Hurricane Preparedness

We re still not ready for the big one

Friday, June 8, 2007

If a major hurricane hits Long Island s South Shore, my house is dead. So is my community. I know it. My spouse knows it. My kids know it. And my neighbors know it.

You prepare accordingly. But there are millions of New Yorkers indifferent to the laws of nature, and they put us all at risk through their ignorance.

The popular WABC meteorologist, Bill Evans, has written a novel that envisions a man- made hurricane bearing down on New York, creating havoc and revenge. While it s a great summer read, Category 7 seeks to provide an underlying message of hurricane preparedness in an urban environment that is studiously ignored.

Evans quietly tells me that there is not a meteorologist working in America who doesn t get a tight feeling in his or her stomach when a hurricane is announced, because they know we are not prepared. He believes wrapping science fact inside science fiction may create the platform needed to educate, alert and motivate people vulnerable to storm surges and hurricane winds.

The fact is we are not going to evacuate the Island in the event of a hurricane. Preparedness is key! A recent survey suggests that less than one-third of us have an emergency kit at home, should the power go out. Fewer still would know where to go if ordered to evacuate. The lessons of Hurricane Katrina s 130-mph winds have not been forgotten in New York; they have never been learned.

Evans reports that the maritime geography that sits between Long Island and New Jersey will only enhance the eventual hurricane storm surge. Every Long Islander lives at a right angle to the continental United States and the stone bottom of the Atlantic Ocean that slopes up toward the south shore. It is a huge underwater alley that will propel storm waves towards the beaches at a ripping velocity.

The weather forecaster focuses his book on events on Manhattan Island, but allows that a monster hurricane would wipe away Long Beach, Point Lookout, Lido Beach and the Rockaways; inundate Kennedy Airport; and make Nassau and Suffolk counties unrecognizable south of Sunrise Highway. It would cost the nation a staggering $250 billion to recover, and the human loss would be incalculable.

LIPA s hurricane preparedness is currently in full swing. Its managers are unveiling new weather-hardened substations designed to keep power nodes operating in the event of 75-mph winds. They have also asked homeowners and business leaders to participate in a power conservation program designed to demonstrate hurricane preparedness as a region.

It s a tough call to action, because what continues to be missing in our region since the Cold War is a culture of preparedness. Even the War on Terror has failed to instill within us a culture of preparedness.

But no one should know better than New Yorkers about the need to be ready for the next emergency.

Evans s novel is certainly entertaining in its fright factor, but he need not have gone through all the trouble of writing such a book. The state of our emergency preparedness is frightening.

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