One Year Later, Are Sandy's Lessons Learned?

Maybe you remember last year when I filed a video report from the 69th St. pier near my home in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, as Hurricane Sandy rolled in. Today, I went back out to the pier with a new phone and a completely different weather situation: while breezy, it was pleasant and sunny.

I introduce I&T's week of Sandy anniversary coverage in the video, but you can see behind me something that wasn't there last year: a small dock for watercraft at the end of the pier. I watched the pier's installation over the course of the summer and wondered: Is that the right thing to add to the coastline? What happens in a storm surge — does that dock wash up on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway?

Maybe I'm overanalyzing things, but all over Bay Ridge trees have been trimmed and sandbags stored — and insurance rates have risen — because of the potential risk of another storm. We haven't had one, of course, but it's interesting to see precautions being taken at the same time new vectors of risk are introduced not a block away.

Nathan Golia is senior editor of Insurance & Technology. He joined the publication in 2010 as associate editor and covers all aspects of the nexus between insurance and information technology, including mobility, distribution, core systems, customer interaction, and risk ... View Full Bio