. Both would be better off.
Some day a real rain will come...
The problem with this is, who knows what will happen until you try it? Maybe it saves lives, maybe it is a destructive, expensive boondoggle.
The Corp of Engineers has a good history of erosion-related projects that backfire. The sea is that mighty.
I urge people to treat nature with respect. Avoid property anywhere near a beach, since most people die in the storm surges of a hurricane.
I think putting big public housing projects in the Rockaways is insanity. Let's cultivate some caution and humility.
I think putting big public housing projects in the Rockaways is insanity. Let's cultivate some caution and humility.
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Actually, that's the ideal place to put a housing project. When they get full, a nice storm comes and washes all the trash out to sea.
Adolf Hitler would have agreed with you too.
If this monster storm hits the way it's predicited, it will only bolster the middle class. If all the projects are in the Rockaways and all the mansions in the Hamptons (on the same "dunes" that run from Queens to Southampton) are wiped out, that leaves the middle class. sort of like what life must have been like for the survivors in the movie Independence Day - after the aliens were defeated. all the big cities were blown up, no more NY, LA, DC, etc. All that was left was the heartland. Sort of a nice place to live, don'tcha think?
The entirety of Long Island and New York City will be under water in the real thing. The famous "Long Island Express" that cut new channels in the Shinnecock was only a mediocre hurricane.
Historical hurricanes have covered all of New York City below Canal, have sunk offshore islands (Hog Island, Rockaways) and many fun things.
When I spoke of humility in regards to hurricanes, I was dead serious. Wiping the smug satisfaction that you are "better" or "invicible" would be a good start.
The entirety of Long Island and New York City will be under water in the real thing. The famous "Long Island Express" that cut new channels in the Shinnecock was only a mediocre hurricane.
oh well - you gotta die of something!
A Breezy Point-Sandy Hook barrier would probably cost as much as half an Iraq War. It would mean building a barrier deep and wide enough to accomodate the Ambrose Channel- a major international shipping lane.
A better solution is to bolster natural barriers to storm surges, such as offshore reefs to slow the onslaught, and onshore wetlands that act as buffers between the beach and firm land.
A northern barrier at Throgs Neck would also be unsightly and possibly counterproductive. You may as well build one between Orient Point and Rhode Island, turning the sound into a freshwater lake.
Never mind Breezy Point...what about the Astoria/Hunters Point waterfront?
Well, that's one way to wash away bad debt for some builders!
Sunna & Company...soon to be flooded with problems.
Just another boondoggle to make prospective waterfront condo buyers feel more secure with their "investments".
THE FLOOD OR EARTHQUAKE HAS ALREADY ARRIVED YOU BOOBS...OUR CURRENT FINANCIAL FREE-FALL!
Don't bother building an ark with your common stock certificates.
Only fed bills are watertight!
Yep...this stuff is yet another diversionary attempt by Emperor Bloomberg's boys to detract us from some real rapidly approaching problems which are beginning to appear on the distant horizon.
Just wait and see what's in store
for your children and grandchildren
in our increasingly unlivable metropolis!
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