Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Completely sensible and worthy of a rep point.
Rebuilding New Orleans in a hole next to the Gulf was a complete waste of money.
Sticking Battery Park City out into the Hudson atop a pile of mud was moronic.
But one thing is certain about Americans...they learn NOTHING from experience.
Where else could you put New Orleans? It's there because it's where the river meets the Gulf. Same characteristics which make it a good place to put a city make it vulnerable. The same applies to NYC, though I suppose you could move the Wall Street guys anywhere. Same applies to the barrier islands -- the NJ coast is largely (including near NYC) a bunch of islands or peninsulas, then a big wide swamp (euphemstically called a 'bay' in some places), then the mainland. People build on the islands because they want to be near the ocean; if they liked the swamp's edge instead, Secaucus and Rutherford would be the #1 vacation destinations instead of Wildwood and Seaside Heights.
Can't explain Battery Park City except that people will do anything to live on Manhattan :-)
Where else could you put New Orleans? It's there because it's where the river meets the Gulf. Same characteristics which make it a good place to put a city make it vulnerable.
The Old City was ABOVE sea level...above the Mississippi and above the Gulf. THey decided to expand and dug into the marshes around the City that were at sea level and slowly sinking. SO they built ever higher and higher dikes and as the hole got deeper they added pumps to remove rainfall.
So no, while mnay cities are built at the confluence of a river and the ocean, New Orleans is unique in being built into a hole below sea level. To rebuild it was perhaps the stupidest thing the ARMY Corps of Engineers have ever done, and that includes a long list of pretty stupid things.
The Netherlands has no choice...no place to go so they must build dikes, but we could have stuck the poor of New Orleans on higher ground to the North absent the stupidity of the U.S. government.
But one thing the U.S. is renouned for: No rotten idea goes unrepeated sometimes ad infinitum.
Seasuide communities are always at risk...seaside communities in deep holes are just NUTS.
We get Atlantic storms all the time -- Nor'easters are common. Hurricanes up here were never a once-in-a-century occurrence. There was the 1903 storm which made landfall in NJ, plus several which didn't land in NJ but traveled right along the coast and did damage -- 1985 (Gloria, hit Long Island) 1976 (Belle, hit Long Island) 1961 (Esther), 1960 (Donna, Long Island again) 1944 (darn that long island), 1938 (Long island AGAIN), 1936. More make landfall in NY than NJ(since NY sticks out into the Atlantic) Plus quite a few tropical storms.
Correct. Hurricanes make landfalls once every 13 years in NYC. Strong Hurricanes (Cat 2 +) happen once ever 31 years. NYC gets as many landfall Hurricanes as Virginia, with 5 times as many category 3's than Virginia, and more hurricane landfalls than Delaware, Maryland, DC, and New Jersey combined. So definitely not once in a century.
If you add nor'easters and tropical storms, then we deal with a strong storm every year.
Seasuide communities are always at risk...seaside communities in deep holes are just NUTS.
without question!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
it is insane to build directly on the coast. and what we build when we build makes erosion and sea reclamation more, not less, likely. the sea takes back when we intrude upon it.
what's nuts is how "in the moment" we americans tend to be with little projection on part as to what awaits us. I would say that the possibility of storm surges through the narrows into upper New York bay and into the east and hudson rivers is one of the greatest challenges that NYC faces. but is it facing it? the weather and the climate are changing, those oceans becoming more and more volatile. can we afford not to think about this issue, plan for it, not just for NYC, but all those other great coastal cities as well (although NYC, as stated earlier, is arguably the second most vulnerable after New Orleans)
it is insane to build directly on the coast. and what we build when we build makes erosion and sea reclamation more, not less, likely. the sea takes back when we intrude upon it.
The sea does not care. Hog Island surfaced in the mid 1800s, we built on it, and it disappeared by the early 1900s -- but tons of other unnamed sandbars have disappeared as well, we just don't pay much attention. In New Jersey, man's actions in rebuilding dunes after the 1962 noreaster probably preserved a few barrier islands this time. Barrier islands and coastlines are just transient things to begin with.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
