The HNIC Report

Now that the hurricane has swept through New York, an assortment of Irene-inspired commentaries are sure to crop up in the city’s rags over the next few days. We’ll forget the fear that brought us together in a kind of doomsday dry run and start to point fingers. It’s inevitable, like weeds after a long winter. A few of the headlines I expect to encounter are:

• ‘Mayor’s Tactics Too Extreme?’
• ‘False Alarm’
• ‘Administration Overcompensation?’
• ‘Angry Residents from [insert a working-class outer borough community] Given Short Shrift?’
• ‘Commission Formed to Review Administration’s Handling of Hurricane’
• ‘New Yorkers from All Walks Say Storm Build-up Was Overblown’

As we drift toward Labor Day, Irene will undoubtedly recede from the headlines. By fall most of us will remember the battery shortage at Rite Aid more than the damage the storm caused.

But in an age of climate change where extreme weather patterns could, in fact, play a more prominent role in conventionally “safe” zones like New York City, the storm showed this writer a few important things.

1. In the event of a life-threatening natural disaster, prisoners are screwed

Rikers Island

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