Just grab a board dude. You could surf all the way to Pittsburgh
Not to mention that the bridges and tunnels probably would not survive a major wave. Your only options would be boat and air travel.
Chicken Little is on the loose again.
Emergency Balloons on every rooftop. like lifeboats. Gondolas packed with rations, blankets and radios.
Are you kidding—were you here for the blackout a year ago? We couldn’t even evacuate people then.
I’d tie myself to the top of the Empire State Building, like Dorothy Lamour in The Hurricane.
Questions:
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How high would a typical tsunami rise as it arrives at land? – my impression is that 30-50 feet (10-17 metres) would be standard.
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Does anyone familiar with the Cumbre Vieja portent of disaster referenced in the OP have a figure on what the unusually large tsunami it would generate was estimated to rise to? I recall it was an order or two of magnitude above a seismic tsunami, but don’t have a figure.
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Would New York’s taller buildings furnish refuge for any proportion of the populace from those waves? Would they hold up under them? Could enough people climb to safety? What proportion could be saved, given the present Manhattan infrastructure?
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What would be the effect in the other four boroughs, and in the parts of Manhattan without high-rise buildings?
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What would be the effect on other parts of the East Coast? My memories of traveling much of the Coastal Plain suggest to me that a Cumbre Vieja tsunami would overwash a lot of country south of NYC – and probably some serious damage in New England.
My solution to the New York/Tsunami problem is to live in Tennessee. 
Yeah, like that’s an improvement…
Zev, you can come to my home in Connecticut. Long Island would sheild us from much of the destruction. Many people think that Connecticut is on the ocean, but in fact is is not. All of our coast line is facing Long Island Sound, or Fisher’s Island Sound. None of it is open ocean. There are miles and miles of Long Island land that would protect us from much of the damage. I think.
A scientist in Ediburgh with the British Geological Survey reported on CBC Radio about an hour ago that the one that hit the Indian Ocean yesterday was mostly 2-3 metres high. He cautioned that it didn’t sound like much to a layman, but that there was a lot of destruction packed into it. He also said that in some places the wave was around 10 metres high, a figure which he said was truly astonishing (not to say he doubted it).
And Nova Scotia and eastern Newfoundland, I’m guessing, too.
I admit my understanding of New York City geography is somewhat rusty but IIRC the ones who need to be worried about a tsunami are residents of Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and Nassau County. Manhattan is kinda tucked up behind all those from the sea. Seems if people just ran to the north side of the island or into Manhattan and up some buildings you could probably save a great many people. The damage will be worst right at the coast but I suspect most modern buildings over 10-stories tall would probably hold up if they are not too far inland. Granted I am not an expert but looking at images of the after-effects of this recent tsunami shows all sorts of structures (considerably smaller than a skyscraper) still intact albeit beat-up.
Given the short time notice I’d head for a tall building in central to NW Manhattan and climb to the top.
First of all, take a look at a map of New York City.
There is really no way for a tsunami to hit Manhattan directly. Brooklyn and Staten Island will bear the brunt (depending on the the direction), but the wave would break down over them and be pretty much used up by the time it hits Manhattan (“The Day After Tomorrow” had to eliminate all of Long Island and move Staten Island so that its tsunami could hit – and even then the wave had to have come from somewhere in inland New Jersey).
The biggest possible one might just reach Manhattan (it seems to be on the edge of the 20-km limit), but most of its energy would have been spent destroying Brooklyn. You’d probably flood the subways, but damage will be relatively light.
It’d be impossible to evaculate Brooklyn (or Long Island). There are the Triboro, Throgs Neck, and Whitestone Bridge to the Bronx, and the various bridges to Manhattan, plus the Verrizano Narrows Bridge (which will be the first bridge to go). There are two ferries, but they wouldn’t be able to evaculate more than a couple of thousand people, tops. Those near the ocean could head out to sea in boats, but essentially, all Long Island is screwed.
Ack…that should be “…not too near the shore.”
Think back to the pictures from last summer showing folks attempting to flee hurricane soaked Florida. The roads were packed. Excepting the Holland and Lincoln tunnels, there are only two other routes out of NYC, unless you want to schlep on up to Tarrytown.
Regarding how structures would survive a tsunami, at best it’s a crap shoot. The CEC standards are employed on the west coast where seismic activity is most likely. The most stringent code we have on the east coast would be the Metro-Dade standards applied in hurricane-prone areas. That said, they are primarily focused on proper nailing schedules of sheathing to preclude racking of a building frame, and securement of roof/wall assemblies against tearoff.
Wind load/stress is a whole different equation than 8.5 pounds per gallon multiplied by however many million gallons of water in a wave impacting at even 20 MPH. Whole lotta energy to be dissipated.
I do believe this is possible under some conditions. The distance from NY to Las Palmas appears to be about 3,400 miles, so if the thing is detected early, then some of us might have close to six hours warning. Officials on the east edge of the danger area would have to quickly block eastbound traffic to provide additional avenues of escape, yada, yada, yada.
If one is on the mainland coast, then how far do you need to be inland? If the TV says you have four hours to get 12 miles east, a lot of people can vote with their feet. If the TV says you better get 50 miles east in 90 minutes, you better be at the very front of the queue, within about 5 minutes there will be the mother of all traffic jams.
I presumably meant to go west.
Yet another hypothetical situation: What if everyone went underground? Assume, no matter how hard it may be, that somehow everyone in the city had some kind of underground bomb shelter with reinforced walls in their apartment or house, three meters or so beneath ground level. Would the tsunami pass right over them? Or would all that water just break in and drown everyone?
Myyyyyy money’s on #2.
:rolleyes:
(and/or a TV/Cable Network)
Tsunami: The Movie
(someone kill me now)
If you are worried, you can find quite a bit of information at the Ready New York page.