Official: New England Vulnerable to Hurricane
WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 – New England is vulnerable to a Katrina-like hurricane disaster, a senior government official warned members of Congress this week.
“Katrina will not be the last major hurricane to hit a vulnerable area, and New Orleans is not the only location vulnerable to a large disaster from a land-falling hurricane,” Max Mayfield, the director of the Tropical Prediction Center/National Hurricane Center, told the Senate commerce committee’s disaster prediction and prevention subcommittee Tuesday. “Houston, Galveston, Tampa Bay, southwest Florida, Florida Keys, southeast Florida, New York City, Long Island and, believe it or not, New England are all especially vulnerable.”
New England is not typically considered to be an area with hurricane problems, but they are not without precedent. Hurricane Bob, a Category 2 storm which struck New England on September 9, 1991, caused significant damage to coastal New Hampshire, and in 1938 a Category 3 hurricane, referred to as the great New England Hurricane, caused flooding throughout the state.
“The last hurricane that hit New Hampshire on a Katrina-like level was a 1938 hurricane,” said Representative Charles Bass, R-N.H., who noted that New Hampshire is probably not ready for a hurricane like Katrina. “I’m not going to suggest that we never have hurricanes, but we’ve had Hurricane Bob, Hurricane Carol, the 1938 hurricane and that’s it for 100 years. ”
Added Senator John Sununu, R-N.H.: “We have had several emergency planning and response drills on the seacoast and other places to try to prepare for a potential disaster either natural or man-made, such as terrorism .. Those drills and exercises have been used to develop state and local emergency response plans.”
In the weeks following Katrina many critics compared its devastation to that of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. They argued that the government’s lack of an immediate response to Hurricane Katrina was an indicator of the federal government’s inability to quickly respond to a terrorist attack.
“The best defense our nation has against hurricanes is accurate prediction as well as effective evacuation,” said Senator Jim DeMint, R-S.C., the chairman of the disaster prediction and prevention subcommittee. “We must not be surprised again. We must be prepared because, unlike a hurricane, a terrorist will not give us 56 hours notice before an attack.”
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