We're now talking about what to do to protect U.S. coasts from the next Hurricane Sandy. At the same time, all along the East Coast and the Gulf, port cities are, or will soon be, investing millions of dollars to dredge harbors and enlarge cargo handling capacity. All of this is to get ready to handle so-called Panamax ships after the Panama Canal enlargement is completed in about two years.
Norfolk, Virginia, is one of the East Coast ports said ahead of the other and already prepared to handle the new generation of super-sized ships. But what do we make of the fact that Norfolk has also been identified as one of the five cities most vulnerable to hurricane damage. How will one of the new 14-story high cargo-handling cranes stand up (literally) in a Sandy-sized hurricane?
I'm not necessarily against large transportation infrastructure projects. I always like to read about new rail and mass transit projects, for example. But here, is seems, is a case of immense public and private investment in places that may face serious environmental risks. New York, Norfolk, Miami, New Orleans, and others ports are exposed to ocean storms that are predicted to be even more serious as sea levels rise and storm surges push farther inland. There might be some attention to local environmental impacts -- the effect of dredging on local habitats, for example. But so far I haven't seen evidence that changed weather conditions are part of the planning for these bigger ports.
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