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Hurricanes in New York Essay Hurricanes are weather systems that have winds faster than 119 km/hr, brought by intense rotation, gaining momentum as it is formed in the sea. It originates and builds up over tropical oceanic regions. These hurricanes are relatively smaller than storms, usually having about 500km in diameter. When it is above a body of water, the air moves in a counterclockwise direction, but at the top of the storm, the winds are following a clockwise direction (What Is a Hurricane? ). Just recently, hurricanes devastated several states in the United States; including the great damage it brought to New Orleans and many more. Hurricanes are forces of nature that no man can stop. It is a great force of nature that no man can go against with. No matter how industrialized the place is, no matter how many high rising buildings you have, it a hurricane will hit you, it will. As studies show, the next place a hurricane could hit can be New York City. Unusual target. â€Å"Shortly before dawn on Friday, September 1st, weather services carried the news that everyone had been dreading major storm, Hurricane Ella, was off Cape Hatteras and heading for New York. At 6:30 A. M., an emergency-planning group convened at the command center in Robertsons office. †(MORGENSTERN) New York City, considered as one of Americas most developed urban area yet is not as safe as anyone thinks when it comes to a natural disaster like that of a hurricane. No one can imagine how a center of development and commerce, rich with large corporate enterprises and humungous buildings could be devastated by a natural phenomenon. History of Hurricanes in New York New York has a very â€Å"colorful† history when it comes to hurricanes, even though it rarely meets one. Way back in 1821, an enormous hurricane made its presence felt when it went head on with Manhattan, leaving residents in great shock when they saw the sea levels rising more than ten feet in less than an hour. Everything was trashed away by the hurricane, flooding may streets including Canal Street. Experts say that the only thing that stopped the hurricane from completely destroying the city was it happened during a low tide. If it happened on a high tide, it would have brought a lot of water and would have flooded the city more. In August of 1893, an entire island got wiped of the map of New York completely. It was the Hog Island, an island the shape of a pig, which runs for more than a mile in the coast south of the Rockaways. It was developed right after the Civil war, wherein many structures were built, like saloons, bathhouses and gambling areas. It was developed for some prominent people, a place where they can relax when they are away from work. Then, disaster struck. It was one big event, wherein it took a lot from the people. It destroyed and sunk boats on the dock or out on sea, killing hundreds of sailors. It destroyed a lot of residential areas, uprooted many trees, and literally wiped the entire Hog’s Island. It was as high as 30 feet, sweeping through Brooklyn, Queens, and other areas nearby destroying anything in its path. Hog’s Island was the first situation wherein a hurricane literally removed an entire island (Britt). New York Hurricane Statistics â€Å"His figures told him that such an event had a statistical probability of occurring as often as once every sixteen yearswhat meteorologists call a sixteen-year storm. † (MORGENSTERN) According to statistics, storms usually come to New York in a sixteen-year basis. Within 16 years, there is a chance that one hurricane would pass New York’s vicinity. But storms with the strength like that which swept Hog’s Island is said to hit New York in a span of 75 years or more. But after the incident on Hog’s, another massive hurricane swept the city, which is a lot sooner, not following the 75 year sequence. That hurricane was known as the Long Island Express. Long Island wasn’t populated that much yet, so if that same hurricane struck the place again; it would surely raise a lot of panic and fear, because of its strength, with winds that go for 183 miles per hour. A major hurricane in New York would surely stir things up. About 78. 5% of New Yorkers in the coastal areas have never experienced a major hurricane ever in their lives. It is deemed that in the next 50 years, there is a 73% chance that New York City will be hit by a hurricane. But when it comes to a major, greatly destructive hurricane, there is a 26 % chance that New York will get hit in the next 50 years. With these statistics, hopefully, it would help people in staying alert, being prepared if anything goes wrong, if ever another super hurricane would come their way (Mandia). Experts believe that New York City is one of the most dangerous cities that could get the next hurricane disaster. They say that New York is already in third place, following Miami, and New Orleans. These two were heavily devastated by hurricanes in the previous years. Engineering experts say that New York poses a potentially lethal features and characteristics. The bridges in New York are placed so high that it could easily get trashed by pre-hurricane winds, which means that these possible escape routes would be destroyed even before the hurricanes are actually in New York, trapping all the civilians in the city. This decreases the possibility of evacuation, thus a big possibility for a lot of lives to be lost. It is said that in a category 4 hurricane, JFK International Airport would be submerged in 20 feet of water. The cost of hurricane damages Experts say that if hurricanes of the past would happen today, the New York City regions would suffer great financial losses. It is an estimated $18 billion worth of damages if ever disasters like this would likely to happen. Hurricanes are to blame for about 70% of insure property loss in the United States. New York’s coastal state is second in terms of insured coastal property, following Florida, so this means that surely, hurricanes would put a great impact on the economy, not only for New York but also for America, and maybe, the world (Naparstek). Hurricanes and the economy. Experts warn that if ever a hurricane makes contact to or anywhere near New York, it would surely affect the economy, for New York is the largest, one of the most productive urban center in the United States. A hurricane attack, even a low category one, would already flood the runways of the JFK International Airport, thus causing a major stir in the flights, of possible investors or investments coming and going out of the area. It could also flood the streets of Manhattan, depending on how it formed and came, and the tides, whether it is high tide or low tide. It could also cause a lot of damages in the buildings and other infrastructure in the highly urbanized area. These losses are of great importance to marketing and finance, and could surely create an upset. New York is a worldwide center when it comes to finance, it is already an institution. It also has a very large effect on national and international commerce. If ever one hurricane would hit New York making its ports closed, the New York Stock exchange would really suffer. A week of closure would surely damage the economy of America, worse than hurricane Katrina’s effect (Drye). Conclusion From Tropical Storms, to low-category hurricanes, to major devastating hurricanes like hurricane Katrina and Long Island Express, they’re all the same. They could all bring bad things; the only difference is the intensity of the damage. They are forces of nature in which man cannot contend with, the only thing that we can do is to be prepared. It is the key for survival, and the key for the reduction of losses we could experience. References: Britt, Robert Roy. History Reveals Hurricane Threat to New York City. 2005. LiveScience. http://www. livescience. com/forcesofnature/050601_hurricane_1938. html. Drye, Willie. Hurricane Could Devastate New York, U. S. Economy, Experts Warn. 2006. National Geographic Society. http://news. nationalgeographic. com/news/2006/05/060519_hurricanes. html. Mandia, Scott A. Whats in Store for New Yorks Future? 2003. http://www2. sunysuffolk. edu/mandias/38hurricane/hurricane_future. html. MORGENSTERN, JOE. The Fifty-Nine-Story Crisis. 1995. http://www. duke. edu/~hpgavin/ce131/citicorp1. htm. Naparstek, Aaron. Storm Tracker. 2005. http://nymag. com/nymetro/news/people/columns/intelligencer/12908/. What Is a Hurricane? 2001. http://www.comet.ucar.edu/nsflab/web/hurricane/311.htm