Unique Vulnerability of the New York & New Jersey Metropolitan Area to Hurricane Damage

Nicholas K. Coch

Nicholas K. Coch received his Ph.D.. in 1965 from Yale University with a specialization in sedimentology and coastal geology. In 1967, he joined the faculty at Queens College and the CUNY Doctoral Faculty in Earth and Environmental Sciences and is now a Professor of Geology in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Queens College. He has co-authored two college geology textbooks (PHYSICAL GEOLOGY) and is the author of GEOHAZARDS (Prentice Hall).

At Queens College, Dr. Coch teaches a large introductory course in Natural Disasters as well as upper level courses in Surficial Geology, Coastal Geology and Environmental Geology. His research studies since 1967 have included sedimentation on the Moon, as a Principal Investigator in NASA's Lunar Sample Study Program, and shipboard studies of continental shelf, coastal and estuarine areas, as well as ground and aerial studies of the effects of hurricanes on coasts and urban centers.

Recent research by Dr. Coch and his students has shown that major hurricanes passed directly over New York City and caused severe damage in 1821 and 1893. The 1821 event sunk most of the ships in New York Harbor, raised sea level 13 feet in an hour from low tide at the Battery and resulted in massive wind damage in Southern New England. The 1893 Hurricane was an unprecedented event; it removed an urbanized barrier island that existed from 1870-1893 south of the present Rockaway Shore. Details of the geologic, historical and archeological studies that document this event were published in the local and national editions of the NEW YORK TIMES on March 18, 1997. The re-discovery of two additional L.I. hurricanes has decreased the expected recurrence of a major hurricane in the Northeast from 125 to 90 years. He recently completed a forensic reconstruction of the 1635 "Colonial" Hurricane, that nearly wiped out early English settlements in New England. Data from the study were used to make a dynamic computer model of the storm as it raced towards New England 370 years ago! Most recently, he has studied the 1935 Hurricane in the Florida Keys in an attempt to determine how some southern hurricanes undergo rapid intensification. His results were used to analyze the massive destruction by Hurricanes Rita and Katrina in the Gulf in 2004.

Dr. Coch is an expert on Northern Hurricanes and has been a consultant to the N.Y. City Emergency Management Organization and the N.Y.State Office of Emergency Management. He has presented hurricane seminars to emergency management and government officials in every county in southern New York as well as insurance, reinsurance and risk management groups nationwide. He was chosen as a Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer for 2004-2006, and presented lectures on his hurricane research at educational and research facilities in the U.S. and Canada.

Dr. Coch is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America and a Member of The American Meteorological Society, Society of Sedimentary Geologists, National Association of Geology Teachers, American Association of Petroleum Geologists and is a Certified Professional Geologist. Aspects of his hurricane research have been featured in programs on the Weather and History Channels in 2006 andwill be presented on the National Geographic and the BBC-Discovery Channel in 2007.