Thursday, November 8, 2012

Rebuilding Jersey Shore after Hurricane Sandy: Necessity, Adaptability and Opportunity

In the aftermath of the devastating Superstorm Sandy that hit New Jersey on October 29, I was interviewed by several news outlets on the issue of rebuilding the Jersey Shore. I talked about the economic necessity of rebuilding the Jersey Shore as well as the technical aspects. The quotes are as follow:

"There are certain spots where it’s more vulnerable than other spots - maybe we should rebuild in some locations but not others. But not to build at all would not be acceptable in terms of economics." CCTV America, November 1 (EST), November 2 (BJT), 2012. The photo to the left is an image of the destroyed boardwalk taken from the TV show. The full segment of the show is available from YouTube website.

"We’ve been worrying about this for a long time. Now that it has happened, we need to rebuild our infrastructure in a way that is more adaptive to the way nature is changing around us." The Star-Ledger, November 4, Sunday, 2012.

“We need to be planning for something worse than this. I think this may create a lasting memory that will hopefully have an impact when we think about how to rebuild.” The Star-Ledger, November 5, 2012.

“We should rebuild these places because of the economic benefits, but we should build them to be more resilient. We can take this opportunity to build structures in a more adaptive way." The Bergen Record, November 12, 2012.

"Government is in a very tricky situation. (But) if we know the existing public infrastructure before the hurricane damage was already detrimental to public welfare, then why we should repair or replace it back to the original form and shape at the same location after it is damaged or washed away?" The Star-Ledger, November 19, 2012.

(Originally posted on November 8, updated on November 12 and 19)