Brooklyn flooding/storm surge question

October 29, 2012 8:14 PM

flooding / storm surge question: Flood waters in fiance's Brooklyn/Greenpoint location are about 2' away by depth, half a block by walking. Is water likely to rise more?

I've been trying to figure out his elevation using his address (I've gotten ~12' and ~9' from different services), but the fact that he says the water is about 2' down from his location probably gives the important info. He's not in zone A (just outside it), so he's not evacuated.

It would take about 1.5 hours of walking to get to the high school which is their shelter. He and all his apartment mates would enjoy not walking in the wind and rain.

I've tried to figure out the tide schedule and tide depths, but it seems to vary widely by location and "Greenpoint" hasn't been in the lists I've found.

He has power but no Internet for some reason.

I also did try checking the main Metafilter thread, but but it didn't help. The thread. Thanks in advance.

posted by amtho to science & nature (9 answers total)

From what I understand, the surge/tide is going out at the moment. And with the storm still going strong, walking outside for 1.5 hours would surely not be safe. They should probably stay put.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 8:21 PM on October 29, 2012

It depends. If the flooding is a direct result of the storm tide, then it will probably recede as the tide goes out. You can keep track of it via several NOAA tidal gauges in your area such as this one.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 8:22 PM on October 29, 2012

Don't go out in this, a downed wire in the water can kill you.
posted by mhoye at 8:25 PM on October 29, 2012 [3 favorites]

Is it likely to be any higher at the next high tide, whenever that is? 9:00 AM or something?
posted by amtho at 8:26 PM on October 29, 2012

The center of the storm is inland now; storm surge should have just peaked.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 8:29 PM on October 29, 2012

When are "normal" tide levels probably going to return? by 3 AM? Noon tomorrow? Wednesday?
posted by amtho at 8:39 PM on October 29, 2012

Once the barometric pressure begins rising and the wind shifts to a direction that isn't piling water into the area, the storm surge should rapidly diminish. It's already gone down (note the green line in the tidal height plot) by about two feet since it peaked.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 8:46 PM on October 29, 2012

That high tide should have been the worst. Things should be receding now. I would stay put. The surge has dropped 3 ft (the height over the expected tide.) The next high tide should be around 9:06 but will be substantially lower.
posted by ihadapony at 9:27 PM on October 29, 2012

Tomorrow morning's high tide should be similar to this morning's, to wit, much less than tonight's.

Here's a graph of tide levels at the battery; it's all one interconnected body of water, so things should be pretty similar all around:
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/mdl/etsurge/data/nybat.gif
Red is actual, black is predicted.

Don't go outside.
posted by akgerber at 9:45 PM on October 29, 2012