Hurricane Flood Protection in NYC—Now Is Not the Time for Multiple Surge Barriers. Discussion of: Hill, D., 2012. The Lessons of Katrina, Learned and Unlearned.Journal of Coastal Research,28(2), 324–331.

Abstract

The article by Douglas Hill (2012) advocates the building of multiple storm barriers across New York Harbor to control storm and hurricane flooding. He includes a detailed critique of the New York City Panel on Climatic Change (NPCC) report based on their ‘‘dismissal’’ of the storm surge barrier concept. He suggests (p. 328) that the topic was overlooked ‘‘because of the makeup of the NPCC’’ (the absence of civil engineers). He then comments on the possibility of hurricane strikes on New York City (NYC) and their consequences His article has several major problems with omission of the consequences of building the barriers, alternative measures to limit flooding damage, and the most serious is his description of the consequences of a hurricane strike on New York City. The readers of this journal should realize that ‘‘editorials’’ are not fact-checked or peer-reviewed. My purpose in writing this discussion is to correct misperceptions and incorrect inferences, based on my research in this area. I first warned New York City Officials about the consequences of a major hurricane strike hitting New York in the mid-1990s. Since that time, I have been an advisor to both the NYC and NYS Emergency Management Orzanizations and have given hurricane seminars for all the counties in southern New York. I have also researched the hurricane damage potential in the State of New Jersey (Coch, 1999a). My conclusions have been presented in many media presentations and in numerous publications. Douglas Hill has totally ignored these research findings and has not followed proper attribution standards in not citing those works. He has mixed up and given inaccurate data about past hurricanes hitting New York City. His actions will cause needless worry to New Yorkers as he has ignored the progress made in handling hurricane emergencies in the past few years. A notable example of improved emergency management is how the City of New York handled Hurricane Irene in 2011. Any discussion about surge barriers in New York Harbor must consider the oceanographic conditions, and not just the water levels, there. I have spent 30 years studying the Hudson River from Albany to Sandy Hook. Published studies, and studies being completed now, show that water movements in the Upper and Lower Bays of New York Harbor are very complex (Coch, 1987). Water quality and sediment patterns are controlled by complex tidal flows, including net nontidal drift, flow separation, and flow segregation. Understanding these tidal complexities is vital in evaluating the consequences of building these barriers in New York Harbor.