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It would be near impossible for a Cat 5 hurricane to hit NYC. For that matter, even a 4.

A 3 would also be unlikely.

Hurricanes need warm 80+ degree water to spawn and maintain. Cut off the warm water by either land or colder water, and they diminish rapidly.

I think what happened with Sandy is about the worst case scenario as storm surge is biggest destroyer of property.

Winds can down trees and take off roofs but precious little can stand being battered by tons of (incompressible) water for hours on end.

I bigger hurricane might actually do less damage if it didn’t come with a storm surge at high tide.

” - - - precious little can stand being battered by tons of (incompressible) water for hours on end - - - “ , unless the Engineers from The Netherlands are hired to consult to the politicians, who are owned by The Unions, who are owned by The Mafia.

Now if the Mafia hired the Engineers - - - - - .

That's a good point. The problem is that the strength of a hurricane is based on the sustained wind speed, and nothing else. In 2011, Hurricane Irene had already weakened to a tropical storm by the time it made landfall but it dumped more than 10 inches of rain in parts of the Northeast ... hence the severe inland flooding from overflowing rivers and streams. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy was only a Category 1 hurricane when it made landfall, but the high storm surge coupled with the unusually high tide during the full moon flooded every coastal area within 150 miles of its center. It didn't bring much rainfall to the NYC area, so people who evacuated their homes in inland flood plains went home the next day without a problem.

The storm surge was devastating for the coastal areas, and caused damage to electrical infrastructure in these low-lying areas. The problem inland was that even a Category 1 hurricane in this region is strong enough to topple a lot of trees and snap heavy branches off many that are still standing -- which is what caused such widespread power outages in areas that didn't get any flood or storm surge damage at all.