Katrina in NYC - Fear Mongering or Rational Fear?

[Stravo]

I read an article in the paper today bemoaning the fact that NYC is the Third most vulnerable city to hurricanes behind NO and Miami. Firstly I find this a little disengenuous. There are plenty of cities along the coast in Florida, the gulf and the South that can be hit by hurricanes before NYC.

Its sort of like saying NYC is woefully unprepared for a 7.5 earthquake when the area hasn't had one in millenia. Any city can be vulnerable to an extremely unlikely natural event. But more importantly to the point - is this an example of media fear mongering?

Ever since Katrina there have been a spread of stories about "Could it happen here?"

When the worst hurricane in NYC history killed 200 people in Long Island I truly think that stating a nightmare scenario of 2.1 million people displaced and thousands dead or wounded followed by pictures of a flooded Manhattan - actually an archive picture of a watermain break in teeny tiny letters underneath the picture - I have to call bullshit and say this is plain and simple fear mongering.

Do we truly really need some sort of local connection to a natural disaster to feel more attached to the horror of whats going on down there? Jesus. Or is the media being responsible by pointing out the possibility of a Cat 3 or higher hurricane hitting NYC?

[CmdrWilkens]

A great point on this would be the Modern Marvels show talking about one of the newer skyscrappers in NYC whose engineers only realized a few months before hurricane season that the qhole structure was vulnerable to winds coming in from angles other than head on and a Cat 2/3 or up would possibly topple the whole thing. 'lo and behold there was a storm which was predicted to hit NYC coming that year and it only veered off in the last day or two before landfall.

I think the point is that NYC is a target and gets hit with Hurricanes as part of its history so designers and emergency planners should have a contingency plan in place. Now they shouldn't sit around and panic about it (certainly not now that the season is 80% over) but it should be something that has been looked at before a hurricane finally decides to bear down on the city.

[aerius]

Look up "Long Island Express 1938". Or if you want to go further back, the storms of 1821 & 1893. Yes there's some fear mongering, NYC ain't gonna end up underwater for months like NO, but a good storm surge will cause damage similar to that seen in other parts of the gulf coasts. Also keep in mind that there's been a lot of shore erosion near Long Island and that the island itself is far more developed now than it was almost 70 years ago. I don't think too many lives will be lost, but the potential is there for billions in damage to be done.

[SPOOFE]

Fear mongering is more when you try to get people scared to subsequently get them to change their behavior. Christians do this all the time... "Worship Jesus to save your soul!"

Warning about possible risk is just practical, but that depends on the particular bent that your article had. Remember that New York is pretty far north, and most people see hurricanes as "tropical" problems... many New Yorkers may not even realize they can be hit - or at least hit hard - by a hurricane. Not that I've taken a poll of New Yorkers to find that out, of course...