Sunset-Ridge Waterfront Alliance

[Source: Columbia Daily Spectator]

A maritime evacuation plan for Manhattan announced last month, in which a fleet of small boats will be used to ferry people across the Hudson River to New Jersey in the event of a serious blackout or terrorist attack, has been dubbed a Dunkirk-esque plan by bloggers and social commentators.

Gothamist, a well-known New York City blog, noted shortly after the Trans-Hudson Emergency Transportation Plan was announced in early January that the officials who designed this plan seem to have emulated aspects of the Dunkirk evacuation with their proposal to utilize “small craft to move millions of people in the event of an emergency.” Similar claims have also been made by other bloggers.

The reference alludes to the 1940 evacuation of Dunkirk, France during which hundreds of thousands of trapped allied soldiers were ferried to safety across the English Channel by a hastily assembled fleet of 860 small fishing vessels and privately owned pleasure boats, pressed into service for the operation.

The Trans-Hudson plan, which was drawn up jointly by the Office of Emergency Management in New York City and Office of Emergency Management in New Jersey, will rely on over 100 private water taxis and dinner-cruise vessels, along with the larger Staten Island ferries, in order to quickly evacuate millions of New York workers across the Hudson River to a staging area in New Jersey’s Liberty State Park. The plan forms part of New York’s general area evacuation plan and was drawn up in response to the 2003 blackout in which the subway system closed down and thousands were stranded throughout the city.

“We learned our lessons from that experience and realized we needed to be better prepared for future emergencies,” said Kelly McKinney, Deputy Commissioner for Planning and Preparedness at the New York City Office of Emergency Management.

“We have developed this plan in careful consultation with private ferry operators and police on both sides of the river, and we are confident that the plan we have drawn up will alleviate many of the problems we had in 2003 and help ensure we can evacuate Manhattan quickly and safely in the future.”

Read the complete article at the Columbia Daily Spectator.

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