Carefully timed explosives placed in the middle of the moon causing it to split in half, one half going away from Earth and the other half going right into the Atlantic coast. Problem solved.
There was a book about that. It did indeed result in a new continent in the Atlantic. Then all the people Europe colonized rise up and kill all the Europeans and take over that continent, the end.
Wouldn't the friction from half of the moon entering the atmosphere generate enough heat to set most of the east coast on fire? I remember one of my teachers telling me it would but it definitely wouldn't be the first time one of my teachers was wrong.