Hurricane Irene
This past weekend Hurricane Irene struck the East Coast of the United States. Throughout the weekend, meteorologists were anticipating record floods. Parts of NYC were shutdown including the MTA as well as numerous areas evacuated as water was expected to raise 8′ in some of the low lying areas on NYC. As the storm moved up the east coast, it did less damage than expected. While I expected there to be flood damage, I was shocked to see some of the damage that was done. In Spring Lake, NJ 1/3 to 2/3 of a 2 mile board walk was destroyed in 20 minutes according to town officials. From pictures that I saw in news articles and on friends FaceBook accounts, several sections were completely lifted off the supports.
Another area that received some serious damage was highway 12 in North Carolina. 5 sections of Highway 12 (the only route to get on Hatteras Island) were washed away. Repairs are expected to take around 3 weeks and until then, a local ferry service will need to be run in order to get access to the island.
It is events like these that reminds me why I want to be an engineer. Hurricanes and tropical storms hit North Carolina year after year. It amazes me that a system has not been created to help prevent this kind of damage from occurring. With an average width of only 1500′ something needs to be done to minimize storm damage that occurs to Hatteras Island.
