TV says there are also blizzard conditions in some areas!
Not just rain; not just snow. Devastating.
Enough rain, coming in sideways for long enough and it will eat the mortar from between bricks, cause foundations to settle, resulting in cracked walls. Add high winds and it is very damaging to structures, infrastructure and big trees. We had it here in 2007 (IIRC) with hours/days of torrential rain training up from the Gulf. Our little river was a brown raging torrent for several days. It changed course and trees came down for several days afterward. In the aftermath, we found damage we hadn’t conceived of before, but, luckily, it was fixable.
I’d rather have a snow blizzard than a heavy rain train. Add that even fresh water spray from a large lake or river will cause damage, over time,I can only imagine what high wind-driven salt spray can do. I’ve been told it will peel paint.
The river towns along the Mississippi are all on bluffs, with retaining walls behind the buildings. After a prolonged saturating rain, many of those walls can be breached or overrun by mud and downed trees.
this is a horrible storm but its not like ints unexpected to have storm surge...I know along some beaches in New Jersey, they build their houses on stilts....
but human behavior is certainly strange....anyone ever beeen to Atlantic City would know that they built all those tall Hotels/Casinos right on the water....its not hard to imagine how easily storm surge could be devastating...
along the Mississippi, people pack sand bags and line them up along the levee's....did they not think to do this in NYC?...