New York Buildings Face Storm Damage as Property Managers Plan for Irene
New York Buildings Face Storm Damage as City Plans for Irene
Scott Eells/Bloomberg
An aerial view shows the Manhattan skyline.
An aerial view shows the Manhattan skyline. Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg
Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Eric Wanenchak, a forecaster at AccuWeather Inc., talks about Hurricane Irene, which is projected to strike deeper into North Carolina before making landfalls on the Delmarva Peninsula and New Jersey. He speaks from State College, Pennsylvania, with Maryam Nemazee on Bloomberg Television's "The Pulse." (Source: Bloomberg)
Hurricane Irene may cause serious damage to some New York City buildings as it threatens to bring surging floodwaters and strong winds that may spur flying debris, property managers said as they prepared for the storm.
Irene could be “a once-in-a-lifetime event if it goes according to the forecast,” said Jim Rosenbluth, managing director for crisis management at real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield Inc. Basements and lower levels of buildings close to the shore “would absolutely be at risk,” he said.
The storm, hurtling toward landfall in North Carolina tomorrow and the Northeast the following day, may pose the biggest threat to waterfront areas in lower Manhattan, said Frank Edwards, executive managing director for project management in the New York office of Colliers International. While the city’s tall buildings are designed to withstand high winds, the gusts may create a funneling effect that poses a danger to bystanders throughout the city, Rosenbluth said.
New York City today ordered the evacuation of low-lying areas, including Brooklyn’s Coney Island, lower Manhattan’s Battery Park City and parts of Staten Island. Landlords were urged to begin emergency preparations and the New York buildings commissioner ordered that work on all city construction sites be suspended at 2 p.m. tomorrow.
Stable Skyscrapers
Manhattan’s tallest buildings are constructed to hold up against the horizontal force of winds, and glass in the newest towers is much stronger than the typical household windows, said David Childs, the architect who designed Manhattan towers including 1 World Trade Center, Time Warner Center, Worldwide Plaza and several other Manhattan towers.
“Many tall buildings have a large base to stand on, and they’re anchored to the granite which forms the base of all of Manhattan,” he said in a telephone interview.
Skyscraper skin is thicker and tends to be installed in two or three layers, he said, and if it does break, it usually does so in pellets like an auto windshield. Though those pellets can be dangerous in hurricane-force winds, the latest building designs are typically tested in Florida, where people are experienced with strong storms, he said.
Winds from the storm may be especially dangerous in clusters of skyscrapers, Cushman’s Rosenbluth said.
Canyon Effect
“The narrow canyon effect in an area that’s basically vertically developed can create very unique wind patterns where the wind speeds can substantially exceed that which the storm has created -- essentially a channeling or funneling effect,” he said.
Cushman manages 1,127 commercial properties totaling 186.9 million square feet (17.4 million square meters) on the East Coast, according to Adam Leibowitz, an associate with Cushman’s corporate occupiers and investor services division.
Lower Manhattan is particularly prone to flooding if there is a storm surge that pushes through the Verrazano Narrows, said Colliers’s Edwards. That would cause flooding along the Brooklyn shores as well, he said.
At lower Manhattan’s World Trade Center site, where 1 World Trade Center is under construction and workers are racing to finish the Sept. 11 memorial plaza by the 10th anniversary of the attack, contractors were ordered to tie down loose debris, cover electrical equipment, store tools and secure netting. Crews also were preparing to use pumps and sandbags to control flooding, according to a statement by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the 16-acre (6.5-hectare) site.
Landlord Checklist
The New York Building Owners and Managers Association recommended in its checklist yesterday that landlords fasten or remove all loose material; secure roof-mounted equipment such as flashings, roof vents and cooling units; secure on-site cranes against high winds; and clean out all drains and catch basins. It also suggested they set up Twitter accounts and Facebook pages for emergency information.
New York’s emergency guidelines urge apartment residents to take shelter below the 10th floor of their buildings.
If the storm tracks closely to the west of the city, New York could suffer historic levels of damage at a Category 2 or higher, Rosenbluth said. That would bring winds of at least 96 miles (154 kilometers) per hour, according to the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale.
1992 Storm
A nor’easter in December 1992 with wind gusts of up to 77 mph sent the East River gushing over FDR Drive, according to news accounts. Flooding of basements and lower floors of skyscrapers along Water Street downtown prompted some landlords to install flood gates to steer water away from their properties, Edwards said. Those gates may get their first tests if New York gets the worst of the storm, he said.
“I’m sure they’re running through their exercises right now, familiarizing themselves with what they need to do to get through this,” Edwards said.
A sustained loss of power could put computer data at risk unless backup generators and emergency power supplies are working, according to Rosenbluth. Wiring, conduits and cabling may be flooded, he said.
Much of New Jersey’s Hudson River waterfront is at risk of a hurricane storm surge, according to a map from CoreLogic Inc., a Santa Ana, California business information provider.
On the Jersey City waterfront, where Goldman Sachs Group Inc. constructed New Jersey’s tallest skyscraper and more than 17 million square feet of have been built since the early 1980s, many buildings may be tested against flood for the first time.
“They all have backup generators and capabilities,” said Greg Kierce, Jersey City’s emergency management and homeland security director. “We’re fully aware, especially with the financial entities down there, how any combination of them being knocked out of service could impact not only the U.S. economy but possibly the global economy, so we’re taking every precaution we can.”
To contact the reporter on this story: David M. Levitt in New York at dlevitt@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kara Wetzel at kwetzel@bloomberg.net
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