Here comes Sandy
Business travellers should take the threat of Hurricane Sandy seriously
by N.B. | WASHINGTON, D.C.
AIRLINES are already letting travellers change their plans—fee-free—in advance of Hurricane Sandy, which is expected to hit America's east coast on Monday. The storm is very large—some 660 miles in diameter—and dangerous—it has already killed 48 people in the Caribbean. Jim Cisco, a forecaster with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has predicted it could cause $1 billion in damage.
Connecticut's governor has warned that his state may face the worst floods in 70 years, and that state is one of seven under a state of emergency. Dr Jeff Masters, a hurricane expert at the Weather Underground, says a "multi-billion dollar disaster" is "likely" in the US, with losses from downed trees, power outages, and massive storm surges to the right of where the storm makes landfall. He gives the storm a 20% chance of flooding the New York City subway system.
Dr Masters points readers to a September 2012 New York Times article that notes that if the storm surge from last year's Hurricane Irene had been just one foot higher, the subway system would have flooded, "and the subway tunnels under the Harlem and East Rivers would have been unusable for nearly a month, or longer, at an economic loss of about $55 billion." That's scary stuff, and if it does happen this time, it could conceivably affect the outcome of America's presidential election.
It should go without saying that business travellers should take this very dangerous storm seriously. Nearly 70m people live in the areas where the storm is expected to make landfall, and some of America's busiest airports will be affected. If you don't have to travel, don't. If you can change your plans, do. Even if you worry that the threat of Sandy is overblown, it's worth thinking about changing your plans, because the threat—whether or not it pans out—is likely to lead to delays and cancellations of trains and planes up and down the east coast. You may not think it's likely that the storm will do as much damage as people think. But there's no reason to risk getting stuck sitting in an airport or a train station for a day if you don't have to.
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