Almost exactly a year ago, we posted about the “Top 5 Hurricane Vulnerable & Overdue Cities.”   Number 2 on the list was New York City. After Sunday, New York harbor may still be vulnerable but we will no longer be overdue.  Hurricane Irene is coming to call.

By 9 AM this morning Capt. Linda Fagan, Coast Guard Captain of the Port  declared Hurricane Port Condition “Whiskey” for the  Port of New York and New Jersey, indicating that gale force winds were expected within 72 hours. By 4 PM., this afternoon, Capt. Fagan increased the port condition to X-Ray, indicating expected gale force winds within 48 hours.”   All vessels in the harbor over 500 GRT have to either depart expeditiously or submit their plans to stay moored to the Coast Guard for approval.

The last major hurricane to hit New York harbor directly was in 1821.

As the city prepares for the assault of Irene, we’re almost exactly 190 years away from the only hurricane in recorded history whose eye passed directly over New York. September 3 marks the 190th anniversary of the Hurricane of 1821, which saw flooding and destruction in the growing metropolis. In less than an hour a thirteen-foot storm surge deluged the city, swallowing everything below Canal Street. The Battery was particularly devastated, docks were destroyed, and ships were swept onto streets. Further uptown, a bridge that connected Harlem to Ward’s Island was washed away and somewhere in Chinatown, the East River likely met the Hudson. “New Yorkers were lucky,” writes Bruce Parker in The Power of the Sea: Tsunamis, Storm Surges, Rogue Waves, and Our Quest to Predict Disasters. “The hurricane hit at low tide.”