"PARIS — The hammer blow dealt to New York by superstorm Sandy should raise the alarm for coastal mega-cities in Asia which are more exposed but less equipped to deal with such threats, experts said on Tuesday."
"New York was able to draw on top-level civil engineering, good governance and the world's richest economy as it faced a once-in-a-century event.
But that is not the case for many cities that have risen, often anarchically, on a coastal arc from China to the Arabian Sea, luring millions in search of a better life.
'These cities are undergoing very rapid expansion and they are not only exposed to sea-level rise, they are also exposed to tropical cyclones,' said Bob Ward, director of policy at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment in London."
Richard Ingham and Mariette le Roux report for AFP October 31, 2012.
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