...
He also expressed fears about the ability to evacuate New
York's subway system if the city experienced an attack similar
to the July 7, 2005, bombings of the London transport system,
which killed 52 people and injured 700.
"I traveled a lot in New York on your underground, your
subway system, and it scares the living daylights out of me,"
Galea said.
Michael Emmerman, director of the U.S.-based, non-profit
disaster preparedness Special Operations Support Group, told
the Pace University conference that New York also needed to be
ready for natural disasters.
He said authorities have spent the past two years preparing
a plan that would allow hundreds of thousands of people to be
evacuated if the city was hit by a hurricane.
He said if deadly Hurricane Isabel, which caused billions
of dollars worth of damage when it hit the eastern seaboard in
2003, had turned one degree north then a storm surge would have
flooded lower Manhattan, Long Island, Staten Island and
Brooklyn.
If a Category 4 hurricane hit New York it would be a 100 billion dollar
hit to the US and if it hit New Jersey, it would be 200 Billion dollars
in damage. There is nearly a 1 in 10 chance of it happening this year.
A hurricane could move from Charleston to New York City in about 8
hours. There would be no chance for most to escape.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/30/eveningnews/main1847562.shtml
According to the United States Landfalling Hurricane Probability Project
<http://www.e-transit.org/hurricane/welcome.html>:
# *30% probability that NY City/Long Island will be hit with a tropical
storm or hurricane in 2006. Normal value is 16%. *
# *18% probability that NY City/Long Island will be hit with a hurricane
in 2006. Normal value is 9%. *
# * 9% probability that NY City/Long Island will be hit with a major
hurricane (category 3 or more) in 2006. Normal value is 4%.*
http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/mandias/38hurricane/hurricane_future.html
A storm surge prediction program used by forecasters called
/SLOSH/
(Sea, Lake, and Overland Surge from Hurricanes) has predicted that in a
category 4 hurricane, John F. Kennedy International Airport would be
under 20 feet of water and sea water would pour through the Holland and
Brooklyn-Battery tunnels and into the city's subways throughout lower
Manhattan. The report did not estimate casualties, but did state that
storms "that would present low to moderate hazards in other regions of
the country could result in heavy loss of life" in the New York City
area (Time, 1998).
News 
NEW YORK (Reuters) - New Yorkers are growing complacent
about safety and evacuation planning and training is the key to
the city combating another September 11-style attack or natural
disaster, experts said on Wednesday.
