Passive Hurricane Evacuation for Long Island, New York

Long Island, New York -- One of the problems evacuating people from Long Island's South Shore is that we have so many people living here. Enough of the people who are living on the South Shore of Suffolk and Nassau counties are at least partially reliant on government funding that convincing these individuals and families that better opportunities await a few miles north, to the north shore of Long Island, or 50 miles west, to New York City, or 50 miles northwest, to Westchester County, Rockland County, or out-of-state, to Connecticut or New Jersey, should not be a problem.

We are already receiving signs that there might be a hurricane happening around Long Island. There are pamphlets at grocery stores, there are signs and pamphlets in some of Long Island's public libraries, reminding us about the necessity to be disaster-ready. There are occasional news stories about the possibility of a hurricane happening. We are also having some interesting weather, and the tides, the waves on the southern coast of Long Island, near the Atlantic Ocean and the Great South Bay, has been reported as having more of an undertow, being more powerful than usual, overall.

Long Island and Rhode Island were both hit by a major hurricane in 1929. The coastlines of Long Island as well as Rhode Island were both tormented by the Hurricane of 1929, as well as the Long Island Express Hurricane of 1938. Storms such as these tempests could attack Long Island again in the future.

The staff of the East Northport public library has a hurricane readiness table prepared, full of information for Long Island homeowners with disaster preparedness literature. This is a public library on the north shore of Long Island.

"I don't know what's going to happen if we get a hurricane or a big storm... We don't have protection," said Jon S. Semlear, President of the Southampton Town Trustees, according to Newsday.

I don't know that much about what is going on around the Hamptons. There are boats, there are ferries, there is a need to expand the Riverhead railroad station, to create a park-and-ride lot to help deal with the commuters. These commuters might become hurricane evacuees. This quote is from an article by Mitchell Freedman entitled Smaller beach, bigger worries in Newsday, the local Gannett newspaper read by millions of Long Islanders on a daily basis. Another person interviewed by this reporter suggested that more people move to the mountains. The beaches are beautiful, we need more space for the beach sand, not more houses.

One thing that Long Island does have is a world-class commuter railroad system, including a special line that runs from Babylon to Hicksville, that presently only runs a few times per day. This could be used to move hundreds of people per hour away from the South Shore. There are continually projects on the Long Island Railroad to have the system remain well-maintained and ready to service more commuters and other passengers. We need to have more funds.

In order to change anything, in order to move forward with a hurricane study, we need to raise money. We have neighbors who need federally funded manpower, which is something that we have an oversupply of here on Long Island. These neighbors are located mainly in the state of New York, in places such as Ulster County and Sullivan County in the Catskill resort area, places that have posted rent signs for a room starting as low as $350 - $400.

Here is what needs to happen in the next few years:

2008

Develop events for the next summer designed to attract Long Islanders, especially people from the South Shore.

Develop job programs in places such as Syracuse, where a light rail system is going to be built as soon as the funds are in the city's bank.
Publicize trips on Metro North to destinations such as the Bronx Zoo, Culinary Institute of Arts, Springwood, the Home of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Hire people to apply for federal grant monies for the development of park-n-ride lots, and commuter bus systems.

Purchase the remnants of the World Trade Center to be used as ways of deflecting storm waters. Plan where to place the objects to avoid interfering with boat traffic.

Apply for grant monies to educate the public about hurricanes, to learn how to read literature about natural disasters, to do the necessary math to be able to prepare their home or business for such an event.

Apply for grant monies to purchase the latest "hybrid" buses, or other alternative vehicles, in exchange for beta-testing the buses or vans.

Work on developing a commuter van pool to transport Long Island commuters.

2009

Develop an advertising campaign designed to attract businesses to Rockland County, Duchess County, Ulster County and Sullivan County.

Begin developing the necessary infrastructure to prepare for a possible hurricane evacuation.

Get more express buses on the Long Island Expressway leaving from park and ride lots, as well as railroad stations that still have room for more vehicles to be parked.

Develop an express bus to leave from the Freeport railroad station to go to the Carle Place or the Mineola railroad station.

Develop an express bus to leave from the Bayshore railroad station to go to the Kings Park or the Northport railroad station.

Host a major summer music event festival in the Catskills, or a few events, or even bi-weekly major music festivals.

Rotate the workers who are working at the music festivals with other park programs, instead of just cleaning up the post-concert debris.

Host a training program for Long Island Fire Departments simultaneously with all summer concert music festivals to be held in upstate New York.

Use the proceeds from the concerts to fund more alternative energy bus and commuter vans designed to move commuters, in preparation for a possible major hurricane hitting Long Island

2010

Continue publicizing the benefits of moving upstate, working upstate, vacationing upstate.

Continue lobbying for funds to develop the commuter van pool and the express bus system for commuters.

Hope that the Department of Transportation funds the Nassau County and the Suffolk County roads departments, to widen highways and roads that are northbound-southbound traffic conduits.

Start a study on the development of a subway line, or a light rail, leaving from the present terminus of the line in Flushing or the line in Jamaica, out towards Mineola or New Hyde Park.

We actually can move a lot of people to the North Shore of Long Island. We need to cease population expansion here on Long Island, we need to encourage tourism to places like Upstate New York, places that will help increase the state taxes by having local tourists pay sales tax and hotel tax on items. We need to have our people be ready for this as if it is the proverbial "walk in the park".

Sources: Hurricane Evacuation Preparedness, Waldbaum's shoppers' guides, pamphlet by Senator Owen Johnson; Meteorologists say New England Could Get a Big One, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Media Sources; Fema Region II Hazard Mitigation Plan Toolkit: Risk Assessment, FEMA, staff; Getting Kids Disaster Ready, FEMA, staff Not always a day at the beach, Newsday, Nia Malika Henderson; Whatever it is, it's no myth, Newsday, Joye Brown; Smaller beach, bigger worries, Newsday, Mitchell Freedman;Suffolk County Natural Hazards Preparedness Questionnaire, Suffolk County Multi-Jurisdictional, Multi-Hazard, Pre-Disaster Mitigation Planning Committee, Mitigation Planning Committee; Department of Transportation railroad-highway project, Department of Transportation, staff; Illustration of What a Storm Surge Could do to Long Island's South Shore, (NOAA), staff; Hurricane Preparedness, WLIW-21, (pre-publishing and pre-broadcast phases of development) staff