Storm surge barriers: the New England experience
Back in 1938, long before satellites, radar, the hurricane hunters, and the modern weather forecasting system, the great New England hurricane of 1938 roared northwards into Long Island, New York at 60 mph, pushing a storm surge more than 15 feet high to the coast. Hundreds of Americans died in this greatest Northeast U.S. hurricane on record, the strongest hurricane to hit the Northeast since the 1800s. A destructive storm surge of 13 feet (4 meters) barreled though Long Island Sound into Stamford, Connecticut, inundating the downtown region and causing heavy damage ($6 million in 1938 dollars.) Sixteen years later, a storm surge from Hurricane Carol of 1954 inundated the city again, causing $3.4 million in damage. In response to these twin storm surge disasters, work was begun in 1965 on a 17-foot high, $14 million (1965 dollars) hurricane barrier. Completed in 1969, the barrier across Stamford Harbor is high enough to protect the city from a storm surge of 14.8 feet above mean sea level. Had the barrier been in place during Hurricane Carol, the Army Corps of Engineers estimates damage to Stamford could have been reduced by 85%.
Figure 1. Bedford Street looking south towards Broad Street in Stamford, Connecticut, after the Great New England Hurricane of 1938. Image credit: stamfordhistory.org.
Figure 2. The storm surge from Category 2 Hurricane Carol in 1954 batters the Edgewood Yacht Club near Providence, Rhode Island. Image credit: NOAA Photo Library.
The Providence storm surge barrier
Stamford isn't the only New England city that suffered destructive storm surges from the 1938 and 1954 hurricanes. The 1938 hurricane brought a storm surge that covered the commercial district of Providence, Rhode Island with 8 feet (2.5 m) of water, causing $16.3 million in damage. On August 31, 1954, Hurricane Carol produced a storm surge of up to 14.4 feet (4.4 m) in Narragansett Bay, surpassing that of the New England Hurricane of 1938. The resulting storm surge flooded downtown Providence with 12 feet (3.7 m) of water. Some entire coastal communities were nearly destroyed, and damage was estimated at $25.1 million. In response to the devastation wrought by these storms, a $15 million hurricane barrier 25 feet (7.6 m) high was built across the 1000-foot (300 m) entrance to Providence Harbor between 1961 - 1966.
Figure 3. A ship passes through the Providence, Rhode Island storm surge barrier. Image credit: Douglas Hill, EngScD, P.E., Stony Brook University.
The New Bedford storm surge barrier
New Bedford, Massachusetts lies near the end of a narrow bay, and narrow bays and river estuaries can act as funnels that focus storm surges to extreme heights if the hurricane's direction of motion is aligned so that the surge propagates up the bottleneck. In fact, the shape of the coast near New Bedford makes it the most vulnerable portion of the U.S. coast for a hurricane storm surge. The highest theoretical storm surge produced by NOAA's SLOSH model for the U.S. is 38.5 feet above mean sea level, for a Category 4 hurricane hitting New Bedford. Destructive storm surges hit New Bedford during the 1938 hurricane and 1954's Hurricane Carol, the latter storm causing $8.3 million in flood damages. A hurricane barrier 23 feet (7 m) high and 4900 feet (1500 m) long across New Bedford Harbor was completed in 1966 at a cost of $19 million (1966 dollars.) The barrier separates the New Bedford Harbor from Buzzard's Bay, and successfully kept out the 8 foot (2.5 m) storm surge from Hurricane Bob in 1991, and a 6.5 foot (2 m) surge from the January 1997 Nor'easter.
Figure 4.The 4,900 foot-long New Bedford, Massachusetts storm surge barrier as seen using Google Earth. The city of New Bedford lies to the north (top) of this image.
Figure 5.The four regions of the U.S. theoretically prone to storm surges in excess of 33 feet at the coast. These Maximum of the Maximum Envelope Of Waters (MOM) SLOSH model plots are for a maximum strength hurricane hitting at high tide. A theoretical peak storm surge of 33 - 34 feet (pink colors) is predicted by the SLOSH model for New York City near the JFK Airport (upper left), for the Big Bend region of the Florida Gulf Coast (lower right), and for the Intracoastal Waterway north of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (lower left). The highest theoretical surge occurs at New Bedford, Massachusetts (upper right): 38.5 feet for a Category 4 hurricane.
