SANDY’S
DEVASTATION
review of government data and
independent studies.
Authorities in New York and New
Jersey simply allowed heavy development of at-risk coastal areas to
continue largely unabated in recent
decades, even as the potential for a
massive storm surge in the region
became increasingly clear.
In the end, a pell-mell, decadeslong rush to throw up housing and
businesses along fragile and vulnerable coastlines trumped commonsense concerns about the wisdom
of placing hundreds of thousands of
closely huddled people in the path
of potential cataclysms.
On Staten Island, developers built more than 2,700 mostly
residential structures in coastal
areas at extreme risk of storm
surge flooding between 1980 and
2008, with the approval of city
planning and zoning authorities, according to a review of city
building data by scientists at the
College of Staten Island. Some of
this construction occurred in former marshland along the island’s
Atlantic-facing south shore.
The 21 people who drowned in
the storm surge on Staten Island
were clustered along the south
shore, and died after becoming
trapped in their homes or while
HUFFINGTON
12.02.12
attempting to flee the rising water by car or foot, according to the
New York City Medical Examiner’s
Office. While many of those who
drowned lived in small bungalows
built many decades ago, at least
two victims were residents in a
large-scale planned community
completed in the 1990s.
“The city allowed development
and growth to happen in areas
that probably shouldn’t have been
developed,” said Jonathan Peters,
“WE WATCHED A
NEIGHBOR DROWN.”
a professor of finance at the College of Staten Island. “I think the
fact is that you put a lot of people
in harm’s way with the zoning.”
The city did not respond to a
question about recent development on Staten Island or on the
Rockaways. It noted that experts
on zoning and code had been dispatched to the field to respond to
the aftereffects of Sandy. But it
said that newly constructed buildings in the city are required to be
flood-proofed to the FEMA-designated flood elevations.
“As a part of our long-term
sustainability initiative, PlaNYC,
and our extensive climate change
work, the City is reviewing both