Hurricane Sandy- The Relief

We have recently been massively impacted by a sudden hurricane sweeping the entire East Coast. Many were left without power and homes have been obliterated, leaving millions struggling to make ends meet. This hurricane known as "Hurricane Sandy" beat records, becoming the largest Atlantic hurricane in history. At least 20 billion dollars of damages have been done, leaving east coasters at a critical state. Personally, I believe no one was actually well prepared for this storm. I suppose we were not anticipating for it to have been as bad as it actually was since it's quite rare around our areas. Reality hit hard after October 31 as the hurricane degenerated. Many had been awoken to the loss of power, the collapsing of trees, which caused sudden outbursts of fires, and harsh winds destroying houses and cable wires. Others were forced to evacuate the comforts of their homes and take shelter elsewhere. It will take quite an extensive time period for us to fully recover from this natural disaster, but I believe if we all work together we can
return to our average lifestyles.

Many efforts are being made to provide relief for the victims of Hurricane Sandy. However, engineers could have actually have done a few things to prevent the hurricane from having such a strong impact on us. We could have developed a better system of preventing the water from rising up to the land. Perhaps we could have created dams or built a storm surge barrier. This is a flood gate designed to protect the area behind the barrier from being flooded. It would basically be a system of levees and gates acting as a shield, protecting the city. To prepare for any future disasters we could possibly create land based parks with patches of wetlands and tidal salt marshes. These would soak up the water and believe it or not, could protect the coastline from flooding. According to Cassell, three different types of streets could be created, redesigning their structures to protect certain areas from the surges of water. "Type one streets" could be replaced with material able to absorb water. "Type two streets" could be designed to have the water run into marshes meanwhile ponds could collect run off. "Type three streets" would be parallel to the shore, ultimately draining the water back into the ocean. Lastly, we could also create "oyster beds." These are basically piles of oysters that eventually pass away and as they do this, new born oysters begin to form on top of them. Eventually, they pile up and create an oyster bed. Oysters are basically a water filtration system, they can filter up to 50 gallons of water a day. Not only would the oysters be diminishing the harsh wave action, but they would also filter our water! They would allow marshes to grow around them, which would decrease the chances of flooding!

As you can see, there are numerous things we could do to protect the cities from any future hurricanes. We may not be able to foresee the future, but we are able to control the impact of natural disasters! It may take a vast amount of time, hard work, and a lot of money, but the longer we wait, the more chances we have of once again being at such a vulnerable state. Sooner or later we will have to develop a way to protect our area, let's just hope it's sooner rather than later.


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