Long Island Wins Ultimate Faceoff Against Hurricane Sandy
Hurricane Sandy last year did more harm to coastal cities and homes than any hurricane in U.S. history, except Katrina. Most of that damage has been repaired. But there's other damage that people can't see to the underwater coastline, known as the shore face.
Apparently, Long Island's shore face did remarkably well against the storm of the 21st century.
The shore face is the underwater slope that runs up to the shore. Its shape influences how fast and high water moves onto land. Sandy pushed water up the shore face and into towns and bays. When the water retreated, it sucked all sorts of urban junk back out to sea.
Last January, just months after the storm, NPR joined a crew of scientists on an ice-bedecked research boat to survey the damage to the shore. Shivering inside her car, Beth Christensen from Adelphi University showed me a map of which areas got flooded onshore. The map was dotted with hot spots. "This is a power plant," she said, pointing to the map. "This is a sewage treatment plant; here's another sewage treatment; another sewage treatment plant. Here's runoff coming in from the streets through all of those creeks.
"So all of that [material] combined ends up in those sediments," she explained — sediments now lying somewhere offshore.
Onboard the boat that day was John Goff, from the University of Texas, Austin. He was there to scan the seafloor with radar. In addition to finding polluted sediments, Goff wanted to see if parts of the shore face had been washed away; such damage can spell trouble. The shape of the shore face influences how vulnerable the land is to erosion from waves.
"We're going to expect more storms in the future," Goff says, "so understanding the impact of these storms is really important."
The Texas group bills itself as a "rapid response" team — ocean scientists who swoop in after storms to study the damage to shorelines. After Hurricane Ike in Texas in 2008, Goff found that the storm surge had actually remodeled the shore face, moving huge amounts of sand out to sea.
Not so with Sandy. Now, Goff and his team have results.
"What we found was quite different, and yes, it did surprise us," Goff says. The seafloor off Long Island, Goff discovered, has rows of sand ridges — underwater sand dunes up to 10 feet high that run parallel to shore for as far as a half-mile.
"I think of these ridges as kind of cushioning the blow," Goff says. "After the hurricane, they were still there. We didn't really see any massive, destructive erosion of the shore face."
Goff says many coastal areas along the Eastern and Southern U.S. have these underwater sand ridges just offshore. That's going to be important because the sea level is rising. Over time, higher sea levels will eat away at the coastline, undercutting anything that's built there. And during storms, higher sea levels mean it's more likely that wind and waves will push water higher up, onto land. But Goff says these sand ridges seem to slow down erosion and perhaps prevent flooding. That's hopeful news for coastal cities faced with sea level rise.
The news on pollution isn't so good. There were toxic chemicals and metals in the mud at the bottom of estuaries and bays along Long Island. Sandy sucked a lot of that back out into the ocean, where it got spread around. The team will continue to track that.
The researchers reported their findings Friday at a San Francisco meeting of the American Geophysical Union.
9(MDE1MTIxMDg0MDE0MDQ3NTY3MzkzMzY1NA001))
Transcript
AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Audie Cornish.
MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
And I'm Melissa Block.
Hurricane Sandy did more harm last year to coastal cities and homes than any hurricane in U.S. history except for Katrina. Most of that damage has been repaired. Hurricanes can also wreak havoc under the water to the part of the coastline known as the shore face. But as NPR's Christopher Joyce reports, new research suggest the shore face in at least one area of Long Island fared well in Sandy.
CHRISTOPHER JOYCE, BYLINE: When Hurricane Sandy hit Long Island, it pounded the shore face. That's the Sandy underwater slope that runs up to the shore. The shape of a shore face influences how fast and high water moves on to land. Sandy pushed water up the shore face and on the towns and bays. When it retreated, it sucked all sorts of urban junk back out to see. Last January, just months after the storm, NPR joined a crew of scientists on an ice-bedecked research boat to survey the damage to the shore. Beth Christensen from Adelphi University showed me a map of what got flooded.
BETH CHRISTENSEN: This is a power plant. Here's a sewage treatment plant, here's another sewage treatment plant, another sewage treatment plant. Here's a runoff coming in from the streets through all of those creeks. And so, all of that combined ends up in these sediments.
JOYCE: Onboard that cold day was John Goff from the University of Texas at Austin. He was there to scan the seafloor with radar. In addition to finding polluted sediments, he wanted to see if parts of the shore face had been washed away. That shore face protects the land from erosion by ocean waves.
JOHN GOFF: We're going to expect more storms in the future. And so understanding the impact of these storms is really important.
JOYCE: The group bills itself as a rapid response team. Ocean scientists swoop in after storms to study the damage they do to shorelines. After Hurricane Ike in Texas in 2008, Goff found that the storm surge had actually remodeled the shore face, moving huge amounts of sand out to sea. Not so with Sandy.
GOFF: Well, what we found was quite different. And, yes, it did surprise us.
JOYCE: The seafloor off Long Island that Goff discovered has rows of sand ridges, underwater sand dunes 10 feet high or so that run parallel to shore for up to a half a mile.
GOFF: I think of these ridges as kind of cushioning the blow. After the hurricane, they are still there. We didn't really see any massive destructive erosion of the shore face.
JOYCE: Goff says many coastal areas along the eastern and southern U.S. have these underwater sand ridges. That's going to be important because the sea level is rising. Over time, higher sea levels will eat away at the coastline, undercutting anything that's built there. And during storms, higher sea levels mean it's more likely that wind and waves will push water higher up onto land.
But Goff says these sand ridges seem to slow down erosion and perhaps prevent flooding. That's hopeful news for coastal cities facing sea level rise. The news on pollution isn't so good. There were toxic chemicals and metals in the mud at the bottom of estuaries and bays along Long Island. Sandy sucked a lot of that back out to the ocean where it got spread around.
The team will continue to track that. The team discussed their findings today at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. Christopher Joyce, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
300x250 Ad
300x250 Ad