More storm surge barriers needed
Storm surge barriers in Stamford, New Bedford, and Providence have already proved their worth and prevented damages more than the cost of their construction. For example, the Stamford barrier kept out the storm surge from the December 1992 Nor'easter, which neighboring New York City suffered storm surge flooding of it subway system and roads that caused hundreds of millions in damage. Similar barriers in the Netherlands and England's Thames River have also proved their worth, and multi-billion dollar storm surge barriers are nearing completion in St. Petersburg, Russia and the Venice Lagoon in Italy. Many more such barriers will be needed world-wide in the coming decades, because of sea level rise.
Sea level rose an average of 7 inches (18 cm) during the 20th century. The 2007 report of the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted global sea level rise of 0.6 - 1.9 feet (18 - 59 cm) by 2100--excluding the contribution from melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. Several studies published since that report predict much higher levels of sea level increase will occur if one includes the melting from Greenland and Antarctica, For example, a 2008 paper published by Pfeffer et al. in Science concluded that the "most likely" range of sea level rise by 2100 is 2.6 - 6.6 feet (80 - 200 cm.) If these higher sea level rise estimates prove correct, storm surge damage could easily double of triple, particularly if climate change makes the strongest storms stronger. A Report to Congress by FEMA (1991) estimated that existing development on the U.S. coast would experience a 36 - 58% increase in annual damages for a 1-foot rise in sea level, and a 102 - 200% increase for a 3-foot rise. Much of this additional damage would result from storm surges riding on top of heightened sea levels. As I'll report on in future blog posts in this series, even if the sea level does not rise this century, there are three locations along the U.S. coast that should immediately begin planning to install hurricane storm surge barriers: New York City, Galveston/Houston, and Tampa Bay.
Jeff Masters
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gfs 6Z MODEL
Countdown Under Way
Live video for mobile from Ustream
Animated chronicle of the Mars Science Laboratory touchdown on the red planet and the science it will perform. Credit: NASA/JPL - To View More Videos About the NEW MARS ROVER - Go to: http://www.space.com/13607-curiosity-suv-mars-rove rs.html
About a minute left.
Launched two minutes ago.
.-.
Tropical Cyclone Advisory #3
DEPRESSION ARB04-2011
17:30 PM IST November 26 2011
=================================
SUBJECT: Depression Over Southeast Arabian Sea.
At 12:00 PM UTC, Depression ARB04-2011 over Comorin and adjoining Maldives and Lakshadweep area moved northwestwards and lays centered over Lakshadweep area, adjoining Maldives, and Comorin area near 8.5N 75.0E, about 220 km west of Thiruvananthapuram (K erala), 210 km east-northeast of Minicoy (Lakshadweep Island), 550 km west-northwest of Colombo (Sri Lanka) and 500 km north-northeast of Male (Maldives).
The system is likely to intensify into a deep depression and subsequently into a cyclonic storm and move northwestwards during next 72 hrs.
Enhanced Infrared (IR) Imagery (4 km Mercator)
Opportunity and her Bus now in coast phase till Mars Arrival in 8 months.
Loop:
Link
The complete operation to land is quite complex, with too many steps... previous rovers landing procedure was simpler.....
Coasting along at 25,000 MPH?
I hope they have a camera angle to capture the landing on mars. That should be quite a show.
Previous Lander's didnt weigh a Metric Ton.
Looks like an act from Cirque Du Soleil.
Statement as of 5:14 AM CST on November 26, 2011
The combination of high seasonal tides and moderate onshore winds will produce above normal tides again tonight. This may cause minor coastal inundation of low lying areas outside of hurricane protection levees for a few hours around the time of high tide.
High tide is predicted during the evening hours to just after midnight tonight. The affected areas will be the lowest lying... coastal shell roads...and community roads and ditches near the coast from near Waveland Mississippi to Port Fourchon Louisiana.
