New York, NY - City Plans Hurricane Drills

New York, NY - As hurricane season approaches, city officials are updating evacuation plans and scheduling drills to test their tactics, emergency management commissioner said.

Next month, senior-level officials at the police and fire departments, transit agencies and others will stage a tabletop drill. Later in the summer, they plan a field exercise. During the field drill, officials plan to set up an evacuation center and several shelters to test how the facilities might operate when deluged with people. City employees will most likely play the roles of the hurricane victims and evacuees.

The city's highest-risk zones include lower Manhattan, Brooklyn's Coney Island, the Rockaways in Queens and the perimeter of Staten Island. Officials say 30-foot-high storm surges could drown those areas during a major storm.