The E-Sylum:  Volume 8, Number 43, October 9, 2005, Article 9

AMERICAN NUMISMATIC SOCIETY EVACUATION PLAN?

Dick Johnson writes: "New York City officials released last
Tuesday, October 4, 2005, an evacuation plan for the city. It
prophesied an event similar to a Rita or Katrina Hurricane
hitting the nation's largest city with 120 mph winds and a
30-foot water surge.

"A major hurricane barrels into New York City about once every
90 years," it states. Such an event would surely put Wall Street
under water first of all.

"The South Street Seaport," the report noted, "would become
more sea, less port." The South Street Seaport is only six blocks
from the American Numismatic Society's new Headquarters
Building at Fulton and William Streets.

My first thought was: "Thank Goodness the ANS library is on
the fifth and sixth floor -- well above the 30-foot water level."

Then it dawned on me there are windows on three sides of
the building on the fifth and sixth floor. The numismatic catastrophe
of the millennium would be for the wind to blow out those windows
and rain in on the world's most irreplaceable numismatic library.
Imagine 100,000 books -- the world's most valuable single
archive of numismatic knowledge -- turning into a soggy mess!

Would some future ANS officials rue the day their forebearers
once agreed to put this treasure into such a vulnerable location?

To read the Associated Press article on the city evacuation plan, 
click on: Full Story

[Here are a few additional excerpts from the AP article. -Editor]

"If it happened before, it will happen again," said hurricane expert
Nicholas Coch, a Queens College professor of coastal geology.'

"In fact, an 1821 hurricane lifted the tide 13 feet in an hour, with
the East and Hudson rivers converging over lower Manhattan as
far north as Canal Street. Deaths and property damage were
limited because the city was far smaller back then."

"Most New Yorkers," Coch said, "think hurricanes only occur in
places with palm trees."

[I spoke with ANS officials about Dick's question, and
although they are unable to discuss the details in a public
forum, they assured me that the collections were protected
in many ways. -Editor]

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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