Primer

My name is James Petrie and I live in Lower Manhattan with my girlfriend, Karmen, and our two dogs, Maya and Toby. We have been following Hurricane Irene religiously since its sustained winds reached 74mph+.

We live in what is considered one of the most dangerous sections of New York City in respect to storm surge / flood susceptibility. To give you an idea of our general location, we are approximately 5 blocks away from Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange.

The Office of Emergency Management have classified where we live as a "Zone A" flood risk in the City's evacuation zone threat system, indicating that our area has the most extreme risk of severe flooding should storm surge occur. Reports that I have heard state that a storm surge of 4 feet or greater would put us under water.

Flooding is not a threat to our apartment or belongings (as we are 50 feet above the ground), but is a threat to what it will do to basement levels in corporate and residential buildings in our neighborhood, i.e. salt water damage to elevator systems, electrical equipment and cabling.