If Hurricane Sandy was able to deal $68.9 billion in damage once, it does not take much imagination to envision what an ongoing onslaught of such natural calamities might mean not only for the safety of the physical world, but the safety of the financial world.
The idea of a storm-surge barrier similar to those in Louisiana and parts of Europe near New York City might shield it to an extent, but politicians have questioned its $30 billion cost, effectiveness and environmental impact. A group of scientists, planners and property owners is insisting that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hastens its study of the project.
"The danger is increasing as the sea level rises," said Malcolm Bowman, an oceanographer at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, who is among the group. "It won't take a monster storm like Sandy to devastate the region."
Bowman's group is striving for an evaluation of an 8-kilometer retractable storm-surge barrier at the opening of New York Harbor from the Rockaways to New Jersey's Sandy Hook. That, and another slighter structure at the western edge of Long Island Sound, could defend about 800 miles of shoreline from Port Elizabeth, New Jersey, to the Bronx, Bowman says.
According to Bowman, before a major storm, barriers would ascend from the seabed or close in a gate-like structure to deflect the force of a wind-blown surge, as occurred with Sandy."
You have to allow for marine traffic and the daily flow of the tides to flush out the harbor," Bowman said, "But when a storm is forecast with enough wind at high tide to create a surge, you close the gates or raise it from the seabed so water that wants to flow into the harbor can't."
In the interim period, the state has moved ahead with a $616 million plan for Staten Island that includes a boardwalk promenade that would double as a storm-surge bulwark. The Corps has that project scheduled for completion in 2022, paid mostly by the federal government.
Local business owners claim that there is no plan in place that would protect them if another storm were to hit. "These piecemeal fixes buy little more than peace of mind," Michael Braito, chief engineer of Chelsea Piers, said. "It's like a boat with 100 holes and we've patched half of them and we're going to sink. They need to think bigger."
With retail jobs under pressure due to declining industry sales, locals cannot rely on big box retailers and brands to endow them with jobs. They can therefore only rely on local businesses and enterprises to sustain them: but if these same businesses were to suffer due to a storm or other natural calamity, then the entire economic structure of the area could collapse. So much capital would be funneled into rebuilding efforts that there would be a dearth of opportunities for people to work due to cost cutting.
If there is to be success in the future, one concrete strategy has to be adopted rather than a piecemeal one that leaves much room for discrepancy and incongruities. Else NYC's position as financial capital of the U.S could be rendered volatile.
