What Would Happens if a Super Storm Hit New York City? - Popular Mechanics

The hurricane churning east of New Jersey seems destined for the mid-Atlantic. Then a cold front descending out of Canada nudges the Category 2 storm northwest instead—setting it on a worst-case course for New York City.

New York Harbor has often sheltered the city, dissipating energy from violent gales that start at sea. But now it plays an opposite role: It turns an otherwise moderate hurricane into a disaster. As the eye of the storm passes over Staten Island, the 100-mph counterclockwise winds shove 500 million tons of seawater directly into the harbor. The narrowing shorelines and shallowing sea bottom cause the mass of water to [...]

Full article at popularmechanics.com

"By 2040, 70 percent of the U.S. population—which should then number 400 million—is expected to concentrate in 11 megaregions, seven of which occupy coastal counties."

 

"Canton suffered another 500-year flood in 2008 [after one considered to be a once-in-a-lifetime event in 1993], a 70-year flood in 2001, and 10-year floods in 1996, 1998 and again in early 2011. Plenty of towns across the region have suffered similar events. 

"'We're witnessing higher and higher floods over time,' says Robert Criss, a hydrogeologist at Washington University in St. Louis. 'We are seeing higher and far more frequent floods than government estimators say we should.'"

 

And then there's California, where when we see another prolonged rainfall like in 1861-62, "Ferris and others estimate that a 300- by 20-mile swath of the Central Valley would flood."

 

Fascinating article, worth a read (as are so many in Popular Science and Popular Mechanics), if only for the sake of knowing what is being done to mitigate nature's effects and what we can do to contribute to our own well-being in the face of them.

Posted via email from Moments of Awareness