Chertoff: NYC Should Prep for Hurricane

by Brian A Kennedy | June 12, 2007 at 04:00 am

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Okay, so that headline's a little melodramatic. Speaking as he toured an Emergency Management command center in Brooklyn, DHS secretary Michael Chertoff warned that New York should get ready for a hurricane -- because chronologically we're about due for one. So it's all theoretical -- but still, yikes!

Weather experts said New York is about due for a major hurricane with 130 mph winds and a 30-foot storm surge that could cause the Hudson and East Rivers to overflow.

Such a storm might inflict more than $100 billion in economic losses while forcing the evacuation of 3 million people. That's more than six times the population of pre-Katrina New Orleans.

New York City historically has a hurricane roughly once every 90 years. The last major New York-area hurricane was the Long Island Express of 1938, which caused 700 deaths along the Eastern seaboard.