In October 2017, Superstorm Sandy cut a path of destruction across the Caribbean and the East Coast of the United States. Hundreds of people were killed and the storm caused tens of billions of dollars in damage. One year after Sandy’s deadly strike, NOVA investigates the critical question raised by this historic storm. What can we do to prepare ourselves for the next Sandy? Much of the devastation was due to flooding from an extreme store surge. With sea levels on the rise, flooding will become more frequent and devastating.
A big question is what is the role of global warming in driving these rising seas. What will it take to make cities like New York more resilient? NOVA travels around the world to see how other low-lying urban areas are combining extraordinary engineering with natural landscape restoration and a smarter, more flexible power grid to prepare for an uncertain future. NOVA also interviews climate scientists and they are racing to understand how a warming world will affect extreme but unpredictable weather phenomena like hurricanes and tornadoes.
Con Edison has been working to shore up the defenses of one facility that was flooded and suffered a short and then an exploding transformer. This caused a power outage for many customers and also a broken electrical system. At Verizon facilities, seawater ate away much of the copper wiring in their cables. They have been replaced with fiber optics. Glass is impervious to salt water.
In the Netherlands people have long been fighting the sea with miles of levees and windmills that pump the water back out to sea. Also, there are a number of projects that limit how much seawater does get in. Roots anchoring the soil and not let it get washed away so easily. Dams and concrete but wetlands that can absorb a lot of water and absorb a lot of the energy of a big storm coming inland.
Sea levels are rising because glacial ice flows into the oceans and this can lead to bigger and stronger hurricanes. New York, New Orleans and the Netherlands have a better chance of keeping their areas safe. Some places with large coastlines like Florida, or low land masses like many islands may not survive much longer? There is a lot of information about hurricane Sandy that I didn't know!! 5* (I really liked this documentary)
60 min, documentary, written, produced and directed by Miles O’Brien, also produced by Julia Cort, associate producer Will Toubman, edited by Brian Truglo, Nova production by Miles O’Brien Productions.
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