Tropical Cyclone Advisory #3
============================
Additional Information
---------------------
According to satellite imagery, the Dvorak intensity of the system is T1.5. The convection shows no significant change during past 12 hours. The lowest cloud top temperature is about -85C. Associated broken intense to very intense convection is seen over area between 5.5N to 11.0N and 68.0E to 76.0E.
3 minute sustained winds near the center is 25 knots with a central pressure of 1000 hPa. The state of the sea is rough to very rough around the system. Amini Divi to the northwest of system reported surface low pressure of 1001.9 hPa with winds of 30 knots; Minicoy reported surface low pressure of 1002.3 hPa. Pressure tendency is about -2 to -3 hPa over Lakshadweep area.
The Madden-Julian Oscillation index currently lies over phase 2 with amplitude more than 1. As per the dynamical and statistical models, it would lie over the same phase or phase 3 during next 3-4 days. Phase 2 and 3 are favorable for genesis and intensification of the system over the Arabian Sea. Sea surface temperature is 28-29C. The ocean heat content is less (70-80 kj/cm2) over southeast and east central Arabian Sea and less than 40 kj/cm2 over west central and north Arabian Sea. The relative vorticity at 850 hPa level and upper level divergence are favorable for intensification. The vertical win shear of horizontal wind over the region is favorable as it is low to moderate (10-20 kts). There is negative (5-10 kts) 24 hours tendency of vertical wind shear around the system. The system lies to the south of upper tropospheric ridge, which roughly runs along 16.0N in association with an anticyclonic circulation over southeast peninsular India and adjoining southwest Bay of Bengal.
Anyhow the mission is moving perfectly...
The World Health Organisation is warning of the potential for an untreatable form of tuberculosis to develop on Australia's doorstep.
It says infections of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB) in Papua New Guinea's remote south-west have reached crisis levels.
The country's health minister says tuberculosis is now a greater health emergency than HIV/AIDS.
Thanks for the NASA video describing the landing,Pat. I was thinking it is an extremely complex device, too. Quite an ambitious project.
Well, Earth coasts (or falls, if you prefer) around the sun at nearly three times that speed (c. 67,000 mph). And, of course, our solar system orbits the center of the Milky Way at nearly 500,000 mph. The real speed winner, however: the Milky Way is moving toward a galactic cluster in Virgo at a little over 1.34 million miles per hour, or more than 52 times faster than the MSL is creeping toward Mars. If the MSL were moving as fast, it'd reach Mars day after tomorrow. ;-)
There are HD cameras on both the lander and the rover that are designed to relay video of the landing from several different angles. If all goes well, the videos should be some of the most amazing and exciting ones to ever come out of the space program (and that's saying a lot).
I don't know why they didn't send up a camera crew first, so they could film the whole thing.
Last I heard, Curiosity will be coasting toward Mars-orbit at an average*speed of ~3,200mph after achieving escape. Equivalent to having a launch velocity in the neighborhood of 28,200mph, assuming ballistic(unpowered)flight after launch.
* Mars orbit is higher relative to the Sun than Earth orbit. So that average includes the gradual speed-loss as Curiosity climbs up the Sun's gravity well.
Perhaps he will have his camera ready?
I'm Out!
(jk)
Not a whole lot around anyway Wash.
ESL by LSU
Alright guys, she's here! Everybody move out!
I'm just joking. :P
The westerly winds are expected to reach up to 80mph in parts of Grampian, the Highlands and Orkney and Shetland.
The Met Office has issued an Amber alert for the areas, from after midnight through until Sunday morning.
Gusting winds could cause structural damage to buildings, cut power supplies in exposed areas and disrupt travel.
The Met Office said there was a slight chance winds could reach up to 95mph for a short time early on Sunday morning." Link
All from a 971mb low, but well tuned up.
Looks like it's going to be pretty windy all weekend into maybe Tuesday.
They're more used to it than anyone else on this archipelago, but seems 'windstorm season' has started.
Salutations :) Hope all is well.
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