Hurricane Sandy Task Force or The Three Little Pigs

Little pig, little pig

Let me come in

Not by the hair on my chinny, chin, chin

Then I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house in.

Obama's Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force has released a report urging Americans to be like the little pig who built his house of bricks, not the unfortunate little pigs who built their houses of straw and sticks.  The warning is the Big, Bad Wolf isn't done yet, not yearly.   He's coming back.

The 200-page report contains 69-recommendations for action, on a regional scale, to prepare for future natural disasters of increasing frequency and severity.  It focuses on improving government responses both in nature and timing and on encouraging reconstruction standards to better meet what's likely coming.

Shaun Donovan, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development who led the taskforce, said the strategy would "protect families, small businesses and communities across the region and the taxpayers' investment in them, from the risks posed by sea level rise and more extreme weather events – risks that are made worse by the reality of a changing climate."

Donovan said the strategy would serve as a model for communities across the US facing such risks. The report calls for more streamlined assistance for such communities, and explores how to advance energy infrastructure, to ward off outages and fuel shortages and better telecommunications in areas likely to be crippled by power failures.

In the past year alone, there have been 11 separate weather- and climate-related disasters across the US, with estimated losses at $1bn each, Donovan said. Sandy was the second costliest hurricane in US history, after Katrina, which in 2005 caused $108bn in damage, or $128bn adjusted to 2012 dollars, according to the National Hurricane Center report earlier this year.

"We know that every dollar we spend today on hazard mitigation saves us at least $4 in avoided costs if a disaster strikes again" said Donovan. "By building more resilient regions, we can save billions in taxpayer dollars."

Sandy May Cut the Big Apple a Huge Break

It looks as though Hurricane Sandy may arrive in New York City well before high tide.   That would be a huge break for the Big Apple.   High tides magnify storm surge flooding driven by powerful onshore winds.   In a city with vast underground infrastructure and so many low-lying, even beneath sea level, areas, a high tide storm surge would be nightmarish.