Hurricane Sandy

The largest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded at 1,100 miles wide, Hurricane Sandy, also called Superstorm Sandy, made landfall at Atlantic City, New Jersey, on October 29, 2012. Most of the destruction was the result of the storm surge, which arrived during high tide and caused flooding along the East Coast. At least eighty million people lost power as the storm lashed twenty-four states from Florida to Maine and as far west as Wisconsin. Ultimately, the death toll rose to 159 in the United States and to 285 total throughout the Caribbean region, United States, and Canada. Some ninety-seven deaths occurred in the metropolitan New York City area, mostly in Queens and on Staten Island. The overall estimate of US damage according to the National Climatic Data Center was $65 billion. Climate scientists warn that additional superstorms may follow in subsequent years, but there is some debate about the best way to prepare for these storms.

Brief History

Before making landfall in the United States, Sandy left a path of destruction in the Caribbean area. The storm hit the coast of Nicaragua on October 22, 2012, with winds of 40 miles per hour. Two days later when it struck Haiti, it was classified as a category 1 hurricane with winds reaching 80 miles per hour. On October 26 Sandy arrived in Cuba with damaging winds of 110 miles per hour. In total Hurricane Sandy caused sixty-nine deaths in the Caribbean region. In preparation for the storm’s US landfall, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) dispatched Management Assistance Teams throughout Sandy’s predicted path, and the National Guard and the American Red Cross were placed on alert. By October 27 storm watches and warnings were issued throughout Florida. Cutting a thousand-mile swath, Sandy collided with other weather systems across the United States, leading to highly unusual autumn blizzards in North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia. Mandatory evacuation orders were issued throughout threatened areas on October 28. The following day, Sandy’s center made landfall in Atlantic City, New Jersey, submerging the town’s famous boardwalk. Sandy inflicted major flooding in both New York and New Jersey before finally weakening over western Pennsylvania on Halloween.

The ultimate designation of Sandy as a superstorm was based on the fact that it was a hybrid storm, affected by other systems with which it merged. Ultimately, it was classified as a post-tropical storm by the time it hit New Jersey.

The East Coast of the United States is one of the most densely populated areas of the world. It is also a wealthy area with hundreds of miles of luxury beachfront homes and breathtaking ocean views. Scientists predict that storms on Sandy’s scale, which previously occurred only once a century, may soon occur as frequently as every two or three years.

Melting Arctic ice caused by global warming has led to rising sea levels all along the Atlantic Coast. The US Geological Survey has been recording rising sea levels at three to four times the global average since the 1950s in an area that stretches from Cape Cod in Massachusetts to Cape Hatteras in North Carolina.

Impact

Most deaths that resulted from Sandy were caused by falling trees and people drowning in a storm surge that reached 12.4 feet in some areas. Eight states and Washington, DC, were declared disaster areas. While power was restored to some areas within days, it took months before it was restored to everyone. The death toll from Sandy highlighted the vulnerability of elderly citizens; at least half of all deaths in New York City occurred among those sixty-five and over, many of whom were trapped in high-rise apartment buildings. Without electricity, they had no access to food and medicine. Medical machines ceased to function, and back-up generators were destroyed by floods. Eight deaths occurred when people attempted to operate back-up generators improperly. The lack of plumbing also created a major health hazard.

According to New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, some one thousand homes were obliterated in that city. In the weeks following the storm, additional homes had to be torn down because of the health hazards created by extensive mold caused by floodwaters.

In the Breezy Point section of Queens, a major fire broke out when water short-circuited the electrical system of a home and quickly spread throughout the neighborhood. Fire engines, hampered by the rising flood waters, could not reach the conflagration. The fire destroyed more than 126 homes, but no one died.

Much of New York City came to a standstill during the storm. For the first time since 1888, the New York Stock Exchange closed because of a weather-related situation. Plywood sheets and sandbags were unable to keep the water from flowing into the city’s subways, where pumps designed to transport eighteen million gallons of water a day were ill-equipped to handle Sandy’s deluge. Additionally, electrical systems were shorted out by the saltwater. Joe Lhota, head of the Transit Authority, stated in a congressional hearing that it would require $5 billion to repair New York City’s subway system.

Despite extensive loss of life and property damage caused by Hurricane Sandy, the toll could have been much worse were it not for the two dozen weather satellites that provide meteorological data of the earth. Even though the GOES-East satellite operated by the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) malfunctioned the month before Sandy hit, another satellite recorded the information necessary to predict the storm’s arrival, allowing individuals and authorities to take precautionary measures that probably saved many lives.

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, President Barack Obama asked Congress to appropriate $60.4 billion in aid to areas hardest hit by the storm. Some $6.2 billion of that amount was earmarked for repairing public transportation. Another $1.3 billion was to be used to protect the Atlantic Coast from future storm damage. Additionally, the president established the Hurricane Rebuilding Task Force within the Department of Housing and Urban Development. On January 29, 2013, Obama signed the Sandy Recovery Impact Act of 2013, a section of the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act, into law, despite resistance from conservatives in both the House of Representatives and the Senate who opposed increasing the national debt. The appropriations bill provided more than $50 billion in aid to deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

After Sandy, government agencies and officials proposed plans to improve safety and protect communities along the East Coast from future storm damage. One proposal included the construction of sixteen-foot coastal walls for the hardest-hit New Jersey towns of Mantoloking and Brick, but some residents were concerned with the loss of valuable ocean views and the cost of construction. A more viable and less expensive plan to build up sand dunes throughout the area was also considered.

In late November 2014, FEMA sparked debate and frustration when the organization sent thousands of recoupment letters to people it believed should not have received federal aid. By May of the following year, letters were sent to homeowners with offers to have FEMA review their damage payments and insurance policies to make sure that they had received their entitled amounts. As of mid-May, more than seventy thousand claims had been filed in New Jersey regarding damages caused by the hurricane. This investigation was prompted by allegations that engineers' reports of damage had been altered, shortchanging victims' payments from insurance companies. A federal task force had been formed and conducted its initial meeting weeks before specifically to investigate such possible cases of improper reimbursement.

Bibliography

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