Book Review: Landstrike
(Following is a fictional scenario from a new disaster novel…)
It’s Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010…and the city of New York is virtually isolated from the rest of the world tonight after a devastating encounter with Hurricane Nicole.
Packing top winds of 140 mph, the Category Four hurricane made landfall near Sandy Hook, NJ just after 4 p.m. A 24 foot storm surge inundated parts the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn, trapping thousands of residents who sheltered in place.
There are fears tonight that thousands may be dead in collapsed buildings and flooded homes. Water surged at least three blocks into Manhattan, turning streets into rampaging rivers. All three major New York City Airports are underwater tonight, closed indefinitely.
The underground railroad infrastructure in underwater, including passenger tunnels into Grand Central and Pennsylvania Station. The industrial Meadowlands of New Jersey are flooded. The damage is catastrophic, with initial estimates running into the hundreds of billions of dollars.
There is a disturbing report that the damage may actually be over one trillion, that’s trillion with a T, dollars.
The hurricane’s winds destroyed the Verrazano Bridge, the George Washington Bridge is heavily damaged. The Tappan Zee has heavy damage to its suspension cables. The Williamsburg Bridge collapsed. The Holland and Lincoln Tunnels are flooded. Initial reports do say that the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges appear to have withstood the hurricane.
Power is out to 1.5 million people in Manhattan alone, with estimates that it could take several weeks to get the power back on…
It is a disaster that may well surpass that of Hurricane Katrina five years ago. The Governor or New York will go on national television in the next hour. Word is that he will ask the President to nationalize the New York National Guard.
The good news is that this is a fictional news story. The bad news is that it is not inconceivable. In fact, the New York City area is one of the five most vulnerable areas in the U.S. to a hurricane.
Ken Bass has written a fictional account of Hurricane Nicole, category four hurricane that strikes New York City. Recorded history does not show a storm of this intensity hitting the New York City area, but a fairly close analog is the Long Island Express that hit eastern Long Island and Rhode Island in September 1938. The 1938 Hurricane caused tremendous damage and a similar storm could cause severe problems for the Big Apple.
He will be a guest on the WeatherBrains podcast Monday night to talk about the book and the threat that hurricanes pose to a vulnerable New York City.
Category: Pre-November 2010 Posts
About the Author (Author Profile)
Bill Murray is the President of The Weather Factory. He is the site's official weather historian and a weekend forecaster. He also anchors the site's severe weather coverage. Bill Murray is the proud holder of National Weather Association Digital Seal #0001 @wxhistorianSubscribe
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