Long Island makes Top 10 Hurricane-Prone List

Dr. Stephen P. Leatherman, director of the International Hurricane Research Center at Florida International University in Miami, released his list of the Top 10 Most Vulnerable U.S. Mainland Areas to Hurricanes.

Not surprisingly, New Orleans tops the list. The other area that is protected from flooding by levees — the 140-mile long Hoover Dike — is adjacent to Lake Okeechobee, Fla., where the second most deadly hurricane in U.S. history occurred in 1928. Presently more than 40,000 people live at the base of this giant structure that is leaking and declared by two recent reports to be a “grave and imminent danger to the people and the environment of South Florida.”

The Top 10:

1. New Orleans

2. Lake Okeechobee, Fla.

3. Florida Keys

4. Coastal Mississippi

5. Miami/Ft.Lauderdale, Fla.

6. Galveston/Houston, Texas

7. Cape Hatteras, N.C.

8. Eastern Long Island, N.Y.

9. Wilmington, N.C.

10. Tampa/St. Petersburg, Fla.