Reflections on Sandy: Understanding What Happened & Where Do We Go From Here?

ECU Author/Contributor (non-ECU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)

Gary Szatkowski (Creator)

Institution

East Carolina University (ECU )

Web Site: http://www.ecu.edu/lib/

Abstract: Mr. Szatkowski described the experience of Hurricane Sandy rom the point of view of forecast meteorologists working in New ersey area hit by the storm. His office in Mount Holly began issuing arnings forty hours before the storm and knew that oastal flooding was the biggest threat. They anticipated record reaking water heights and made a personal plea to people to e prepared by showing photographs of storm damage from the hurricane in 1902 that devastated he area. Sandy hit at high tide with a storm tide of 12-15 feet. Mr. Szatkowski said that the governors f New Jersey and Delaware issued the evacuation orders when they needed to and did a reat job in the run up to the storm. The New Jersey governor ordered a mandatory evacuation ut the New York mayor did not. In extreme events past experience fails to inform good decisions. or example the New Jersey railway made the mistake of putting trains in an area that did ot flood in past hurricanes but this time lost 400 million dollars in equipment. Some people did not vacuate because they thought Hurricane Irene the ear before was less intense than anticipated. In a tudy researchers found that 76% of people said that hey “experienced” a hurricane but only 37% reported uffering damage from Hurricane Irene. Mr. Szatkowski bserved if you did not experience damage or other roblems you did not really experience the hurricane. limate change is also expected to make future evere weather events worse. The trend in sea level ise is acceleration which will raise storm tide levels. It s very difficult to confront this problem because it is ong term and outside personal experience. Looking head– even though forecasting has gotten better and s expected to improve it is difficult to get people to nderstand the impact of a hurricane.

Additional Information

Publication

Other

Greenville NC: East Carolina University

Language: English

Date: 2013

Keywords

Hurricane, emergency management, NCEM, emergency disaster

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