As New York braces for Hurricane Sandy, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has ordered mandatory evacuations for over 300,000 New York residents in preparation for the storm.
According to the Wall Street Journal, New York is bracing for Hurricane Sandy as Mayor Bloomberg ordered the evacuations of “Zone A.” Residents in the area are ordered to leave by 7 p.m. Sunday. This area includes regions on Coney Island, Manhattan Beach, Red Hook and other areas along the East River in Brooklyn; all of the Rockaways, Hamilton Beach and Broad Channel in Queens; nearly all of the coastal areas of Staten Island; some patches of the South Bronx; and Battery Park City and portions of Lower Manhattan.
While this is a mandatory evacuation, the mayor has stated that those who do not evacuate will not be arrested. However, he did say that those who disregard the order “are being, I would argue, very selfish. They are not only endangering their own lives, they’re endangering the lives of others because in an emergency we aren’t going to leave them to die. We’re going to come in and save them.”
A major concern is flooding as Kevin Burke, CEO of ConEd, stated, “If the water comes up too high onto the streets of New York it could damage our equipment, it would damage our customers’ equipment and there’s a lot more damage if the equipment is energized, so we might be preemptively de-energizing that equipment in advance.”
However, the most important factor to all is the safety of the residents in the area. There are currently 72 evacuation centers in public schools that are open, and many businesses and schools will be closed tomorrow due the hurricane.
photo by NASA
New York Braces for Hurricane Sandy – Mandatory Evacuations Ordered
