Before talking about Hurricane Irene, one must acknowledge that for all the short-term devastation something like a tropical storm can cause to New York City, the rising of the oceans long-term due to global warming would be even more disastrous for a city surrounded by water. In a way, the effects of Irene can serve as a short glimpse into the future and the problems that will become increasingly more common for the city. As a result of Irene, the article came up with several ways that the city can adapt to an ever changing world.
One of the first things mentioned in the article was property prices and flood insurance. The authors determined that it was very cost-effective to have flood insurance, even if you aren’t in a direct flood zone, which is very problematic because this is very counter-intuitive and difficult to explain to the public. Irene made this point very clear because much of the areas hit hardest by the storm were areas not in flood zones. Another thing noted by the authors was that the monetary damage to property could have doubled if the storm had potentially stayed as a hurricane, rather than go back to a tropical storm.
When it comes down to it, the logical step forward for New York City isn’t to attempt to rebuild the areas that were heavily damaged by Irene but instead to convince its residents to move because of the likelihood of such an event happening again. Even if new construction methods are used to make houses safer, with storms predicted to get worse, the counter-measures are not guaranteed to be successful. I imagine it would be more worth it to develop from sea walls along the coast as well invest money into making the public aware of the potential dangers of the areas they live in with regards to flood zones than to rebuild old infrastructure damaged by Irene.
