The Sequel

Thu, 15 Sep 2005 17:12:00 -0400

Assembly Member Richard Brodsky wasn’t any more successful than we were in getting a copy of the city’s hurricane evacuation plan, but he released a report this morning criticizing it anyway. Or rather, raising questions. Like, how are “special populations” like the elderly and homebound supposed to evacuate, especially if the nearest bus route is a mile and a half a way? Does the MTA have enough buses to do all this evacuating? And, the big question we tackled in our article on the topic this week, how many New Yorkers who live close enough to the water that they will be in danger actually know that they do?

The answer to that last question, it turns out, is about 25 percent. Right. Just one out of four people even know they are supposed to evacuate if a Category 3 or 4 were to hit. Brodsky uncovered that gem in a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers survey, right here on the web. Take a look. On the other hand, a lot of people who don’t need to evacuate will want to evacuate anyway, clogging the escape routes. The Corps put it this way: “People would stop evacuating simply because they were unable to evacuate.”

It’s not too late. Pack your “go bag” today!

Observer » The Sequel

The Sequel