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If New York City had a hurricane how would it effect the United States.
New York City can be hit by a bad category 3 I think. It is not as likely as points further south but it is possible and will happen eventually. In a worse case scenario I have seen maps of flooding (tidal surge) of parts of Southern Queens and Brooklyn (including all of JFK airport) plus the flooding of the streets and subways of downtown Manhattan.
The skyscrapers are designed to withstand major winds but I know I would not want to be casually strolling outside with all those windows being knocked out over my head! Probably would be a similar situation like the recent hurricane that hit Houston --- lots of flying glass and debris.
The likelyhood of a major hurricane hit actually increases as you go eastward from the city toward Cape Cod. While NYC has been hit by hurricanes before the worst one I believe in the local area was the freak Hurricane of 1938 aka the Great New England Hurricane of 1938.
NYC was hits by winds of 100 MPH and parts of the city was flooded in that hurricane. But on Eastern Long Island (Suffolk County) 50+ people died and there was heavy damage especially in Westhampton. Far worse was Rhode Island where up to 600 people died and downtown Providence was flooded.
Even Katherine Hepburn almost died escaping while her Connecticut shorefront house was being destroyed by the waves.
The last Hurricane to make landfall in NYC was Hurricane Floyd in 1999, it was a Category 1 or 2 when it made landfall in South Queens. A Category 3/4/5 would destroy a lot of the subway/commuter rail because of the salt water with storm surge, most buildings would stand but glass would fly, the Manhattan skyscrapers would also create a wind tunnel causing winds to reach around 200 mph in a Category 3 which would be bad because of the flying glass, New York City is the 3rd city most vulnerable to a Hurricane after New Orleans and Miami. I happen to live in South Queens which is a flood zone .
It would most likely have adverse affects on the US but things would rebound.
If you really want to see what authorities are expecting "when this happens again" watch the weather channels "It Could Happen Tomorrow-when a hurricane strikes New York City". The thinking a couple of years ago was that they would not be able to evacuate every one that would be in immediate danger due to the sheer size of the population in possible effected area. The emergency personnel have been working on plans for a few years now tho. They believe that if it is a cat 3 or higher it could surpass Katrina in loss of life and easily be more costly. And on top of that life will be a lot more annoying in the NYC area because commuter rail lines will be affected by the salt water and the subway system will be flooded with salt water and they speculate that it will take weeks if not months to get the subway up and running again. Can you imagine NYC without the subway? I wouldn't even want to see what the traffic would look like on tv.
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Hurricane of 1938
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