In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, as communities band together to clean up the devastation and utility companies work tirelessly to restore the infrastructure that keeps New York City running, planners and policy makers are debating the next steps to making the city as resilient to natural disaster as we once thought it was. We have at our hands a range of options to debate and design and the political leverage to make some of these solutions a reality. The question now is, which option or combination of options is most suitable for protecting New York City and its boroughs? Follow us after the break for more.
The event of Hurricane Sandy reminds us that we are not immune to disaster. Lower Manhattan is built precariously on dirt and rock, its most precious assets jutting out into the tides of New York Bay. Hurricane Sandy proved that our infrastructure is not resilient, natural disasters are not biased and that, with our current measures, we are wholly unprepared for a similar occurrence. It’s true that scientists have called Sandy the “Frankenstorm” – a combination of worst case scenarios that turned the Category 1 hurricane into a thousand-diameter monster storm that reaped devastation all along the Atlantic Coast of the Americas. High Tide and a cold front fueled Sandy’s already powerful winds and caused unprecedented storm surges, the likes of which haven’t been seen since the 19th century, along Jamaica Bay across Brooklyn and Queens and Manhattan’s exposed coast.
