Let's be real here . . .
Posted by
Gianmarc on 7/2/2010, 6:59 pm
I am a native New Yorker, lived there over 20 years. I was living in Brooklyn at the time Hurricane Gloria hit, and I was driving through NYC (Henry Hudson Parkway to West Side Highway to Gowanus and Belt Parkway) as TS Floyd's center washed over town and drowned Manhattan in what seemed like half a foot of rain. I have to tell you guys that it is not at all realistic to expect that either event was sufficient enough to persuade New Yorkers of the vulnerability of their area to a Katrina-like catastrophe (or worse).
Gloria was a dying cat 1, a kitten compared to even the nor-easters that Fred alludes to. Yes, it was expensive, but come on guys, it was HARDLY an event on the order of the 1938 'cane, and it will take NOTHING LESS than another 1938 for current New Yorkers to even sniff the barrel of the gun they stare down each summer. Floyd was nothing more than a memorably significant rain event--that is all. I was there, I was driving through it because my classes at Manhattan College were canceled due to the ceaseless rain, and I remember it vividly. That normally hour-long trip home took nearly five hours that day--and it wasn't even rush hour.
To expect that the remnants of storms and dying cat 1s would do anything to further the awareness of New Yorkers to the dangers you're talking about is unreasonable. It also exaggerates the significance of those systems (Gloria, Floyd) to Long Island and surrounding areas--and it is the sort of hyperbole that contributes to the skepticism and denial of people living in that region. It does more harm than good to pretend that people in the northeast should quake in their boots at the mention of TS Floyd or Hurricane Gloria.
The bottom line is this: Those people (and I know, I was one of them for decades) will NEVER awaken to the reality of their situation until it buries them with another 1938 event, and even then I believe that my fellow New Yorkers will have short memories. That's just how it is, and no hypothetical scenario or doomsday prediction will do anything to change that.
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