Hoboken is keeping a close eye on Hurricane Irma

HOBOKEN – “We are monitoring weather forecasts and will make preparations accordingly,” said Hoboken’s Spokesman Juan Melli. “As of this morning [Sept. 7.], the guidance we have received from local meteorologists is that we are unlikely to see direct significant impacts from the hurricane, however there can be some rain by the middle of next week. We’re going to keep a close eye on forecasts and [will] ramp up preparations as warranted.”
Hoboken was devastated by Hurricane Sandy in October of 2012. The “superstorm” flooded the lower half of town, trapped thousands people in their homes, cut power to almost every neighborhood, and left many without heat and water.
Dr. Alan Blumberg from Stevens Institute of Technology, who predicted the intensity of Hurricane Sandy a few days before it hit, said there is a low probability of Irma hitting the area because it is traveling over land and will most likely lose strength along the way.
“If Irene were going to come, it would come in the next 10 days, but it’s a very low probability as there is a lot of land between Florida and here and when a hurricane goes over land it loses energy,” he explained.
However he said he is more concerned with Hurricane Jose, which is still out in the Atlantic Ocean and has the potential to veer our way.
He added Stevens has a website residents can go to for flood advisories. To find it go to www.stevens.edu/sfas.
“We do flood forecasting on a street by street scale in the area so we will know 96 hours into the future how much water will come into Washington Street or Fourteenth Street and we make beautiful maps people can go to and see what the impact will be,” said Blumberg.
Hoboken is currently working to combat another storm like Sandy through the Rebuild By Design project.
The project will prevent flooding using infrastructure like floodwalls, seawalls, and soft landscaping such as berms and levees which could be in the form of parks, rain gardens, bicycle parking, murals, and more.
For more information on RBD go to Hudsonreporter.com.